To Give And Take

CHAPTER 12

"It was another nightmare."

Lucy was greeted with the beautiful chandelier hanging on the white ceiling, but she had no time to appreciate the beautiful design of the chandelier and the room. It was an unfamiliar room, but she wasn't worried being in this unfamiliar place.

Due to certain reasons connected to her past, she always freaked out when she opened her eyes to realise that she was in an unfamiliar place.

Today she wasn't an exception either, the moment she regained consciouseness her face paled with fright, but the moment her eyes landed on the braod back standing on the balcony, her jumbled up emotions became calm. It was strange feeling, a never felt emotions of reassurance at the sight of a man's tall lean body, a braod back and strong muscular arms that were neither large nor small. It emcompassed strenghth, protection and security that gave one a peace of man.

"Strange feeling, right."

She murmured in a low breath, looking down at her wrist, it was covered with a white gauze wrapped carefully to prevent infection. She wasn't surprised at the injury in his palms, but the carefully bandaged hand, it still gave a weird feeling that excluded fear. The after affects of her past trauma had always come with self harm. Harming herself probably reminded her that she needed to harm herself to keep her consciouseness awake.

Just like in her dream, She recalled every single piece of image that seemed to pull her down into an abyss. The pain of slashing her own wrist surged up to her brain, attacking her brain cells, the fustration of being unable to save herself and watch herself being pushed down into the abyss. Finally the fear that stabbed at her heart's core with the burning feeling of betrayal from her family.

In her life, Lucy thought she had gone through many tough situations, she believed she could only rely on her family. However, her sister plotted against her, her step father l**t over her, while her step brothers developed deeper thoughts towards her. None the less, her biological mother didn't care about her, as if her life and death had nothing to do with her but herself.

'Why are you slandering others, isn't your vixen appearance the cause of your trouble. You keep seducing men everywhere, do you expect them to act as saints !'

Those words had cut her heart like a blade being inserted deeply, pulling at the veins connected to her heart. She had bled and tried to commit suicide because she couldn't take those traumatic memory's existence in her life. The fading marks were still slightly visible, her psychologist had played a part in her chaotic life. She thought she had burried those memories, but when she read a news similar to her experience, a familiar fragrance had triggered the once burried memories and brought with it a nightmare.

The warm and opulent woody fragrance, the aromatic sandalwood and citrus head note added more richness and elegant depth to the fragrance. She had only whiffed this rich elegant fragrance seven or eight years ago after being saved by an anynomouse individual. Till date she hadn't been able to thank her savior, though Kevin Kavinsky claimed that identity, she never believed him.

"You're awake." Austin had just finished his call, he intended to make less noise in order not to disturb her rest, but he realised this was an unecessary thoughts. Lucy was sitting on the bed in daze her long white milky leg was hanging down from the bed, her pink toe was exposed to the cold floor. It was summer in province C, but the temperature had dropped a lot in the suburbs. Walking without shoes would definitely affect one's health, but the person involved looked oblivious. She stared dazedly at him with a deep gaze in thought, he wouldn't be surprised if his words hadn't reached her.

Ignoring her dazed look, Austin helped her put on slippers and touched her forehead to check her temperature. Lucy didn't dodge his touch and kept staring at him with an inquisitive gaze, he knew she had a question, but he didn't bother to ask.

"Have we met before ?"

Austin was stunned by her question, which didn't stand in line with their current situation, she would have asked any other question involving the current concern. Her tone was warm and gentle, with its ussual coldness, but it didn't make him feel uncomfortable. Despite the cold imprinted in her, her voice had always been gentle with patience and decisiveness. It wasn't interrogative, but a warm inquisitiveness in it, coupled with her beautiful voice, the gentleness that seeped through it was warm and pleasing.

"What do you think?"

Austin didn't pause in his actions of helping her put on her slippers, her feet was already slightly cold, which proves her sensitivity to cold. Austin frowned and looked at Lucy who's gaze hadn't left his, as if trying to penetrate his soul and mind.

"Lucy."

His gentle tone brought her back to her senses, she didn't know why she had asked him that particular question.

"We meet new people every day, Lucy. Some that we decide to record mentally, or our brain decides to record subconsciously."

Lucy looked at him without saying a word, but she was carefully analyzing his reasonable words, everything made sense. The world was vast with a great amount of people who meet each other, bumping into a future acquaintance or friend is not an exception either.

"Lucy?" Austin called out with patience, bringing her attention back to him. Lucy didn't move, her gaze had never left him, but it had never been focused on him either. Austin's expression didn't change, but he became worried about her condition, he didn't know if there was any after effects of her fever. It was unknown if Lucy could read his mind or understand his feelings from his indifferent expression, but she gave him a rassured smile. It was warm with gentleness to it that hit the heart's core.

"I'm fine, I just can't stand the sticky feeling on my body."

She had an obcessiveness to cleanliness, a germaphobe to be exact. beautiful and a lover of beauty, he knew that about her habits and personality. She didn't have a narcissistic personality but she loved being clean and beautiful, it was a written fact to him.

"Alright, I already got new sets of clothes for you."

Lucy raised her eyes with an amazed expression that was quickly changed to a curiosity when she caught sight of the logo of the bag containing the dress which she presumed should be hers.

"Your connaissance makes me curiouse?"

Lucy said with seriouseness, holding his gaze, she pointed towards the bag with the 'B' logo on it, they both knew what she meant, but Austin raised his eye brows and said with uncertainty.

"What do you mean?"

His oblivious question held no other meaning, straightforward and truthful, void of doubt. However, she would have swarn that that simple answer held a teasing meaning to it.

"What do you think ?"

According to his understanding of Lucy Grey, the slight curl of her pink lips and deep baby blue eyes that held his without shying away, he could tell that she was using his word against him. She didn't want to admit defeat, he didn't know what she had gone through in life, but she had that determination that incited her to bear the last words.

For the first time after meeting Austin Kingston Lucy detected what looked like a smile slightly curving his thin sexy lips. It was a short change of expression, but she knew it wasn't an illusion, Austin Kingston had just smiled. His short smile was beautiful and intoxicating with a charm of its own.

"Mr Kingston, I owe you, now."

"Let's talk about it after you're done."

He didn't reject her, nor did he ask her about her thoughts, neither agreeing nor denying with a straightforward reply. She loved his charisma and honest personality that indulged his straightforwardness.

"Alright."

He walked out of the room without looking back, leaving her the room behind a closed door, she wasn't worried that he would peek at her even when she walked into the bath room. She would never let a man in her room, nor stay unguarded against them. However, if it was Austin Kingston, she could take a bath without locking the doors.

Her short bath took her not morethan a few minutes before she was done, she felt that her body was fragrant and no longer sticky. She sighed in comfort and sat in front of the dressing table dressed in a bath robe to dry her hair. It took quite a while to dry her voluminouse hair, but she had never thought of cutting it short either.

A double longer and she would definitely be able to take on the Rapunzel role, according to Catherina's thoughts. Lucy smiled when she thought about her childish friend who could lye on the lounge and watch cartoons.

She wasn't worried that her little treasure would starve to death with her careless friend by her side, she was just worried that Catherina might break down with 'the little devil' accompanying her.

She had no idea why Catherina would personify a cute little bunny like Jesse with such an contradictory personna.

She had just thought of giving those two a video call when she received a call from her best friend 'Karlie White.' Her lips curled into an exquisite smile, with a gentle expression she recalled that it had been a while since she met with Karlie. At most a week, but it was considered quite much compared to their ussual meeting of every three or two days.

Compared to Catherina with whom she shared a bond, she shared a tight bond with this friend of hers with whom she had spent her childhood, adolescence and adulthood with. Every process of her life had, she had been accompanied supported and shielded by Karlie White. If she were to ask, ' who was Karlie to you?' she would definitely say without hesitation that Karlie was a sister to her. They did almost everything together and knew each other's deepest secret to a point of knowing each others weak points and difficulties.

They also shared quite a lot in common, just like her, Karlie hadn't had it easy in life.

From losing her mother to watching her father marry another woman and bringing two children along barely six months after her mother's death, Karlie had seen worst in the coming years. In front of outsiders her life was a pink bubble because her step mother had never treated her badly, neither had her step sisters ever bullied her.

She wasn't stupid, neither was Karlie, she had been able to see through her family members scheme all these years.

"Little Strawberry, it's been a while, are you back from your trip?" Little Strawberry was a sort of pet name she had given Karlie, due to her love for Strawberries, while Karlie gave her 'little milk' as a pet name.

Karlie had travelled six days ago for a seminar abraod, due to some network interferences they couldn't communicate much, but Karlie always tried her best to send her a message when she could.

"Yeah, I came back this morning." Karlie's ussual sexy voice was hoarse with tiredness, but she felt that there was more to her tiredness.

"Your voice is odd, did anything happen at home?"

She heard a low chuckle from Karlie, but her chuckle was bitter and forced with a hint of grievance.

"You really know me the best."

Karlie smiled bitterly, clenching her phone, her expression was void of any emotions, but pain was written all over her face coupled with her tired look.

"If I don't even know, who would?"

She wasn't being proud of herself, but she felt sad for her friend, compared to her life, Karlie was in an even most difficult position.

"I have the results little Milk, Rolland's been cheating on me with my step sister. I don't even know if she's his only coquette. That arse hole claimed to love me morethan his life, but just like my step mum, father and step sisters they're just interested in the inherritance left by my mother."

Lucy wasn't surprised by her discovery, she already had her suspicions, but she had never thought her suspicions were right. She had made her suspicions known to her friend who trusted her words without doubt. If Karlie hadn't trusted her words she wouldn't have tried to make her research on it. Rolland Tesse and Karlie White had been engaged during their younger years by Karlie's mother and Rolland's mother. Because Mrs Yolande had been dissapointed by her husband in marriage she didn't want thesame for her daughter. She had choosen to engage her daughter with her best friend's son whom she regarded as her son.

Rolland's family was of equal status with hers, so she wasn't worried that Rolland would go after wealth or fame. Considering her friend's personality, she didn't believe Rolland would become a scum like her husband who cheated on her while she was pregnant.

In order for both children to build a tight relationship, Rolland could be said to have grown up with Rolland, he treated her like a sister and had risked his life many times to save hers, so she trusted her mother's words. She didn't want to marry because of love, but marry a faithful man who treated her with sincerity, she had seen that man in Rolland, but it turned out to be a phoney.

"Did you get evidences?" Lucy asked

She wasn't surprised by the discoveries her friend had made, she had already made a few encounters that led to her suspicions. Besides, she had already discovered Rolland's meticulousely hidden lecherouse behavior. He might have been labelled a gentleman man with the best qualities of a future husband. In her eyes, that popular side of him could be could to be filled with pretense, his pure and honest image was nothing more but a phoney.

"You bet, he was too cautiouse."

Lucy wasn't surprised by her reply, Rolland had always been meticulouse and cautiouse, reason why no one found faults in him.

"Of course you won't easily get evidences against him, that also proves that he values your inherritance right. Your engagement had already been sealed and well known, if you had to break it, you would be the bad guy here."

"I know.", Karlie said with a sigh, her tired and fustrated tone could tell a lot about her current feelings. It was like holding a solution to your problems, yet unable to use because of the law and evidences. Her mother had been overconfident and obcessed about her choice, failing to expect a worst outcome.

"If I had to dissolved the engagement without proves, I would have to compensate him with 15% of my inherritance right."

She hated that clause set by her mother the most, but she couldn't blame her, it was a clause that was set to benefit Rolland if she decided not to marry him, a certain type of mental compensation.

"Little Milk, if I don't find a solution, I might have to marry Rolland in the next four months."

Lucy understood what she meant, she knew the consequences would be divastating if Karlie married a man like Rolland. Her marriage would become a prison in which she would have to suffer in silence. She knew that her future father in-law who was chauvinistic won't give her freedom of choice, he had already suggested in the past that her going school was unecessary.

According to his so called understanding of marriage, Karlie should spend more time with Rolland and learn the virtue of a woman. If it hadn't been for Rolland's intervention as well as Mrs Yolande's last wishes for Karlie to go for a degree of her choice, that man's request might have been validated.

Karlie's persistence to follow up her studies had also played a great role in it, if she wasn't persistent she might have had to drop out of school. This was another reason why her future father in-law didn't like her, because she wasn't easy to control.

"If I want to get out of this mess, I would have to find evidence of Rolland's treachery, and I'm afraid I would have been married by then ?"

Lucy had already analysed everything, she understood that to tracking down a person like Rolland was very difficult, unless they used scheme against him, but it wasn't evident nor were they certain of its success.

"Besides, I already aroused Rolland's suspicions while I was tracking his traces, he's become more cautiouse than six months ago when I started trying to gather evidences against him."

She was now in the death end, she couldn't dissolve the engagement for fear of giving out her mother's inherritance to him as compensation. Neither could she marry him because her life would become even more miserable.

"Why don't you just get married ?" While she was waiting for a solution from her friend, she suddenly heard her mention about marriage. It was like a huge bomb was thrown on her, causing her to almost stumble and fall.

"What do you mean?"

*~**>>>>>>>>>**~*

"Argh, Rolland be gentle."

In a dimly lit room, two slightly clothed bodies were entagled, the girl's legs were wrapped arround the boys waist, while her hands held his shoulders tightly. The girl had an intoxicated expression filled with l**t and pleasure, while the man kept providing her with pleasure to please himself. He ignored the girls pleas and continued with his movements that weren't gentle at all.

As if her pleas added more excitement to him, he continued and only stopped when he was satisfied. The girl leaned limply on the wall and looked at the man carefully check the preservative they had just used. She was already used to his ussual style and meticulouseness of not letting his seed escaped.

In the past she didn't care, but the more she got entagled with him, the more she wanted from him, she was even more jealouse, but she was helpless. Her b***h of step sister easily obtained everything she had ever dreamt of, while she could only get the crumbs.

"So cautiouse, I already told you I'm on birth control, if you're afraid I might get pregnant and ruin your marriage with my sister..."

"It's better to be safe than sorry, my marriage with Karlie is a must, you know about that."

This man who spoke had a beautiful appearance, a thin and slightly muscular body with six packs abs that caused girls to drool over his slightly tan body. Coupled with his slightly delicate features, hazel eyes and midnight dark hair that accentuated his beauty, he was considered every woman's dream man. His name was Rolland Tesse, Karlie White's supposed fiancé, while the other girl with red copper hair and coffee brown eyes was her step sister Nelly White.

Cooped up in an underground attic which had served as their place for their secret affair, it was considered safe because of the interferences, no technological appliance could function there.

Nelly White might have thoughts of using schemes to become Mrs Tesse, but she didn't dare use it for two reasons. One included Rolland's cautiouseness and the other was because she knew that her scheme would fail and end up destroying her. She knew just how dangerouse her future brother in-law was, he might be gentle and kind on the outside, but in reality he was a devil.

She was jealouse of Karlie for easily obtaining a man like Rolland, so she could only mock her in her heart, after all she was sleeping with her future husband. She knew that even after Karlie married Rolland, she would still be able to sleep with him and they might behave less cautiouse.

It was a great deal, however it would mean she would have to carry the label of a mistress for the rest of her life. Just like her mother who despite much effort to become the legal wife was still considered a mistress in the eyes of outsiders. She didn't want that title so she became even more jealouse of Karlie White who despite being cheated would obtain the honourable title with ease.

'It was hateful.' a call to envy and jealousy.