a hero giving alms to the needy

Ring!!

Gisele was woken by the sound of her phone. She rolled and picked it up, swept the strands of hair away from her face then placed the phone against her ears without checking who the caller was.

"Hello Is this Miss Gisele?" The caller asked in a professional tone.

"Yeah, who am I speaking to?" Gisele asked back in what sounded no different than a sleepy voice.

"This is the a report representative from Erasmus Magazine Audition Committee" Hearing this first line sent all Gisele's sleep flying through the window. She sprang up immediately and arranged herself to hear what else the girl had to say. It had been a week already and she had waited patiently for these results. Unlike the previous stages of the audition, the company came forward the next day after submission to say they would take a week to consider the winner for that round and everyone would be given a direct call to be told if they passed or failed. After then they will be invited for the last and final round of the audition.

She was more than anxious. But now the results were here, she suddenly didn't have the heart to listen anymore, what if she failed?

"Congratulations Miss Gisele, you've passed this round and will be advancing to the final round of the audition. the details will be sent to your email and you can get ready for the next audition. Fell free to call our enquiry departments if you have any questions to ask. That would be all for now Miss Gisele, thank you for choosing Erasmus"

She passed?

She passed!!

The girl jumped down from her bed and did a lap round her room out of excitement. Running around wasn't enough so she stuffed her head into her pillow and screamed at the top of her voice. This was the most exciting news she had heard in a week.

In cue, she got the email telling her all that she needed to know and prepare for in the next audition. This was really happening and not just some vivid imagination.

First thing first, she hurriedly took her phone and dialed Mr Collins.

"Miss Gisele it's such a pleasure hearing from you again" The man said joyfully. The last time both of them spoke was a week ago, coincidentally the was also just about to put a call through to her.

"The pleasure is all mine Mr Collins, hope I'm not disturbing anything?" She asked cautiously.

"not at all Miss Gisele, why have you called me?"

"To share a piece of good news. I passed the audition" She announced like a young lady announcing her examination score to her family member. He was one of the people that wished her good and had also helped in all the process, so she felt obliged to tell him the results first-hand.

"Congratulations Miss Gisele" The man's not-so-surprised tone rang out of the phone. Apparently, the results were just in his expectations so he was no surprised. He had personally sent her pictures over so he knew the great chance she had of passing it.

Gisele smiled "I see it's was in fact in your expectations. I should probably thank you cause your optimism must have added to my luck"

"No need to be polite Miss Gisele, you have always have the qualities to pass the audition. I'm pretty sure the last stage would not be a problem for you as well"

"Then I must thank you again for your good faith" She said. The two of them stayed on the line discussing about other business. The Face of Glamour news was going to be announced simultaneously to when the Erasmus audition was going to be over. Mr Collins offered to create more publicity for her with the news. Gisele had no objections to it.

She was taking Mr Williams movie role very soon and for that she would need a lot of publicity in order to not bring down the movie. Bagging both modelling gigs for Erasmus and Glamour is just the right amount of publicity she could need. Fingers crossed she really prayed Erasmus last audition stage goes well.

Eventually she bade him goodbye and cut the call. There was no one else to inform of her success. Aunty Lou would have been another candidate for the news but for days she had not set eyes on the elderly woman, partly because she had been locked up in her room for a week now and maybe Aunty Lou had also been banned from coming to see her.

Sigh! This game of bargaining chip was taking longer than she expected.

For a whole week Devon had not given her an answer to her demands. To think he would be able to stay calm this longer even when his girl was equally locked in her house. Gisele had seriously not been prepared to wait this long but she also made no effort to rush him. His grandfather had assured he would make sure the girl remained locked up as long as she was so she knew eventually Devon would come around.

Speaking of Come around.

Aunty Claudia has been on her neck to come visit her. The girl didn't know how to explain that she was trapped in her room by her husband so she lied saying she was currently out of the country. The woman finally relented with the condition that they spoke on video call everyday. Gisele checked the time and it was almost midday, she had stayed all night binge watching various movies so she had unexpected slept for this long. She rolled out of bed lazily and dragged herself into the bathroom.

Probably from doing nothing all week, she felt sluggish and exhausted, as a result she spent even more time in the bathroom than usual. After soaking for almost and hour she finally crawled out to get dressed. She had just worn her clothes and was drying her hair at the dressing table when the door was pushed open.

A rigid face that frightened one to the bones came into sight. Gisele almost yelped out in shock from seeing how dark Devon's face was. He was dressed in a bright coloured suit with a pair of dazzling tie and shoes but they were nowhere near enough to subdue the thundering clouds in his head.

She sighed in exasperation then showed a superficial smile "I finally get to see your face, hope it's akin to hearing good news, or else being frightened like this would be in total vain"

"Are you satisfied?" He ignored her words and asked angrily.

Seriously does he have anyother expressions apart from am angry one?

She doubts. Looking at his face, she could not really recall ever seeing him with another expression than anger. It was almost like he was a reincarnation of the god of anger. The rumors were true after all. He was really a cold-blooded man with no humane feelings. Oh if she added the fact that he was over protective of his girlfriend, perhaps it has eliminated the part of him having no human feeling.

"Are you satisfied?" She threw the question back.

Devon took a step forward but paused involuntarily. He stared the girl up and down and somehow the anger increased. Why was it increasing? He couldn't really say. He probably just couldn't stand the sight of her.

He inhaled deeply then exhaled the same way too before lifting his eyes to look at her "I looked through your terms. Perhaps we could revisit the terms on the contract"

Gisele's eyes lit up in the first part of his sentence and went back down the next second.

What did he mean by revisit the terms on the contract?

"I'm all ears"

He scoffed and tossed a file towards her. The file fell on the floor and Gisele effortlessly bent and pick it up. Her eyes scanned through this and her brows locked in displeasure.

Was this what he called revisiting the terms?

He had merely changed a few insignificant part of their initial contract and he was acting like a hero giving alms to the needy.

"What is this?" She asked agitatedly. Don't tell her he kept her waiting for a whole week just to come up with this rubbish?

In the new terms, she was free to go out whenever she wanted and wasn't mandated to report her destination to him. She could sleep out but not consecutively. As before, he was mandated to not know of her escapades and she was also mandated to not go interacting with his lover. She was absolutely forbidden from falling in love with his friends or family and she would in no way announce or utilise her position as his wife in public.

Weren't all these just the same as what was written before? Was he pretending to not understand what she meant or did he really not understand what she wanted from him.