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Chapter 1

Prologue
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It feels like just yesterday I was still a prisoner back in that horrible den. But for another day, I, Piper Taylor survived. For three years I was running, hiding and escaping from my horrible fate, but my abuser continued to chase me, no matter where I went. Even the man who had sworn protection for me with his life, Jacques Jones, couldn't save me from Lenard Lee's pursuit.
But now I made up my mind. I was going home, resuming my identity and seeking a way for revenge.
I promised myself, they would suffer in my hands. Especially Lenard Lee. I would kill him with my hands one day.
.....
"Meal reservation, Miss?"
I looked towards the flight attendant with two weary eyes. This was the second time I was travelling on such a long-haul flight. The male passenger beside me appeared mysterious, but I wasn't inclined on knowing more, especially about a member of the opposite sex.
On his opposite side, his female companion was engrossed in trying to get his attention. She was the perfect definition of artificial: plastic surgery, false eyelashes, and a fake attitude, which I caught easily. Fortunately, I had a seat near the window, so I could watch the view outside without a care for either of them.
I shook my head. She turned to the man.
"Whatever." He didn't seem to care at all.
The flight attendant checked her clipboard and returned with two trays filled with meals. I understood that travellers with allergies could pre-book meals, but right now, that wasn't my priority. I just wanted to get home.
Hearing the woman's artificial voice again, I just wanted to cover my ears. I seized the inflight earphones and plugged them into my ears, turning the volume of the music player in full blast.
Until I heard the song playing on the radio. I had tuned in automatically to the local music station of my city, but I hadn't expected to hear that song.
It was a song that Syl had sung to me before, the View on the Mountain. It depicted one's undying love for his female partner after reuniting on the mountain. Syl was the love of my life, yet I had to let him go after my abuse in the hands of a mysterious man they called the Master, Lenard Lee. After my abuse, Lenard Lee would hunt me down occasionally and rape me. Again. And again. Later, I married Jacques Jones, but I didn't love him.
It was all a long story.
That song just drove pain through my heart. I looked down at my lower body and thought of what I had experienced in the past few years, and reflected on the words of the gynaecologist during my screening.
"Madam, due to extensive use of contraceptive drugs, I'm very sorry... it might be very difficult for you to conceive in the future. I would suggest you go for fertility treatments, if you insist, but chances are slim..."
I had walked out of the doctor's room immediately and bawled my heart out inside the clinic's toilet. I fathomed this was why Jacques had not wanted me to see a gynaecologist, but I had to. As we were married, I wanted to at least give him a child of his own. But the moment they infused me with date rape drugs, my fate was sealed.
Whether it was Syl S or Jacques Jones, it was pointless for me to have a child with either of them.
"Miss, beef or chicken?"
The courteous voice of the stewardess earlier broke my reverie. I returned her polite gesture with a smile.
"Chicken."
They were serving lunch now. I accepted the tray and set it on the folding tray table. The man beside me was asleep, and his female partner had her head leaned against his shoulder.
Just what I wanted to see. If only they could get a room. It was revolting, I thought, and pretended I hadn't seen anything. It just turned me off from enjoying the meal.
At the same time, I realised I was missing Jacques' cooking already.
I finished what I could and crumpled the remnants of my meal inside the aluminium foil disposable container it came with, stuffing it inside the open compartment in front of me. Once I got home, I told myself, I would need to slowly plan my revenge. Revenge wasn't achievable in just one night. I had learned the hard way when I thought the local triad had my back when they abducted me and sent me to Lenard. They had tasked me with killing Lenard, which I mistook as my chance for revenge. I ended up losing more due to their ploy. At that time, Jacques had been my guarding star. He rescued me, and I pledged myself to him in marriage.
After a year and a half of lying low, I figured that for me to break into Lenard's den, I needed a strong backing and sufficient strength. I couldn't, in the state I was in. I slowly plotted for revenge. But without money, it didn't seem a feasible plan for me to charge into their den and probably die at the filthy hands of the guards. I swallowed, remembering how they had tainted me with their grime. I had to focus on the bigger picture.
It was an eighteen hour flight, which might take even longer considering the weather. I closed my eyes and contemplated what step to take first.
Exhaustion consumed me. I hadn't slept at all the night before, and my inner voice took the reins once I fell into a deep sleep.
I was walking in a thick forest. By now, I had got used to seeing the creepy crawlers in the canopy overhead and the darkness no longer impacted me. Even the eerie sounds in the distance were just background music in my head. Red vines twisted under my feet, and I just stepped over them as if they were invisible.
I wasn't afraid of anything right now, just that I wouldn't be able to get revenge.
"Piper, I know you can."
"What can I do?"
I heard the voice slowly evolve into Milanda's voice, and her figure became clearer as I walked nearer to her.
"I have faith in you. Tempt your way into Lenard's den."
"Wait, Milanda. Are you dead or alive?"
"I am..." She paused.
"I am... I am.. You."
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To be Continued
CHAPTER 1
Feeling the man pull out from me intensely, I knew it was over. But knowing that I would meet with the same ordeal repeatedly, hopelessness overcame me. It would never be over. Not until I found a way out of it all.
They secured the den with plentiful guardsmen. Bulky chains covered my hands and feet, leaving me with no way to break free easily. I lay motionless like a log all this while, allowing them to do whatever they wanted to me.
The men chattered, laughing among themselves outside the door to my cell.
“The Master is very kind, letting us enjoy his toy while he is away.”
“Maybe he was tired of her, lying like a corpse while he did all the hard work.”
“Anyway, he will have a new bride soon. Then he’ll have no use for this piece of trash.”
“Now, you, Jink, as the youngest, you should be compassionate with your words. After all, you used her the longest.”
Their words cut through me like a knife. They used me and relieved their deprivation. All five of them. And all they could say about me was how I lay like a corpse.
I wallowed in disgust at the stench of the fluids that they had left on me. They used me, spat on me, and treated me worse than an animal. Yet, I could do nothing while they ravaged me, like I was not a living person. The man named Jink had even given me a blow to the face when I let out a cry of pain.
After the last of them had left and locked the door of my cell, I tried to get up to clean myself, ignoring the sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It was like a large knife had sliced me up. Every single step I took was agony. I managed a few steps to the sink in the corner and began washing my face with dirty brown water.
Unconsciously, I noticed my reflection in the mirror. Horrifying, but this was the truth.
As I had expected, the fullness of the blow left my left cheek swollen, but it was nothing compared to the pain I had low down. Grazes filled my once-flawless face and blood was seeping from a cut I had below my chin.
I always had a high pain tolerance, but my bodily wounds were nothing compared to what I had deep within. They had ripped my dress to shreds, leaving me in almost nothing.
I was thinking about where I could get something to preserve all I had left of myself: my dignity, when suddenly, my stomach churned with pain and I passed out. When I came to, I was looking into the face of a woman in red.
“You are…”
“Milanda. You can call me Sis Landa.”
The fact I was no longer in my cell but in a warm bed brought me to my senses. Who was this woman, and what did she need from me?
“Sis Landa, why did you rescue me?” The words erupted from my mouth before I could stop myself. I felt exhausted and the pain in me was exhilarating.
“I don’t have any reason for anything I choose to do.”
The woman towering over me was beautiful, but aside from beauty, I felt a vibe of charisma from her. She wore a confident look about her. In short, I sensed she wasn’t a normal person. If she was the one who broke me out of my prison with no fear for the rules, she had to be someone special to that man they called the Master.
In the underworld, one bearing an address such as Sis normally meant a female senior. So, she was one of them, yet helped me? I found it rather hard to believe.
“Thank you, Sis Landa.” I couldn’t think of any words to say right now. I was just too tired to think about her relationship with the Master and anyway, it didn’t benefit me at all. I needed her help to free myself from this place.
“Rest, little girl.”
Feeling myself deprived of any energy to even check what I was wearing under the blanket, I closed my eyes and entered a deep slumber. In my dreams, I saw Sherry, my best friend and her husband Anderson, and my lover, Syl.
………………………
Piper’s Dream
“Thank you for helping me out. I don’t know how I can ever repay you,” I smiled, flashing my large, round eyes. Sherry smiled, tightening her arm around her husband.
“Just thank Anderson. He was the one who reported Lee Jung for molestation. Although someone deleted the footage, he found a good tech guy to recover the original footage.”
Sherry was smiling gaily. She wore a bright yellow dress, and it looked like they had just discharged her from the hospital. They linked hands romantically. I looked at Syl.
Syl was my underground lover. He was a married man, but his wife had insisted on an open relationship because of her sex addiction. For the sake of children he loved but were never his, he had to agree to this arrangement.
I had fallen for him at first sight when Sherry’s friend Amber had her first appointment with him, as he was a gynaecologist. After that, I had been harassing him at his clinic. During appointments, I insisted he run a full-body examination of me. When he refused, I took off my clothes to provoke him. He still rejected me and insisted that I leave.
The rejection continued until the day his wife announced she was having a baby with her new lover. That had been the last straw. Then we hooked up at Sherry’s birthday bash. From that day onwards, we never missed a day of seeing each other.
He loved children so much that my greatest wish was to bear a child for him.
We walked down a flight of steps to where I saw a parked Mercedes. I recognised the car clearly to belong to Syl.
“I’ll like to invite you both to high tea as thanks,” Syl announced. “Do you have time?”
We arrived at some restaurant. I didn’t care what the name was, but I trusted my lover with his choices. After ordering some dishes, Syl whispered to me, telling me he was going to the gents.
I felt uneasy to be alone with Sherry and Anders, but he soon returned with a silly smile plastered across his face. The lighting in the venue dimmed.
Syl knelt before me, with a gold-coloured box in his hand.
“Piper, the love of my life, will you marry me?”