Replaced by a devil
1044 Words
“You barren woman! I regret ever agreeing to this marriage, my father picked a fruitless peasant as a wife for me!”. Mark thundered and stormed out of the dining room again, leaving Elena all by herself at the table.
Three years had passed, and still, no child. Not even a miscarriage.
She had adapted to becoming invisible around the house. She walked with light steps, stayed away from her husband except, of course, at night, when she would need to satisfy his animal passion on their matrimonial bed.
But as much as she tried, he would always find a reason to attack her verbally, emotionally, or physically.
The servants would cast pitiful glances at her whenever he called her names or maltreated her in front of them. But no one dared show concern or stand up for her.
With each passing day, Elena bore more scars from Mark’s fists and words.
Even her mother had called her on several occasions and urged her to fulfil her marital duties to her husband.
“What are you still waiting for? Don’t you want to be the mother to the Caine heir?”. Her mother said, one time she called. “You are married for a reason, and we are yet to see results. Don’t let us down, Elena.”
“Mother, I have been a good wife and done all I can in this marriage to conceive, but I am not God”. Elena replied amidst sobs.
Elena was shattered. The pressure eroded her from every side.
Soon, Mark began making plans for a divorce, but his father forbade him.
“You will do no such thing under the Caine’s legacy. You are a Caine and we believe marriage is till death!”. Mr. Alex Caine shot back at Mark when he brought up the issue of divorcing Elena.
Mark was furious, and his resentment for Elena grew with each passing day. He was desperate. He consulted the best legal practitioners in the city, but all his efforts were rendered useless. His father was a very influential man.
“I would have loved to help, but I am sorry, Mr. Caine, your father issued a stern warning against helping you with your divorce case”. They would say.
Mark began to keep late nights and, on most nights, he never returned.
Elena suspects he is having an affair, but there was nothing she could do about it, and there was no one she could complain to.
This kept on happening until one day, Elena was in the living room, arranging the white roses in their vases, when the door flung open.
Mark walked in with his arms possessively around a woman in her late 20s, with dark hair and a subtle smirk.
“Elena”. Mark spoke. His voice was mockingly sweet. “This is Sally Anderson, and henceforth, this is her home”.
Sally’s lips curled in a subtle smile.
Elena’s eyes widened in shock. She could barely believe what she was hearing. Her husband had brought in his mistress to their matrimonial home. But she dared not protest.
She just stood there like a statue, speechless.
Mark summoned all the mansion servants.
“This is the new mistress of this house. You all no longer answer to Elena, but to her. Do whatever she says and make sure she is comfortable”.
He concluded his order by pecking Sally romantically on the cheeks.
“Now, let’s go upstairs, darling, you need to rest”. Mark said, taking Sally gently by the arms and leading her upstairs.
Elena’s heart shattered over and over again as she watched them. In the three years of their marriage, he had never once been so gentle and sweet with her, nor had he called her by a pet name.
She tried to fight back the hot tears burning her eyes by reassuring herself that if Mark found happiness with Sally, then maybe he would be less cruel to her and focus on Sally.
But little did she know that her nightmare had just begun. Sally was a devil, and she had come to stay.
Within a few days, the house had been reshaped to Sally’s taste. Elena felt like a stranger in her own home.
Her seat at the dining table was taken over by Sally, her personal maid was reassigned to Sally, even her favorite flowers, white roses, were uprooted from her personally groomed garden and replaced with Sally’s favorites, daisies. And Mark didn’t care that daisies were fatal to Elena’s health.
Above all, she was kicked out of her marital bedroom and replaced by Sally.
“Oooh…” Mark moaned one night, loud enough for Elena to hear from the next room. “You sure know how to please a man… You are so sweet”.
Mark was not the only one determined to torture her. Sally played her own games too.
“Help!”. Sally screamed one day from the kitchen, where she met Elena brewing tea. Her voice was distressful, and it echoed through the mansion.
Sally threw herself on the ground, and before Elena could understand what was going on, Mark angrily stormed in, his eyes dark with rage.
“Your wife pushed me!”. Sally cried.
“How dare you lay your miserable hands on her?!”.
Mark’s voice held that same cruelty and fire Elena dreaded, and what followed was a thunderous slap that sent Elena staggering and falling hard to the cold marble floor.
Elena did not cry out. She had taught herself to swallow her pain because silence angered him less.
Sally watched with a satisfied smile on her face.
The kitchen maids dared not speak of what they witnessed.
This became an everyday reoccurrence. It was one thing or another to have Mark hit her.
It was either a stolen jewelry found in Elena’s room, an incident on the stairs, or something else. And each time, Mark became more protective of Sally, and his punishment for Elena became more violent. He would force Elena to apologize to Sally.
Yes, Elena bottled up her agony, but there was only so much a woman could take.
- Writer
