Adrian and Missy seemed a picture of a lovely couple. Perfect, handsome and beautiful, they were. She had not dated him for long and never knew him much. She was very rich and he from a middle class background. He pressed her for early marriage. Taken in by his good looks and charm, she convinced her parents to agree though she did not know his true person and worth. Her mom wanted to see her happy and loved.
When Missy said, “he is a wonderful person Mom,” her mom was skeptical though she could not readily pinpoint any reason. Some how she felt his intentions were after her money and unsure whether he would be loving and kind to her.
After the marriage when they started living together she tried to adjust to him. In a few months she felt she had made a mistake. Except for sex and his propensity to dip his hand into her money, he had no interest in her. He was mostly away and returned home drunk.
She soon found he was a psychopath and sadist. He was very loving one moment when he needed her and the next moment he looked like a sneering devil ready to devour a victim. He often hurt her slapping and pushing her if his slightest whims was not met. Missy suffered a lot from his cruel hands and the bruises he inflicted on her. But she did not divulge to her parents, ashamed that she ignored their advice.
One day when Adrian came home fully drunk after losing his money in gambling and made a demand on her by physically imposing on her, she got angry.
“Adrian, I am so confused with you, what’s the matter with you? I am so frightened when you start bawling at me like I am not your wife! Don’t you know to be gentle and care for other’s sentiments? How can you behave like an animal?” Missy spoke to Adrian in frustration and anger.
“Don’t think you are the only one I am dependent on. I have dozens willing to bestow favor. Give me ten thousand pesos immediately. I would not stay for a moment longer to see your scowling face,” he shouted.
Missy was shocked. She said in anger “I had all along thought you were only short in temper but I know now you are weak in character too. Get….lost!!! You will not get one peso out of me!”
In a sudden movement he took a pen knife from his pocket and slashed her cheek a couple of times telling, “This will teach you a lesson. Don’t be proud you are beautiful. You will no longer be so with those gashes.” Then he ran away like a coward when she screamed and did not return thereafter.
It took two months for the wound to heal but had left an indelible scar on her face and heart. She went out covering her face partially with her scarf. She could not avoid meeting her parents when they called her for their wedding anniversary celebration with her usual excuses that she was busy. She knew that her mom would find out the real reason for her avoiding her.
When she entered the living room after her dad opened the door, her mom came running from the living room to greet her. Narrowing her eyebrows while looking at her daughter with her strange scarf, pale, shrunk with her eyes avoiding her, she asked “Missy, my baby, what has happened to you? What is this new addition of a shawl around your face? Tell me what is wrong?”
As Missy’s mom came near her, the old lady pulled the scarf to see the incalculable and cruel damage done to her daughter. Missy could suppress her sorrows no more as she flung herself into her mom's shoulders and amidst sobs narrated what had transpired. The veil of secrecy was torn open in a moment and with it the weight of her burden lifted.
Her mom said to her husband, “Go with Missy and bring all her personal belongings here. She will not go there anymore. Let us ask our lawyer to make a case for divorce on grounds of cruelty. I never liked that rascal with his shifty eyes from day one. Missy, I hope I have your approval for the steps I have detailed. In due course you can find a good man of your choice. Forget this as a bad dream.”
Missy hugged her mom tightly to signify her approval.
“Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness.”
~*~*~*~
Written for:
Tale No. 20
