DON'T HURT ME!

I would’ve most definitely lied if I would’ve said I was prepared to succumb. Even when there seemed no visible escape, I still wanted to escape him. The pain of regret is way sharper than the joy of receiving caresses and comforts. What I had done at my sister’s wedding made it cumbersome to retire in Noah’s arms.

“What do you think would happen even if you were to resist me today?” asked Noah, unwilling to recognize that he was in the wrong. “It still wouldn’t change the fact that you had sex with me on the day of your sister’s wedding.”

“It would stop me from making the same mistakes again,” I said, adamant about wanting to be left alone. “If you don’t leave this bed soon, I will start screaming.”

“Do whatever you like,” challenged Noah, displeased with my behaviour. “It’s an abandoned town on the outskirts of Stanford. There’s nobody here to heed to your distressful shrieks.”

Since I didn’t think it was the smartest idea to rely on Noah’s words, I began screaming for my life, only to have him quickly grab me by the waist and press his right palm against my mouth. If nobody was around us, why was he trying to silence me?

“Can you stop this, Christie?” demanded the man with his forehead’s veins popping out of irritation.

I had annoyed him several times in the past when we were dating, but he had never handled me with such brute force. Moreover, the bitterness in his eyes translated into his desire to hurt me, which was why he let go of my mouth, twisted my arm, and dared me to scream again.

“Go on and scream if you do not wish to live more,” threatened the man, looking nothing like the man I once loved.

With tears rolling down my cheeks, I only shivered. I didn’t have the courage to put into words what I felt. I had never experienced this powerlessness before. The fact that I had bickered with Noah several times in the past and had never been attacked or hurled insults at me made me wonder if he was the same man.

“Leave me alone! I’m scared of you!” I begged to be offered some solitude. “I can’t deal with you anymore.”

The terror that was painted on my red face made him recognize that he had indeed gone too far. Consequently, he let go of my arm and abandoned the bed, declaring, “If you were as innocent as you claim to be, you wouldn’t have run away to another man as soon as our relationship ended.”

Even though I understood that he was accusing me of considering Seth, my best friend, as a romantic partner, I lacked the resolve to fight for myself anymore. I allowed him to leave with his erroneous assumptions about me. I continued to sink downwards and sob, failing to ignore the wound that had been left in my aching heart. I knew that it was a cavity that would never go away.

Thus, the entire night was spent with sobs and sniffling, which led me to become sick in the morning. My body seemed to be as hot as a furnace when the bedroom door was finally unlocked in the morning by the butler. He had come with food and coffee. The smell of the food that was served on the table beside my bed seemed tempting, but it was my feebleness that made it extremely challenging to get up and eat it.

Observing my tormented body and battered spirit, the butler offered me a sympathetic gaze and asked me if he should inform his master about my condition. Too weak to respond, I couldn’t say anything but continued to shiver uncontrollably.

The butler, therefore, had to take the matter into his own hands. He rushed out of the room, arranging a doctor and trying to gather the helpers to assist me with lowering my body temperature. Shortly after, I observed two women around my bed.

While one wiped my entire body with a wet sponge, the other placed a cold, wet cloth on my forehead, assuring me that I'd be alright. Nodding, I allowed them to do whatever that pleased them. After almost an hour, I did feel my temperature falling sharply.

When the doctor arrived, I had regained the strength to sit and eat, something that allowed me to eat the delicacies that had been left on the table for me. It made the doctor’s task easier. He wasn’t required to take me to the hospital anymore. He just offered me some medicines and advised me to take them after every meal.

I nodded and offered him a weak smile, something he said made me look prettier. It wasn’t something that I was particularly aiming for. I wanted to be freed, which was why I decided to familiarize the doctor with the actual reason behind my unhappiness- the abduction.

“I do not live here, Doctor Johnson,” I spoke, hoping I would soon receive aid. “I have been abducted and forced to live here against my will.”

Though the doctor seemed surprised, he didn't say anything and let me finish. With the same fear and tension in my voice, I continued to complain, "If you do not get me out of here, Noah will kill me."

"He will do no such thing, Mistress," the doctor vouched for the man, not realizing that Noah had a dark side too. "He is not the kind of person who would hurt anybody. I've known him for years. Just do what he's asking of you, and he will be the most loving person you've known."

"No, you do not understand," I continued to plead for help. "He will do anything to destroy me. If you don't help me now, I am afraid, it will be too late."

"You're sick. Rest up, and you will see things more clearly soon, dear," said the doctor, unwilling to acknowledge Noah's fault.

"No, you do not understand," I muttered with visible distress on my face.