Blackmailed For Love

I sat down on the sofa and opened the first box of the two in the soft overhead light coming from above the tv console.

I peeled the soft tissue that glimmered in the dim light and looked at the dark purple silk nestled in there.

With hesitant fingers I picked up the silken fabric, it unfurled in my hands as I let it drop down in front of me.

It was a sleeveless and a backless dress with a slit up to just below the waistline.

I would be half naked in this dress but still the thought of wearing it lit up a spark of anticipation deep inside my lower belly.

The other box had the same colored heels with red bottoms.

It took me twenty minutes to get ready as I didn't do much except to put Band-Aids on my nipples as the dress won't allow me to wear a bra and my nîpples poked through the fabric as if begging for attention and applied a natural shade of pink lip gloss.

I looked like a virgin trying to be a seductress.

I shook my head at my own thoughts as I stepped out of the bathroom, 1 faltered when my eyes met dark greys.

My daughter was sitting up in the bed and she was looking at me with wide eyes and a curious tilt of her head.

"Anna…"

"Mama, you look beautiful."

My heart squeezed with love at her words.

I walked to her, concentrating on not falling face first because of the heels I was wearing, it was safe to say I wasn't used to such type of footwear.

"What are you doing waking up? I thought you were asleep."

I said as I sat down on the bed beside her.

"I was."

She said with a silent Duh at the end.

I bit down on my bottom lip as my lips twitched, but she slipped closer to me and said, "I had a bad dream."

I cupped her cheek and pulled her on my lap, uncaring of the expensive silk.

Cradling her against my chest, I smoothed her dark hair back and asked, "Talk to me.

What did you dream about?"

"Someone was taking me away from you."

She replied, her voice small and a slight shaking entered in her voice.

My arms tightened around her.

And I said, "No one is going to take me away from you."

2 "Promise?"

I pressed a kiss on her head.

"Promise, my little angel."

She looked up at me and asked, "Where are you going?"

I didn't know the answer to that myself, but I replied, "Dinner."

Her brows lowered and her grey eyes turned inquisitive.

"But we had pizza."

I tapped her nose.

"Yes.

But I am meeting someone."

"A boy or a girl?"

For some reason I didn't lie to my daughter.

"A boy."

She made a thoughtful face and asked, "Is he your boyfriend?"

I shook my head.

he is

want

pause of my own, I nodded, "I would prefer it if

lap and then I watched as she leapt off the bed and pulled the basket from under the bed which was filled with

bit and then held out

pang as I knew what was in her small fist even before she opened her

"Wear this.

lucky

her grey

head and closed her fingers back around the black stone that

"It's yours.

should keep it

up my hand then slammed the

and

give it back to

battle when I see

nodded and

to go

lie down, instead she bit down on her bottom lip and regarded me with a suspicious look and said, "Give it to me, I'll help you put it

old daughter was a freaking smartarse? The thought had crossed my mind too, instead of putting it on I'd have left it out in the apartment somewhere hidden but apparently

a silent demand

my

accidentally choked me as the thread wasn't too long and the broken rock came to settle on

would just look in

shape that resembled a human heart, not the one that we drew as children but with jagged edges and veins running inside it, crystal clear and shining but now I only had smallest broken part of it, the other half and the bigger part was left behind in the cottage on the

"See, this makes you look the

daughter announced as

tight hug, just then I heard my

I

palms and brought my face

grey eyes fierce as she said,

always be the best,

said, "So are

nose and in return

"I love you."

love you

and

a face and I said,

and I tugged the blanket over

I

"Good night, baby"

"When

"Soon."

replied "Good

and made my way toward the bedroom

"Yes, baby?"

be my

My broken heart suffered another scratch and I swallowed the knot in my throat

be

she turned away and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders, Closing

me about her father, I had to ignore her questions or make up a lie that

always painting her father in the light that would

away from her father which

that

when he

even now that he has a

happened if the last time I had gone to meet him to tell him the truth and if I had gotten the chance

what ifs weren't going to help me, now I didn't even know how he would react when the wounds inflicted by me had festered for so long that whenever his eyes landed

and unlocked my phone, I knew it even before I opened the message icon

prepared for his

there in the

Don't wear any panties."

me feel half naked so I wasn't going to obey

mother's bedroom

decided to wait for him downstairs because I didn't want

if I can help

force a daughter from her mother in the name of his revenge? I locked the

the corridor but it wasn't the case as I stepped out of the elevator on

me when I