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 raised

greeted by the sight

in her thirties, not like the

took Lena by the hand and said amiably, "You can come to my house anytime 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

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

could I, dear? I would be overjoyed if you could keep me company," the lady responded, flashing Lena

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

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

You can go

held the lady's arm intimately and

a contemptuous

on her face

that the crowd's outlook towards Ashley had changed a little. But they had heard the warning and nobody wanted to be chucked out. So they held the

thoughts, because doing that could mean losing their jobs.

lady's attitudes towards the two

work, but not before throwing

stood still, seething

looks down upon me.

' she

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

elegant lady

Raymond's

that Ashley wasn't good enough for Raymond. So she often

memories of the scorn and repulsion that Ashley had borne

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

Ashley was an ant and Raymond's mother was an elephant, 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

...

Ellie asked, looking worriedly at her.