A MONSTER

ADELINE'S POV

Martha as ordered shows up in my room like I asked her to. Her face is completely void of emotion as usual but I heard her scream and I saw the look of utter fear on her face when Adrian's hands were on her. If there is a time to get her to trust me and tell me what I want to know then it is now, before she sleeps on it and her fear consumes her again.

"Are you okay?" I ask, walking closer to her, coming to a stop when I'm about a meter away from her. Her body language tells me she's compelled to take a step backwards but she stays planted in her spot, her eyes looking downwards. I thought I had gotten through to her and she was already getting comfortable looking me in the eyes but now Adrian has ruined everything again.

"I'm fine ma'am." She answers but her voice is pitchy and a bit cracked from how hard she was screaming and crying while Adrian was basically trying to rip her hair off her scalp.

"Is there anything you needed me to do for you ma'am?" She asks.

"Martha stop that. I thought we were past this." For the past two weeks, I taught her that she doesn't need to speak to me like I were God and she were a slave. I even got her to smile one time but now, we're back to square one.

"Look. I want you to know that I do not support any of what Arian did to you tonight. I have made it clear to you so many times that I would never hurt you. You can trust me, Martha. If you help me, then I will be able to help you too." From the crease on her forehead, I can tell that she's contemplating her next response to me. She doesn't know if she can fully trust me because after all, I'm marrying the man who never ceases to make her life a living hell.

But over the past days and weeks, I have been nothing but kind to her which is nothing less than what she deserves. I have shown her that she doesn't need to be scared of me and I would be more patient but I don't have much time left.

I only have a few more weeks till my parents launch their company and officially sign the contract with Adrian and I need to get everything ready and be out of this house when that happens.

"Tell me what you know about Adrian Martha. I know you know something. You want to get out of this place, don't you? You want a normal life and a place of your own. You want to be free. I know you don't trust me and you have no reason to but I can guarantee you that all those things and more will be yours if you help me. I can get you out of here. You can be happy."

She finally looks up to me and the look on her face tells me she wants what I'm offering. Anyone in this god forsaken house would want to be free of Adrian. She stares at me for a few seconds more and then as if a massive weight was lifted off her shoulders, she breaks off into a small sob, falling to her knees and covering her face with her hands.

I stoop and move closer to her. I place my hand on her back and comfort her until she finally regains herself and stops crying.

"He's cruel ma'am. He's so cruel." She says. "Everyone here knows it, but we're all indebted to him. It's either we serve him or go to jail. He'll lock us up in the most gruesome of places if we betray him so we have no choice but to do as he says. To be slaves to him."

Martha speaks frantically and the information she's pouring at me is too much I can barely understand a word that is coming from her mouth.

"What? Martha slow down okay? I need you to collect your thoughts and explain to me what's going on here coherently. Do you mean every single person that is a maid or gardener in this house are all here against their will?" I question curiously.

"We don't have a choice. Some of us are immigrants. Some of us were homeless when Mr. Wellington found us. We have nothing and we are all indebted to him. He gives us a place to stay and food to eat. It's why no one here would dare betray him. If he found out I'm telling you all this, he'd kill me." She says, pure fear in her eyes.

She's trembling and I have to offer her a glass of water and some tissue so she can put herself together again.

"Tell me everything." I command and keep my mouth shut. We don't have much time so I do not need to be asking her so many questions. I just need her to tell me what I need to know so I can figure out a way to destroy this man.

"My mother and I were illegal immigrants. This is what he does. He's obsessed with black people. I know I sound crazy but it's true. There a very few racists in the world who still take part in practices like this but they exist and Mr. Wellington is one of them. He killed my mother because she was too old according to him to serve him any use. And then he took me. I was only 17 at the time." She breaks into a sob as she narrates her story.

"My mother was killed right in front of me and for three years, I've been serving him. Some of the other black people here are homeless. He makes sure the people he takes have no family left or anywhere else to go to. he makes sure we're all alone in this world so that we're forced to be indebted to him. Some people have tried to retaliate, to escape, but they only end up dead. Your fiancé is a monster and if I were you, I would get the hell away from him while I still had the chance."

"Oh don't worry Martha. There's nothing in this world that could make me marry Adrian Wellington." I say and then I suddenly realize that all the suspicions I had about him were true. I can't believe my parents were going to sell me to someone like this. I know there is no way they could have known but it makes me even more angry at them.

"He kills people. We've all seen it happen. But of course, we can't say anything. He's a powerful man and most of us here are either illegal immigrants or homeless. There's nothing we can do about it so all just chose to ignore his bad deeds. We pretended for so long that it became normal to us. There a few of us who still hope that one day we'll be free but there are others who have accepted their fate. Others who are blindly loyal and indebted to him."

When she finishes she moves towards me in a flash and stares me straight in the eyes with her knees on the floor with pleading eyes. "You cannot tell him this ma'am. I beg of you. He'll kill me. He'll kill you."

"He won't hurt me-" I start saying but she cuts me off.

"You know nothing!" She says, basically scolding me. "He's a sick, sick man and the only reason he hasn't showed you his true colors yet is because you're pretty and you do everything he says. You're marrying him so at the end of the day, he knows you'll belong to him. The second he has you, the second you sign that marriage certificate, the second you make him angry, the second he finds out you're plotting against him, he'll get rid of you. I've seen it happen."

"There was a girl, a prostitute who always came here. He seemed to like her very much. She was very beautiful and appealing to Mr. Wellington's eyes. He treated her like a princess, you would have though he was in love with her. But then one day, out of nowhere, they were in his room together and then we all heard a gunshot. Her body was carried out of his room like she was nothing."

My heart pounds in fear as Martha explains the horrors she has seen in this house to me. What exactly have I gotten myself into? I need to get out of this place and I need to do it fast while Adrian is still sane.

"I know I am not a psychologist but I once heard a doctor say to Mr. Wellington that he has a bipolar disorder. He could be an angel one second and the next, he could be the devil himself. This understanding and kind attitude he's showing you won't last. It's just a phase but once he cracks, it will not be pleasant for anyone in this house. You need to eave before he switches. There'll be nothing that can save you when that time comes."

As Martha explains to me, it all starts coming back. The times there would be a switch in Adrian's expression. I don't know how I didn't see it before but now it all makes sense. Adrian doesn't care about me. He doesn't respect me or love me. And the only reason he hasn't tried to have sex with me yet, is because he hasn't switched. He's bipolar and has a personality disorder and there have been signs of a switch coming any time soon. I've just been blind to it.

"There is always a time of peace and a time of war in this house. We are currently in the time of peace but it is fleeting. He will snap ma'am. I have told you all I know. Now I must go before anyone catches us."

Martha doesn't leave me time to say goodnight to her. She picks up herself from the floor and escapes from my room without another word, but she hs told me everything I need to know.

I haven't given up on my original plan. I'll still get my parents money and, in the process, I'll put Adrian behind bars. I know all what I needed to know to be sure that Adrian Wellington is a man up to no good. I everything I need to implicate him.

Now all I have to do is find proof. He has to have something illegal sitting around in this house and I'll be a million dollars he has it all locked up in his study, which conveniently is always guarded. I have no idea how I'll ever get in there but I have to find a way.