Pain That I Bore

Meera - 2 Years Ago

I can feel the blood running down the side of my jaw as I lay there on the side of the pavement, not knowing if I will even survive the next few hours.

The cold air bites into my skin as I try my best to gather my remaining clothes around my body tight enough to at least keep myself warm, but even so, nothing seems to be working. 

My eyes feel heavy as I blink with a lot of effort and because of that, I know that there is not much time left before either the cold or the blood loss takes my life away. 

My ears are still blaring with the sounds of my tormentors' voices and all I can see are their sick smiles that came from watching me in pain.

"You are never going to be his, dear Meera. And this child that is festering in your womb is going to die along with you tonight!" 

Her voice is still very shrill and cold in my head and right now, as I lay in the corner of the street, shivering with blood matting my hair and more of it layering my skin, I place my shaking and broken hand on my abdomen and close my eyes in acceptance of the fact that no one is coming to save me.

Ace...

A bitter smile overtakes my lips as I think of his enchanting ivy eyes, always glimmering with mirth whenever he would look at me, and always shining with love every time he made love to me. 

My fingers curl over my abdomen and I realize in that moment that there is a massive chance that my child has not survived and nothing hurts me more than that because having this child was my dream, it was the only thing that I wanted and I knew that once the child was born, then Ace would give up all this...he had promised me one time that he would give up this world of cruelty and hatred the moment I was with child. 

The sound of an ambulance siren can be heard from far away as I force my eyes to open and I instinctively scrunch my eyes shut again at the influx of light from the headlights of the approaching vehicle. 

I don't know how much time passes before I feel hands prodding at my shoulders and my legs as my body is being lifted off of the ground and someone is placing me onto a soft mattress-like object before I feel myself being carried away. 

Voices are screaming instructions at each other but I cannot focus on the words as my head lolls to the side and my eyelids close shut, hoping that if my child is gone then I will go along with it.

There is no point in surviving if I am doing it alone.

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Ace looks shell-shocked as I finish telling him the story, "turns out an ambulance was driving past from where I was and they saw me and immediately came to my rescue. I was a patient at the city hospital for two months before I was discharged and then I came here. The child didn't make it, Mr. Harrington." 

Even saying those words pinches my heart harshly as I discreetly wipe away the tears from underneath my eyes and look away towards the landscape window that is built into the wall adjacent to where I am standing and I can see the sun shining upon the entire skyline of New York city visible from here. 

"And you never tried reaching out to me to tell me what had happened?" He growls, storming up towards where I am standing as he cages me between his own body and the table behind me. My breathing hitches in my throat when I smell his intoxicating cologne in such close proximity to him as I barely manage to keep my thoughts running straight. 

"You have no idea of the things that Serena did to me, Ace. You were the one who caged me in your home and then you were gone for a month. In that one month, every single day, Serena came there to hurt me, to torture me, and she would click pictures of whatever she was doing to me. She got some sick sense of satisfaction seeing me in pain. And by the time I managed to escape, I was left bloodied and broken, and it was Sandro who managed to get me out of the premises. He was not my lover, Ace, he was a brother to me. A brother I never had. And you always believed Serena whenever she told you lies about my character. You never believed me when I told you that I was not lying to you." I gulped at the clogging emotions choking my throat as I tried my best to keep my shoulders from caving in. Ace was watching me like a hawk, not a single emotion was betrayed by his face, and as he leaned his face closer to me, my heart shuddered in my chest and warmth pooled in my core....what is he up to?

And then, in the most dangerous voice, he spoke, "do you think that you will stand in front of me and feed me lies about Serena, the only woman who has ever cared about me, and I will accept them to be true?"

Tears filled up my eyes as I realised that no matter what I say to him, Serena will always hold a place above me and she will always be more trusted by Ace. 

"Ace...please listen to me..." but he ignores me like he did two years ago when I tried telling him that I had nothing to do with his father's death. 

"No, you listen to me, Meera Harrington," he warns, his fingers coming towards my face to take my jaw in his hand firmly, "you are still my wife and you have just accepted the fact that you could not keep my child alive. And for that, along with your previous sins, I have just the appropriate punishment for you..."

I take in shaky breaths as tears escape my eyes while I wait for him to respond-

"You will become my shadow. My housekeeper outside this office and my personal assistant here. You will follow me around, you will do whatever I say and you will bear all the punishments that I bestow upon you with your head down and your lips sealed shut. And if you try to run this time," my body shivers when his grip loosens on my jaw and his fingers trace my cheekbone, "I will hunt you down again and show you many fates that are much, much worse than death."

I meet his gaze and I know right then, Alejandro means every single word that he has just spoken and even if I did not have the looming threat of the videotape that has just been recorded in this room, I know that he would stop at nothing to hurt me. 

And so, with tears in my eyes, I nod my head, "I understand, Mr. Harrignton." I croak out.

I have signed a death sentence for myself right at this moment and there is nothing that I can do about it.