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Empty Handed

Author: JacqueAuthor
last update Last Updated: 2025-10-09 22:05:45

MONIQUE

That night, after Mrs. Bennett left, I knew deep down I wasn’t going to get what I wanted. Her words had sounded final....soft but firm, like a door closing slowly in my face.

So, by morning, I had already begun planning. I lay awake half the night, thinking of ways to get her to take me outside this room, just for a walk, some fresh air, maybe the garden. If she agreed, maybe I could find a way to run. To hide. To finally be free.

I rehearsed what I would say. How I would sound weak but hopeful, desperate yet harmless. I even practiced smiling in the mirror, though it felt wrong.

When the lock clicked that morning, my heart jumped. I straightened up, ready with my plan, with my voice soft and my expression patient. But the person who walked through that door was not Mrs. Bennett.

It was Ryan.

For a second, I froze. I didn’t even breathe. His presence filled the room like smoke, quiet but suffocating. He stood there, calm, like he’d been standing outside for a while, just watc
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  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   The Cook

    MONIQUEI pulled back slightly, just enough to look up at him. His eyes were tired, shadowed. But when they landed on me, something soft appeared there, something warm, almost relieved."You're back," I whispered.He smiled. "Yes, I'm back. Where were you expecting me not to?" he added in a teasing, pleasing tone.I smiled too. "No, I am just excited you're back."Then his hand came up and his fingers brushed my cheek, tracing the skin there slowly, softly, almost like he was checking if I was really here....if I was really standing in front of him."You look better," he murmured. "Fresh. Well rested."I nodded, suddenly feeling shy. "Yeah. The only thing that woke me up was food, or else I would still be sleeping right now."A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth."I guess that’s a good thing, if you have an appetite."I smiled back.He closed his eyes for a second, like he was gathering himself and then he sighed, leaned down, and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. Tender.

  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   Melt Away

    MONIQUEWhen I finally woke up, the sun was already going down. My muscles ached, my chest felt tight for a moment, then loosened. I felt… lighter. Not completely, but the crushing weight that used to sit on my ribs wasn’t strangling me anymore.Maybe the sleep helped.Or maybe being far away from Ryan finally gave my body permission to relax.My stomach rumbled. Right. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast with Ryan this morning, if that sickening performance even counted as breakfast.I got out of bed and went straight to my aunt’s room. I knocked, pushed the door open… but the room was empty. Frowning, I stepped back into the hallway. That’s when I heard it, the soft hum of machinery and soft voices coming from somewhere deeper inside the house. Curious, I followed the sound through the hallway until it led me into the kitchen.My aunt was standing there, talking to a woman as they worked side by side. My aunt chopped vegetables while the other woman, around her late fifties stirred somet

  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   Safe

    MONIQUEHis breath trembled.“The only thing I think about when it comes to you,” I continued, “is the fact that you saved me. That you fought for me. That you worked so hard to find me, and you did. I’m free now. I’m safe now. I’m with you now.”My voice dropped to a whisper.“And I know this isn’t the right time, and I know you’re going to say I’m emotional, but I don’t care. I need you to hear it.....”My heart beat once....twice, painfully hard.“I love you,” I said, barely getting the words out.Marcus froze.I felt it.His breath stopped. His eyes widened. His arms tightened around me for a brief second and then loosened as if he wasn’t sure he should hold me at all.“No,” he murmured, shaking his head, his voice thick. “No, Monique… don’t say it because I saved you. Please don’t say it because you think you owe me anything. Just like I told you....you don’t have to repay me. You don’t have to stay here. If you want a new life, if you want to disappear, if you want anything....I

  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   My Hero

    MONIQUEWe sat together — Marcus, my aunt, and me—after the reunion, tears finally slowed. My throat was raw, my eyes burned, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. They were both watching me with the same terrified concern.“What happened?” my aunt asked softly. Marcus didn’t say anything, but the way he leaned forward told me he needed the answer just as much.So I told them.Not everything. Not the full horror. Not the pieces that still felt like glass stuck in my throat. But I gave them a picture....enough for them to understand what I had survived. Enough for them to see the monster Ryan and his family truly were.When I finished, my aunt’s face twisted with rage and heartbreak.“That man is a monster,” she said, her voice trembling. “A monster.” She reached for me, pulling me into her arms with a kind of desperation I hadn’t felt in years. “As soon as you came home crying, I should have taken you away from there. Maybe when you came to me… maybe you really just needed to leave. We

  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   Safe

    MONIQUEHer arms wrapped around my aunt so tightly I almost couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care. I held her just as tightly, fingers digging into the fabric of her blouse, terrified that if I let go, even for a second, she might disappear.“Auntie…” My voice cracked.She pulled back just enough to cup my face in both her hands. Her eyes were glassy, swollen, red. “Monique… my girl… my baby… I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”Her voice wasn’t steady. It trembled. It broke. I swallowed hard, brushing a tear from her cheek. “I’m here. I’m right here.”She touched my arms, my shoulders, my cheeks, like she needed to feel all of me to believe I was real. “Where were you? What did they do to you? I woke up and.....”She stopped, her eyes unfocused for a moment, like she was searching her own memories and finding nothing but fog.“Auntie… what do you remember?” I asked softly.She blinked hard. Once. Twice. “I… I don’t know very well. I remember just fragments of what happened. We were leavi

  • DIVORCED MORNING AND REMARRIED TO HIS BROTHER BY NIGHT   The Disappearance

    The BENNETTSAfter a while, Mr Smith started laughing.“Okay, fine. Please do it. Why don’t you call everybody you know? Pull all the resources you have. You’re rich, right? I mean it..... do it.” He leaned back in his chair, smirking. “You came into my office to threaten me over something that I have nothing to do with.”“You have everything to do with it,” Ryan snapped. “Your secretary is missing for some kind of reason. The office was deserted today. You planned this.”“I would love to see you prove that in front of a jury,” Mr Smith said coolly. “Because I don’t know who you think I am, and I don’t know who you think you are, but there are laws in this country—laws that should be followed.”Mr Smith glanced at his watch, unbothered. “I wonder why you’re so angry by the way. Monique has been gone for what?” He tapped his watch. “Probably thirty, forty minutes, and you’re already freaking out? Is there something I should know? Because she’s an adult. She can take time for herself.

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