Chapter 10

When I got back to the house, I found the door was left wide open. Immediately, I rushed into Sherry’s bedroom, but the door, too, was open. A few of Sherry’s belongings lay strewn over the carpeted floor, including her phone and a few toiletries. But she was nowhere to be found.
A pool of liquid, most of which had dried up by now, left a mark on the black carpet.
My intuition told me it must have happened minutes while I was unconscious earlier. Emotions rushed inside me.
What do I do now?
“Piper.”
I heaved a sigh to hear Jacques’ voice.
As he came towards me, I flung myself into his arms, still panicking, “Sher…Sherry… she…”
“It’s fine, Piper. The neighbours heard her cry and took her to the hospital. They called me.”
“So…now…”
“She’s delivered.”
Delivered?
I remembered ‌she was only eight months pregnant. My heart raced, causing me to forget what I was concerned about earlier.
If everything was fine, I would be thankful.
“Piper, she has delivered safely, and mother and son are safe.”
Mother and son?
That meant…. She and Anderson had a son, not a daughter?
From Jacques’ point of view, I understood that Sherry’s distrust for her husband was the fact she felt he was biassed against the gender of the baby being a girl. Though her obstetrician wasn’t entirely sure her baby was a girl, she went along with that belief.
Even though I believed ‌Jacques made this up to make me feel better, if Sherry indeed loved her husband, would she betray him just to save me?
Or maybe I was just finding an excuse for myself to blame her for what happened to me?
I stopped myself from thinking further, remembering what the psychiatrist had advised me. Now that Sherry had a son, not a daughter, how was she coping at the hospital?
“Piper, there’s another thing I would like to ask you.”
My body stiffened in anticipation of what he would question.
“Apart from the disgust you have for your body before, you seem to cope very well with your sessions. It seems very unbelievable.”
He embraced me from behind, stroking my long hair. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disbelieving you, my dear.”
“I’m just wondering. I don’t know if it’s possible or not, but I wish to be your real lover, not Syl S. I want to take care of you, Piper. Forever. I love you, Piper. Before and now, and in the future.”
In the past, if the person before me was Syl, telling me that, I would have been overjoyed. But now, ‌ it would never happen again.
He hugged me in silence, and time seemed to stop for a moment. I took in the fragrance of his new cologne and wondered. In fact, I thought for a very long time.
“I accept your love, Jacques. Because I like you too.”
He scooped me up in his arms and took me to the bedroom. Gently putting me down on our bed, he went to the desk in the corner. I propped up my pillow and used it to support my back, watching him as he rummaged through the drawer, as if searching for something important. In the drawer, which he secured with a key, we kept our passports and important documents. A second later, he returned with a small box.
“Piper, I know this isn’t much, but in the future, I’ll give you whatever you want and which I can afford. Be it all the money in my pocket, a trip to the cinema, or the holiday of your dreams, I will make a lot of money for our.. Our happiness.”
I knew what he was going to say. He had wanted to say ‘family’. Yet, he had not said the word. It made me feel ‌he must have known of my inability to have children.
But the occupational therapist had told me that with subsequent sessions, I would recover. While with my psychiatrist, it amazed him with my quick recovery, although I could never explain or tell anyone about the voices I had been hearing, as they would never understand.
If I made progress with my recovery in these departments, did it mean that there was a cure for my inability to conceive? I found out more about the date-rape drug which they used on me. Not because of my pipe dream with Syl, but for Jacques.
Because he deserved a family of his own, as well.
I brought my attention back to the box in Jacques’ right hand.
When he opened the box, I saw a beautiful ring with a single stone. It wasn’t a diamond, like in my dream of Syl proposing to me on one knee, but it was ample to show his sincerity.
He kissed me briefly and placed the ring on my finger. I looked down and saw that he hadn’t put it on my ring finger, but on my index finger.
“It’s a promise ring.”
I looked into his eyes.
“Kiss me again. Slowly,” I whispered. I watched his lips move over mine hesitantly. Reaching up with my hand, I hit the switch to turn off the lights. The room dimmed, with some sunlight entering the room from the gaps between the blackout curtains.
I grabbed his hands and took the lead, kissing him passionately like that day we shared the bath. Nothing had happened that time, but today, I wanted to make sure it would differ.
He gawked at me with his eyes wide open, like he had seen something inappropriate. I let his hands wander over my clothed body, stopping at my buttons.
He paused, taking his lips off mine.
“Piper, are you sure you’re ready for this?”
I yanked off his pants impatiently. I was no novice at this, despite being unable to remember my first time. I was sixteen then when I lost my innocence, and now I was twenty-three. Between my exes and Syl, I lost count.
I was sure with my experience, I could repay Jacques. Even if he loved me, unfortunately I could not reciprocate his love. All I could do was repay him with my body.
“I need you, Jacques. Let me forget my ordeal. Please,” I begged pretentiously. He unbuttoned my blouse slowly, helping me remove the remnants of my clothing from my body as I tore off his shirt.
I couldn’t understand why he was so slow. I wanted him to take me already, before I regretted it.
I even faked a moan.
“Piper, you look fascinating. I… I don’t know what to say, you just…”
I kissed him again, pulling him on top of me. I didn’t want him to talk, I just wanted him to act. He caught up, kissing me as intensely as he could, while his manhood rubbed against my core. Even if he wasn’t the man in my heart, my body was already responding to the hardness grazing between my legs.
He broke the kiss.
“Piper, I can’t hold it anymore. I’m going in.”
“Do whatever you want to me, Jacques. Please.”
I moaned, louder this time, to encourage him. It didn’t take him a second to flip me against the wall as he entered me swiftly. My legs trembled, feeling my entire cavity engulfed by his manhood.
What the heck? He was huge down below!
He didn’t even seem a virgin. The effects of the drug must have carried me away that night, making me unable to remember fully what happened in bed with Jacques. How could I have forgotten how it felt my first time with him?
It actually felt heavenly! And with a heavy heart, I admitted that the sex was even better than Syl or the Master!
Hearing him moan my name actually turned me on. I closed my eyes and lost myself completely in the waves of joy that swept through my body as he took me again and again, in a different position each time. The ecstasy rushing through me wet me so thoroughly that I didn’t feel a single bit of pain.
I had seduced him into it, expecting to satisfy him, but I never expected that I would be the one who was satisfied instead.
We eventually crumbled together into a messy heap on the bed, entangled with each other in the stickiness of each other’s fluids. Amidst my tiredness, I laughed.
“Jacques, that felt good. Tell me you’re not a virgin.”
He laughed back.
“You’re right, I’m not. But it barely matters now. You have me wrapped around your finger, my dear Piper.”
I closed my eyes and fell asleep on his chest, thinking about the possibilities of the future we would spend together.
Maybe it was all meant to be. Him and I, with no one else.
I hoped I was right, even if I didn’t know if I could forget that person in my heart. Right now, Jacques seemed so perfect.