AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The year he lived here as Charlie MacNiall.
But why? Why would he go through all this trouble to set up an account with all these payments a year ago?
Everything hinged on that time frame. When he started bringing Sheba to the clinic where I just happen to work. Is that coincidence?
The Master always has a plan.
Chilled, I shut down the link and go into his office. I’ve never seen him in here. A large wooden desk sits beneath the window. Standing in the doorway, I decide the room looks perfect. Too perfect, like a magazine picture. An office should have messy stacks of papers, used pencils, a printer powered up and ready to go. But everything sits silent and pristine. The pencil holder has perfectly sharpened pencils with untouched pink erasers. The pen tips still have the waxy cap on them. A thin layer of dust coats the surface of the desk.
I open the three drawers on the side one by one, and find a dictionary, a cookbook with some Post-it notes as tabs, and a stack of brand-new legal pads. I keep the cookbook out so I can read through his favorite recipes. I flip through the legal pads, though they look untouched, in case he hid a clever letter to me. Now that would thrill my poor, aching subbie heart. But there isn’t any special message for me.
I’m well and truly on my own.
* * *
I can do this.I’ll pretend he’s on a trip. I have his instructions.
I go through the motions and cook myself dinner in his kitchen. I make extra, so I can have some for lunch, but I pretend I’m saving it for him to eat later. After all my snooping, I don’t have time to take Sheba for a walk before dark. Even though she’s a guard dog, I don’t care to stumble around in the dark with below zero temps, especially if someone might be watching with the intent to hurt me.
Especially if Charlie…
I stifle the sob and head to bed. The cold, empty bed, so huge and barren. I might never share it with him again.
Nine p.m. comes and goes without a call. Not that I expected it since his phone is disconnected. I can’t even think about sleep, so I pull out my laptop and log into the server as invisible. I don’t feel like chatting widely with anyone, not tonight. It’ll be too hard to pretend I’m still giddy with happiness.Littlewren’s online, so I opened a private chat with her.
littlewren: Hi, hon! What’s up? U ok?
She knows me so well.
slaverainy: Just need to talk. U have time?
littlewren: Always 4 u.
slaverainy: M is gone.
Even typing that makes tears flow from my eyes. Blinking them away, I keep tapping before my silence gives too much away.
slaverainy: Just feeling lonely until he gets back.
littlerwen: poor thing. He’s taking care of you tho?
slaverainy: Yeah. Things have gotten deep. Fast.
littlewren: How deep? Want me to convo DaddyBear in?
slaverainy: No, it’s more a slave thing.
littlerwen: Gotcha. The best Ds always push hard. U 2 set limits tho, right?
slaverainy: He insisted. I don’t have many limits tho. U know that.
littlewren: But u gotta be smart, hon. Don’t take things 2 far just to make him happy.
slaverainy: I know. He wouldn’t do that.
I stare at the blinking cursor, trying to think of the words to explain some of the turmoil swirling through my thoughts. Not just his profession, the trouble we’re both in right now, but the long haul. Assuming we get out of this mess, what would our future even look like?
slaverainy: I’m afraid that scene after scene, we’ll go just a bit further, sliding a bit darker, and then what’s left?
