45

45


I came out of the bathroom in a robe, rolling my hair into a rough bun before trudging to Tristan, slipping into bed beside him. 

A staff member brought breakfast for us with two mugs of coffee before he took his leave.

Tristan dropped his laptop on the table and took a mug, handing the second mug to me. “Guess what?” He asked, taking a sip from his mug. 

“What?” 

“Frank messed up really badly, so all chances of having Mr. Rajeed are back to me.” He smiled. 

“Really? That’s great! I just knew your effort wasn't going to be a waste.” I grinned, taking a long sip of my coffee, ignoring how it burned my tongue. 

“Yes. This is going to be so great for us. I'd be able to take a break and have time to travel. If you’d be interested, we can travel together.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Really?” I beamed. “What country?” 

“I don’t know. You’ll choose.” He shrugged, placing his mug on the nightstand. 

“Spain?! I really enjoyed being there. Plus, Charlotte said something about going to her home country with Kye soon and wants us to go together; we can travel with them if that’s fine?” 

“Sure! I'll let Rob know that, so he can fix a date for it. I'd be so glad to spend more time with you.” He smirked, leaning closer to me. “Do you know…” he started, wrapping his arms around me and started tracing circles on my arm, “…I had the best time of my life last night?” He smirked, tracing his fingers to my thighs. 

“Me too! I’ve never felt that much pleasure in my entire life. I can still feel you inside me.” 

“Oh really?” He smirked but it soon transformed to a frown. 

My phone rang from the table before I could ask what was the cause of his frown. I rose up to grab it, answering the call from Sherri after dropping my mug on the nightstand. I might just take today off. I was too comfortable to bother myself by going to work today. I answered the call to inform her and also told her to start arranging my schedule towards my vacation then ended the call, receiving a text from Aunt Mandy requesting for another huge sum of money. 

What the heck? Was she ever going to stop bothering? She had demanded a huge sum of money only a few days ago? Did she think it was so easy to earn this? Was she ever going to stop blackmailing me? Because I didn't want Tristan to know?

“Last night was amazing, Hazel, well...” his voice became deeper and I observed a small frown form on his face, from my sideways glance but I was still crossed from Aunt Mandy's message. “It’d would’ve been great, but I kept wondering…” he made him seem like he was speaking to himself or speaking in parables, “… what exactly did you mean by you didn’t want to be put in sexual bondage again?” Tristan asked me and I froze in a spot, slowly turning to him as my breath quickened. 

I had totally forgotten I had said that. Shit!

“Hazel,” he sighed, pulling me to sit beside him and cupped my face. “You know you can tell me anything. Don’t you trust me?” His calm tone made me feel more nervous but also the need to put my thoughts out to him, especially with Aunt Mandy's unending madness. 

“Tristan, it’s not…” I trailed off, exhaling deeply. I couldn’t think of a lie and I couldn’t continue keeping things to myself forever. 

“You can at least give me a hint. I was too distracted last night to ask, but I was unable to sleep all through the night; I was pondering on what you had said and different thoughts kept running through my head. I created assumptions but I feel like it’s making me go crazy to try to point out which of my assumptions is correct. I can only know what it really is if you let me know.”

“Tristan,” I could feel tears prickling at the corner of my eyes, “I promise that I want you to know, but I’m too scared. I’ve always kept everything related to my past life to myself for my own stability. However, I—” 

“I try to be patient with you, but how long will this go on for? How long will you keep masking yourself?” It was obvious that he was trying to stay calm with me. He let go of me and ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a frustrated sigh. “I told you everything about my past at an early stage in our relationship, but you’re taking things too far and it doesn’t seem like you’ll ever be ready to let me know anything.” His blue eyes were filled with extreme worry as he peered into my eyes, expressing his deep curiousness and worry. “I'm your husband, Hazel. A married couple shouldn’t keep anything from each other. No matter what it is, hiding it wouldn’t resolve anything but would only backfire one day and ruin the relationship we're building. No matter what it is, knowing it from you would make things easier for us. We can solve anything together. You don't realize how hard I'm fighting the huge to know whatever it is? To tell at you to let me know? To tell Rob to download every information he can?”

He was going to know one way or the other. This could be a great start to finally let go of the burden I had been carrying alone for so many years now. It had been so long. Nothing bad could happen to me again, could it? “Do you promise to not see me differently at all?” My breath quickened and I gripped onto my robe. 

“I promise I won’t.” His tone was very convincing.

“I… I…” I started to fidget with my fingers. “My life feels like a terrible history. I don’t even know where to start from, I promise.”

“You can at least start with what you told me last night— the pain of being in a sexual bondage thing?” He suggested. 

“Fine,” I breathed out. “I was kind of… a slut.” I exhaled, grateful for that start.

“A slut?” He looked like he wasn’t expecting that, increasing my fear.

“Yes, but I can assure you that it wasn’t my intention. I had dreams and plans for my life, but I was forced into sexual slavery.”

“Oh. You were forced?” His eyes turned red. “By who?” He pursed his lips, making it evident that he was trying to hide the anger boiling in him from that piece of information.

“I… I… it’s not…”

“By who?” His voice was calmer this time. 

“My father.” 

“You have a Dad?!”

“Yes.” I lowered my head. “I was young. He had to settle his debt and he… he… they sold me to him— to someone, for a huge sum of money. I was really young and couldn't influence their decision.” I lowered my head, fiddling with the hem of the robe. 

“How old were you?” He was clenching his fists, his face turning red like he was about to explode from fury.

“From the age of 13 to 16, or to 17, or 18,” I felt my heart beat rate increase at every sentence and I could feel sweat beads form on my forehead at the growing discomfort in my tummy.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Who sells their daughter at such an age? And who the fuck buys a teenager for sexual actions?! Who the fuck is it? Why didn’t you do anything? What bastard bought you?” 

“Not just for sexual acts,” I breathed out and began to tremble.

“What else?!” He wasn't doing a great job with controlling his exasperation. 

Tears rolled down my face, my head still hung low as different vivid and physically disturbing memories came crawling back. “There’s still so much to explain.” I was starting to feel my fingernails dig into my thigh with the fabric of my robe squeezed in my hands.

“Please just let me know everything,” he insisted. 

“No, no. I don’t want to think about it.” I shook my head as an all too familiar panic overtook me. 

“Hazel—”

I shut my eyes. More vivid memories overtook my head and an unexplainable heat overpowered me. “I can feel the chains around me, the whippings, the forceful acts, being tossed and fainting multiple times, being beaten… I was abused. I was fucking abused!” My breath quickened as I was now soaking with my sweat from the strange heat.  The pain and trauma I hadn’t felt in years all felt like they were coming back. 

“Hazel, oh my God, are you okay?” Tristan held my shaky shoulders, sounding very worried. 

I was slowly drifting away from everything around me: the memory of being in a circle of fire crawled back to my head. I suddenly felt like I was burning from the fire again. I tightened my eyes, hoping it would all go away but I was being pulled back into the horror. How could this be happening? I didn’t want to go through this again? “Please stop!” I cried, grabbing my hair with my shaky hands really tight, almost pulling the strands out of my scalp. My eyes were burning though they were shut; I felt defenseless, like I was trapped in the ring of fire once more.

That demonic voice surrounded me again. I felt like I was being strangled again. I was hearing the rustling sound of that heavy chain again and felt it hit my back. “No! No!” I continued screaming, tears rolled down my face. My entire body burned at every hit.  “Please stop! I promise to not make such a mistake anymore.” I was begging him but he wouldn’t listen. He still continued hitting me with the chains. 

“You called for me.” I heard his voice and his demonic laughter filled my ears.

Why did I have to think about it again? I thought I had completely healed from this horror. Everything was all coming back. I couldn't survive it this time. I was going to die. 

The smoke from the fire had struck me and made my breath leave me. The heat was burning me. I couldn’t escape, I was stuck again. 

She betrayed me, they betrayed me, I was going to die. I had to die...

~ TRISTAN ~ 

I was trembling as I dialed the emergency number. Hazel continued muttering words and was sweating profusely. I touched her shoulders and her body felt like it was burning as she vibrated, yanking her hair.

I shook her again, trying to revive her. “Hazel, please stop.” I pleaded for her to come back to her senses; my heart beat rate had become wild. What was wrong with her? What had I done?

“No! No! Stop!” She was screaming at the top of her voice then her hand went to her throat, strangling herself while still digging her fingernails into her thighs till the point of bleeding.

“Hazel!” I screamed, holding her hands but her grip was too firm, her body was even hotter. “Please come back to your senses.” I cried. 

“You betrayed me. You all did. I swear I’ll kill you, even if it’ll cost me my last breath.” She hollered, then started coughing. 

I was able to pull her hands away from hurting herself. 

“I swear I didn’t do it.” Her tears were profuse but her eyes didn’t open for once. She didn’t stop screaming for a second while I dialed the emergency number again and again though they assured me they were always heading to us.

“I have to tell someone, I need someone...” She coughed one more time as her eyes rolled all the way to the back before they shut again and she fell to my chest. 

“Hazel, Hazel!” I tapped her but she wasn’t waking up. The fast rate at which her chest rose and fell made me confirm that she was still alive, calming me down a bit. 

I only noticed the emergency button in the hotel room and hit it. I couldn’t control my breath anymore, my body was soaked in sweat, trembling, and my head was throbbing as I prayed to God for her to be fine. 

It took a while before the hotel emergency team came here and were trying to revive Hazel but to no avail. After a while, the ambulance finally arrived for professional help.