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.

a moment to quizzically look around, they raised their

made their way inside, only to be greeted by the

looked like a woman in her thirties, not like

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

before her was putting up a show of being a timid girl. "I will, Auntie. I will come over to you whenever I have the time. I

I would be overjoyed if you could keep

the employees who were standing around them, frozen to their places, and turned to Lena. "If anyone gossips like this, you can fire them directly without asking for my or Raymond's permission,"

words were intended for Ashley, she knew it. And this was confirmed when she saw the

to go. You can go back

the exit." Lena held the lady's arm intimately and they headed towards the

they walked past Ashley, the older lady cast her a contemptuous glance and let out a low yet audible snort.

look on her

crowd's outlook towards Ashley had changed a little. But they had heard the

own thoughts, because doing that could mean losing their

older lady's attitudes towards the two girls. It was evident that the elegant lady favored Lena and despised Ashley.

onlookers scattered, everyone going back to work, but

seething from within.

looks down upon me.

arrogant, ' she thought.

and Lena, her eyes devoid

knew that elegant lady

Raymond's mother.

Ashley wasn't good enough for Raymond. So she often came up to Ashley and tried all means to make her leave

of the lady brought back all the memories of the scorn and repulsion that Ashley had borne the

of dismissive, harsh words towards her, making Ashley feel like a

holding the immense power to walk all over Ashley and insult

idea how she had had the courage to be with Raymond while

her life and couldn't bear

...

you okay, Ashley?" Ellie asked, looking worriedly