บท 1: The bullied housewife

THUMP!

Erin Brinstrone threw a stack of glossy fashion magazines on the floor.

"Look at these! These are from last week. Where are the new editions? Why haven't you bought the latest editions yet? Such a lazy bitch, I don't even know why Mark keeps you around!" the cold imperious matriarch of the well-to-do Brinstrone family berated her quiet and meek daughter-in-law, Valeria Brinstrone.

"Go get me new magazines right now you lazy bitch!" she ordered.

Valeria nodded meekly and quickly picked up the glossy magazines. Hugging the magazines to her chest, she hurried out of the ostentatious living room as unwanted tears swelled under her eyes.

She quickly swipe the tears away before they slide down her rosy cheeks and made her way to her car in the garage. Along the way, she stopped at the recycle bin and threw the glossy magazines inside.

Valeria Brinstrone is a 40-year-old housewife who was bullied by her in-laws because she was barren. She has been married to her husband, Mark Brinstrone, for 15 years and have been unable to produce a child in all these years.

Her mother-in-law and her sisters-in-law often criticised her for her failure to produce a child and made her do all of the housework at home. They often ordered her around and made her run unnecessary errands, such as now, asking her to buy the latest fashion magazines.

"You are such a useless daughter-in-law and wife, my Mark is better off marrying another woman," her mother-in-law, Erin Brinstrone, will always say to her before throwing things at her.

Her two twin sisters-in-law, Nesquai and Neshi, who are 10 years younger than her, treated her the same way as their mother, with disdain and total disrespect.

"You are such an ugly and useless sister-in-law, our brother surely deserves a prettier and better wife," they would tell her.

Today's incident with the magazines was no different. It was just another day in the Brinstrone household for Valeria. Valeria reversed her Mercedes out of the garage and drove off in the direction of the nearest mall where she knows of a bookshop that sells a large selection of magazines and books.

Her mother-in-law, Erin Brinstrone, is as fickle as she is mean. Sometimes, she might change her mind and wanted other magazines to read so Valeria knows that she has to buy up every magazine she can find, just in case.

As she drove along the busy road, her mind started to roam.

What would he life be like if she had never met Mark Brinstrone and never married him? She would probably be a successful game designer with her own game development company and money of her own.

As is often in recent years, she was filled with regret that she had easily fallen for the handsome tall, blonde and enigmatic Mark Brinstrone that one fateful night 17 years ago. She was only 23 years old, young and impressionable and she had easily fallen for his charms.

They were married within two years and initially, she was elated to be Mrs Mark Brinstrone, the wife of the most eligible bachelor in the city of Zarin. As Mrs Mark Brinstrone, she has everything she ever wanted, or so she thought.

Now, the reality of life has set in. Mark barely even look at her nowadays. He is seldom home and when he does come home, it is often late at night and he would sleep in the guest bedroom, ostensibly to avoid disturbing her sleep.

He doesn't even touch her anymore. Deep in her heart, she knows he doesn't love her anymore. She even suspected that he has a mistress outside as sometimes she would catch a whiff of a flowery perfume on him when he comes home at night.

Valeria, who grew up as Valeria Aurelaire, was an orphan so she doesn't even have a family to rely on for support. She is stuck as Mark Brinstrone's barren wife who is nothing more than an errand girl in the Brinstrone household.

As these dark thoughts swirled around in her mind, she pulled into the mall parking lot and almost hit a man who chose that very moment to ran across the road.

*SQUEAL*

THUMP!

She hit the brakes and turned the wheel, veered off to the side, barely hitting him before coming to a sudden stop, her heart thumping, her adrenaline racing and perspiration beaded her forehead.

She was panting in fear as she craned over the dashboard to see if she did hit anything since there was a loud thumping sound when she hit the brakes. The jaywalking man was standing by the roadside, glaring at her with unusual grey eyes.

She glared back at him. He had ran in front of her car, how dared he look at her with such an accusatory expression. She undo her seatbelt and alighted from the car before going around to stand before the man.

She peeked under her car. There was nothing there. Good. At least she didn't actually kill anyone with her car, although this still doesn't explain the thumping sound she was sure she heard.

She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the man. Up close, he is way taller than he appeared earlier. He looked to possibly be around his 30s and was wearing a black hoodie with a black mask over his mouth and nose. The only thing she can see was his glittering grey eyes that glinted with silvery glimmers.

"Hey, don't you know how to cross the road? You should have used the pedestrian crossing up ahead," she told him, pointing to the zebra crossing about 200 metres away.

"Hey lady, you were speeding like you are escaping from hell, you could have gotten me killed!" he responded. His voice was a deep timbre, the kinds that makes you think of romantic rainy nights in with a handsome sexy stranger.

"You ran across the road, how was I to know you are gonna ran across like that!" she exclaimed, refusing to be drawn in by his sexily deep voice. She wondered if his looks matches his voice and then quickly shake the thought away from her mind. Her fascination with handsome men is what got her into her current meaningless sad life at the Brinstrone family.

The stranger with the sexy voice suddenly brought out a switchblade and brandished it at her. Great, of all days, today, she has to almost hit a robber with a switchblade.

Just her luck. She glanced around the carpark. It was deserted. It is after nine o'clock at night so understandably, it will be deserted. Especially when it is nearing winter, freezing cold and the store is closing in 30 minutes.

Fish sticks, she cursed inwardly.

She might not make it in time to the store to buy up all the magazines no thanks to this robber. This has not been a good day at all! Annoyance rose within her.

She glared at the man.

"Hey, asshole. Is this what you do? Your modus operandi? You ran in front of cars and then get the driver to come check on you and then you rob them? Well, today is your unlucky day because I AM NOT IN THE FUCKING mood!" she hissed and suddenly gave him a roundhouse kick.

She has picked up some self defence techniques over the years, especially when she was an orphan and had to fend for herself growing up.

Caught by surprise, the man didn't even avoid her and her foot connected neatly on his cheek, making a loud crunching sound before he fell over with a thump.

"Ooof!" was the only sound he made as he fell and the switchblade fell out of his hands. She quickly picked it up and brandished it at him in return.

"Hey, punk, you picked on the wrong housewife today, especially when I am not in a good mood too," she told him, suddenly full of confidence.

Serve the knife-wielding robber right, she thought as she watched him groaning on the ground. She wouldn't have avoided him at all if she knew he would attempt to rob her and waste her time.

She glanced at her watch. It is already 9.20pm. The damn asshole has taken 20 minutes of her time.

"Well, this has been fun, sorry I gotta go now before the store closes and I will be SO screwed if I didn't get her majesty her supply of lame superficial magazines," she told him.

She turned to go but the man grabbed at her ankles and pulled, making her fall face down on the ground. She released the switch blade as she used her palms to break her fall.

The man took the opportunity to scramble up and grabbed the switch blade.

"Too bad, it is your time no matter you like it or not," he told her calmly, his eyes glinting silver as he made to stab her with the knife but fast as lightning, she avoided his stab and grabbed the blade from him easily.

"Not today, asshole!" she hissed and as she got up, she aimed the switch blade at him but he would not have it, he made a grab for it and then they were tussling over it.

They both fell on the ground together and using her weight as her advantage, Valeria rolled on top of him to grab the switch blade back. The man was resisting and fighting her, and in the struggle, the blade slide into his abdomen smoothly, like a hot knife through butter, and in that suspended moment, there was utter silence and a sudden stillness.

Then his eyes widened in shock and she released the handle of the blade immediately, raising her hands to her mouth in shock, still straddling him while he grunted in pain, his hand clutching the side where the switch blade's handle is now sticking out.

It is buried deep up to its hilt.

"Fork! You stabbed me!" he gasped, in shock.

"I stabbed you, oh my gawd," she gasped, also in shock.