The ugly island beauty

Chapter 2: Confronted

"Who the hell are you? you are definately not the island beauty."

Steve was looking at the ugly thing which every one knows as his wife now.

She took a deep breath, and answered honestly.

"I am the island beauty", I won it exactly 20 years after her. Its just that they took it away from me.

She wanted to tell him that but could hardly utter one sentence and rest of it was swallowed by the loud bang and tingling sensation on her face and constant krrrrrrr sound in her ear. It took her a minute to realize she has been slapped by her new husband.

She swallowed all the words she prepared to explain the situation to him. She stood in front of him frozen, ready for any more assault he might be planning. She clenched her palm tightly in a fist, slowly raised her index finger out.

He looked at her form, for a moment he felt pity at the helpless girl standing in front of him, helpless and completely at his mercy. The look of pity was quickly replaced by rage when he recalled the events of the day. How the supposedly best day of his life was turned into the worst day. He was never humiliated in his life like he was humiliated today. Unable to control his temper, he took a nearby vase and suddenly hit on her head, next moment she was lying lifeless on the floor. It happened so fast that even he did not understand when the vase hit her and when she fell, the force was such, one can only imagine the impact.

"Matilda, check if she is alive, if yes throw her in the store room otherwise send her body back to the island", he barked the order at his housekeeper and left the house.

As soon as Matilda heard the sound of his car going away, she came running to check if she was breathing. After trying to check and confirm for many minutes, finally Matilda could feel light breathing. She left a huge sigh and tried to pick the new bride and send her to the store room.

What the old house keeper missed to notice was, Layla's eyes were open, just hidden under her dense, chocolate brown mane of hair which were now open from the bun, swaying down till her hips. If the situation was any better Matilda would have noticed just how gorgeous and shiny were Layla's hair. Her eyes were moving everywere, taking in her surrounding as if a predator is scanning the place, planning for an attack. Alas, she was the prey here and has no idea what's store for her in the future.

When they reached the room, Matilda slowly placed Layla on the floor and was trying to figure out where to make Layla sleep. The store room had no couch or a bed, actually it hardly had any furniture, there were few broken appliances, old documents, photo albums and other random things kept there. None of which couls be used for sleeping. Layla suddenly saw a carpet rolled down and kept in a corner. She pointed her finger in the direction, Matilda immidiately understood and brought the carpet at the center and made Layla lay down on the carpet. As soon as she was lied down, her hands were clenched in a fist with her right index and middle finger out, as if counting.

Matilda raised her right hand to check for injury on Layla's head but this simple action sent shiver down Layla and she started shaking vigerously.

Matilda quickly brought a blanket and covered Layla. She was very concerned for the new bride but she also understood the bride was in shock and was not welcoming to any person of even any touch. She decided to give Layla some space and left from there.

As soon as Matilda left, Layla opened her eyes. She hurried to the door and locked it firmly.

As soon as she lay down on the carpet again, all the events of these two days came flooding back to her. How the island king, also her uncle, came begging to her father to let her replace her cousin , how he assured her father the groom was ok with the new arrangement and Layla would not be mistreated whatsoever. A lone tear escaped her eyes at memory of her father, what he will feel if he ever finds out how she is being treated here.

She was drained of all the energy these two days, lack of sleep, constant crying and no food only added to her condition. She closed her eyes and let the sleep engulf her, for she firmly believed, the impact of every problem is considerably reduced when one gets sound sleep. Once your mind no longer linger over what happened and accept the reality, only then can it truely think about the solution. Little did she know, she had all the time in the world to chalk out a solution for her groom had no plan to return anytime soon.