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.

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

greeted by

in her thirties, not like the forties woman that she actually was.

me. Don't suffer alone. If your mother

the Lena that she was seeing 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 girl. "I will, Auntie. I will come over to you whenever I have the time. I only hope you will not find me clingy,"

overjoyed if you could keep me company," the lady responded, flashing Lena a warm

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," she said, the sternness a whip to everyone listening but

knew it. And this was confirmed

You can go back

Auntie. I will walk you to the exit." Lena held the lady's arm

walked past Ashley, the older lady cast her a

repulsive, scornful look on her face was evident.

had changed a little. But they had heard the warning and nobody wanted to be

own thoughts, because doing that could mean losing

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

going back to work,

stood still, seething from within.

down upon me.

arrogant, ' she

older lady and Lena, her eyes devoid of any

that elegant lady all too well.

Raymond's mother.

been together, she had detested Ashley with a passion because she thought that Ashley wasn't good enough for Raymond. So she often came up to Ashley and tried all means to make her

brought back all the memories of the scorn and repulsion that

dated Raymond back then, the lady had directed a lot of dismissive, harsh words towards her, making

Raymond's mother was an elephant, holding the immense power to

had no idea how she had had the courage to

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

...

you okay, Ashley?" Ellie asked, looking worriedly