Chapter 24.
CLAYTON.
Seventy thousand dollars was nothing to me; it was like one grain of sand to an entire beach. And I was still going to have my way, so it was a win-win in both situations. Legally, Nadine was my legally married spouse, I could have my way with her to the fullest capacity. I decided to free her. I went to the basement by myself the next morning.
“Good morning, Nadine,” I said with a fake smile.
“Good morning,” she said sourly.
“Maybe you should put more life into your greetings now that I’m your husband, don’t you think?” I said with the same mocking smile plastered on my face.
“Ohh, please,” she said, rolling her eyes. “What now? Now that we’re married, what happens next?”
“Well, first of all, no wife of Clayton Rocco should be clad in those rags,” I said to her. “So we’ll have to find you something else to wear. Maybe a shopping spree will solve that.”
“How do we go shopping if I’m still locked in here like a wild animal, Clayton?” She said tiredly. “And who would I be dressing for?”
“First of all, “we” are not going shopping,” I explained. “You are going shopping, along with the driver, of course.”
“Wait, does that mean…?” She said, wide-eyed. “Does that mean you’re freeing me?”
“Of course,” I said. “Now that I have you bound by law as my wife, there’s no escaping.”
She gave a scream of joy that startled me and spun round and round until merely looking at her made me dizzy. I watched, my lips upturned in disgust.
“You don’t have to make such a racket, you stupid cunt,” I spat out.
“Ohh, I’ll make all the noise I fucking want,” she said, getting up from the bed and walking closer to me, so close that I winced at her morning breath. “Do you know what the fuck it means to be locked in this hole for months, no phone, no internet, no contact with the outside world, just your arrogant ass, the butler and those lowlife prostitutes? Do you know?”
She was so close to my face. And I had to admit, she had a point.
“Go take a fucking bath, Nadine,” I said in near disgust. “And get ready. The driver will take you to the mall and you can get some clothes.”
I turned to walk away, but then I stopped short of the door, turned and faced her again.
“We may be legally married now, Nadine,” I told her in a low, menacing voice, “but that doesn’t erase the humiliation I got from you from my mind. And it sure as hell doesn’t change the fact that I still think you’re a despicable bitch, and am utterly disgusted by you.”
I turned and exited the room, this time leaving it unlocked.
NADINE.
What does freedom taste like after months of captivity? How does it feel to have the chains of imprisonment removed from your legs and hands? It tastes wonderful, like the thought of breathing the fresh city air when I step outside, or during a car wind and the wind is whooshing in my face, cooling it; it tastes like knowing I’ll see Anna and Naomi, and every other person whom I’ve lost touch with. I took my bath and wore the only dress available. The butler came and led me out, and for the first time, I was outside of the room in months.
“Good morning, ma’am,” a clean man in a two-piece suit greeted me. “I’m the driver, and Mr. Clayton has instructed me to take you to the mall.”
“Ohh,” I said.
He had called me “ma’am,” and I felt like I could get used to it. As I walked through the house, the servants also called me ma’am, and it felt good.
“But was it just the mall, though?” I asked him, trying to see if I could finagle a ride around the city and possibly to see Anna and Naomi from him.
“That was my instruction, ma’am,” he said.
So we drove to the mall, speeding past familiar landmarks and buildings. I swelled with joy as we did. When we passed the hotel that I worked at before, I felt an unfamiliar emotion go through me. We got to the mall and did about three hours of shopping, so much that I was exhausted. Clayton had given his credit card to the driver.
When we were back inside the car, I decided to call Clayton.
“What do you want now?” He asked.
“I want to go see my sister,” I said. “I can do that, right?”
“No,” he said firmly. “The plan was to get you some new clothes and then you come back home. No detours!”
“Come on, Clayton,” I said, a coy lilt to my voice. “It’s just a few minutes drive from where we are now. And I haven’t seen my sister in months. She’s sick, remember?”
“Fuck, Nadine,” he said. “Your first day as my wife and you cannot obey simple commands.”
“Come on, Clayton,” I begged. “I’ll be back, of course.”
“Fine,” he said and hung up.
“The central hospital,” I said to the driver as soon as I dropped the phone.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and made a swerve to change directions.
*
As we neared the hospital, I felt nervous. It had been months since I had seen Naomi or Anna, and my heartbeat accelerated. It was quite a big hospital and we had to wade through a lot of patients at the reception room to get to someone to lead us to the room where Anna was staying.
“Hello, we’re looking for a patient,” I told the bespectacled lady who was behind the desk.
“What’s the name?” She asked without raising her head.
“Anna Moore,” I said.
“Anna Moore,” she said to herself.
“And who are you to her?” She asked.
“Her elder sister,” I replied.
She gave me the instructions on how to get to the room and I was there in a few minutes. When I opened the door, I was shocked at what I saw.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.