Useless...useless...useless...the words echoed in her head. Her mother had a worthless daughter. Her eyes fluttered open in the dark room. Unable to decipher where she was, she gently rose.Then a slap came from nowhere. Her head jerked to the left with the force of that hit. Tears dropped down from her eyes."I just don't understand why I made you a friend. You are just dumb. You have nothing, absolutely nothing to offer, and yet you think you can go anywhere you want?" Rebecca's voice echoed her my head. "Where did you go to? I smell drugs on you.""Drugs?" Ralph's voice cut through the fog. Then and there, she knew she was dead.The world whirled round as Rebecca's voice pierced through the atmosphere. The feel of the slap still stung but her words hurt more. She attempted to focus her gaze, the faint light exposing Ralph's commanding presence next to Rebecca. “I asked you a question,” Ralph’s tone was ominously soft. "Where did you get the drugs?" Silva's heart pounded in her
Silva's knees struck the unforgiving ground as Rebecca pushed her ahead. Three days had gone by since the dark alley incident, and the storage closet punishment had merely marked the start. "I want this whole floor sparkling clean before Ralph gets back," Rebecca commanded, placing a bucket of soapy water next to Silva. "And I’m talking about flawless. I want to be able to view my reflection." Silva nodded quietly, every muscle in her body feeling the strain of fatigue, stress and exhaustion. Her stomach protested noisily.They had given her barely enough to live—small quantities of cold remains and just enough water to stave off collapse.Her body tired, her belly empty of food, she lost track of each passing hour and of the number of evenings she had spent stuck in this wretched place. For how long more would she be able to withstand? "Did you hear me?" Rebecca snapped, roughly grasping Silva's chin. "Yes," Silva murmured, her voice raspy. "Yes what?" Rebecca's fingers delved fur
As Silva knelt beside the fountain, the setting sun behind the clouds dyed the sky in dancing shades of orange and pink. Hours of kneeling in the sun had numbed her legs and parched her throat. She didn't even have the energy to look up when Ralph's shadow cast as far as she knelt."Come on," he ordered in a monotonic tone.Silva attempted to walk but her legs didn't coordinate. Her knees buckled and she stumbled forward, then quickly steadying herself on the edge of the fountain.Ralph repeated irritation edged into his tone, "I advise you to get up."Silva muttered, her voice cracking from dehydration, “I cannot feel my legs.”Reaching down, Ralph groaned as he yanked her up. Silva gasped at the blood flowing back into her legs; pins and needles shot up from her knees."Go clean yourself up," he snapped and jerked her arm down.Silva nodded dazedly. "Yes, sir."As Ralph walked away, Silva steeled what little bravery remained to her. "Sir?"He halted, not so much as turning around. "W
Silvia awoke the next morning with her head spinning. The green dress was draped over her closet door—proof that last night hadn't been a dream. For an evening, she'd sat as a guest at Ralph's table, not as his servant. She touched the silver necklace still fastened around her neck, wondering what the day would hold.Lost in her daydream, she was suddenly jolted back to reality by a loud, insistent knock at the door."Get up! Now!" Rebecca's voice cracked like a whip.Silvia opened the door to find Rebecca flushed, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms."Did you imagine one dinner would make a difference?" Rebecca spat, shoving past Silvia into the little room. Her eyes landed on the emerald dress. With a snort of disgust, she ripped it from the hanger. "This little pretense is ended.""Don't," Silvia whispered, extending a feeble hand toward the dress.Rebecca slapped her hand away with so much force the sound echoed through the room. "Nothing in this house is yours.
After Silvia was done cleaning, it was already past midnight. Her fingers ached from all the work whilst her back throbbed intensely. The pains of hunger had transformed into a constant, gnawing discomfort. She entered the kitchen hoping to find something, anything, to eat before getting into bed. The kitchen was dim and quiet. Silvia switched on the little light over the sink, trying to remain quiet. She pulled open the fridge, the gentle light casting shadows on her weary face. There were dinner remnants, but she didn't dare to take them. Rebecca would notice. She looked and found a crust of bread and a little bit of cheese concealed behind the dishes. That would need to suffice. A sound on the door made her start as she shut the refrigerator. Ralph stood there swaying a little, his tie undone about his neck and his eyes red."What are you doing?" he mumbled, holding onto the doorframe for balance. Silvia swiftly concealed the bread behind her back. "Not a thing, sir." "Simply ti
Silvia's eyelids slowly shifted to the sunlight pouring in through unusual curtains. Her body felt heavy, and her mind was filled with tiredness. The sheets beneath her seemed gentle, excessively gentle. This wasn't her mattress. She jerked up, her heart racing. She noticed...the luxury, crystals on the nightstand. This was Ralph's bedroom. How had she ended up...Her last memory was tucking Ralph in, discovering the picture, and going to her own bedroom. Was she so exhausted that she fell here instead? Definitely not. She would not have made that mistake. A gentle groan from beside her made her pause. Ralph was lying on the other side of the bed, completely dressed, with one arm covering his face. His breathing was consistent and peaceful, his expression tranquil in sleep. Silvia carefully shifted to the bed's edge, wishing not to disrupt it. She had to go before... The door suddenly burst open, slamming against the wall with a loud thud. Rebecca stood by the entrance, dressed in
Three days without nourishment seemed like forever. Silvia's stomach had transitioned long ago from sharp hunger pains to a void that caused her limbs to feel heavy as lead. She had been allowed water and slight comforts, but even that made her feel queasy as she drank it gradually from the bathroom faucet. On the morning of the third day, Silvia pulled herself out of bed, her uniform fitting more loosely than earlier. The mirror showed hollow cheeks and shadows under her eyes. Spraying cold water on her face, she tried to brighten herself for the day's activities.On that day, Silvia was especially cautious with her work: arranging the heavy bottles in the wine cellar, and dusting off the Persian rugs on the front porch. These tasks kept demanding energy that Silvia no longer had."You look terrible," Rebecca remarked with glee as Silvia entered the kitchen for her instructions. Savoring her morning espresso, she sat at the counter, the strong, rich smell causing Silvia's hungry be
The sunlight streamed in between the curtains, waking Silvia from her the slumber she had experienced months ago. With her body still frail, she felt relieved after the broth sha had yesterday.Silvia rose gradually, gauging her energy. Her head had stopped spinning, but her limbs still felt unsteady. A rap at her door surprised her. "Y-yes?" she shouted, her voice more assertive than the day before. Then the door swung open...before Ralph entered, dressed in a tailored suit, with a perfectly shaped beards. He stood uncomfortably at the entrance, hesitant to step in."You're awake," he noted, his voice calm. "How do you feel?" Silvia wrapped the lightweight blanket around her shoulders, experiencing a feeling of consciousness. "Improved, sir." "I appreciate the meal." Ralph replied with a decisive nod. "Put on your clothes and join me in my study in fifteen minutes. We have to discuss an issue." Before she had a chance to reply, he shut the door, leaving Silvia looking at him in b
Silvia froze in Laurent's hold, her eyes wide open in obvious fright. She clenched and unclenched her fists, sweat beading on her forehead in tiny dots. Then, just as suddenly as it had died, the light flared back on with a harsh, yellowish-white glare, illuminating the nightmare once more.Laurent’s grip remained iron-tight. The gun was still there, pressed against Silvia’s temple like a threat carved from steel.The tears she had been holding back broke loose when she saw the defeated look on Ralph's face."Time is ticking, boy or maybe you need more incentive, huh?" Laurent Laurent growled, the gun shifting slightly as he toyed with the trigger.Ralph subconsciously took a step forward, a hand stretched out—not in surrender, but in silent desperation. "Not another step closer, Ralphie unless you want to see what the inside of her head looks like."Silvia whimpered again, her teary eyes seeking reassurance from Ralph. Their eyes met and his lips pressed together into a thin line.
Ralph pinched the bridge of his nose, careful not to make any sudden movements that would give his father any crazy ideas. His father...who knew that they would have such an unexpected reunion and in such an aggressive manner?His father, waving a gun at him and his daughter-in-law as if they were not his family because he wanted the rights of a company he abandoned? Nothing made any sense but all he knew was that he could not put Silvia's life in danger for something she knew nothing about."Let her go," Ralph croaked, scratching his suddenly itchy beard. The room was stuffy and hot because the windows were locked. But for the flashlights on, the room would have been pitch black."What?" Both his father and Silvia asked simultaneously, whipping their heads around to look at him with a mix of confusion and disbelief. Silvia gulped down the rest of her courage and shrank into her husband's side when her crazy father-in-law glared at her with so much piercing intensity."She has nothin
"Did you hear that?" Silvia's hold on Ralph's arm tightened as she stared down at the dark hallway in their country house. The lights had flickered a moment, leaving the old house with an eerie half-darkness lit only by the dim brightness of backup lights.Ralph's voice faded away, his senses immediately on high alert. The tranquility of their weekend escape had been abruptly disrupted. "Listen to what, sweetheart? Just the wind, I guess. The old house creaks with every breeze." He tried to sound soothing, but a trickle of nervousness had started at the back of his neck."No, it wasn't the wind," Silvia insisted, her voice little more than a whisper. "It sounded. nearer. A footfall on the landing."He listened attentively, the only noise the constant ticking of an old grandfather clock in the distance. "I don't hear anything now." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Most likely just the house settling. It's an old house, keep in mind?""But I'm sure of it," Silvia insisted, her gaze f
Time became a salve, soothing the rough edges of their shared trauma. The trial was over, Rebecca's sentencing a brutal ending to that dismal episode. The mansion shed its final trappings of ominous presence, supplanted by a warmth that radiated from Ralph and Silvia's remade existence.Ralph's memory kept its gradual, inexorable return, here and there by way of the most unexpected sensory details – rain on dry ground evoked by a covert mid-day walk, a whiff of a particular spice evoking a recalled taste at an impromptu, laugh-soaked community meal. Each fragment regained was precious, laboriously interwoven into the tapestry of their past.Their bodies approached one another, unguarded now but filled with tender depth and revived passion. Whatever pretenses still existed were erased by reciprocal exposure, and an unmixed, unvarnished connection was all that was left. There was a raw chemical reaction to every touch, an unspoken vocabulary of yearning and remembrance. Every touch h
The initial days with Rebecca's detention were a blur of legal hearings, police interrogation, and the agonizing, painstaking process of attempting to reconstruct Ralph's fractured recall. The mansion, once the background against which Rebecca's lies were enacted, felt stifling in its quiet, its immensity filled with the unwilling reappearance of Ralph and Silvia's collective past.Overjoyed to have Silvia back, Ralph was plagued by the deafening silence of the empty areas in his mind. Months of unfulfilled days stretched like a chasm between the man he once had been and the one he still sought to reclaim. With each passing moment of bliss spent with Silvia, however, came nagging reminders of the man he had become when he was under Rebecca's control and his attempt to bridge the soul gap that had formed during her absence.The memories didn't return in a rush of recall, only disjointed flashbacks – a witticism spoken, his burning palm where her palm had rested, her perfume in his no
The air in the library was electric with a new tension, the heavy weight of Ralph's increasing awareness pressing down on Rebecca like a physical force as Ralph's fragmented memories struggled to see the light.Rebecca's eyes protruded in terror as the mask she had built so carefully disintegrated, and she could no longer hide.She trembled as she tried to reach out to Ralph, her voice ringing in a desperate cry. "Darling, you're not thinking. This woman...this woman means nothing to you. I am here, I have cared for you, loved you."Ralph withdrew from her reach and gazed steadily at the silver locket he held. The smile of Silvia, whose face shone out at him with joy, seemed to give off a glow that pierced through the icy smog of his loss of memory, as the light of a lighthouse calls a man home to a world out of which he had unwittingly strayed."Loving me?" Ralph repeated, his voice laced with increasing doubt. He looked at Rebecca, his eyes challenging, questioning. "Or controlling
The tarnished silver locket, clenched tight in Ralph's fist, was physical proof of memories Rebecca had callously tried to bury. The smiling faces on its diminutive borders were constant reminders of an erased past, a tug on the fragile strands of his amnesia.Rebecca's attempts to brush off the locket as belonging to "old friends" sounded insincere next to Ralph's mounting sense of recognition brewing in his mind. The falsehood clung to her voice like oil on water.He was taken with the little photo, studying her face, her laugh humming at the back of his mind. The tiny photograph smiled up at him—two faces, one unmistakably his, the other a woman who stirred echoes in the hollow spaces of his fractured memory.He would run his thumb over the line of her smile, feeling loss and regret engulfing him, a sense of yearning for something he couldn't quite identify."Who is she, Rebecca?" Ralph would ask again and again, his tone growing more insistent. "Why does she mean so much?"Her re
The doubts sown by Silvia and Burke were beginning to sprout in Ralph's mind, creeping like ghosts into the darkness of his thoughts.He was increasingly plagued by the lingering feeling, a feeling something was terribly amiss in this laboriously built world provided by Rebecca. He would find himself staring off into space, a furrow on his forehead, trying to grasp a wisp of an image, a whisper of a recollection. It was at such times of unrest that Rebecca would reappear out of nowhere, her voice low and calm, anchoring him in the present, pulling him back from the brink of his own turbulent mind; back to her."What's on your mind, sweetheart?" she would say, her arm on his. "Don't worry about unimportant things. Just focus on getting better. Focus on us."And Ralph would try. He would concentrate on Rebecca's smile, her words of support, her worry-free assurance. Still, though, that nagging feeling remained an itch that couldn't be scratched.One afternoon, when Rebecca was on a lo
The uncertainty lingered, a stark contrast to Rebecca's commanding presence. The pen clattered sharply beside the contract, a bold reminder that his company's fate and his very future hinged on that decisive moment. The air crackled with tension as she prepared to take control of the situation, knowing that every second counted in solidifying her position. Her grip on his arm suddenly tightened ever so subtly. "Darling," she said softly, her voice a soothing comfort, her eyes masking an unspoken urgency, "after thorough discussions, we have reached a point where we need to move forward with the Spire proposal. It's important to embark on this direction we’re taking. Trust me."Ralph's gaze shifted from the contract to her reassuring smile. The familiarity of her, the absolute certainty in her voice, were lifelines amidst amnesia's sea. He had to believe her, must believe her. The disturbing encounter with the crazy woman, that haunting melody disturbing interventions into the neat