All alone in the maid's quarters where she used to stay with her biological mother who was absent now, Ishtar was laying with her back down on the plain floor, looking at the ceiling.
Her eyes, once vibrant and clear, were now swollen and reddened. Below them, dark circles had formed, deepened by late hours spent lost in sorrow.
Time check was 6:30pm.
"Knock knock knock," at that very moment, a calm and gentle knock reverberated through the door.
Hesitantly, the second row of knocks got her up from her back and sat, "come in it's open," she said and kept her eyes on the door to see who was paying a visit that evening.
The door was pushed in to open and guess who, her husband Bob Lee and his mother were here with a very important issue that could not miss.
"Mom!" So suprised, Ishtar's face twisted as she exclaimed unbelievably and quickly got up on her feet.
"What a hell is going on? Why are both of you here?"
Seeing Bob Lee and his mother together was the last thing Ishtar expected at this moment, after an argument which led the two on a very different, more so chaotic page six hours ago at midday.
"Something you need to know," humble in her voice, mother-in-law approached quickly and held gently on both Ishtar's hands, to make her feel a sense of care and concern.
Inquisitively, anxious and nervous though, Ishtar attentively gave her ears. She couldn't wait to hear what they had come to tell her.
However, the words were really heavy on her Mother-in-law's tongue that to air them out, she had to take a deep breath to get herself together first.
"Nadia Browne is pregnant," she sighed the statement with the little courage gothered, well knowing that this was to hummer Ishtar so hard.
But she had to inform her regardless, early enough.
Suddenly, since she was already exhausted, burnt out from the stresses of her husband wanting a divorce, and the fact that she had a fresh wound from an operation from giving birth, Ishtar fainted and slumped to the floor.
"Ishtar... Ishtar!" Her mother-in-law panicked, screaming her name as she grabbed her not to pass out.
But it was too late.
As soon as possible, communications were made and a family doctor was called upon to take care of an emergency. And minutes later, Ishtar's hand was linked to a drip of glucose, down on bed where she laid unconscious, still in the maids quarters.
Sluggishly, after a certain period of time, her eyes began to open as she regained back her consciousness.
"Oh, you wake!" Nadia Browne smiled on the chair where she had sat for a while, patiently waiting.
"Where is my husband and mother-in-law?" Ishtar wondered with her face frowned.
"At the main house," Nadia answered.
You're not supposed to be here!" Ishtar was not pleased with Nadia Browne's presence.
"Mm... Don't you think it's a good opportunity for the both of us to share a word or two?" Nadia stood up from the chair and sat closer, right beside her on the bed side, "you _ and I have something in common," she lingered a finger on Ishtar's cheek smiling, leaned in so close, "our interests," and whispered it in her left ear.
Nadia's conduct got Ishtar worried a bit that she tried to extend in a way of avoiding her closeness. However her body was in a very weak state to even move steadily.
"Do they know you're here?" Ishtar had to inquire about her husband and mother-in-law.
"No," Nadia Browne replied. "You see this," she pulled out a syringe filled up with a liquid from her handbag, "now that you're in this weak state, can't help yourself, think about it _ if I kill you right now, no one can know. It's just a matter of injecting this in your veins and the hard equation is simplified without me putting any efforts. Then I can have Bob Lee fully to myself and we love happily together after."
Scared and afraid, Ishtar began to sweat and panic. She forced hard to raise up from her back so she can get off the bed and perhaps get away.
"Relax!" Nadia held her back down, "don't act so stubborn to try it because you can't."
Ishtar's weak muscles could not support her to take unfaltering action. Therefore the best decision to take was to abide and allow Nadia Browne do whatever she pleased.
"I'm not such bad a person that we can't even have a smooth conversation first, then I can make my final choices depending on what we agree on," Nadia Browne wasn't joking in her words, however much she kept a smiling face in the situation.
"Everyone deserves a chance," Nadia stated.
Ishtar speechlessly listed.
"What exactly do you want from me?" Afraid, Ishtar asked.
"I can see you're ready to make a deal," Nadia happily stood up and moved, loitering in place, around the bed on which Ishtar was resting, "you know we both like good things."
"Am not making any deals with you!" Ishtar's response was rude and courageous.
"Come-on, don't be too quick to react," Nadia stays calm and confident in her voice, "you haven't even heard what I have on table for you to consume."
"Whatever, I don't care!" On bed where she was, laying on her back with a glucose drip supply in her vien, Ishtar was not ready to back down or give Nadia Browne any wins over a man.
Her intuitions had told her already, the kinds of interest Nadia was referring to, which she trusted.
Suddenly Nadia Browne got very angry.
"Would you shut up and listen!" She barked so hard in Ishtar's face with widely open bitter eyes, and her clear face wrinkled in the process, "don't dare confuse my smile to weakness."
Nadia moved the syringe to Ishtar's neck and nearly leveled it, "choose now!"
Of course Ishtar had no choice other than to maintain muximum silence. She quickly read the signs.
"I want you to listen and listen good," Bitterly, Nadia leaned in, into Ishtar's face, "tomorrow morning you're packing all your bags. Make sure you leave nothing; I said nothing that belongs to you behind. And if you happen to do anything stupid, your new born baby's life will be in danger."
"Are you listening to me?" She angrily asked and all Ishtar did was to node her head, yes.
"Good girl," Nadia Browne uttered a growl. "Now, you're going to fly out of this state _ far away from me and my fiancée. Make sure your face doesn't appear anywhere because if it does, your child's life is not guaranteed."
Ishtar was subjected to extreme fear, not on a gun point as it always flows but on a syringe point with a dangerous substance inside.
"Choose wisely!"