Chapter 42 Being Cruel
‘Ken’s abuse was a brutal, physical thing I endured in silence- Maybe I knew no one would come for my rescue.
But Mrs. Lysander’s actions were gut-wrenching for me because today I knew I had support, Vince’s.’
Keeping my emotions at bay, only taking the side of patience. The days I lived with disgrace with Ken recalled.
Mrs. Lysander was reviving the agonizing days I wanted to burn from my memory.
With knees glistening in my eyes, I was staring out of the window, remembering a few moments that killed my delusion of ‘Ken is the only one for me’.
I cooked food for Ken wholeheartedly after our marriage. This was his reaction upon the first bite-
He slammed the plate on the ground, pushed me back with this yell shattering my heart.
‘Don’t ever make this poison for me,’
Then, when I tried to dress up for him, he smeared my lipstick all over my face with this comment\- ‘You look fucking ugly,’
…All my dreams, hopes, emotions died since I married Ken. I left everyone to marry him and to gain what? Nothing?...
Vince was right. Everyone was right. I married the wrong man.
Being with Mrs. Lysander was freshening those scars. I had seriously abandoned expectations from life back then.
If it wasn’t for Vince, I would have ended this life… just like his sister.
But, I won’t. Not this time, not when Vince was willing to stand a shield to save himself from his traumatic past and my terrible future.
Both of our futures were at stake.
“Relax, Alyssa, this too shall pass. He will be back soon,”
Whispering to myself with a forced smile, wiping the tears, I glanced at my reflection, gathering my resolve to not fall into the pits of defeat.
I won’t disappoint Vince.
Upholding my calm and collected posture, I came down to eat something, if they let me, that is.
Though I didn’t want to cause trouble in Vince’s absence, their demeanor was making it hard to not do so.
With a etched frown, I came down, hoping to avoid Mrs. Lysander and her jailer maids.
Each time they see me, they pass some terrible comment like-
‘Oh, look at the whore,’
‘I wonder when Vince will see her true face and get rid off her,’
‘How shameless of her to use my son’s trauma to her advantage,’
I ‘really’ wanted to argue that ‘he’ came to me but not wanting to soil my tongue, I chose silence and ignored them mostly.
Subsequently, I went to the kitchen and once again, it was locked. There was nothing so I grabbed some bread at the very least and decided to toast it with some honey I found in the cabinet.
But, not letting me have it either, they decided to interfere with me.
“What do you think you are doing?” One his maids asked.
“What else? I am hungry,” I sighed, glaring at them to stop their shenanigans and let me do what I wanted for once.
“You will get nothing,”
“Enough, Mrs. Lysander,” I hissed, my patience finally snapping as she blocked my path.
“Not speaking up doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want.”
This wasn't just sourness, it was ripping away a basic human need, a direct betrayal of the acceptance she lied about in front of her son.
“Yes, I can, this is my son’s house and you will obey me too,” She declared and was about to throw the toast in the dustbin but I held her wrist.
“No, I won’t. You are being unreasonable. Why are you doing this to me?-”
“Because that’s what sluts like you deserve!”
Before the word registered, two maids shoved me, sending me sprawling to the cold floor. The sting of humiliation was immediate, suffocating-ly rising in my chest.
“You think you can fake this drama, use Vince’s trauma in order to get his sympathy and pretend everything is good?” Mrs. Lysander scoffed, narrowing her eyes in disgust.
My lips quivered, holding my dress out of misery, “Mrs. Lysander, it’s nothing like this.”
“I said drop this innocent act. I know clever women like you. You think you can use my son, huh? And I will let you?”
“Why don’t you get it? Your son married me on his free will!” I choke a cry, seeking some compassion but to no avail.
Not for once did they think I didn’t deserve this? That it was NOT my fault? That I was no manipulator?
How could they place all the blame on me and treat me with no humanity?
“That’s his biggest mistake. But I know how to keep people like you in their boundaries. Girls,”
She motioned to her maids and they roughly grabbed me, leaving their red mark, scaring me to fathom what they intended to do with me.
“What the fuck are you doing? Leave me,”
Without a warning, one of them kicked me in the stomach. I cried out wretchedly, holding my midsection, looking up with tears rolling down my cheeks.
“Ah! What is wrong with you?! How can you be this cruel!?” I sobbed, lowering my gaze in dejection, losing my strength at this point.
“That’s what you deserve.”
“You… I will tell Vince everything you did to me!” I snarled, hitting the ground, glaring at them but it did not shift a hair.
“Try that and I will do the worst.”
Holding her head high in might, she obviously considered me inferior and pointed her finger at me.
“Be grateful you have been given a roof over your head else a woman like you had nowhere to go,”
She threw the harsh reality on my face, her heels kicked me again, hitting my arm rashly, leaving me utterly vulnerable.
“Abandoned by ex, by family, hated by all, you literally have no one to support you. If it wasn’t for Vince, even your so-called would have been ripped off from you by your own father,”
“Argh- you!” I gasped, shutting my eyes, bearing with the pain.
I was seriously in disbelief how this devilish woman could be kind-hearted Vince’s mother?
“So when you are crushed under the weight of my son’s mercy, you better endure it all!”
Yelling outrageously, she left me all alone and misery to sob at my poor life choices where I was tested at every level of life.
Why these trials in my fate?
What was my sin?
What did I do wrong?
Crushing my spirits, my strength, leaving me utterly vulnerable, Mrs. Lysander left with her girls as I sat wretchedly in the kitchen with a bruised arm and tears streaming down my face.
“Vince…”
I wasn't just hoping for him- I was yearning for the only person in the world who could stop the bleeding of my heart.
I had nowhere else to turn. I needed his shield. I needed my rescue.
I closed my eyes and whispered his name again, not as a prayer of strength, but as a plea for life.
"Vince... please. Come back. I can't hold on without you."