A sound advice

Trisha's house was warm and welcoming with a homely interior. A 3 seater couch sat in the living room. There was a portable glass table in the living room with a box of marble of different colours in it. At the corner of the wall, sat a large vase with a green leafy plant that looked plastic- Trisha told me it was real. The fireplace was clean with no wood and there was a large portrait of a young girl with an elongated neck above it. The rest of the house was equally simple; Dining room with a medium sized table and 4 chairs, behind it was the open kitchen with a kitchen island and a row of stools, and a very neat and organised kitchen.

"Your place is really lovely." I complimented and she received my compliment with wide grins. She showed me the master room and two other rooms which were the guest rooms.

"Your new home could swallow up this one a million times, huh?" She said with a laugh but I simply gave a dry chuckle. Yes it was a large mansion, but it wasn't my home.

Trisha noticed the sombre look on my face and asked, "Mélie, is everything okay?"

I heaved a sigh, "Nothing is okay, Trisha. Nothing."

"What happened?"

I walked over to the bed in the guest room and sat down on it, prompting her to take a seat beside me, "What happened, Mélie?" She asked again.

"It's all a sham, Trisha. This whole marriage thing was a ploy to give him an heir." I went on to narrate how Ella arrived at the mansion and how she spilled the beans about the status of my marriage to Damien Jaeger, how I confronted him about it and he told me without any remorse, that he just wanted me to have his heir and the arrival of two other women who also had his child."

Trisha's eyes bugged out of their sockets as I spoke. By the time I was done narrating my ordeal, my cheeks were wet with tears. Trisha pulled me to herself in an effort to console me. I was glad that Darcy hadn't followed us to the guest room. I couldn't have been able to hold back my tears in her presence.

"Shhhhh, don't cry, Mélie. It's okay, don't cry." She kept saying. I let my tears pour for some time before finally cleaning my face. My nose was running and Trisha left the room and returned with a handkerchief for me to use.

"What is gonna happen now?" She asked.

"I remained quiet for a while before answering, "I don't know. I don't want to go back to that house." "I hate him so much." I added with a whisper as if I had said something forbidden.

"You can't run away, Mélie. The contract…"

"Fuck the contract!" I yelled out in frustration, "Do you really want me to go back there? To those monsters?!"

"I'm not going back there. I'm staying here."

She went mute for a while. When I had calmed down a little, she spoke, "I know going back there will be difficult, Mélie. But don't forget he has the upper hand which is the contract you signed with your own hands and in your senses. Breaching that contract would cost you a lot."

"You could lose Darcy." She said, "I mean, wasn't that the reason why you signed the contract in the first place?"

She was right.

"Don't act with your emotions right now, Mélie. Act with your head."

"What am I going to do now?" I asked hopelessly.

"I say you give Damien Jaeger a taste of his own medicine!"

"How?"

Her lips curled up with mischief. Trisha Baldwin had a plan.
~

I pushed the large door of the mansion with all my might, slamming it against the wall with a loud bang. The place was dark. I could barely see the furniture. I walked into the living room with echoing steps. Was anyone not home? The silence seemed very eerie and I couldn't help but start feeling tense.

"You're back." A voice said behind me and I leapt in fright. It was Damien Jaeger.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked. He ignored my question and walked up to me with slow, steady steps. Staring into his face which looked so tender and serene this evening made me forget that I was supposed to be hating him.

"I asked everyone to leave, Mélie." He finally replied. He was standing barely an inch away from me. Then his lips curled up into a wicked smirk, "You think you could run away?"

"Now, you're gonna be punished." He said. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

'Be brave, be brave.' My mind unconsciously started chanting the mantra. I tried to listen but my willpower was weak and feeble.

His fingers moved to my hair and slowly started ruffling my hair. I closed my eyes in fear.

"Look at me." He said but I dared not to, "Look at me, Mélie!"

I slowly opened my eyes and met his intense gaze, "You're going to have to be punished." He replied, but his voice wasn't firm like before. It made my knees go weak and my heart started beating faster than it should.

"Punish me." I found myself saying in a whisper. A seductive smirk curved up at the corner of his lips as he moved closer to my lips.
~

I parted my eyes and the early morning sunlight pierced into them, making them squeeze back into my eyelids with haste. I sat up and opened them again and I was welcomed by the strange room that surrounded me.

'It was all a dream.' I whispered in relief. I was in Trisha's house, laying in bed in her guestroom. I looked at the empty space beside me. Darcy had insisted on sleeping in Trisha's room for the night. I slowly got up and walked up to the door. My reflection glared at me as I walked past. It was a woman with a weary look on her face who carried a bird's nest on her head. I ignored her and opened the door. Immediately, an enticing aroma greeted my nose.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Trisha chirped happily, "When were you planning on getting out of bed?" She was already dressed for work in a high-waist skirt and white top which was hidden under her grey blazer- the same colour as her skirt.

"Good morning, Trisha! What are you making?" I asked, standing beside her in the kitchen.

She was frying bacon. A mountain of pancakes sat beside the frying pan.

"I miss this." I mumbled as I bit into the fluffy pancakes. I picked two more and stuffed them into my mouth and she chuckled at my greediness.

"Aren't you going to work today?" She asked. I grumbled at the thought of work. Mister Stance had already started frustrating my life.

"Not like I have a choice, right?" I replied. Since I had decided to return back to the mansion, there was no need for me to avoid going to work anymore for fear of Damien Jaeger looking for me. I just had to bear Mister Stance's fuss, which I didn't tell her about.

"I'll quickly wake Darcy up for school." I said.

"She's already up and ready. She should be down in a sec." Trisha said.

I nodded at her words and went to take a quick shower. After dressing up, I returned to the kitchen. Trisha had already dished out our meals on the kitchen island and Darcy was seated on a stool, munching away the delicious pancakes.

"Good morning, mommy." She greeted me and I went over and planted a kiss on her neatly brushed hair.

"Morning sweetheart."

We ate breakfast and got ready to leave. I hadn't noticed Trisha's ride earlier. It was an SUV. She confessed to making the purchase by herself and I congratulated her on it. Neither the car nor the house was company owned.

"Catch you some other time babes. It was really nice seeing you!" Trisha said. We hugged one last time and kissed each other goodbye before getting into our car.

I went to my phone and was glad that I didn't have any calls from Damien Jaeger. Did he even have my phone number?
I heaved in relief when I saw that I had turned off my location.

Something flashed in the pigeon hole as I opened it to drop my phone. It was another iphone. How did a phone get into my pigeon hole? I wondered. I curiously picked up the phone and attempted to peep through it. A full picture of Damien Jaeger popped on the screen. It was his phone!