Chapter 4

"Wow! You're great! I've been married for fifteen years, and I never experienced that with my wife."

Patricia just smiled with her customer's statement while putting on her robe. He's her second that day. Having different men in her bed has been a regular occurrence in Patricia's life for the past few months. She looked so different now than the small-town girl who just gave birth exactly one year ago. Now, she only wears sexy dresses and revealing clothes. She already learned how to wear make-up every day and became conscious of her looks.

"Here, I hope we can do this again another time?" The man said. Patricia can't even remember his name.

"Sure, just come by the club whenever you want," Patricia responded, she mustered a sweet smile.

After she got the money from her customer, she showed him to the door. He was a repeat customer, but she never bothered to even ask his name. As she turned around to go back to her room, she saw Kim rocking her baby to sleep. She just ignored them and went to the kitchen. That's how she became since she started working at the strip club.

Kim just shook her head when Patricia didn't even come near her son. She remembered when Tasha first offer her to be a nanny. She thought Tasha already had a child. But when she saw Patricia and her son, she took pity on the little boy. His mother neglects him because of something that is not even his fault. Every day Kim would see how Patricia wakes up and get on with her day without spending time with him.

"What is it, Kim?" Patricia noticed Kim standing by the entrance of the kitchen. She's been there for five minutes, so she decided to ask her son's nanny.

"I know it's not my place to ask but what happened to you and your son's father?" Kim asked frankly. Patricia's son is not the only infant Kim took care of. Over her years of experience as a babysitter, Kim learned to recognize which mother is grateful to have a child, and which ones are not.

"He left me. That's it." Patricia answered nonchalantly.

"How about your son?" Kim asked again.

"What about him?" Another detached response from Patricia.

"Pat, he's your son. Don't you love him?" Kim asked again, trying to open Patricia's mind about her attitude towards her son. Kim can't risk being too straightforward because she badly needed her job.

"Stay focused on your job, Kim. Let me mind my own. Okay?"

After Patricia finished her food, she went back to her room, leaving the dumbfounded Kim outside the kitchen. She doesn't have time for Kim's nonsense. She's got a lot of more important things to do. When she entered her room, the feeling of excitement poured through her body. It became a sense that grew more robust than the first time.

"Where is it?" Patricia mumbled while going through her things. "Where is it?"

Tasha had no idea that something's happening to her. It started the night she met Rick, a notorious New York drug dealer. Cops have been on his tail for four years, and he had been in jail twice. But law enforcement can't keep him there. His connections reach the higher-ups.

"Found you!" Patricia exclaimed, full of satisfaction when she found what she was looking for.

It was a small pack of pink tablets hidden beneath her things. When Rick first offered these little devils to her, she refused. She was trying to follow what Tasha told her. But Rick was an excellent salesman. He convinced Patricia to disobey Tasha's most important rule. And it was more than heaven for Patricia.

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Kim quietly opened Patricia's door. She's noticing some changes in Patricia's attitude. Kim should know; she's been there. She planned to go through Patricia's things and look for evidence. She will show it to Tasha, and the nice woman can talk to her friend. She went through the worst there is. She can't just stand aside and watch someone else go through the same horrible experience. Not when she can do something about it.

But before she can enter the room, she heard Patricia talking to someone on the phone. "Why don't you just come here, Rick?" She heard Patricia say. That name was too familiar to her. He was the one who destroyed her life.

"Fine, fine. I'll be there. Yeah, okay. Bye."

Kim went to the living room when she heard Patricia's footsteps. She acted as if she was dusting the furniture and displays. Kim was secretly observing Patricia's actions. When she went out of her room, she's already well dressed.

"You're going out?" Kim asked. She was curious as to where Patricia's going after Rick called her. "Tasha will be worried of you if she comes and you're gone."

"Tell her that I went out. I'll be back soon." Patricia answered reluctantly.

Kim didn't respond to her. She was busy thinking of how she would inform Tasha immediately. Patricia's erratic behavior is evidence to confirm her suspicion. But knowing that she's on the hook with Rick, she knew it's already bad. She has no choice but to interrupt Tasha on her date.

"Tasha? Can you hear me?" Kim silently thanked God when Tasha answered the call.

[Kim? What's wrong?]

"Tasha, you have to come home, now. It's about Patricia. She's in trouble."

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Tasha rushed back home as soon as she learned from Kim that Patricia is associating herself with Rick. She was there that night when Rick's group went to Xfactor, the strip club where they work. When he saw Patricia, Rick automatically called a floor manager and paid to take her out. Tasha didn't stop Patricia because she thought her friend could handle herself. She should have known better.

"My god, Patricia, answer the damn phone!" Tasha frustratingly said while trying to contact her friend.

She's been trying to contact Patricia since before she gets into her car. But until now that she's almost home, she still can't reach her.

"This is my fault! I shouldn't have let her come with that asshole!" Tasha hit her wheel three times out of anger.

"Goddamnit!" Still, Patricia's not answering her phone.

Patricia is her responsibility. She took her in. Tasha knew she should have looked out for her. She should have been more observant of those she came out with. She became too careless. Because of what's going on with Patricia, a memory that is long forgotten is now slowly resurfacing.

-Flashback-

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Tasha asked her younger sister, Tina. She was about to move to New York to finish her study.

"Of course! Don't worry about me," Tina answered confidently.

But not six months later, Tina was found dead in an alley because of a drug overdose. According to the investigators, she could've been dead longer because of the discoloration of the skin. This broke Tasha to the core, especially when they found out that the man who put her sister in that alley was her boyfriend.

-End of Flashback-

It was the day that Tasha sworn off all men. She made a promise to herself that she will never love any man. She blamed herself for the death of her sister. She was supposed to move to New York with her. Tina will finish her study, while Tasha will pursue her modeling career. But Tasha had a boyfriend at that time. One that she loved so much. But when her sister died, he was one of the people he blamed. She thought if not because of him, she would have been able to save her sister.

"Kim! Kim!" Tasha called for Kim as soon as she arrived home.

"Tasha? Oh, thank God, your here!" Kim exclaimed. "The baby's asleep. We have to go." Kim didn't want to waste any more time.

"Okay." Tasha ran back to her car. She won't let what happened to her sister to be the same fate as Patricia.

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Patricia arrived at the gate of a costly-looking estate. While looking up at the gigantic gate, Patricia thought of how nice it would be to live in a place like this. Patricia was deep in her thoughts when the gate opened. She saw a Russian brute standing behind the gate with a high-powered gun. He's looking at Patricia with suspicion.

"Who are you?" The man asked her with his Russian voice.

"I'm Patricia. Rick's waiting for me," she said.

Patricia's old self would have run as quickly as soon as she saw the gun the man is holding. But her new self doesn't care anymore, especially now. Her mind is so numb like she doesn't understand anything in the world. She was so high that if someone got shot in front of her, she wouldn't mind.

"Come in." Patricia threw a last glance at the Russian man. She thought his voice was funny. He sounded like a cartoon voice-over.

As Patricia strolls the elegant driveway, she imagined herself driving an expensive car. She's being accompanied by a scary-looking man, also holding a high-powered gun. The whole property was perfectly landscaped. The trees and flowers are artfully organized. Up ahead, she saw an elegant mansion. It was a combination of white and gold.

Patricia was led to the Olympic-sized pool at the side of the mansion. She saw at least a dozen drunk men and a few strippers getting passed around. All the strippers are already drunk and high. Some of them are almost unconscious. Her eyes landed on Rick, who's playing with a nearly naked stripper. He's making her dance and drink even though the woman can no longer stand straight.

"Patricia, darling!" Rick greeted her happily the moment he saw her. "Damn! You really are beautiful day and night."

"Hey, I missed you," Patricia said seductively, thinking that the entire property is his.

"Come, darling. My boss is waiting for you." Rick said as he leads the way. That made Patricia lose interest in him. She found a new target.

Rick lead her inside the mansion, where she became mesmerized even more. Every single thing she sees inside the estate is a sign of prestige and wealth. As they approached the massive double door, Patricia's anticipation arise. She was expecting to see a naked, overweight, older man when the door opened. But she was welcomed by an exquisite but empty room. The sound of a sexy Spanish love song plays from a vintage record player.

There's a king-sized canopy bed with silk sheets. Two massive shelves with antique guns and blades stand in one corner of the room. But what caught her eyes is the large portrait of two gladiators fighting to the death. It speaks of so many meanings, but for Patricia, it only says of one. The battle inside her between her old and new self.

"You're drawn to the painting, are you?" Patricia heard a deep, sultry voice of a man behind her.

"Huh—" Her words got stuck mid-air. This is not what she was expecting. What she sees right now is not an old, overweight man.

"I was drawn to that painting too. That's why I bought it. I felt like it was talking to me." The man turned to face her. "I'm Gonzalo, Gonzalo Valenzuela."