Chapter 1
The only thing she knows is that whenever it happens, she doesn't know who she's anymore.
She wishes she could leave from here, to a world that's unoccupied by anyone, to a place where no one could laugh at her cries since all she was, was just an amusement.
She feared staying was dangerous but leaving could even be more deadly. She will never be able to enjoy the freedom of being free, it's just not cut out for her.
It was happening once more and concurrently, a love song saying don't give up was playing downstairs in the living room, while he was hitting the daylights out of her. Not that she ever had any light in her.
She had never been in the spotlight for a good cause. Not even in marriage.
Running wasn't an option for her because she was just a paralytic girl on a wheelchair but that didn't bother him much though, he relished in making her suffer for his gratification anytime things didn't go his way.
With his belt, he made her wish she was never born.
Fabiola Thomas now Fabiola Scott, an actress who debuted ten years ago, laid on the ground, whimpering, pleading silently for him to stop inflicting this pain on her but it was of no use, he only stopped when he was satisfied.
Now, what was his reason?
"You fool! Ever since I got married to you, it's been one scandal or the other. Nothing has ever gone right. You're purely bad luck"
He tells her like she wanted to marry him in the first place, she never really wanted to.
Life was less bad when she met him. Three years ago, she ghosted her boyfriend but found out he got into a fatal accident and sadly, didn't survive it.
Fabiola didn't know if it was because of guilt or that she had loved him so much but she didn't survive it because she became disoriented and was paralyzed in a wheelchair from the shock.
So, she had been a downhill actress and became a paralytic girl afterwards. Doctors call it psychogenic paralysis, a rare disease that keeps the body still.
She suffered that fate till two months ago, when her parents married her off to the wealthy Dylan who said he would take good care of her but he did the best opposite of all he promised her family. Dylan was a gentleman only in the outside world. In here, he was a monster that enjoyed treating her like trash.
When he was done inflicting his pain, he went to drink from his wine glass and left the room with a terrible hiss.
She knew she disgusted him the same way he disgusted her. Her's, even more.
She managed to army crawl in the direction of the bathroom, a position she had to do very often for the past months.
Staying in the shower somehow brought relief when the water washed down her skin, even though it stung.
She whimpered in grief "Anyone… save me, please" and looked at the different injuries she never thought she would sustain, with no one to even help her, Dylan made sure of it.
The next day, her mother surprisingly came to look for her for the first time in two months that she got married.
She rolled her wheelchair with much difficulty and in haste because her mother was her last resort to get out of this hole.
Dylan gave her a warning look before leaving them at the balcony and she looked at her mother in panic "Mother… i hav"
"Fabiola dear, I'm so glad to finally see you. Dylan said you were having a secret honeymoon and he wanted to spoil you silly. As you can see, we are doing well" he mother gushed happily, singing his praises and swinging a blue Versace bag which she had acquired.
Secret honeymoon? Did she look like someone who was enjoying anything sweet? Was her mother that blind to see she was in a bad shape? Dylan could have made it clear that he just wanted a wife to kill.
"I see. Well, unlike everyone else, I'm in grave danger. Dylan has been mistreating me in different ways that I don't want to remember anymore. I'm glad you are here now. Take me home, mum" she told her, with tears laced in her eyes. If there was anyone to listen, it had to be her mother.
"That's not going to happen, Fabiola" her mother uttered with a serious face "You can't go back home. Dylan is going to stop the investments he is making with us and our one way ticket of being rich would be lost. Come on, you know our situation. Whatever is happening in your marriage, is nothing you can't solve with a little communication, I could help you with that, even"
"Mother! I'm going to die! Do you value his money over your own daughter's life? This isn't about communication, I'm tired of suffering from this. I could have reached out to you sooner but he even took my phone"
"Enough! I don't want to hear your rantings anymore. Ever since you were born, you have always wanted to be an attention seeker. Dylan? A woman beater? How would a man see you on that miserable chair and still touch you? You're so delusional to think you could get out of this. You're married now, the sooner you get it, the better"
Fabiola stared at her mother wide-eyed, this wasn't her mother, she was blind with money and didn't give a damn about her daughter, her whole body was designed with Dylan's craft for goodness sake, did she choose not to see that?!
So she nodded repeatedly, getting the message
"Don't come here anymore please, it will disgust me even more"
Just like how her mother chose to turn a blind to her, she also couldn't care less about her feelings. She was sold and now she has accepted it, she's no more part of the Thomas family.
Her mother snickered, coming close to her
"Everything is your fault, your acting career falling is your fault, this wheelchair is your fault. So stop complaining about what you brought upon yourself"
She watched her leave as her words echoed in her mind. That was what she was still thinking when she brought out her lover's picture from under her bed. It was the safest place she knew away from Dylan or else, he would make hell loose.
Looking at his picture made her more emotional and reminisced on their memories, she missed him dearly "Today, I will run away for the second time. If I don't succeed, I will come join you with gladness" She murmured to his picture and looked at the direction of the CCTV placed in the room with a glare.
****
In the evening, a party was being held at Dylan's house. Fabiola didn't know what occasion he was celebrating and she didn't even care, she only knew there were a lot of his associates and it meant less attention to her tonight.
Dylan locked her up alright but she had other plans, she was going to escape with all of her might.
She had a plan!
Actually, the plan was absurd- go near the door and shout for help till a man or a woman other than Dylan hears your call and open the door of misery for you to be set free.
She had looked at the balcony yesterday and there was no way she could fly from there. Unless?… unless she places a soft substance like her bed on the ground so she can land on it when she does fall down. Only that, she was already paralytic. If she fell down and hurt her body more it would be harder to escape but if she did fall down and nothing happened, she had to crawl as hard as she could.
Time was running out and anytime soon, her husband would come running back.
"Stop it, he is still here…" she heard a female voice trail off, outside the door and went to bang hard on it.
"Please, open it. Let me out" but instead, there was silence. Fabiola was already giving up to go try the falling plan when she heard keys jingling and the door immediately opened, making her step back in fear of Dylan but when she peered out, she saw a woman and a man running away, they might have opened it for her.
She looked at the hallways and there was no one in sight since everyone was downstairs where the party supposedly was. Fabiola rolled her wheelchair through the hallways, praying that Dylan wouldn't get a glimpse of her.
She succeeded in army crawling without catching much attention to herself. This was made possible because almost everyone was already drunk so anyone who saw her using her arms and belly on the floor thought it was normal and fortunately, not many people knew her as Dylan's wife.
Fabiola sighted Dylan pretty drunk, dancing with three girls at the same time but even if he wasn't looking in her direction, his guards were surrounding the house, she had to be sneaky about it. She grabbed a scarf that was hung at the stairs to cover her long hair and it was also big enough to cover her face and continued crawling with all of her might to the front door.
"Hey! You…" a voice called out to her and she froze.