Anger

CHAPTER ONE

It was around seven o'clock am at the luxurious Linton's mansion. The morning had a festive air, with beautiful flowers and trees waving their palms to the glory of God, their Creator. The garage is packed with multi-million-dollar cars- Mercedes Ben, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and other expensive cars one may think of.

Inside the living room, lay a young woman on a couch, in a state of her exhaustion. Dark underlines her sunken eyes, and her once-lustrous now hung limp and greasy. Her frail and gaunt cheeks betrayed the abundance of food in the mansion, and the faint bruises on her skin told a story of her suffering.

From her look, one may think she's a maid. But the truth is, she is the daughter-in-law of the Linton family, the second in line to the richest family in Elysian City. The young woman's name was Isabella Wilfred, in her early twenties.

Ever since Isabella's mother-in-law and father-in-law died in a car accident, she had been living in a paradise of hell, suffering and smiling. Her husband constantly makes her life a living hell.

Just a week after the burial of her two in-laws, her husband had all the maids and butlers sacked without any tangible reason, leaving her with all the house chores; the cleaning, the cooking, the washing, and other housework without any helping hand.

He did that purposefully on the ground that wretched people like her ought not to exist on planet Earth. Yet, she remained submissive and obedient to him.

Isabella had earlier woken up by 3 am that morning to get everything done as usual- the cleaning, cooking, washing, and many more since everything was dependent on her.

And before 6 am, she'd had already rounded up with everything and would take an hour's rest from 6 am to 7 am since going out was out of ban for her.

The possibility of this was that she had an alarm clock that she set for herself to enable her to wake up early. And these had been on for three months, and she had gotten addicted to the time frame that even before the alarm will rang, she was already awake.

Suddenly, a noise echoed from the courtyard, interrupting Isabella's peaceful rest. Her eyebrows furrowed, her lips pursed in concern as she rose from the couch. "Oh no, why now? I needed more rest." She said with a yawn, he covered her mouth with her hand.

Dropping down her hand, she straightened up her eyes looked at the wall clock, and sighed annoyedly. It was 6:30 am, not up to her actual resting hour which was supposed to be 7:00 am. A hint of frown made its way through her face as she stood up from the couch. She made her way to the glass window, her legs trembled as she walked, her eyes also heavy with fatigue.

As she got to the window, she looked through the glass window and saw her husband already dressed up for work and was warming up his car engine.

"He's already leaving for work? So early?" Isabella asked herself, in a cold and surprising tone.

Her husband she knew had never gone to work so early since it was his late dad's company and also for the fact he's gonna become the next CEO, so that made him develop a callous attitude to work.

Unknowingly to Isabella, her husband had earlier passed the living room 30 minutes ago when she was fast asleep. Before he left the room, he frowned at her irritably, anger built up inside of him.

"How on earth did I agree to marry this woman?" the young man irritably asked himself, as he shook his head in disbelief.

He had wanted to marry a woman of the same class as him, but his parents had refused it, saying that Isabella was the best woman they had ever seen and met. And they were able to convince him to marry Isabella.

Letting out a deep sigh before exiting. "I can't cope with her anymore. I'm a young-looking man so I deserve a sexy lady, not this old stinky woman." He silently said, with a disgusted expression before he exited.

As Isabella turned to head back to her resting spot, her cold black eyes suddenly settled on a glassy container on the dining table. Her eyes lingered on it for a moment.

"Why didn't he take it? Does it mean he forgot to do so? Well, maybe I should go and give it to him then." Saying this, Isabella walked faintly to the dining table.

But just within a minute, a spark of alertness ignited in her eyes, banishing the sleepiness like a fleeting shadow. Her gaze sharpened, and she straightened her posture, her entire demeanor transforming from languid to lively. The sudden change was like a switch had been flipped, revealing the vibrant person she truly was, always ready to tackle the day with energy and enthusiasm.

As Isabella got to the dining table, she got hold of the container, and quickly made her way outside as she screamed continuously, "Sir, please wait, wait. You forgot to take something." She screamed, adding more strength to her voice, and at the same time, waving her hand to the car, which was already in its direction to drive off.

On hearing Isabella's endless yelling, the young man who was driving abruptly stopped the car. Isabella then took a few steps closer to the car, still with the glassy container.

She stood and waited a while longer before the young-looking towering man, with a striking figure and a physique body came out of the car. He was dressed in black and white. His suit jacket hung over his shoulder casually.

The young man was no other than, Isabella's husband by the name of James Linton. He scanned Isabella furiously from her head down to her toe repeatedly. He was on call.

"Excuse me, I'll call you back," James said politely to the person on the other end of the call before hanging up.

Just after James ended his call and pocketed his iPhone 15pro Max, Isabella cleared her throat and greeted him.

"Good morning sir."

"What is good about the morning? James' voice dripped with anger. Why did you stop me? He asked, his face twisted in a scowl, his voice blazing in anger, "Why do you keep following me? Why? Can't you see I'm going to work?" he added.

James' words were like a well-sharpened knife, cutting through the air as he spoke to Isabella, his words laced with venom and disdain as always.

Hmm!" Isabella breathed out, then breathed in before she cleared her throat and answered icily, "Sir, I'm sorry, but…"

Her sentence was cut short on the way as James interrupted impatiently, looking more furious. But what? You better speak up, useless fool! I got something important to do." He said, his face built in rage.

Of a truth, James' stuff was of more importance to him than his wife, Isabella. He had never sat down and discussed anything with her like every married couple could do. And even when Isabella dared to go close to him, he would wave her off like she was a nobody.

All that James was concerned about was his businesses and other of his stuff. He had never thought of marrying Isabella. How on earth could the son of a wealthy man marry his maid? To James, it was impossible and it only happened in movies, most especially Indian movies.

But he put up a facade and pretended that he loved Isabella but after his parent's death, he began to reveal his true color. He mistreated Isabella so she could end the marriage herself since he didn't want to fail the promise he made to his dead parents.

But all was to no avail because Isabella believed that marriage was for better and for worse. Not heeding his evil motives, Isabella's tolerance however doubled James' annoyance towards her any time he set his eyes on her.

Isabella politely replied with a bitter smile, not wanting to show that she was annoyed at James' harsh words. She hates it when James calls her names, but who was she to dare tell him to stop? They didn't give birth to her well to do so.

"Sir, It's obvious you forgot to take your breakfast which I made for you. So, I have come to give it to you." Isabel, finally spoke out coldly.

James had instructed her never to address him by his name, instead, he preferred to be called 'Sir' by her, so that is why Isabella was calling him that. He loved it when she called him that since she was just nothing but a servant to him. And that's the way a servant addresses her Master.

James just stood and stared at her without a word. Isabella then felt the zeal to hand over the container to James and leave.

"Here you go," Isabella said, as she stretched her hand to give the container to James, who just stood and stared at her with a furious look. His face conveyed the level of his anger, but Isabella acted like she didn't see it.

Instead of taking the container, James furiously hit it from Isabella's hand causing it to fall to the ground. "Go to hell with your bewitched food."

Boom!" Everything shattered to the ground.

A shiver suddenly ran through Isabella's spine. She knew that she was in danger the moment James hit the container with her hand. The rage on James' face only was enough to prove her right. Even a little child of age 5 could tell it from his look.

That was James' behavior when he was ready to do something bad to Isabella.

Isabella's body began to vibrate for fear, her heart racing and beating faster. She was already stressed out that morning from the houwouldhores, and James adding his wrath to it was a big no to her.

She didn't want anything that would cause her more pain. Then, she secretly and gently moved her left foot backward, but something happened. Just when she was about to move the right foot, James caught her by the wrist, and forcefully pulled her backward.

James' pull had so much force that it caused Isabella to miss her step which made her hit her mouth against the door handle of James' car.

Bang!

Just immediately, Isabella could feel a sharp pain in her mouth. Opening her mouth, Isabella spat out blood. The blood was so much in her mouth that she kept spitting out, meanwhile, her heart was racing faster.

James turned in dissatisfaction and gripped Isabella's neck tightly, as he demanded. "Get your stinky body off my car." After saying this, James didn't free her but kept on holding her neck, with gritted lips.

Isabella contorted in panic, as she desperately tried to draw in air, her neck still in the middle of her husband's powerful hands.

On seeing James' grip was getting worse, Isabella's tiny fists began pounding against James' chest, the blows barely registering on his imposing frame. Her fragile hands, delicate as a bird's wings, struck with a desperation that belied their weakness. Each hit was like a gentle tap, a stark contrast to the ferocity in her eyes.

Her voice, a barely audible whisper, pleaded, 'Ple... please...let me go,' the words trembling with fear. The disparity between her gentle blows and her desperate cries only highlighted the stark power imbalance between them, James' unyielding grip a stark reminder of his control.

The hit was so a heavy one to Isabella but it wasn't having any effect on James. But what could she do? Just watch and had James strangled her to death?

She was already in the middle of life and death so doing nothing wasn't a nice idea.

"Ple…Pleas. Please, let's go of me." Isabella managed to cry out, her eyes suddenly turned red with tears. A slightly alkaline liquid escaped through her mouth.

Still choking her, James' thunderous voice was heard, "What do you take me for? A fool? You wanna kill me with that bewitched food of yours so you could take my dad's company. You think I don't know? Huh?" he thundered, looking furious, as he choked her the more.

"You succeeded in bewitching my parents with your food to have me married to you, and now...?" He didn't finish his words.

James believed that Isabella had poisoned his parents' minds with her food made them love her and even ask him to marry her.

Isabella couldn't say a word, the tight grip was so much that she was battling to gulp out air. She kept hitting him faintly with the hope that he gonna free her but the hit wasn't doing anything to James.

"Haven't I told you not to ever come close to me?" James asked again, lessening his grip, which allowed Isabella to speak up.

Answering James' questions wasn't necessary to her at that moment. She only wanted her freedom.

"Ple… please.. please, let's…." Isabella's incomplete cold tone came out as a whisper, followed by a cough. The tight hold of James' hands on her neck couldn't her to speak freely.

After choking her for about some minutes, James finally freed her but pushed her roughly to the causing her to hit her head on the ground.