Chapter 2

• Feeling the man pull out from me intensely, I knew it was over. But knowing that I would meet with the same ordeal repeatedly, hopelessness overcame me. It would never be over. Not until I found a way out of it all.
• They secured the den with plentiful guardsmen. Bulky chains covered my hands and feet, leaving me with no way to break free easily. I lay motionless like a log all this while, allowing them to do whatever they wanted to me.
• The men chattered, laughing among themselves outside the door to my cell.
• “The Master is very kind, letting us enjoy his toy while he is away.”
• “Maybe he was tired of her, lying like a corpse while he did all the hard work.”
• “Anyway, he will have a new bride soon. Then he’ll have no use for this piece of trash.”
• “Now, you, Jink, as the youngest, you should be compassionate with your words. After all, you used her the longest.”
• Their words cut through me like a knife. They used me and relieved their deprivation. All five of them. And all they could say about me was how I lay like a corpse.
• I wallowed in disgust at the stench of the fluids that they had left on me. They used me, spat on me, and treated me worse than an animal. Yet, I could do nothing while they ravaged me, like I was not a living person. The man named Jink had even given me a blow to the face when I let out a cry of pain.
• After the last of them had left and locked the door of my cell, I tried to get up to clean myself, ignoring the sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It was like a large knife had sliced me up. Every single step I took was agony. I managed a few steps to the sink in the corner and began washing my face with dirty brown water.
• Unconsciously, I noticed my reflection in the mirror. Horrifying, but this was the truth.
• As I had expected, the fullness of the blow left my left cheek swollen, but it was nothing compared to the pain I had low down. Grazes filled my once-flawless face and blood was seeping from a cut I had below my chin.
• I always had a high pain tolerance, but my bodily wounds were nothing compared to what I had deep within. They had ripped my dress to shreds, leaving me in almost nothing.
• I was thinking about where I could get something to preserve all I had left of myself: my dignity, when suddenly, my stomach churned with pain and I passed out. When I came to, I was looking into the face of a woman in red.
• “You are…”
• “Milanda. You can call me Sis Landa.”
• The fact I was no longer in my cell but in a warm bed brought me to my senses. Who was this woman, and what did she need from me?
• “Sis Landa, why did you rescue me?” The words erupted from my mouth before I could stop myself. I felt exhausted and the pain in me was exhilarating.
• “I don’t have any reason for anything I choose to do.”
• The woman towering over me was beautiful, but aside from beauty, I felt a vibe of charisma from her. She wore a confident look about her. In short, I sensed she wasn’t a normal person. If she was the one who broke me out of my prison with no fear for the rules, she had to be someone special to that man they called the Master.
• In the underworld, one bearing an address such as Sis normally meant a female senior. So, she was one of them, yet helped me? I found it rather hard to believe.
• “Thank you, Sis Landa.” I couldn’t think of any words to say right now. I was just too tired to think about her relationship with the Master and anyway, it didn’t benefit me at all. I needed her help to free myself from this place.
• “Rest, little girl.”
• Feeling myself deprived of any energy to even check what I was wearing under the blanket, I closed my eyes and entered a deep slumber. In my dreams, I saw Sherry, my best friend and her husband Anderson, and my lover, Syl.
• ………………………
• Piper’s Dream
• “Thank you for helping me out. I don’t know how I can ever repay you,” I smiled, flashing my large, round eyes. Sherry smiled, tightening her arm around her husband.
• “Just thank Anderson. He was the one who reported Lee Jung for molestation. Although someone deleted the footage, he found a good tech guy to recover the original footage.”
• Sherry was smiling gaily. She wore a bright yellow dress, and it looked like they had just discharged her from the hospital. They linked hands romantically. I looked at Syl.
• Syl was my underground lover. He was a married man, but his wife had insisted on an open relationship because of her sex addiction. For the sake of children he loved but were never his, he had to agree to this arrangement.
• I had fallen for him at first sight when Sherry’s friend Amber had her first appointment with him, as he was a gynaecologist. After that, I had been harassing him at his clinic. During appointments, I insisted he run a full-body examination of me. When he refused, I took off my clothes to provoke him. He still rejected me and insisted that I leave.
• The rejection continued until the day his wife announced she was having a baby with her new lover. That had been the last straw. Then we hooked up at Sherry’s birthday bash. From that day onwards, we never missed a day of seeing each other.
• He loved children so much that my greatest wish was to bear a child for him.
• We walked down a flight of steps to where I saw a parked Mercedes. I recognised the car clearly to belong to Syl.
• “I’ll like to invite you both to high tea as thanks,” Syl announced. “Do you have time?”
• We arrived at some restaurant. I didn’t care what the name was, but I trusted my lover with his choices. After ordering some dishes, Syl whispered to me, telling me he was going to the gents.
• I felt uneasy to be alone with Sherry and Anders, but he soon returned with a silly smile plastered across his face. The lighting in the venue dimmed.
• Syl knelt before me, with a gold-coloured box in his hand.
• “Piper, the love of my life, will you marry me?”