A new type of love

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be distributed or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without written permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Jasmine Keeling gritted her teeth against the pain in her navel and struggled to breathe. She coughed up some blood and greedily had her lungs fill with air; closed her eyes and wished her nightmare would end. She was lying face down on the wooden flooring, tears streaming down her face.   “Don’t you dare bleed on my floor! ”, her husband screamed “It's worth more than your life!”   Jasmine cried out in pain when he grabbed her dark hair and forced her to her feet. She shut her eyes tightly, blocking his violent image from her sight. Damn it! She had let her guard down again, she needed to learn how to escape from these assaults faster. She quietly screamed her frustration mentally, using her rage to get through it. “You are so ungrateful, I have given you everything and all you do is complain and ask for more f*****g things! “He raged and slammed her hard against the wall, so hard that her teeth rattled and then viciously slapped her across the cheek. The pain that bloomed on her face almost robbed her breath but she gritted her teeth against it. Once again, she was forced to use her emotions to push herself through it as the pain almost overwhelmed her. She gasped out when he punched her navel again for good measure. Tears streamed down her face as she coughed out a little blood and she still forced her eyes to remain closed. “Don’t beg…Don’t fall…just a little longer” she encouraged herself as she forced her weakened body to remain standing. Her body shook with the effort, but she focused her mind on winning her silent struggle against him. Jasmine chose to open her eyes at that moment and glared at the man she used to love in disgust and something akin to hate. Her mind raged at the unfairness of it all and so many mixed emotions must have filtered across her face. What did she do to deserve this? His dark, sombre eyes widened, and he took a deep, reluctant breath. His eyes assessed her for a moment and his rage seemed to slowly leak out of him as he returned her fierce stare. “You know I love you,” he said softly to her, almost as if to calm the rage in her heart. “But you can’t keep making these mistakes. You know what I want, so just do it. Do not…. Don’t make me hurt you again” he said slowly, almost as if he was reprimanding a child. She stared at him coldly as he raised his hand to touch her bruised cheek, but turned her face away from his oncoming touch. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks and she pressed her shivering lips together to prevent herself from making a sound. She held her breath when he tried to touch her again, but his hand froze and dropped to his side. He glanced at the flooring for a second as if thinking hard, and abruptly turned to walk away. Jasmine watched him leave and, with a defeated sigh, let herself slide slowly to the floor. She wiped the blood from her split lips with the back of her hand and shut her eyes as the pain increased in her navel. It had been like this for years. She was extremely exhausted now. When the abuse had begun, she had constantly asked him what she had done wrong. Now she was finally resigned to the fact that he simply hated her. She just did not know why, but what she knew was that she was slowly losing the will to fight back. She checked her long sleeved, white Italian silk dress and breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that it did not have blood on it. Her cream suede heels looked fine too. She gingerly touched her rapidly swelling cheek and hissed when she laid a hand on her abdomen. Tonight has been worse than most nights. Her worry grew as she realised that the abuse was getting worse, even the length of his beatings. If she was not careful, she was going to be hospitalised again, but being careful wasn't enough anymore, it seemed. Anything could have set him off. Tonight, she had set him off simply because she told him that she would like to study again. He had asked her! And she gave him an answer but then was rewarded with a beating. She shook her head at the absurdity of it all. It was almost like he had set her up for failure. Jasmine realised how naïve she was during that conversation. She had been happy to see a glimpse of old Bill back, almost hoping they were going to be back on track again….The hope that he would change back was always there, lurking in the depths of her heart….slowly creeping back when he showed her a little kindness. She turned her head, urgency filling her mind when she saw blood stains on the living room floor. There was too much blood on the floor, she would need to get a check-up from her private doctor. She stood up too quickly and caught her breath when a sharp shooting pain shot up her legs. She hissed as the pain increased suddenly and limped as fast as she could to the kitchen. She then grabbed some paper towels and a surface cleaner from the forest oak cabinet. She rested her perfectly manicured hands on the black granite top and breathed through another wave of pain and then inched over to the offending stain. She then slowly knelt on the floor, cleaned it and then disposed of the soiled paper towels. She then rinsed her hands, mouth and chin. A painful sob escaped her, just as a flood of fresh tears came down her delicate cheeks and raised her head to the ceiling,almost sobbing again as a slow crushing pain filled her heart. She tried to remember when it had all gone wrong. Jasmine had never thought she would ever feel this helpless in all her life. Her family had all but disowned her and she did not even know who to go to for help. Her father would not even acknowledge her in public anymore and, as a result, her mother could only email her occasionally to check on her. Her father had even gone as far as banning her older twin brothers from contacting her after her wedding. She missed her family so badly…. What was she going to do? She looked around his mansion, the antique furniture, the priceless paintings and fixtures. All the riches in the world were not worth all the pain she was going through, but the sad part was that Bill thought that throwing money at her would keep her happy despite all the harm he was causing her. As a result, she had grown resentful towards his money, and did not trust anything he gave her because it always had an intention behind it. She just couldn't take it anymore….  Jasmine had loved Bill Keeling with her whole being and he had pursued and won her at the tender age of seventeen and, in the end, she had sacrificed everything including her family just to be by his side.Bill had seemed to understand her better than anyone and had seemed to help her better herself as a person. She had always loved how he challenged her mentally and the way she was able to push her to strive to be successful. The excitement of dating an older man had coloured her judgment and had blinded her from the beginning. Then she had slowly realised what kind of trap Bill had systematically built around her and it had already been too late . By the time she had finally smelled the coffee, she had lost her career path, her friends and family and had been placed firmly under Bill's dominance with no chance of escape. Talk about rose-coloured glasses. Now at twenty years old, she felt older than her years and she constantly cursed the day she had met Bill. Her body suddenly felt weaker, shook violently and finally she had to lean on the counter for support. She lowered her head as the beginnings of a headache which made her aware of the cut on her forehead. She hated these types of injuries as it meant she would be on house arrest for at least two to three weeks, with her private doctors nursing her back to health, his dermatologist repairing the damage to her delicate skin. He could easily injure her, but he always made sure that his business partners never saw any of his handiwork. Bastard! Her head jerked up when a faint noise sounded behind her. She winched when his arm slipped around her small waist and stiffened when he kissed her swelling cheek. His arm then slipped away as he instructed her to lift her waist-length hair up. She did as he asked and flinched when a cold heavy set of pearls went around her neck. She was sure they were real, all his “after a beating” gifts were always top quality. Which meant he had pre-planned hurting her today. Bill was a monster…None of these gifts would ever fix such a toxic relationship. So this meant everything could have set him off today. She looked at the pearls without pleasure and tried not to resist when he turned her face to him. He smiled hesitantly and a forced smile came to her lips. “I love you so much flower…I overreacted again …. Say you will forgive me; you must stay with me…. my love” he begged. Her eyes widened in shock at those words. He never asked her for forgiveness. He had never cared how she felt. Why would he ask? Then a slow realisation came to her, he had seen it in her eyes. Her developing hatred, my god, he must have seen it. She thought she had learned to mask her face very well by now. She swallowed hard and nodded her head gravely. She gave him a shaky smile and cried out when his hands suddenly tightened around her bruised arms.Panic set in and her usual composure slipped and she let out a small whimper when he yanked her to him. She tried to calm herself and watched as his desperation grew and he said in a low growl. “I want to hear you say it, Jasmine…Come on…Please...” She hesitated and didn’t say it right away. She wouldn't mean it anyway, but he shook her hard and shouted with barely contained violence. “Say it! Damn it! You MUST SAY IT JASMINE!” She struggled to gather her composure, took a measured breath and finally said in a small soft voice “I … I forgive you my love.” He loosened his hold suddenly, a bright unnatural smile appearing on his face. He tightened his hold on her and kissed her roughly, bruising her lips further. She stiffened, sickened by his touch, her mind screaming in frustration. He roughly roamed his hands down her back until he found the zipper to her dress, yanked it down and then stood back. He gave her a cold expectant smirk and she was filled with a sudden dread, not this again. The torture he called s*x. She swallowed nervously and slowly hunched her shoulders to lower the sleeves of her dress. Her hands shook with fear and remorse, as the dress hit the floor. She picked it up, folded it neatly as he had shown her and placed it on the kitchen counter. She stood there rigidly, looking at the floor and waiting for the next command. His expression became dark when she stopped undressing and despaired tears came down her face as she slowly slipped off her chemise and underwear and then she stood bare before him. She couldn’t stand what he called love-making any more, he was going to hurt her again… There were dark bruises all over the top half of her body, fresh cuts to her legs and thighs. A sense of shame overwhelmed her and more tears rolled down her face. She hugged herself tightly around her waist as that slow pain spread further in her heart. She felt so defeated… She didn’t want this anymore. He came to her then and forced her chin up to inspect her tear-stained face. He must have liked what he saw because a slow, satisfied smirk came to his lips. He gave her a little kiss and then pushed her arms aside impatiently and said quietly “I need you tonight my love, don’t hide yourself from me”. He paused as he wiped her tears away. She whimpered as he tightened his hold on her waist and seemed happy with her reaction. “No more tears, the fun has just begun” he whispered as he lifted her into his arms and carried her towards the bedroom.