Chapter 6: An Interesting Discovery

Kate knocked at least 3 times on the door before Lydia jumped up from bed and opened up. Kate's regular smile decorated her face but surely, her countenance let Lydia know she didn't appreciate standing outside for long. "Ma'am," she said, through gritted teeth.

"Hi, Kate. Sorry, I was deep asleep," Lydia explained.

"I wonder why, ma'am. "

"Oh, I was really tired from yesterday."

Kate rolled her eyes, to Lydia's notice. In the normal sense, Kate was supposed to be all jittery and fearful in Lydia's presence. Lydia was the Boss Lady of the house. Right? Maybe that was a ruse to just make Lydia stay put. "Why, did the Boss shag you?" Kate asked, not minding her offensive question. The girl had a lot of nerve. Or maybe a crush on Shawn.

"What's that supposed to mean, Kate?" Lydia sounded serious. Kate smiled pretentiously. "What? Are you a kid? You should even be thankful that he's wedded you first. Normally he just sleeps with them and disposes of them when he's had enough."

"Them? Who's them?" Lydia asked in disbelief. She was coming to a bit of realization of her primary function in that house. Kate decided she would have a little fun with Lydia's innocence.

"Oh..." She chuckled, "I should probably stop talking, y'know. Wouldn't wanna... put a dent in your perfect beginnings."

"Well, you've gotten far enough with that. No need to stop now."

"Fine." She saw Lydia's seriousness and was impressed. She thought Lydia's heart was too weak to give way to a tough back.

"The Boss sleeps around a lot. Well not too much but, just the right number. He's gorgeous and rich so ladies easily fall for him. But they don't know what he really does.... they just follow him around like bees do honeycombs." She paused, waiting for a reaction from Lydia but there was none. She continued,

"As you know, he's a Mafia leader but, he's also an assassin." Lydia always joked within her about Shawn's propensity to be an assassin. She'd never dreamed to be right. But it came to her that, she never quite got the full story about how her mother wound up in his custody, or what she did that he couldn't forgive. Now it was somehow making sense. "You're trying to scare me, aren't you?" Lydia didn't want to believe Kate. She assumed Kate was teasing as usual. "You said I didn't need to stop, well I'm not stopping," Kate reminded her.

Yes. She did tell Kate to spill the beans. "so he actually kills people!" Lydia was out of breath. She was entrenched in fear, hatred, shame, disgust. She'd wedded a killer. A ruthless killer. So how did her mum get involved?! Was that why he didn't let her reach her mum? He didn't want her to know the truth!

"So you've just had this unlikely pity on me all this time. You've felt bad for me. Thinking I'm in the worst of situations! Did you really think I'd have let my mother make that stupid deal?!" Lydia was frantic.

"Well, yes! You're no different from these other girls. You're just like all the rest of us!" Us? Lydia stopped to ponder on that. "Oh, he's slept with you too."

Kate's smirk gave away the answer. "Oh my goodness..what have I gotten myself into? What have I...," words escaped her mouth.

"Well, this isn't why I'm here. You're going out tonight with the boss. Since he's not letting you have a cellphone, I have to always deliver his messages."

"Yeah, no kidding. Where is he taking me to?"

"A slaughterhouse?" Kate joked. Lydia looked away in slight annoyance. She had to talk to her mum. She decided she would confront Shawn and make him get her a cell phone. "I guess I'm not supposed to let Shawn know that I know what he is," Lydia said. Kate was amused at this,

"Shawn doesn't care,"

"You called him Shawn,"

"Whatever."

Kate continued, "Shawn doesn't care about what happens, what anyone thinks about him. None of that bothers him. He has a black heart. When you're on his bad side, he's your worst nightmare. Well, even when you're on his good side, he's still your worst nightmare,"

"Well, do you have any Idea why he decided to listen to my mum's conditions?"

"Are you dumb?? I just gave you a hint about what he does with women,"

"But I didn't go after him. He came after me!"

After Lydia screamed, she calmed herself, took in a deep breath, and set her eyes back on Kate. Kate looked to be pondering over what Lydia had just said.

"Yeah... true... he's never gone after a woman before, at least not to our knowledge. It's a true wonder, a miracle in fact," glad that Kate had finally picked up the cue, Lydia asked, "So...can you guess...?"

"What do you want me to say? That he sees something special in you?? Well, I see nothing, so sorry I can't answer that. Let's just get you dressed."

"For tonight?"

"For today, you moron!"

Lydia bit back on the tiny complaint she may have rained on Kate. The girl was unbelievably mean to her but at least now she knew why. Jealousy. What a hilarious situation. She didn't even know what she was doing in that place, and yet someone was jealous about it.

"Kate. Look, I'm sorry that you like Shawn. I don't like him one bit. I didn't put myself in this situation. I really didn't. I found myself in it and I want more than anything to be out of it. So, please I don't want us fighting or you always being pissed at me. Okay?"

Lydia said, every so sincerely.

"I'll be pissed at you until you leave this house," Kate hissed. There was no getting across to this girl. Lydia made her way into her restroom with her head hung low. The sight of the tub threw a flashback to the moment Shawn trespassed and nearly joined her in the bath, had his phone not rung. She was determined to unravel the underlying mystery surrounding her new lifestyle.