A Love Trap

"Aaaaahh!" Ashley jerked up from the bed, screaming her lungs out.

Beads of perspiration shone on her forehead and her saucer-like eyes were full of panicky terror.

Rattled, she glanced around to ascertain her surroundings. When the familiar sight of her bedroom greeted her, she sank back into her pillows and heaved a stunned sigh of relief.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect herself, and when she opened them again, she stared at the ceiling, her shock still rampant in her mind.

Never in her wildest imagination had she thought that she would dream of making love to a stranger. That excruciating post-coital pain still made her insides throb.

'That man was horrible!' she thought shakily. The very memory of him made her tremble with fear.

...

Not until she heard Ellie's muffled voice call out her name from the other side of her bedroom door did she snap out of her daze. The alarm on the bedside table told her that it was 8: 30 - just half an hour before she had to go to work.

Although she had made up her mind to quit her job, she was still an employee in the Luo Group and she didn't want to be late for work.

Ashley yelled a quick assurance to Ellie that she would be ready soon and hurried to the bathroom.

It only took her five minutes to fix herself up.

"What happened? Why'd you wake up so late?" Ellie asked, frowning as she took in Ashley's sleepy-eyed appearance.

Ashley gulped nervously.

'Should I tell her the truth? It's kind of hard to tell anyone about the dream, ' she thought.

"Nothing," she said, deciding to keep the experience to herself. "I had a nightmare last night. Kind of made it difficult to sleep at night, so ended up oversleeping in the morning."

Ellie studied her for a moment before handing Ashley her breakfast and sighing. She said, "Let's go or we will be late."

Ashley gratefully took the food and bit into it as she followed Ellie out of the house.

It was 9 am when they arrived at the office.

sensed that something was different. Pausing a moment to quizzically look around, they raised their

greeted by the sight of an elegantly dressed

woman in her thirties, not

you want. If you have any problems in the company, you can tell me. Don't suffer alone. If your mother hadn't told me what had happened to you, I wouldn't have known that you've been having such a difficult time." Her fondness

a show of

you could keep me company," the lady responded,

gossips like this, you can fire them directly without asking for my or Raymond's permission," she said, the sternness a

for Ashley, she knew it. And this was confirmed when she

got to go. You can go

Lena held the lady's arm intimately and they

cast her a contemptuous

scornful look on her face

face ensured that the crowd's outlook towards Ashley had changed a little. But they had heard the warning and nobody wanted

own thoughts, because doing that

in the older lady's attitudes towards the two girls. It was

everyone going back to work, but not before throwing Ashley

stood still, seething from within.

looks down upon me.

so arrogant, ' she thought.

and Lena, her eyes devoid of any emotion. Her rage was within and she wasn't about to show

that elegant lady all

Raymond's

So she often came up to Ashley and tried all means to make her leave her son, including offering her a

of the scorn and repulsion that Ashley had borne the

then, the lady had directed a lot of dismissive, harsh

was an ant and Raymond's mother was an elephant, holding the immense power to walk all over

to be with Raymond while facing his mother's strong

and couldn't bear the thought of leaving

...

Ellie asked, looking worriedly at