" We're getting divorced, Danielle." It echoed in her ears multiple times that it became the only thing she heard as she walked hopelessly onto the bright buzzing road with her makeup smudged from crying.
She didn't even know where she was headed but she was sure that she needed a drink or two. Hot tears filled her eyes making her vision quite blurry, but she didn't care.
It was dark but there were still people moving on the road, thankfully no one noticed her. Her throat ached terribly as there were still red bruises from the attack from Jake earlier on. She gently caressed her neck and just then, the memory of what had happened invaded her thoughts.
" It is a joke, right? JAKE you're joking." Danielle tried to mumble out of her mouth but her voice wasn't doing her justice.
Helena shifted, looking anywhere but at Danielle.
"Look, Jake and I, we didn't mean for it to happen, you know. " Helena said quickly. " It just did. You were so busy with your charity work, and Jake was always lonely."
"Lonely? " Danielle whispered. " Lonely?!" She screamed, finally forcing her voice out.
She placed her hand on her chest and tried to catch her breath. Everything around her felt suffocating. " My charity work?" She felt like laughing. " Are you saying being a wife and doing my duties to make my husband happy is now charity work, huh?" Danielle rhetorically asked.
" Wife duties? Don't get me started, Elle. I have had enough of you. You can't even do one major task, give me children, you are barren for Christ's sake. Tell me, what am I supposed to do?" Jake immediately chipped in, cutting Danielle off.
Danielle held her stomach and it felt like a dagger punctured her heart hearing Jake say those words to her. " I loved you, Jake. That was. That was why I did everything for you. I made sure you were happy and reached this height you've achieved in your company. Jake, I sacrificed my world for you. It was me, the connections, the endorsements, it was all me, Jake can't you see? But it was never enough for you was it?" Danielle continued.
" But still you and your family always took every slightest opportunity to rub it on my face that I am infertile." Danielle broke down in tears as she said those words.
Helena gasped and her eyes fell on Jake, who was already fuming with anger. " Babe, can you imagine she's taking all my credits." She said and turned to face Danielle, pulling her by the wrist. " How did you help, Jake? Such a cheap liar, claiming you raised Jake to what he has become now when in fact I was the one who helped him. You poor wretched skank!" She spat on Danielle.
Jake shook his head pitifully. " You know, Elle it is one thing to know that you are here because of my money but it is completely another insane scenario you would say that you are the reason behind my success and my riches. Are you stupid? Do you even think I am stupid? Tell me how a poor church rat like you who begged me five years ago at an airport to marry her would be the brain behind my success?" He mocked her and took Helena by the hand and kissed it.
" Helena is the woman who helped me get in touch with big leagues that loved my art and were ready to invest in my company. It was through her that I got to where I am, not you or do you think washing a few plates and mobbing a few floors was what took me to the top of where I am now? The youngest fastest-rising artist in the state. Look at you, Elle. You disgust me. I just pitied you."
Danielle closed her eyes tightly hoping that she would be in another one of her nightmares. The words cut her sharper than any blade would ever. Hearing it from a man she called her husband. The man she gave up her life for. He never loved her, he just pitied her.
" I won't sign it." Danielle retorted, gathering all the courage and strength left in her.
Jake chuckled dryly and swiftly held her by the throat. " Oh darling, you will sign this agreement." He growled, pressing her throat so intensely that it became hard for her to breathe.
Helena quickly pulled out the pen and opened the paper, forcing poor Danielle to either die or sign the papers. After the paper was signed, Jake threw her to the floor, kicking her back harshly with his foot. He walked up the stairs and to his room with Helena in his arms while poor Danielle was left rolling on the floor in pain.
Danielle had left the house the moment she started hearing passionate sounds of lovemaking coming from her matrimonial bedroom. The pain was too much for her to bear and she pulled herself up to a bar down to street with the hope of drowning away her sorrows.
She sat on the bar counter sluggishly, The bartender gave her a second look, but she waved him off. "Hey, Hey." She called out to the bartender who was cleaning a glass of a cup.
She got his attention and walked up to her with a sheepish smile. "What can I offer you?" He asked.
"Something strong," she said, her voice hoarse. "The kind that burns and is cheap," She replied, never imagining that she would ever ask for anything cheap.
"Okay coming right up." In a few minutes, he placed it on the table and she didn't waste a single second before she started gulping it.
The drink hit her hard, but not hard enough. She asked for another. Then another until her vision became double.
Somewhere in the bar, a young cleaner was gently studying Danielle. She pulled out her phone and made a call silently. " Yes, Miss Helena. She's here, just like you said. What room should I take her?" She asked through the phone.
" Room 605, I have someone waiting. Make sure the job is smooth and leave no traces that might fall back to me." Helena instructed with a mischievous smile and hung up the call.
" Now with this, Jake would think Danielle cheated all through their marriage and she would have no choice but to reimburse him with a whopping sum of the one million she is supposed to be given after their divorce. Which means she will be living with absolutely nothing. Look who is smart now, Skank. Happy wedding anniversary barren idiot." Helena murmured to nobody but herself and laid back on the bed beside Jake who was already fast asleep.
At the bar, Danielle is gently led into the hotel room hallway by the bartender and the cleaner from earlier. She was so drunk and drugged that she didn't even know what was happening or where they were taking her.
" Helena said room 605." The cleaner argued. " No, I spoke to her again and she said room 655." The bartender insisted.
" Okay then, whatever. Let's just get this job done."
They took her to the room door, knocked sharply, and took to their heels, as they heard the sound of the key. The door flung open, and Danielle fell into the arms of a strange tall muscular man.
His hair was long, thick, and shining. Already damped with water his features were hard to resist. His lips were inviting and Danielle could sense some familiarity between him and her but she had no clue where she had met him.
All that was on her mind was to have him for the night. Anyways, she was barren, so what was the worst that could happen?
She pushed her way into the room, taking off her clothes like her life depended on it. " Easy princess." His warm voice flew through her ears. They were so soft and pleasurable and even more familiar. " You must be the call girl he hired for the night. I am going to kill him for doing this to me. " The strange man muttered to himself, laughing uncontrollably as he pulled his necktie.
He was also drugged by someone he knew and the temperature of his body was so intense but he tried so hard to keep it together unlike Danielle who was already blown over totally.
He stood with the kind of posture that drew her attention. Broad shoulders beneath his exquisite tailored black shirt. A scar just beneath his lip and his eyes, his eyes were so dark that they felt like secrets.
Danielle blinked. "Do I know you?" She asked even in a drunken state.
" No, you could never. " He said. They both couldn't even clearly see themselves.
The whole place seemed blurred and it was obvious to see that they had both been set up by completely different people.
"That's all I needed to know." She whispered. Danielle didn't ask questions. She didn't want answers.
All she knew was that when he touched her hand, her skin tingled. When he leaned in, the air around her tightened.
The room was dim, and their mouths met. Clothes dropped to the floor in a trail of reckless abandon.
It wasn't gentle. I wasn't careful.
It was raw.
The following morning, Danielle was awoken by the sound of the door being barged in by Helena and Jake. " Look what we have here, Jake. I told you I had ears and eyes everywhere. Your darling Ex-wife is a whore! Just right after the divorce, she spent the night with some of her many men." Helena screamed.
" So you have been cheating on me all these years of our marriage, Elle?" Jake was fueled with rage.
"We can't let this get out, Jake. It would ruin the reputation we have both worked so hard for. What we can do is take back the money in the divorce agreement since there's no way she can pay for this." Helena muttered to Jake to calm him down.
Danielle sat up on the bed abruptly, holding the duvet close to her chest to hide her nakedness. " No, No, it is not what it looks like. Ja, I didn't." Suddenly her mind had flashes of last night. She was indeed in the arms of another man but she couldn't quite place his face.
She quickly took her eyes to the other side of the bed and unfortunately, there was no one beside her, only a necklace with a weird LS acronym as its pendant.
The man from last night was gone.