Chapter 3

Morning again and her beloved is gone. He left earlier than usual today, he's probably sick and tired of her face.

She doesn't take it to heart, she's sick and tired of herself too.

This time she wakes up in her room. The room is luxurious and as wide as an entire apartment. She has large mirrors, wooden furniture, and many gold ornaments but he forbid her from keeping her old trophies in the room.

Feet on the floor, she elevates herself from the bed.

She reaches for a white silk robe, hung neatly by her dresser. She seats in front of the mirror, staring into her dead swollen eyes as she brushes her hair softly.

She didn't realize that she had been crying last night

Once again, she picks up the same routine.

The same breakfast

The same basement

The same song

The same dance

The same loneliness

The music leads her to her husband's room door, the door is polished dark drown and towers over her like a bodyguard intimidating her and stopping her from entering the room.

She swallows her fear in a big gulp and pushes the big door open.

It reveals a dirty room, with his clothes and documents on the floor as usual.

He's a busy man, do you really expect him to have time to clean his own room? That's why he has a wife, isn't it?

She begins picking up his clothes, dividing what needs to be folded from what needs to be washed.

She picks up his white business suit and something draws her attention. A singular red stain on the collar of his suit. Could it be blood? Did her baby hurt himself?

No it isn't.

It isn't a blood stain

And Charles definitely didn't hurt himself

It was lipstick

Placed neatly on his collar, almost like he wants her to find it

Impossible

Even if he would do such a thing

Which he wouldn't

He would shamefully hide it

To avoid breaking her heart

Her heart shatters into a million pieces dropping to her feet.

With the suit clutched in her hand, she silently picks up the rest of his laundry and walks to the laundry room to wash and dry them, making sure to put in extra bleach.

Her mind is empty as she watches the machine turn round and round and round and round. Time goes by, seconds, minutes then hours. She didn't even notice the machine stop or the large clock ring announcing the soon arrival of her husband.

*rinnnngggg*

What's that?

What's that unfamiliar ringing noise?

Where is it coming from?

This isn't the sound of the clock, not the sound of the doorbell or the oven timer. This is different and it wakes her up from her trance.

She sprints in the direction of the sound.

She has to find out what it is

An unfamiliar sound in the castle of echoes.

This opportunity comes less than once in a lifetime.

She checks the kitchen, the spacious living room, the basement, then she finally found a small phone sitting alone in the hallway ringing furiously

She answers the call and raises the phone to her ear, shaking in fair of what the unfamiliar object would bring

"Oh my God, someone answered the phone" someone says on the other line

"Give me that" she could hear them fighting over the phone

"Emily baby, is that you?" a strangely familiar voice comes out of the unfamiliar phone

Who's voice is this?

Why does she know it so much, yet not at all?

She feels...nostalgic

And as if her body remembered the voice before her brain did, she called out

"Mum?"

Then the strange phone was snatched out of her fingers

"Fuck it Brenda I told you to stop calling this house" Charles was standing right behind her

When did he get home?

She doesn't care

She needs to talk to her mother

"Mum?" she calls out multiple times in screams that sounds like questions. Reaching for the strange phone, trying to snatch it out of her beloved's hand.

He pushes her away and she comes crashing down to the ground.

"It's like you want a restraining order up your ass" he's silent for a while, listening to the old woman's plead "she's fucking fine, I'm her husband, I can take care of her" he goes silent again "this conversation is over " he drops the phone to the ground, making it crash into pieces

The rushes to the pieces, pulling them close to her ear

"Mum?"

"Mum!!!!"

No reply

The strange object is too damaged to function. She doesn't give up, she keeps calling

"Mum"

"Mum, please answer me"

"Shut up" Charles say, passing his fingers through his hair.

She doesn't listen to him, she keeps yelling

"Mum, I'm begging you answer me"

"I said shut the fuck up" he slaps her sharply across the face.

Tears filled her blue eyes, as she look up from the floor. Staring straight into the cold eyes of her beloved

He sighs heavily, kneeling in front of her and cupping her face.

"You know I don't like this.." he pauses "I don't enjoy hitting you. I love you.." he pulls her into a tight hug "but you keep making me do stupid shit like this" he stands up straight, throwing her weak body to the floor.

"Don't EVER contact those people again, do you understand?" 

She nods, too weak to speak with words.

Her eyes follow his back as he walks back to his room.

"He's gone"

The voice in her head sounds so livid, it's almost like she could hear it

Never mind that

She rushes to the broken pieces of the strange object, holding it tightly in her hands.

She picks up the pieces and walks to the kitchen, throwing them in the trash.

I hope you now understand why she can't leave

He loves her

He said he does

Why would she leave her husband that loves her so dearly

"He loves me"

"He does"