chapter 1

The ride to his home was the worse ride she

ever had. Two cars followed our car closely. She thought it was for security.

He placed his right hand on her left

thigh and at that moment she wished nothing but to have a chance to break his hand

with which was placed on her thigh.

Yeah! You will surely have a chance but

in your dreams. Her

subconscious mind chided in. She mentally scoffed.

The hand placed on her thigh was the same

hand with which he slapped her just a few minutes ago. 

Abusive jerk! Why was he behaving like this?

"What are you thinking so hard

Tulip?" His voice was deep and husky. His lips touched the shell of her

ear and his fingers caressed her thigh making her shudder in fear and

nervousness. She felt that her heart would explode in her chest as her stomach

knotted up.

Oh God!

"Nothing."  Her voice was low and heavy due to crying. It

was not that she was some pathetic drama queen who would make an issue out of

every little thing and start crying but anyone would have been bawling their

eyes out after getting a hard slap by the love of their life.

I was not even at fault.

"You know I don't like it when you

lie to me. Come on baby tell me now." He ordered but his voice was

playful.

The bastard must be enjoying hurting me. She kept her

mouth shut though; she knew it would irritate him.

I'm never gonna talk to this abusive jerk. She promised to

herself.

"Tulip." He warned. He did not

raise his voice but she was smart enough to understand the warning masked in

it.

And here goes my promise! Damn!

"I'm telling the truth Archer

." I answered a bit loudly but instead of looking in his eyes I moved them

away from his face towards the front of the car.

"Let’s do it in the way you want

then. Aye?" He chuckled darkly and before she knew he had his hand wrapped

around her neck in a vice-like grip.

Her eyes widened and snapped towards him.

Her hands clawed at his hands but it was all useless.

That’s it. I'm going to die today in the hands of this

monster.

His hand tightened against her sensitive

skin, a noise gurgled from her throat but it was muffled since her air

passageways were being squeezed badly. She could feel the pressure building up.

His grip was unrelenting.

"If it would have been someone else

I would have cut his tongue with my knife." He declared viciously as his

grip loosened a bit, allowing small amount of air to enter her lungs.

"But guess what you are my Tulip. My

little flower. I'm not going to do that with you. But that does not mean that I

would not be teaching you a fucking lesson." His grip tightened again and her

eyes watered.

When she was sure that it was her last

day of living he left her throat. She began to breathe in large amounts of air.

She was quivering with fear. When she

looked at him his face was blank. His green eyes were void of any emotion. But

his lips bore that sinister smirk.

He brought his hand closer to her face to

which she flinched. His face had the look of satisfaction after seeing it. He

caressed her cheek lightly, which was flushed and wet due to the tears flowing

down her eyes, with the back of his fingers. His touch was feather like and if

he would not have behaved like a savage few minutes ago she would have leaned

in to his touch. But now she would be stupid to do that.

His eyes were trailed on her face. He

kept brushing his fingers lightly against her flushed cheeks. As much as she

wanted to move away from him she could not. She felt weak and drained. She

could not bear any more assaults for today.

"Will you tell me now?" He

asked.

She wanted to say no but she could not so

she ended up nodding my head.

You gotta bend sometimes.

She was not like those strong girls

portrayed in movies or stories who would bear anything but would not change

their mind under any circumstances. The real life was so much different and

hard. And she knew about it already but her beliefs became much stronger after

meeting him within the few hours.

She ended up asking him something which

was bugging her since the she met him in the dean's office.

"Why d-did you cha-change so much?

W-why are you behav-behaving l-like this with me?" She chocked, trying to

control her tears.

He did not look surprised. As if he was

expecting this question.

"Everyone changes with time."

His face was stoic but his eyes had that distant look in them.

"And I think you should not complain

about my behavior as I'm being very nice to you because I love you." He

said.

He loved her in his own twisted way. She

was about to die just few minutes ago because of him.

“But I'm not sure if I will be showing any

mercy to that motherfucker whom you call father." He spat harshly. His

tone was menacing.

His eyes flashed lethally and his face

hardened. He looked scary.

He removed his hand from her face to

which she was thankful.

"B_but why?" She asked,

dumbfounded. Her heart rate escalated even more due to panic, fear, and anxiety.

It seemed as if she had developed a tachycardia.

His features darkened and anger flashed

in his eyes.

"Enough!" His loud voice boomed

in the moving car causing her to flinch in her seat. She could not help but

feel afraid for her dad.

"He..." She was about to plead

but he placed his finger on her lips and his other hand gripped the back of her

neck. His grip was firm and possessive.

"Shh...Do ya want me to make ya

watch him die?" He asked, as his face turned blank again.

She was quick to shake her head.

"So don't talk about him. Aye?"

He said through clenched teeth and removed his finger from her lips.

"Yes" She chocked on her own

tears. Her heart was breaking with each passing second.

Where is that boy who loved me and cared

for me?

He gave her a sinister smile, his eyes

were twinkling sadistically. He felt the excitement rush in his vessels on

thinking about the future of his would be father in

law.

His hand left her neck and he cupped her

face gently with both of his hands, the pads of his thumbs wiped her tears

away.

"Good girl!" He praised.

Soon their car came to a halt and her

eyes widened on seeing the private jet in front of her, too caught up in her

misery she did not notice the car moving towards an airport.  

“Archer what is this?”  She could feel the dead gripping at her

heart.

“Stop asking these stupid questions. Are

you too dumb that you can’t see that it’s a fucking jet?” he looked bored.

“You didn’t tell me that your house was

that far away that we have to go there by plane.”  She looked at him with accusing eyes.

“Because I thought that it was not

necessary.”

 “Please

I want to say good bye to my parents.” Her voice held desperation.

“You don’t need to bid them any farewell.”

He said in his no nonsense voice. When he saw her opening her mouth to argue

with him he gripped her throat and pulled her towards him. “And I swear if you will

not stop asking me these stupid questions I will slap the shit out of you. Ta?”

(ta: ok)

She nodded and wiped her tears.

Before leaving the car he asked her to

behave and she knew better then to try something silly. Their flight was of

only 4 and half hours. On asking where they were going he answered that his

private island.

 When jet landed on another airport he wasted

no time in getting in his SUV and just like that after fifteen minutes or so

she found herself sitting in a luxurious cruise.

It was 2 pm, when the mouth watering

lunch was served to them. Archer wasted no time in picking up his fork and

knife but when he saw that Olivia had not touched her food he put his fork and

spoon back.

When her eyes met his she wasted no time

in picking up her knife and fork and eating the food. The delicious food felt

tasteless to her.

“How is the lunch?” he asked after a

while.

“It’s nice. Thank you.” She gave the

answer which he wanted to hear to avoid any trouble. 

After lunch he ordered one of the maids

to escort her to the bedroom so she could have some rest as he had some work to

do and she was more than thankful to be away from the monster.

On sitting down in

front of the dressing table she could not help but wince on seeing the red hand

prints covering her cheeks and ugly bruises covering her neck. She felt her

eyes burning with the salty tears and in no time these tears adorned her

cheeks. Only if she knew the real him she would have ran miles away from him

when she first saw him that day near the lake seventeen