‘Piper, you can’t slip up. Remember what you are here for.’
I told myself repeatedly while sipping the champagne from the glass. I was in a comfortable silk bathrobe, reclining on the sofa while watching Netflix.“Sorry for earlier. I was just a little too enthusiastic.” He gently held my hand in his paw. “If you need to, we can take this a step at a time.”I nodded amiably. Since I was merely putting on an act for Kaiser, he didn’t need to know what was in my mind. But tonight, I wished the person who asked me to marry him was not Carson, but his brother-in-law.“I won’t rush you. Just sit back and enjoy the movie.”I squeezed his hand back, faking a deeper smile. “Carson, you frightened me just now. You just reminded me of the past.”“The past?” He eyed me gingerly, probing, “Has anyone proposed to you before?”I rubbed my eye, pretending to wipe away an imaginary tear. “I don’t wish to talk about it right now.” Of couWhat I heard after that consoled me, making me realise that I was fretting over such trivial matters.Firstly, Carson was not Kaiser. There was no reason for me to be worried if he was cheating on someone else, neither was I meaning to stay for long.The fact he had asked me to be his wife negated the possibility of him being married; if he was indeed cheating, it would be on a girlfriend. But however, the person who had arrived was not a woman of his, yet, it was the most important woman in his life.No other than his sister, Erica Gao.I inhaled and listened in earnestly from the open door of his room, to what they conversed about in the living hall of his apartment.“Have you managed to find him?”She hadn’t bothered with greetings and cut to the chase immediately. From the way it sounded, ‘he’ was someone important to her.“Not yet. He wasn’t at the party.”“It’s been almost three years, Cars! Three f*cking years, Jiasen!” I had taken up Chinese during university. At that time, m
“Because of your feelings towards him or your fear that he is lying to you and wants to hurt you?”I cleared my throat and tried to remain calm. No matter what, I couldn’t panic, or Kaiser would assume his suspicions were true.“Kaiser, you know that it’s impossible for me to bear any feelings for anyone… but you.”I said the words with such depth that he stared at me.“Piper…”“I mean it. When can I finally be your only woman?” I implored.“What do you want, Piper? I’ve taken you with me for your safety. The only thing I asked from you is to distract my brother-in-law so he doesn’t ruin my plans.” Kaiser remained firm. I fixed the direction of my eyes on him and answered, “How can you not know, Kaiser? What I want is simple: marriage.”He was dumbfounded.I continued, “No matter which woman, they just want to be happily treated and loved by a husband who will love them. Marriage is the best thing they
We queued outside the cinema, hoping to get a ticket for The Rosary, the latest horror movie. I wasn’t afraid of watching horror movies, since what happened to me was even more terrifying than a movie. But horror movies were a season pass to a girl’s heart. Carson probably thought I was like them.Carson bought the ticket and then we walked towards the snacks section to get popcorn. He asked me my preferred flavour, and I answered him I was fine with anything. We decided on a mix of sweet and salty popcorn and then took our seats.He took my hand. It was early, and we were the only ones in the theatre.“Piper, I’m glad you agreed to come out with me.”“Well, my heart is not made of stone,” I replied casually. He didn’t let go of my hand. “It’s not that I get a chance like this every time,” he said. “Earlier, I asked if you were mad with me.”“I’m not mad. I was tired that day.”“It’s my fault. I tired you out,” he whis
He broke the kiss after a few minutes, speaking in a deep and grave voice.“Piper, as much as I want you under me right now, I don’t want to do it on impulse. I want you to be genuinely in love with me.”I straightened my blouse and buttoned it where it had come undone. Before the kiss, I had received a message from Kaiser.It had said, “Don’t come home yet. Spice things up… make him want you. No matter what, don’t come to the Strauss. Find a reason to stall him.”Something didn’t seem quite right. I glanced at Carson and then at the floor mat of the vehicle. It was pouring outside, and I didn’t have an excuse to spend the night at his place. For Kaiser, I had already put down my dignity. As much as I was willing to do what Kaiser told of me, I found it fishy that he hadn’t wanted me to come home.Was there something to do with Erica and Carson?I fished out my phone again and reviewed the surveillance records of the CCTV I had secretly installed in the apartment. I had carefully set
Carson’s warm hand offered me his solace, although I wasn’t sure whether to accept it.“If you knew it would end up like this, why bother stepping into it in the beginning?”I fathomed he referred to my now-fragile relationship with Kaiser. “I…”“You don’t have to say anything, Piper. The moment I dropped you off at the apartment for the first time… I knew.”“And you didn’t think of hurting me?”He shook his head. “I couldn’t bear to. You were different from the rest.”I pulled up my hair into a high ponytail, squeezing out the remaining water inside it. “What did you do to the others?” I asked in a meek voice.“I fooled them. Pulled them into a trap. But with you, I knew I couldn’t. You were just a weak victim of his.”“Why do you think so, Carson?”“Because I know everything about you.” He pointed towards a soft file wedged between the driver’s car seat and the storage compartment in the middle of the car between us. “I have been investigating you since you were in City X. Perhaps y
Unlike Kaiser, Carson was the sweet guy who would wake up first to make me breakfast, that part of Kaiser which was forgotten. At one point, Kaiser was sweet and caring but when we came to this new place, this part of him had dwindled away and vanished.I stayed away from the office for three days after that rainy night, waking up with an awful cold. Surprisingly, Carson accompanied me home nursing me while his sister went to the office and worked on the project with Kaiser.This was completely opposite of what I had planned. Kaiser’s partner, me, did not come to work and even Kaiser’s brother-in-law and director of the project partner, Carson was absent. Rumours sprouted about the office, although I had no idea of their origin. “I’m not in the mood for a meal.” I turned my head away when Carson came in with his homecooked meal. In fact, Kaiser had been calling me non-stop all day so I had to switch my phone to aeroplane mode and turn on the wifi. But I knew he was smarter than that.
“Hello, Piper. Long time no see, I mean, f*ck.”If those words were meant to be a joke, it wasn’t funny. Especially when I was now bound like a wild animal, with ropes in numerous lattice knots. My feet dangled above the ground, the fear making me forget my nakedness.The sting of the ropes cutting into my flesh kept me in my senses. I was back in my hell again, but this time, I was in Lenard Lee’s new den in this foreign city. What differed now was how I got into my prison.The first time, I was betrayed by my own kindness and fell headlong into the pit due to a bad choice. Right now, I was sent there by my own lover, to serve my worst nemesis. The worst was that he was the person I thought capable of my trust, and he who would assist me in my journey to exact revenge on the very person who broke me in the first place.It hadn’t meant to happen this way. I originally planned to use my body to get revenge, not fall in love along the way. Or that I’d end up with another broken heart.
Hours laterI was indeed dreaming, I lied to myself.There was no way someone who had put unto me so much torment and pain intended to tie the knot with me.I swallowed hard, rubbing the pearls of sweat off my eyebrows. As much as I hoped the sight in front of me wasn’t real, it was. Lenard Lee reappeared in front of me, with a vibrator in his hand.“Ugh,” I muffled a moan as he slipped it inside my wet hole. Lubricated as I was, it didn’t hurt, unlike the times he had taken me after my abduction. He wasn’t bending me to his will now, but tempting me. And I had totally no idea why, after how harsh he was to me, he was now treating me like a woman. His woman.His prized possession.The jerking of the device between my legs made me lose control. I couldn’t think straight, but my mind continuously told me, “This is Lenard Lee, the Master, the man who kidnapped you and broke you. The man who treated you as Milanda. The man who forced himself on you back in Thailand…”But in spite of every