Searching for His Lost Love

11 A ring like no other

The men crowded around Lisa as two women watched with a great deal of interest behind their smug smiles.  Dana couldn’t help the feeling of power that surged through her as she watched them slowly close in on Lisa.  She felt her friend nudge her arm and broke her gaze enough to look at her in response.  “Hey Dana, what is the deal with you and that blind chick anyway?  You know those guys will definitely ruin her if you don’t stop them already.”

Dana looked at Cheryl before sweeping her eyes back to Lisa’s fear filled face.  “There is nothing between us.  I just don’t like her that’s all.”  Dana felt a zing of giddiness when she saw the panic take over on Lisa’s face as one of the men touched her cheek with the back of his knuckles.  No one needed to know why she hated Lisa so much.  As far as her friends were concerned Blaine had waited for her to wake from her coma for three years.  They thought he loved her more than the moon and stars since he had never mentioned Lisa to any outsiders.  No one even knew she was his ex-wife, so the guys she had set on Lisa were left in the dark on all the torrid details as they moved in to bully her.

One guy had a lust filled gaze in his eyes as he reached out and grabbed the collar of Lisa’s vest top, trying to rip the material from her flawless skin.  She struggled to get out of his grasp and keep her top closed but in doing so a necklace slipped loose of her top and came out into the light.  Lisa tried to tuck it back into her top but her fingers missed it even after several attempts and the men quickly zeroed in on the item.

The man holding her collar swiftly reached out and snagged the dangling chain.  “It must be special for you to keep it tucked so close to your heart like that.  Please sugar; let me have a look at this little treasure of yours.”  His voice teased her ear and Lisa grabbed frantically for the chain that was in his hand.

The other men laughed at her futile attempts to catch the thing she held so dear, but could not see. “Looks like it actually does mean a lot to her, she just keeps trying to take it back.”  The men were becoming more fascinated by Lisa’s response and continuous reaches for the necklace that it even drew Dana’s attention.  However, when she was able to focus on the swinging necklace and its shining pendant the smile on her face froze and was replaced by a burning rage of jealousy.

The “pendant” that was swinging on the end of the chain around Lisa’s neck was in all actuality a ring.  Not only any ring, but one that matched the very ring Blaine wore on his own hand.  In all the time that Dana had known Blaine he had never worn jewelry on his hands before.  She had seen the ring on his finger when she woke from her coma but had written it off as a new hobby or thing he had picked up over the last three years.  Now though, upon seeing Lisa’s matching ring, she realized she had been so very wrong.  It wasn’t a fashion statement or change in what Blaine had decided to start wearing but rather a wedding ring!  She wanted to smash Lisa’s face into the ground for having even had the very thing that Dana felt belonged to her.  Her lips curled as a thought came to her mind.

She leaned into her friend Cheryl and whispered into the woman’s ear.  “I need you to do me a favor.”  She couldn’t help the smile that graced her lips as Cheryl leaned in and she began to whisper the details into her ear like the snake that offered the apple in the garden.  Cheryl jerked back to look at Dana with a hint of shock in her gaze.  “Dana, are you sure about this?  I don’t know if this is a good idea.  Are you sure that you really want to do that?”

Dana couldn’t help but scoff impatiently at Cheryl.  “Of course I do, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”  She knew that her family was powerful and could pull many strings to help Cheryl’s family out with their business dealings.  Besides, she was Blaine’s fiancée, so who would dare go against her of all people.  Even if Cheryl thought that what she was asking was merciless and way too vicious she would still do it, because Dana had asked it of her.  She wouldn’t dare to go against her, not if she knew what was good for her anyway.

Lisa lurched backwards trying to avoid the grasping and clawing hands of the men, yet they pulled her necklace from her body with ease.  She couldn’t see who had taken it exactly and found herself stumbling around aimlessly amongst the group of them as they fully surrounded her.  She felt like a headless chicken as she ran from one voice to the other with outstretched hands.  “Please just give it back to me!”  She pleaded with tears in her eyes.

The men found it funny that she would run in the direction of which ever one of them called out and decided to make a game out of it at her expense.  They would keep tossing the ring amongst themselves and call out to her only to toss it to another just before she could touch the prize she sought so intently.

Choking on her tears Lisa pleaded with them.  “I’m begging you, just please give it back to me.”  She hadn’t taken anything from the home she had shared with Blaine, save for the ring she kept on that very necklace.  It was the only proof that existed to show they were ever together.  It was the only memento she had allowed herself to keep of the three years she had given her heart to him.

Lisa heard a man yell out to her.  “Okay, you want it so badly catch!”  She clawed out desperately only to catch air.  The sound of something hitting the floor had Lisa immediately dropping to her knees and searching the floor frantically.  She hated that they had been able to humiliate her so quickly.  She knew the ring was here somewhere, but it could be right in front of her face and she would never find it.

In the next second there was the sound of broken glass and Lisa felt liquid slosh past her fingers and soak into her dress as the smell of wine wafted up to her nose.  Someone had smashed a wine bottle onto the floor, no doubt on purpose, and Lisa felt the glass slice into her knees as she continued to search on the floor.

Watching the spectacle in front of them only seemed to excite the group of men further.  Dana felt her own excitement growing as one of the men rang out.  “Look at her crawling around on the ground like a dog!”

This was only heralded by another shouting out.  “Look, she’s crying.  I have to say I really like it when beautiful women cry, it makes them look so enchanting.”

Lisa felt the panic rise in her chest as another one added his own thoughts. “Then maybe we should find a way to make her cry just a little louder boys.”

The men laughed as Lisa continued to crawl through the glass looking for the ring.  “Please get out of the way you’re going to step on my ring.  Please don’t step on it.”

Cheryl leaned in and whispered to one of the men in the circle who then looked at Lisa’s searching fingers and a cruel smile played on his lips.  He then leaned forward and stepped directly on the delicate limbs making sure to grind the heel of his boot back and forth a few times for good measure.  “Oh my, I am such a klutz; I didn’t mean to step on your fingers.  I am so very sorry.”

Lisa’s body stiffened and trembled with the pain.  She tried to pull her injured hand to her body but the boot was firmly pressing it into the ground and the glass that was strewn upon the floor.  “Please, my hand…”  She couldn’t even get the sentence out before her other hand was unceremoniously smashed into the floor in the very same fashion.  Finding herself effectively pinned to the ground and having her fingers ground into the shards of glass Lisa couldn’t help the blood curdling scream that left her lips as fresh tears rand down her cheeks to fall to the ground and mix with her blood and the wine.

Cheryl saw how pale her face had become and couldn’t bring herself to look any longer.  “Dana, don’t you think that is enough now?”

Dana was glad that Lisa was suffering and she was not about to put an end to it any time soon.  “Oh come on now Cheryl, let them have a little bit more fun.”

Suddenly the manager rushed over and pushed the group of men off of Lisa’s injured form before they could enact any more torture on the poor woman.  He yelled furiously at them.  “Stop that right this instant!  Do you have any idea who this is?  This woman is a close personal friend to Mr. Davies.  Can you honestly say that you can afford to offend the man?”

Hearing the manager’s angry words the men froze on the spot.  They looked down at the bruised and broken hands of the woman before them and immediately took a few steps back as their hearts raced in fear.

Lisa could barely manage a hoarse whisper as she just repeated over and over again.  “My ring!”

Upon hearing her broken hearted voice the manager’s heart broke.  He swiftly located the ring among the debris and handed it to her outstretched and bloody hands.  “Lisa, here my dear, here is your ring.”

Lisa immediately took the ring, trying to brush the dust off of it.  Suddenly she realized her fingers were bleeding and she tried rubbing her injured fingers against the skirt of her dress before touching the ring in her hand.  Her eyes filled with tears and her body stiffened in disbelief upon contact.  Her face, if it was even possible, became paler.

Upon seeing her face crumble the manager became even more concerned and promptly asked.  “Miss Lisa, what is wrong?  Are you okay?”

A broken cry left Lisa’s lips as she cradled the ring to her chest. Between hiccupping sobs she stuttered. “My…My ring… My ring is broken!”