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.

something was different. Pausing a moment to quizzically look

made their way inside, only to be greeted by the

thirties, not like

me. Don't suffer alone. If your mother hadn't told me what had happened to you, I wouldn't

now was a completely different person altogether. The Lena she knew was unreasonable and arrogant. But the Lena before her was putting up a show of being a timid

could keep me company," the lady

around them, frozen to their places, and turned to Lena. "If anyone gossips like this, you can fire them directly without asking

Ashley, she knew it. And this was

You can go back

walk you to the exit." Lena held

past Ashley, the older lady cast her a contemptuous glance and let

look on her face

Ashley had changed a little. But they had heard the warning and nobody wanted to be chucked out. So they held the gossip

blurt out their own thoughts, because

could tell the difference in the older lady's attitudes towards the two girls. It

going back to work, but not before throwing Ashley strange

still, seething from within.

down upon

so arrogant, ' she

the retreating backs of the older lady and Lena, her eyes devoid of any emotion. Her

that elegant lady all

was Raymond's mother.

a passion because she thought that Ashley wasn't good enough for Raymond. So she often came up to Ashley and

the memories of the scorn and repulsion

directed a lot of dismissive, harsh words towards her, making Ashley feel

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

had no idea how she had had the courage to be with Raymond while facing his

Raymond the love of her life and couldn't bear the thought of leaving him at the time.

...

Ashley?" Ellie asked, looking