10. Changes
Within a few days, Kim’s life had changed so much that she could hardly keep up with the changes.
One, she had been uprooted from her home, someone was now in charge of her shop even though she was getting daily reports and she wasn’t allowed to go out alone.
“Am I a prisoner in your mansion?” She had asked Elyes the third day she was asked to take two men with her if she really wanted to go out.
“No. You aren’t a prisoner in my home but my identity is precarious and I can’t have anyone using you against me.
Bear with it for a while and once I get some things done, you can freely go out,” he had told her and she had decided to take it.
She couldn’t run away as she had thought because the balcony through which she had climbed down from the first day she slept in his house had been barred and only an insect could get through the front gate wasn’t an option seeing that there were more than four guards stationed there at every moment of the day.
She thus decided to go with the flow and help Zina and Maggie with doing house chores around the house.
Why did she stay?
At first, she wasn’t sure. What she was sure of was that she had to run away from the man’s grasp but as the days went and she got to know him, she started wavering.
One, the sex was heavenly.
Two, he cared for her like no one else ever had.
Three, she has hardly thought of that man.
“Ma’am, what do you want to take for lunch?” Zina asked her.
“Anything you cook is okay. Or why don’t we do this, let me cook for us today,” Kim said because she was feeling bored anyway.
“No. I can’t let you do it,” Zina refused so vehemently that Kim was taken aback.
“Why? It’s just cooking. I do that every day when I am not tired,” she insisted.
“Let me just do it. If Boss knows that I let you do anything … I …”
“What? Tell me,” Kim pressed.
“I would lose my job,” Zina finished in a small voice.
“No. He isn’t that kind of a person,” Kim said.
The man she knew was amiable, caring and gentle and there was no way he would just fire someone just because she was allowed to cook.
“Just… let me do it,” seeing how fearful Zina was, Kim dropped it and she walked towards the living room to wait as she read a book but she got bored and decided to take a walk around the house.
She left through the back door and she didn’t see anyone so she decided to keep walking and before she knew it, she was standing before this big enclosed area and she was curious to see what was there and so, she opened the small gate that was unlocked and went in and that was when she realised that this was the part she was told to never go.
Why?
When she walked in, she was faced by a large lion that had just been chewing on a large chunk of steak and it roared at her sight.
She froze on the spot and her body lost all senses and she fell to the floor.
The lion walked menacingly towards her and at that moment, she found her voice and screamed.
Roar!
It roared and went for her but at that moment, there was a shot and the lion hesitated.
Someone grabbed her and helped her stand up and asked, “ma’am, are you okay?”
She didn’t say anything as she was still trembling and she didn’t know how she got to the house and to her bed.
All she knew was that when she came to, Maggie was sitting by the bedside with a worried look as she helped wipe the sweat that was forming on her brow, non stop.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” Maggie asked.
“Yes. I am. Sorry. What happened?” She asked and then she remembered and she shook in horror.
“Why would he keep such animals in the mansion?” She asked and that’s when she realised that Maggie seemed… frightened?
“What’s wrong?” Kim asked.
“Boss is back and he’s angry. I have never seen him so angry in the three years I have been in this house,” she said and Macy smelled doom.
Without asking, she stood up from the bed and left the room in a hurry and went downstairs but she froze amid the steps at the sight.
Before her was Elyes but this wasn’t the man she knew.
This wasn’t the man she had come to grow fond of.
“Where were you when she walked in? Why did you leave the gate open? That’s your only job here and you failed!” Ely screamed at a man that was already on his knees and he gave him a kick that had the man growing but he kept on kneeling.
“What if Jim was a moment late?”
“I am sorry boss. I would never have thought that she would go to that side. I…”
Pa!
Another kick and this time, the man rolled and there was blood.
“Are you blaming her?” Ely asked.
“I wouldn’t dare Boss,” the man groaned in pain.
Kim was trembling and at that sight, a whimper left her throat and that’s when Ely turned.
“Kim?” His demeanour changed as he called in a worried tone and as if he wasn’t the one beating and berating another man, he smiled her way.
Within two steps, he was with her.
“Are you okay? Maggie, bring your Madam her lunch in the room,” he ordered and helped Kim up the stairs.
Maggie breathed a sigh of relief as she had thought that she would be next for letting Kim see such a sight.
“How are you?” He asked again since Kim hadn’t said anything.
“Please talk to me,” he begged and that’s when she looked at him.
To her, this Elyes was a totally different man from the one who was fuming downstairs.
“Are you always like that?” Kim asked.
“Like what?”
“That scary?”
“Only when need be. It comes with my job,” he didn’t lie to her.
“Please don’t punish them. I was the one who went there though. I had forgotten your warning. I’m sorry,” she said and finished in an embarrassed tone.
“It’s okay. But I’d he doesn’t learn, there might be an accident one day. What if he left the gate open one day and they left and caused mayhem here?” He asked and as much as he made sense, she didn’t want anyone getting hurt because of her.
“Just… forgive him this once,” she tried again though she knew it wasn’t her place.
“Do you want us to go out tonight? Maybe to your friend’s bar?” Ely asked changing the topic and Kim wasn’t as foolish as not to tell.
“Can we? Really?” She asked in surprise.
She could finally see her friend.
He nodded with a smile and kissed her.
“Please stay safe. I don’t want what I would do if something were to happen to you,” he said but she didn’t say anything.
Then after a while, “may I ask you something?” She asked and he gave her a nod.
“Why? Why do you want me to be with you? Why keep me here?” She wanted to know.
“Do I need a reason?” He asked, trying to circumnavigate around the matter.
“Of course you do. Otherwise there would be no need of me being here,” she said.
“Okay. Ever heard of love at first sight?” He asked and for the third time that day, she was frozen mute.