Chapter Five: Obedience
1978 Words
I woke up with a stiff neck stirring to my side, the cold marble floor freezing my skin. I sat up holding my head as a terrible headache followed suit, from sleeping on the floor. I looked at the perfectly made bed and then it came back pouring in. My little Alora, the kidnap, signing a marriage contract to a man I barely knew, the close up encounter with Kaiden at the study. My face burned as I stood up trying to stretch my aching bones from the ache of punishment it was metting out to me from sleeping on the ground.
I pushed myself up from the floor slowly, rubbing my arm where the marble had left it numb overnight. The room was still cold despite how expensive everything looked. Nothing in this house felt lived in. I took a few steps to the bedstand trying to decide what next to do on my first morning here. A knock sounded at the door.
“Madam,” a soft voice called. “Breakfast is ready.” I closed my eyes briefly.
“I’m not hungry.”
Silence answered me followed by retreating footsteps. “Good” I heaved a sigh walking toward the window, pulling the curtains apart slightly. The estate stretched endlessly outside gaurds patrolling, a vast strech of lawn beautified by treess on each side, black gates, the city far in the distance. A prison made for rich people.
The door startled my thoughts as it opened suddenly and I turned sharply.
The maid from yesterday stepped in, visibly nervous this time. Her fingers twisted together tightly while her eyes kept darting toward the hallway behind her like someone was listening.
“Please ma'am would you come down Mr Wolfe…,” she whispered.
“I said I’m not hungry.” I cut her off, irritation forming in my tone. Her face tightened with panic.
“Madam, please—”
The sound of heavy footsteps approaching interrupted us and I sensed it before he even got there. The maid immediately lowered her head. Kaiden appeared the air in the room changed instantly.
He wore a black fitted shirt with the sleeves rolled slightly up his forearms. His expression was nearly unreadable, his cold blue eyes piercing through all the rebellion I had just built. The maid hurried out so fast she nearly stumbled over herself.
I looked back at him. “I..I” the words dried in my throat
“You refused breakfast.”
“umm… I am not refusing I'm not hungry.” I said trying to calm the agitation in my voice but I could sense he saw it. His gaze moved over me once before he walked further into the room.
“You didn’t sleep in the bed.”
I folded my arms. “How do you know that?”
He stopped in front of me. “I notice things.”
Something about the way he said it irritated me more.
“I’m not hungry,” I repeated.
“And I’m losing patience.”
I let out a dry laugh. “What are you going to do? Force-feed me?” I spat out suprised at where the boldness had suddenly come from but his expression didn’t change.
That should’ve been my last warning. Before I could react, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the door.
“Kaiden..!” I yelled
“Walk.”
I tried pulling back once but that was a big mistake. His grip tightened just enough to make my breath catch.
“You’ll hurt yourself doing that Alyssa.”
Heat rushed to my face, anger burning through the embarrassment. He dragged me out into the hallway anyway. Servants immediately disappeared out of sight the moment they saw us coming. Some lowered their heads completely. No one dared to speak or challenge what he was doing to me. The silence around him wasn’t respect, it was fear.
By the time we reached the dining room, my heartbeat was pounding hard enough to make me dizzy. Kaiden released me only to pull out a chair and push me into it.
“Sit.”
“You cant force food down my throat.” I spat out at him tears welling up in my eyes but I refuse to let them fall. He sank my shoulders and I felt my knees give out to the chair.
The table was set as if meant for a banquet; plates covered the table from one end to the other. Fresh fruit, pastries, eggs, pancakes. Food plated so perfectly it almost looked fake.
He sat beside me and calmly began filling my plate himself.
“you wont make me eat if I dont want to” I fired stubbornly.
“You will.” His tone never changed. Kaiden didn’t need to raise his voice because the control in him sat so naturally and that was the disturbing part. He slid the plate toward me, I stared at it blatantly. Then he leaned slightly closer.
“Do I need to put the spoon in your mouth too?”
My face flushed instantly. I snatched the fork before he could say another word and shoved food into my mouth. A faint smirk touched the corner of his lips. I wanted to throw the plate at him but I dared not. Instead, I kept eating.
Because beneath the anger, beneath the humiliation, one thought kept crushing everything else. Alora.
I swallowed hard. “What about my sister?”
Kaiden picked up his coffee. “She’s been moved” I felt every muscle in my body go tight.
“Where?”
“East Coast by sea.”
Fear crawled slowly into my chest.
“Why?”
“She’s being used as leverage.”
The words hollowed something inside me. I stared down at my plate, gripping the fork tighter. “My Alora” I whispered quietly.
“I've responded to them.” I looked at him carefully. “Huh?What did you do”
“I had my men plant explosives in their routes.” my breathing stopped for a second.
“What?!”
He took another sip calmly. “One of their transport lines near the docks.”
“Kaiden She’s there!”
“No. She was moved before then.”
“How do you know that?”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“She’s more valuable to both sides alive.”
I hated how calm he was saying all this. Offcourse violence was paperwork to him.
I looked down quickly before the tears could fall, but it was already too late.
One slipped down my cheek, then another, they strolled down freely i just let them fall as I couldn’t hide them anymore. Kaiden watched me quietly for a moment before setting his cup down.
“Stop that and eat.” The irritation in his voice made something twist painfully in my chest.
I wiped my face roughly and forced another bite into my mouth. Then another, I barely chewed just swallowing messily like if I obeyed quickly he would bring Alora in front of me. I just needed something to distract me from the images in my head.
Alora scared. Alora calling for me. Alora alone crying.
“Alyssa.”
I ignored him.
“Alyssa, slow down.”
My throat hurt from swallowing too quickly, but I kept eating anyway. Then suddenly I felt his hand caught my wrist.
“Enough.”
I froze. His brows pulled together slightly as he looked at me.
“You’re choking yourself.”
I pulled my hand away immediately, angry and embarrassed.
“I'm doing exactly what you instructed me”
“You look ridiculous.”
I laughed bitterly under my breath. “Sorry if my kidnapping trauma is making breakfast unpleasant for you.”
Heavy silence settled between us after that. Kaiden leaned back in his chair slightly, studying me again with that unreadable expression. My chest tightened as the food settled heavy in my stomach. I was beginning to feel nauseous and the air suddenly felt stuffy.
“I’ve eaten,” I said, standing up abruptly.
“Sit down Alyssa.” I froze.
“I haven’t told you to leave.” His voice came slowly. I sat back down my hands clenching in my lap.
“You’re in my world now,” Kaiden said, his voice came carrying a calm authoritative tone “And in my world, things run a certain way.”
He leaned back slightly, studying me more like he was accessing me.
“You eat when I tell you to. You sit when I tell you to. And you leave only when I say so.” Each word landed on me like a lock clicking into place.
“Is that clear?” I didnt trust my voice at this point so I nodded.
“Good.” He stood. “Now go to your room.”
This time he didn’t stop me.
I dont remember how I got there. Only that by the time I shut the door behind me, everything I had been holding in broke loose.
My knees gave out before I could reach the bed hitting the floor with a thud, the sound echoing faintly in the large room, but I didn’t care. The tears came this time uncontrollably violent
“Alora…” I whispered, my voice tearing apart.
My little sister’s face flashed in my mind laughing, running, hiding behind crates just hours before everything went wrong.
What if she was scared? What if she was crying? What if…A sob tore through my chest.
And then another thought hit me like a blow.
My mother. I hadn’t thought about her properly since yesterday. She must have looked for us as we hadn’t returned home. Or maybe… maybe she wouldn’t.
Memories came rushing to me. Dad, he was a bussiness man who was doing really good in the north region. His business was thriving and he was a present ever loving father and husband, but along the line he got involved with some men who claimed to be foreigners in the region and wanted to patner in his textile exports. Prblems broke out as these men wouldn't meet up with deliveries and refuse to make refunds. He got into debt he took loans from different places but none sufficed instead his bussiness crumbled and his supposed partners left him with debts. He couldn’t pay up his debts and his debtors began haunting and terrorising him for their money till the night those men storned the house.
The sound of shouting came back painfully in my ears, the image of those men beating my poor innocent father and mother begging for mercy, the shouting.
I remembered hiding. Holding Alora tightly in that cramped kitchen cabinet, pressing my hand over her mouth just like I had done yesterday. History repeating itself.
Only this time I hadn’t been able to protect her.
The images haunted me, father’s groans.
Mum screams and pleading, the blood, So much blood. I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking.
Dad never came back after those men beat him and took him away. And mum was never really the same woman again. I had been the one holding everything together ever since. I was the strong one, the one who didnt break not until now. Curled on the cold floor of a stranger’s room, in a house that wasn’t home, married to a man I didn’t know and had decided to make my life a rule book, with my sister somewhere out there in danger I broke. And this time, there was no one to hold me together.
The crying eventually slowed, my body too exhausted to keep up with it. As my breathing grew heavy and uneven. Choosing between the ache in my chest and the cold beneath my skin I drifted quietly to sleep.
- Writer
