CHAPTER 66: SPECIAL EXISTENCE

Suzie’s playful but curious voice stopped Shelby’s monologue.

"Who are you talking with anyway?"

Shelby sat up and looked over at Suzie, who could not stand still. Shelby had not heard when the girl had come in, and Suzie usually knocked first before she did.

’I must have been too engrossed in my thoughts then.’

Suzie’s face was flushed red, and her eyes were expectant as she waited patiently.

"So... how was what?" Her eyes shone.

"You know? You were gone for almost the whole day this time, and I heard-"

She slapped her mouth, stopping the direction of her words.

"Erhmmm! Never mind, Miss Shelby. I know you enjoyed yourself and that is why I’m so happy! I never thought that this day would come!"

She dabbed her apron on the corner of her eyes, and Shelby’s mouth dropped open. She also blushed a deep shade of red.

She had almost forgotten about their sexual escapades earlier.

"Are you okay down there? I heard the first times hurt a bit..." she giggled slightly with a dreamy look.

"Should I draw a hot bath for you to soak your lower body?" She asked, noting the large t-shirt Shelby had on. She stretched her neck around and didn’t see the clothes Shelby had on the night before.

’Miss Shelby must have left it in Master Ian’s room. That means she will be going back!’

Suzie concluded. With each word Suzie uttered, Shelby wished, she could dig a hole to hide herself.

’What does Suzie mean by that?’

"So, Miss Shelby, Ho-"

"Suzie, please help me draw the bath. And stop making your imagination run wild!"

"Oh yes! The bath. I will do that now."

Suzie skipped happily as if she was in a playground as a little girl, her pigtails bouncing off of her to the bathroom.

Shelby relaxed when she went out of sight. Suzie had a sunny disposition, but today, she was on a whole different level. Shelby looked around vigilantly and then said,

"Please turn around; if you are here, I am going to undress."

After pausing a bit, she pulled off Ian’s t-shirt and was about to remove the bottoms when Suzie popped back in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Male Boxers, too!" Suzie felt like she was on cloud nine! This time, she whispered it to herself,

"OMG! My mistress finally did it! Let me note down this date for future reference! Our baby is gonna be here within the year! They did say that this was all Miss Shelby had to do! I feel so excited that my heart is going to burst!" Her singsong voice echoed around.

And this is how Shelby found her when she turned.

Eyes so bright that they looked like they were shining. Suzie was shuffling on her feet as if she was dancing.

Shelby’s blush deepened, and she let out a helpless sigh, "What’s up with you?"

"Nothing, Miss Shelby!" She said a little too abruptly, and Shelby walked past her and into the bathroom before she removed the boxers and got into the warm bath, letting out a sound of contentment.

"This feels so good!" She whispered as the warm-scented water soaked her body.

"Mis-, I mean Shelby, since you were able to do the deed with Master Ian, Madam Gene-"

"I didn-"

Shelby stopped and asked,

"What did mum say?"

"She said that you can do anything you want for tomorrow. All the restrictions are off!"

"Oh...."

"You were about to say that you didn’t do something. What was that?"

"Erm, I didn’t eat yet. Yes! I didn’t eat yet! But did she really say that I can do ANYTHING?"

Shelby sat up abruptly, the water cascaded over her perked-up breasts and slid down into the tub. Suzie blushed even more and averted her eyes.

"Y-es,"

"Even go out?"

"Of course!"

"Finally! Yes!"

"Oh, sorry, Miss Shelby, I will have a meal ready for you when you get out. You must be famished! Considering the length of time you spent in there and all. You must be tired as well."

Shelby lowered her head. She just let Suzie blabber on and on and made no correction of the insinuation. Technically, it was true ... in a way, they just had not gone all the way but they had made some progress.

’It’s just a white lie. I want to go out and stop being restricted here. Let them believe what they want to so that I can go!’

Shelby slipped down in the tab and submerged the larger part of her body under the foamy water.

Alone with her thoughts and also having a sense of security that Murray was not there, she let her mind run freely to none other than Ian!

Nothing about the man, made sense to her! First, he had asked about something he should have partially known, and then it looked like his world had ended?

She thought back to the way he sat lost in thoughts as if she had mentioned the unmentionable.

Her thoughts did not linger much on this, but it was on the man himself.

"It really was him... huh?"

Shelby allowed her thoughts to flow freely, pitching from the day James had brought her the contract to be signed under coercion.

That was the day she had felt her world shatter to pieces but then, ’did I accept the marriage because of the name Ian Thornston? Of course not.’ She answered her own question. Even though the man had told her his name and advised her to remember it that night, she could not have gone all of her life thinking that all Ian Thornston’s were the same.

’How come I never pieced this together? The Thornstons are very famous in T-Vino Island, and Brianna’s crush on him was very obvious with all of his pictures in her room. So how come?’

She had tried very much to suppress the memory of that night of her near death. Even though Shelby had been eternally grateful to her peculiar saviour that night, she was too out of it to remember the detailed features of her saviour.

He was younger then, clean-shaven with short hair, the day was slightly dark in the dusk and as someone who had been on the verge on the death, could she have memorized the person’s features?

But she could not deny that the name, Ian Thornston, rang a bell and gave her some warmth from the first time she heard of it.

In retrospect, that name brought her some untold comfort that made her harbour some slight hope that it was her saviour. But then, even if he had saved her, she could do nothing to repay him, so what was the use of looking for him?

She did wonder why he had told her to remember his name. When she had looked at his edited picture of them from the wedding, she had, as usual, felt a slight sense of familiarity, but that was a normal occurrence. There are certain times that we meet people on the street and think that they resemble someone we cannot place.

When Shelby had exchanged vows with Brad, his voice had nagged her at the back of her mind. However, the crown of the story was when she had visited Ian’s room that morning. All attraction and whatnot aside, it was his voice that had given her the last assurance she needed.

The combination of her husband’s name, plus his slight familiarity and then the voice that she could recognize at any time, told her that her saviour was right in front of her.

Suddenly, the marriage seemed like the best decision she had ever taken, forced contract or not. For saving her, she would do any and everything he asked.

Everything Ian asked would be worth her life because of his actions that night. She had thought that she might never meet him; especially after that much time had passed since that day five years ago.

She had even entertained the thought that he was a paranormal being who had come down to earth to help her. Shelby had tried in the earlier days after the accident to look for him, but then James had been scrutinizing her movements so much that she could not afford to be found out, especially because she had told them all that she had forgotten that day in the park.

She sat up from the tab and said out loud,

"No matter Ian’s attitude, I must bear whatever he does. For a man who saved an unknown me, I should be able to keep him company and find a way to repay my debt to him. I don’t even know if I can finish doing that in this lifetime."

"Miss Shelby, why are you still in the tub? The water should be cold! Do you want to get sick?"

Shelby turned to look at Suzie, who was chastising her,

"I’ll get out right now," Shelby smiled wide.

’Knowing that she had married her saviour had blossomed her mood in ways that she could not comprehend. Mostly, it was also because she had been able to bear out her heart to him and share the burden that she had never been able to share with any other living soul as well.’

Shelby, as usual, had no idea how deep her connection to Ian was at that moment, a connection already formed and growing stronger by the moment through the pulsing ring she could not see or, rather, one she saw as a mere tattoo of unknown origins.

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