Ellisande Porter looked up from the painting of a scenery that she is doing when she heard a sound of an engine from outside. She placed her paintbrush down and reached for the crutches she has been since last night after the accident she was involved in during the race she entered.
“Who’s it for, William?” She asked softly, standing beside the butler, who was giving back the paper he had signed. “What’s a Lamborghini doing here?”
“Mr. Kincaid had it delivered,” the butler answered patiently as he assisted her back inside.
Ellisande abruptly stopped and refused to budge from where she is standing, looking at William coldly. “So, he’s not giving in to my request, is he?” She shot angrily. She held out her hand. “Give me the keys, William! I’m going to wreck that piece of trash right now!”
“Ms. Elli, please don’t be hard on yourself,” he said gently. “You’re still recovering from your injury. The young master was upset when I told him about your accident.”
“So, he compensated for a new car?” She asked intently. “Get him on the phone, William. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”
She carefully brought herself back to the room where she does her painting and sat on the sofa, seething angrily, and cursing her father on the so-called arranged marriage he got herself into.
She had just turned seventeen and looking forward to Senior High when her father shockingly told her that she has been arranged to marry the son of his employer that he had work for twenty years. Ellisande didn’t take the news so well since she just started going out with her long-time crush, Lance Harrison.
“I’m only seventeen, dad!” She yelled angrily. “Why are you pushing this marriage? I don’t even know that guy! Is this some sort of loyalty to your employer? There are others!”
“I have reasons, Elli,” her father said calmly. “When you’re old enough, you will know. Please trust me on this. I know SJ is a good man and he will treat you well. His parents will let him know the reason for this marriage. It is beneficial to them as well as to you when the time comes.”
Ellisande had never made her father disappointed in her entire life except for this one time. She ran away and stayed with her best friend. She closed her eyes and recalled the sermon she received from him when she finally came back home.
“Is he answering your calls, William?” She asked when she saw the butler, hanging up the phone a few hours later. “Was that him?”
“Mr. Kincaid might be in a meeting somewhere, Ms. Elli,” he responded formally. “I just got off the phone from his secretary and she said that he had all documents delivered to his penthouse.”
“Call his mobile, then,” she insisted as she picked up the phone and pointedly look at him, telling him to dial the number. “This will not even take long.”
The call finally went through after William dialed and she waited for him to answer it.
Ellisande opened her mouth to start off but froze on what she heard on the other line.
“Oh, baby, f*ck me like that again,” a sultry female voice moaned.
A male grunt responded, knowing it to be SJ’s voice.
Ellisande slammed the phone angrily and walked off to her room, slamming the door loudly. She knew those sounds very well. Because she had walked in on it herself, finding her best friend and her long-time crush on the bed, having sex. She immediately turned around and left.
Feeling heartbroken and betrayed, she went back home to her dad, crying her heart out. She endured without arguing his long sermon and she felt guilty because after all she did, her father whole-heartedly accepted her back, all things forgiven and forgotten.
To make up for her mistakes, she finally agreed to marry the Kincaid’s son. She waited nervously that fateful day, wearing a plain, flowy white dress with lace trimmings, which belonged to her mother at the family’s living room, where she is living now. She watched as the man, who they called SJ, strode angrily towards her and stood beside her as the judge officiated their marriage.
She remembered the look in his dark grey eyes. Her husband hated her.
That was the first and the last time she saw him. After they were married, he then went back home to the city despite his parents’ pleas. In the next months, being Mrs. SJ Kincaid, it will take her a while to get his approval on her requests, especially on her education.
But, thanks to her father, who never left her, she was able to finish her Senior High in time despite the hardships she went through. After learning that she was betrayed by Lance and her best friend, the entire school made her a laughingstock.
“That’s because your standing in society is no match for Gertrude.”
“Her mother must have died early to save herself from her daughter’s embarrassment.”
Ellisande endured all that, never telling her father and others the hurt, emotionally, mentally and physically she had gone through. After she finished school, she enrolled in the nearest college in her area and took up Interior Design. She thought that she had all problems left behind but another one came like a blow.
Her father was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and died after a few weeks. With the bills, piled up to cover all the medical expenses, Ellisande has no choice but to stop school but it still wasn’t enough to pay all her father’s debts. It left her with no choice but to call her husband and pleaded for his help.
Her husband immediately wired her the remaining balance and told her not to call him again. But, she called him again after a few months to ask if she can continue her course. After badgering him, she finally agreed that she will take it online.
And, here she is now. She had finally graduated. It wasn’t easy because there will be time she would be distracted and she would take one of her husband’s sports car for a spin. Growing with her father, who raced for the Kincaid’s racing team back in his days, the love for racing has grown into her. She knew the troubles she had gotten herself into but she has her reasons.
For the past two years, with no communication from her husband, she started sending him divorce papers to sign. Over the years, she had found herself falling in love with one of her online classmates and he seems to be interested on her as well. But, she received no reaction from her husband.
It was two weeks later when Ellisande found herself, standing by in agitation as Cherry, one of the maids, cleaning some wounds she obtained a while ago in her husband’s country home office. She had taken one of her husbands Ducati motorbike for a spin to clear her mind after receiving no news on the divorce she is seeking and was surprisingly caught between a car race between two gang rivals. She tried steering away from the fight, but they suddenly thought she was part of the game and went after her. Her husband managed to save her just in the nick of time and got himself wounded in the process.“That’ll be all,” she heard a hard bark. “My wife will tend to me. All of you, get out! Now!”The maids scurried in fear and Elli watched helplessly as William, the last one to leave, closing the door quietly.“What the hell are you waiting for?!” Her husband shouted.Elli turned and hurriedly went to where her hus
Ellisande stood quietly behind her husband while they watched the elder Kincaid’s getting out of the car. She clasped her hands in front, gripping them lightly while trying to calm her nerves. She heard SJ greeting his mother softly.“Hello, Elli,” Mrs. Kincaid greeted with a warm smile.“It’s nice seeing you again, Mrs. Kincaid,” Elli replied formally with a smile.“Don’t you think it’s time for you to call me Mom?” Mrs. Kincaid asked gently. She turned to her son and gave him a light frown. “Are you disallowing Elli to call me Mom?”“No, he did not…, Mom,” Elli quickly answered to prevent any anger from SJ. “I just presumed that it’s more formal. My apologies for assuming wrong.”“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Kincaid stated with a smile. “I gained another daughter and I’m not regretting it. And, so does Mr. Kincaid. Your dad.&rd
SJ looked up from the report that he is reading when the driver told him that they are now approaching The Upper Hill Apartment on Saturday evening. He placed the documents on the space beside him and looked at Ellisande, who is sitting quietly on her side, her eyes staring out the window.Ever since she fell down the pool at the country house, she had changed drastically when she went out of her room that night when he came to fetch her for dinner. From the carefree and active lady, she became quiet and submissive, a complete turnaround from all the reports that William had relayed to him over the years.Unbeknownst to Ellisande, he has started keeping tabs on her when her father died. After pestering him with calls to borrow money to pay off her father’s medical expenses and the debt he had for his hospitalization, SJ became curious of the woman he had married. It took her months mourning her father and he assumed that when she called him up again several times
Ellisande opened the door to her apartment on a Thursday night, a week later from the day she started working at Kincaid Development at the Kincaid Tower. She took off her low heel pumps and walked tiredly towards the couch. She sat down and leaned her head on the soft pillow, closing her eyes.In her first week in the city, she managed to get lost on her way back from the supermarket by making a wrong turn and crashing into an ongoing store renovation. A furious SJ came picking her up on a late Sunday morning at the police station after paying for the damages. The policemen seemed to know him well enough not to say anything and watched her being dragged back to his car and berated at her furiously the entire way to her apartment. He yelled at her, for the car she was using will be taken for repairs. She tried explaining that she made a wrong turn but he never believed her.“I just said yesterday that it’s not for racing!” He shouted and he started po
“So, how is she doing?”SJ looked up from the construction drawings he is reviewing and looked at Brian coldly on a busy Tuesday morning. He then looked back down and continued his checking. He never said a thing and waited for Brian to continue.“I heard she got into an accident at the food hall last week,” Brian continued casually as he placed down the drawing he is reviewing as well. “No one even helped her up. Poor girl then has to suffer through some tantrums of some bitch she accidentally bumped into.”“Anything else?!” SJ sneered.Brian gave him a wry look.“Just letting you know that your wife is not having the time of her life in your company,” he commented dryly as he returned the drawing to SJ and made some notes on his Ipad. “On my way up in the elevator, there was this group of women snickering and gossiping about her. Presumably, your wife was discovered by one of the j
Elli went back to her desk after having a quick lunch at the cafeteria of the building’s service crew. Thomas Jones, a man in his sixties, discovered her having lunch at the broom closet last week. He then invited her to eat where the crew eats. After the accident she experienced at the food hall, she decided to bring her own lunch and find a small, private place where she can eat in peace. It would also be the time to allow herself to rest from all the orders her supervisor, Valerie is throwing her way.“Are the drawings done, Elli?” Her supervisor’s voice came.“It’ll be done in ten minutes, Ma’am,” Elli answered formally as she neatly stacked the drawing pages and filed them properly. “I will put it on your desk.”“I don’t have ten minutes!” Valerie sneered at her coldly. “I told you that I need them right after lunch! God! You’re such an idiot! Are you doing this to rui
SJ’s eyes hardened as he re-watched the file footages sent to him from the security office of all the accidents that Ellisande has been involved in. He watched as he saw the culprit, who whacked and pushed her inside the meeting room that made her lose her balance.He then clicked on another video where the supervisor she was assigned to, threw a thick file of drawings that landed on her face while screaming curses at her.After receiving a hard slap and some tongue-lashing from his close friend Florence over the predicament that his wife is going through, he called up security and ordered all clips that involve Ellisande’s accident sent to him. He was surprised to see that there are more than twenty files.“You are such a despicable man!” Florence screeched after slapping him. “Did you see the state of your wife just now? Let me guess. Of course, you didn’t. You just came back from lunch with your lover, didn’t yo
“She’s over fatigue and dehydrated.”SJ looked up from the Nordic lazy sofa chair after the doctor had finished the diagnosis and his eyes narrowed at the statement.Dr. Paige McIntyre took off her stethoscope and placed it inside her bag and stood up. She looked at him, whom she had known since childhood, being cousins on both their mother’s side.“She can see a specialist, if she wants,” she commented lightly as she followed him out. “Probably more rest and some fluids. I gave her a sleeping pill so she can recover her strength. I don’t recommend her going in for work tomorrow. You should call Flo and informed her about it.”“And, then received another tongue-lashing from her,” SJ muttered as he went to the refrigerator and open it, finding himself and hers two bottled waters. “I swear, if you tell her what happened here, I’ll definitely make your life hell.”&ldq