Chapter 80Lying was one thing, living up to that lie was another. Two weeks after that hearty conversation with Phil, Nancy found herself in the parlor of the small house that was once her prison, she was tasked with arranging what was supposed to be a home for her and her captor. Phil was out on a hunting expedition. Even though she was now free to move about the house, she could not leave the house because Phil always made sure the door was securely loved before he left. Nancy had no plans to leave though, not yet. She had to gain his trust first to achieve that fit, and so far, she had managed to convince him not to force the abortion portion down her throat. He still watched her with caution though, and he kept his plans from her, but she was satisfied with just the knowledge that he trusted her enough to let her roam the house freely in his absence. Phil did not announce it to her the first day he left her alone though, he simply wandered out the front door like he usually did

Chapter 83Her relief was so great that when Phil still lay there, unmoving, she realized that she was finally free and so was her unborn child. Moving required great effort, so she just stood in one spot for a while, grasping for breath and taking the time to regain her strength. She limped from the room but stopped by the door and kicked him straight one last time to be sure he did not move. If he was not dead now, she knew he would soon be, and that knowledge gave her a great deal of satisfaction.Why should she feel bad about defending herself against man who had held her captive for weeks, threatened to kill her child, manhandled her and even almost raped her? Nay, she was sure of one thing, if she had not succeeded in killing him, thereby escaping his sick assault, she would have been the one lying dead there by now. Because there was no way she would have let herself live to bear the shame and humiliation of losing her pride as a woman and her child. As the thoughts went thro

Chapter 85Seeing people again for the first time in weeks rekindled her hope for survival, and the end of the riverbank told her she had marked a milestone I'm her journey. But this might just be the most humiliating and frightening part of her journey. The locals, on noticing her, were rather hostile and avoided her like a plague. But Nancy was not surprised, she could only imagine how dirty she looked having gone for that long without bathing or a change of clothes. One girl was kind enough to spare her a drink of water and that was more than she needed to complete her journey. Darkshine returned to her after having a drink of water from the river. Turned out he had not abandoned her after all, that, with a new found strength and rekindled hope, Nancy mounted the horse and rode on towards the now visible village. With people in view now, she asked for directions to the Lincoln Estate and was not too surprised when everybody she asked pointed her in the right direction.With the sno

Chapter 87At The Plains, the house of Barry Gates was as expected, huge and classic, the interior exquisite. It did not feel like it was her first time here though, because Nancy felt a little familiar with the environment, but she knew why. She had spent too much time these past months, living in delusions, and a better part of that was Derek Lincoln's house, which was twice as exquisite as this. She had probably gotten accustomed to seeing buildings like this, so it did not bother her as they rode in.They were informed that the Lord and Lady of the house were out but would be back shortly, so Nancy and Derek were shown to the parlor, where they waited. The maids offered to show Nancy to her room though, obviously under the impression that she was Lydia, but Nancy declined the offer and Daniel told the servants that they would wait for Barry Gates and his wife. Daniel waited with her, not knowing if she would need him to get her anything else. She had said nothing to him on the wa

Chapter 89Nancy longed for the day it would all be over and she could hold her baby in her arms. She wanted a girl child, a little daughter like she had never been, with jet black hair like her own, stubborn as ever and sea green eyes like her father. No, she didn't want that. She wanted nothing in this child to remind her of Derek. Besides, his eye color often changed depending on his mood, which was even as well because he could pass as the devil himself with his undefined moods. Sometimes it was deep blue, other times it was a darker shade of green, but hell! Those were some of the things she loved about him. She sighed, tired of the direction her thoughts were going. Life had been cruel enough, and she needed no more of its disappointments. With her increasing inactivity, the days grew shorter, but they still did not pass quickly enough for Nancy, her stomach had grown increasingly large these days and it was becoming more difficult for her to move about. She was grateful though