Chapter Two
1951 Words
I didn't notice the crowd of people watching me, but I noticed a pair of light blue eyes burning a hole into the depths of my soul.
He sat calmly, his strong looking arms folded and his legs crossed.
His strong gaze made me breathe faster than normal, and I quickly looked away to avoid it, but I could still feel him staring at me.
The show was finally over, and I almost ran back into the changing room, but a bunch of men obstructed me, throwing bills at me and attempting to touch me.
I became genuinely scared and overwhelmed until a hand pulled me away from them. And of course, one of them squeezed my ass as I was being pulled away.
Not even knowing where I was being taken to, I stopped abruptly.
“Who are you? And where are you taking me?” I asked.
He turned around and I saw that it was the blue-eyed man.
“You must be Elysa. You look like you needed saving back there,” he smirked.
I gasped. He was even more handsome in person.
What the heck!
“How do you know who I am, I have no idea who you are,” I argued.
“Well let's just say I happened to hear about you being a new worker here,” he answered. His tousled hair was in plain sight, I also noticed that the first few buttons of his shirt were undone.
He's sexy, alright.
And he looked rich, the shoes, the watch and perfume gave him away. Not everyone walked around wearing a Patek Philipe grandmaster or Berluti derbies.
“Thank you for the save, I should go,” I attempted to leave, but he held my arm, making my mask fall off of my face.
I turned to stare at him in surprise, and I watched as he gulped.
We both stared intently at each other, communicating our thoughts with our eyes.
“Mr Richard? Oh, there you are, I see you have met Elysa. Elysa, this is Mr Richard Holmes, the owner of this club.” he grinned.
What?
I was embarrassed, to say the least. This man witnessed the most embarrassing last 15 minutes of my life, and all I could do was fake a goddamned smile.
“Nice to meet you,” I greeted with a little bow.
I gritted my teeth in embarrassment and turned to leave, but he stopped me.
“Aren't you going to wait for me to answer? Are you always this dismissive?” he asked in a sarcastic manner.
Asshole
“I didn't realize, I apologize,” I answered.
“I want a private dance, Elysa. Can you do that?” he asked, and my eyes widened in shock. I shifted my gaze to Rob, and he nodded violently, giving his approval for me to do it.
“Uh, okay, yeah, of course,” I shook my head in agreement.
Rob gave me a thumbs up and a wink.
This was going to be a long night, I could already tell, I sighed in exasperation.
I followed Richard into a dimly lit room. It was obviously an elite space. There were long leather couches, drinks, polls, and everything fancy.
He took his seat in front of the poll and gestured for me to start.
All of a sudden, I felt shy and couldn't do anything for a minute, but he just watched me like a hawk.
The song was slow and sensual, which I kind of liked. I slowly began dancing to the song, trying to take my mind off the fact that a hot man was watching me intently.
Suddenly, hands grabbed my waist, following my dance moves and moving rhythmically as I was. To say I was shocked was putting it mildly.
This man was dancing with me, following my every move as if he knew the steps, matching my breathing and running his hands all over my body like it belonged to him.
The music stopped abruptly, and so did we.
I was sure our hard breaths could be heard outside the door. My sweat touched him, and so did his. That was the most insane dance session I had ever been in.
“You are incredible, Elysa. I couldn't hold back as I watched. You are captivating,” he brushed my hair back with his fingers.
“Thank you..” The door suddenly burst open.
“Well done, Elysa, how did you like your dance, sir?” Rob asked.
“I don't appreciate you disturbing me Rob, please refrain from doing that,” his voice was stern as he addressed him.
“Um, if you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave now. Thank you for your audience, Mr Holmes. Have a good night,” I bowed.
“Here's your pay,” Rob handed me a white envelope with my name on it.
“Thank you,” I answered and ran off to change.
“s**t, Liza will kill me,” I said to myself, after realizing that she had been waiting for me.
I rushed down the stairs to where she was waiting.
“Liza, I'm so sorry for making you wait…” she cut me off.
“It's a demanding job, Ely, remember? These things will always happen. Everyone is talking about how you gave the owner a private dance. How did it go?” She wiggled her brows and made all sorts of weird sounds.
“Ew, stop, nothing happened. Can we go home? I'm tired and hungry,” I groaned as I dragged her out of the club and to her car.
I slept over at Liza's place to avoid explaining anything to Karen and David. As much as they loved me, they would never approve of my kind of job.
When I got home the next morning, they weren't home. Karen had sent me a message saying they were going to Manhattan for some work.
I slept for most of the day, only going downstairs to eat lunch.
Later, I woke up to Karen and David arguing about something, and I tiptoed downstairs to check what it was about.
“I told you, David, I knew they were framed and killed. How can Elysa's parents steal from and ruin their own company, built with their sweat and blood?” Karen cried.
“What?” I blurted out loud, but I didn't care.
It was about my real parents, after all.
“Oh God, Elysa, were you eavesdropping? You shouldn't concern yourself with this. It's way too much and too deep for any of us,” David warned, his tone stern and sharp at the same time.
He always did that whenever he wanted to discourage me from doing something.
“What do you mean framed and killed? Karen, I just heard you. Tell me, now,” I clenched my fists tightly until I could no longer feel them, and I bled.
My heart ached as though I was about to stop breathing, and my body shook furiously.
I ran back upstairs, and I couldn't get anything out of them now. Minimal tears dropped from my eyes as I packed my work bag.
I didn't want to overreact by storming out of the house with my bag at that time, so I just sat down and let the seams burst.
Killed? Framed?
Never in a million years would I have thought that my real parents could have been killed by an adversary.
Liza finally showed up, and we drove to work together. It wasn't her day off this time either, so she would be with me.
I was rather somber, Liza's attempts to make me smile or give her attention during the ride was futile.
Up until we arrived with my demeanour, I made sure it was known that I didn't want to be spoken to, but I couldn't tell she was worried.
“What's wrong, Ely?” She asked, her voice soft and filled with genuine concern.
“Nothing, I'm just tired,” I answered as I powdered my face slowly.
She sighed and left the room.
The night was fast paced, everything happened quickly but not too quickly.
The owner of the club did not come by, and I was kind of grateful because I didn't have it in me to suck up to him like the last time.
The pay was lower, unlike that of the first day, maybe because there was no private dance.
“Everyone seems to like you now, Ely, Rob can not stop talking about how your arrival brought in more customers, both VIP and regular.” Liza chirped. She seemed happy.
“I guess that's a good thing. You might need to do those private dances for a while. Thank you again, Liza. I couldn't have done this without you,” I smiled and squeezed her hands softly.
“Ely, I'm fine with it. We're like sisters, remember. It's okay, hmm?” she comforted, squeezing my hand back, and I almost cried.
This time, I went straight home from the club. It wasn't really late, and I could easily lie about where I was.
The living room light was on by the time I got home.
Karen sat down on the couch, probably waiting for me to come back home.
“Ely, dear, I'm so sorry,” she sniffed.
Her eyes were teary and somewhat red, and she looked really tired.
I hugged her tightly but carefully because she was so small and fragile that I didn't want to hurt her.
“What happened, Karen? All I know is that they're dead, I heard you loud and clear. I'm not a child anymore, so please tell me what happened with them,” I tried to sound strong and confident, but I was breaking.
My insides churned with anxiety. There was bile at the base of my throat, and my heart ached terribly.
She wiped her tears violently and held both my hands in hers.
“Okay, you should know. Ely, your parents were amazing, your mom was my friend. We weren't best friends but we talked, I worked at their company, it was big and it was growing,” she laughed.
“All of a sudden, investors started pulling out, tax people frequented the place, your mom was stressed and tired, I could tell. And then later the news came out that their house caught fire with both of them inside of it,” She cried, and I just watched her.
That explained the long burn scar on my back and stomach. I always thought it was something else because I couldn't even remember how it got there.
“Luckily, a neighbour was able to get you out before it consumed everything. Elysa, I know that it wasn't an accident. Everything seemed off. I can't say this is exactly what happened or who happened, but I know something went down bad. Most of the workers were laid off and left without jobs to survive, David and I sold a lot of our stuff when things got rough.” she explained.
“Karen, are you sure about this?” I asked with pressed anger.
“Yes, Ely, I know what I've seen, I'm sorry, Ely. If I were closer to her, I would have probably known more,” she squeezed my hand hard, tears rolling down her cheeks freely.
I immediately hugged her.
“It's okay. You have done your best by telling me.” I patted her back, my tears staining her shirt.
Now it’s time to find the assholes who really killed my parents and left me with that bloody scar.
- Writer
