"Well, it's not bad. It could've used a little bit more pepper, but it's not bad. I'll let you off easy this time, because you're still learning, and I don't want you to fret too much," Colin assures, as he finishes up the last of his meal. His attempt in being easy on me is futile, because he was the opposite upstairs.

My eyes stay glued to my plate, as I pick at the last of my food with my fork. I can't even bear to look him in the eye right now. How can he be so upbeat and normal after what he did to me? Is he completely oblivious as to what he did to me? Does he even think that this is an okay thing to do people? 

Nausea stirs at the bottom of my stomach as I eat the meal that he forced me to make. I stare at my plate, as I try to finish my meal, but it's hard to face him when I'm still in so much pain from what happened upstairs. I don't even know what to do at this point. He's robbed me of so much so far, with almost all of it impossible to get back.

I don't know how I'm going to ride this out. As I'm thinking to myself, he takes my plate away from me to wash it, while I don't move a muscle. Seeing his face makes the stirring nausea inside me go haywire. I can't help but want to punch him in the face, and just run out of there for my life.

Eventually, he comes over to where I'm sitting, and he notices my solemn face. His hand squeezes my face, and he turns it to face him, while looking straight in my eyes. Those eyes that were once dying of hunger now have a new feeling in them. They're triumphant, like a wolf that successfully got to its prey.

They dominate over their victim in such a way that's viciously, yet horribly triumphant. It's almost like he's proud of all the pain he has caused me so far. All I fear is that those wolves of eyes are not done hunting and slaying their desired prey.

"Hey, what's wrong? It's okay," he assures me, and he leans in to plant a kiss on my cheek. I shake my head and lean away from his face, as he tries to embrace me forcefully. It causes me to get out of my chair and back away from the dining table.

"Hey, just relax. There's nothing to be afraid of," he calmly assures me, as his hands clamp on my arms and try to hold me in place. I know that's the biggest lie in the world, because of everything that's happened. He leans in, and my hands push against his chest to get him away from me. My bottom lip quivers, and fresh tears blur my vision.

"P-Please. Leave me alone. Let me return to my family. I want to go home to my brother and sister. I miss them so much," I plead, as his lips make a feather-like contact against my neck. He leans away, and he looks into my eyes.

His look at first is neutral, subtle, even nonexistent. Then, a smirk is sewn on his face. His eyes have an evilly humorous look in them. He starts to laugh evilly, as if he's an evil scientist in a bad action movie. His fingers wipe the tears that start to form in his complex eyes.

Confusion blooms inside me like a small flower, and its nectar drips into my bloodstream for it to travel to all parts of me. When he stops laughing uncontrollably, he looks me into the eyes and shakes his head.

"Oh, you are too funny, Nicole. You really think I'm going to let you go back to your family? You have such a vivid imagination. When you're with me, you're mine. You're mine, and you will be mine for the rest of your life. And don't you even think of running away. Because I'm always going to be around you, and I'll always find you when you escape. Plus, do you really think that your family members really miss you? They didn't fight for you when your mom married you off to me. They didn't try to stop her, or get you out of the marriage," he states, with a possessive look in his eyes.

My hand balls up into a fist at his words. My teeth clench as his insults sting my ears. No one dares to talk about my family like that. He has no right to talk about Dominic or Elena like that. I'd kill him if he talked about my family in such a derogatory way.

"Don't you dare talk about them like that. My mom threatened to hurt them and their lovers if I didn't marry you. I wouldn't be here if I wanted to. I'd be preparing for college, at USC, instead of being here with you," I spit at him, and the smirk on his face remains sewn on there. My response seems to only fuel his triumph even more by the second. It's like he's waiting for me to answer in such ways.

"Come on, babe. You love me. Admit it," he says, coming closer to me. I back away, and he comes closer and closer to me. Eventually, my back hits the hard, cold wall, and he traps me from all sides with his body. All forms of movement are restrained at this moment, with no one or nothing to help me.

"You love me, Nicole. You think I'm hot, don't you?" he growls at me, as his hands pin my wrists to the walls. His head moves closer, with his lips inching towards my neck. I bite my lip, as I brace for the worst to happen yet again. My eyes squeeze shut, as I swallow back my tears. I can feel his hot breath against my neck, as  his body is pressed up against mine, with his knees separating my legs. Before his lips can think of making contact with my neck, the lock at the front door suddenly turns.

In a split second, he removes himself from our position, and he eyes the door. "Dammit," he mutters under his breath. My eyes pop open, with my tears drying up. My arms fall on the sides of my body. Two seconds after that, the front door opens, and a man enters through.

He's wearing a plain white T-shirt, with dark shorts. His messy brown hair looks like he tried to comb it down and make it look somewhat neat, but gave up halfway through. Minor stubble dots the sides of his face, while absent at the top of his upper lip. He looks up at Colin, and then at me. Confusion sprouts on his face when his eyes glance over at me. His glance shifts back to Colin, and a smile spreads across his face.

"Ah, Colin, dear brother, how lovely to see you again," the man greets, resulting in an eye roll from Colin.

"Ah piss off, Ash," he snarls, as Ash heads up the stairs. I look at Colin, and back at Ash.

"Is this the twin brother he was talking about? Wow. Not even going to lie. He's hot," I think to myself, as I try to hold my head up high. A civil look approaches my face as Ash trots up the stairs.

Ash finally comes up to where we are, and he takes another quick glance at me. He then glances back at Colin, and says, "Am I interrupting something?"

Colin frowns, and nods."Uh, yeah, you kind of were. Now, what the hell are you doing here?" he barks, and Ash puts his hands up in defense. 

He raises an eyebrow at Colin, but the overall look on his face still remains relatively neutral. Despite Colin's coldness, he seems unfazed by it, and is actually still in a decent mood still. "Woah, chill bro. Now, do you want to tell me who's this lady right here?" he asks, pointing directly at me. His voice is somewhat deep, yet smooth, as it runs over my ears like butter. Although deep, his voice shows nothing other than kindness and compassion towards the subjects he's addressing.

Ash's seemingly simplistic brown eyes look straight into mine, revealing more than its deceiving color. Beneath the simple facade, a number of emotions are melted together to create the eye look Ash has right now. Before I have any chance to decipher it, Colin looks back at me, and his hand grips my wrist and pulls me closer to him. His hand goes around my shoulder, and he flashes an artificially genuine smile towards Ash.

"This is my wife, Nicole," he says, gritting his teeth through the word, "wife." Ash smiles, adding an infectious element to his well sculpted face. His infectious smile causes one to grow on my face as well. I extend my hand.

"Nice to meet you, Ash. I'm Nicole, as you can tell," I say. The smile on his face grows to be even bigger.

"Well, nice to meet you too, Nicole. The name's Asher, but you can call me Ash," he tells me. Without missing a beat, he takes my hand, and plants a soft kiss on the back of it. The smile on my face only grows to be even bigger, with a warm tingling feeling filling me. Ash then turns back to Colin, and raises an eyebrow, while crossing his arms.

"Now, I'm just waiting for those documents that I've been ever so patient for. Now, would you mind getting those for me?" he asks Colin sweetly. Colin rolls his eyes.

"Right. The damn documents. Hold on," he hisses, and he runs up the stairs to gosh knows where. Ash follows him with his eyes, and I almost see a weight being shoved off of his shoulders when Colin runs upstairs. I feel him relax a little bit, and to be honest, I do too. It's good to be in a place where your abusive husband isn't breathing down your neck.

When Colin is out of sight, Asher comes closer to me. It's close enough for me to feel his charm tingle my skin, but far enough for me to feel comfortable talking to him. I remain timid, with my feet staying planted to the ground, while looking into Ash's deep brown eyes.

"So, how long have you guys been dating? I've never seen you around when it comes to Colin. He is a really private person, so I'll give him that. But I've never seen you before," he inquires, as I purse my lips. I don't know how good Ash is at detecting lies, but I don't want to drag him into this whole mess. Not at this point, at least.

"It's kind of a long story," I admit. I try to keep a face that's as solid as stone, so that I don't give anything away. He raises an eyebrow at me, with a shred of suspicion mixed in with his intricate brown eyes.

"Oh, is it? You know what, I got time. Tell me. I really love stories. Plus, I already like you. You seem like a very genuine and wholesome person, and I love people like that. I know that you're definitely someone I can trust. Call it an instinct," he says, crossing his arms. I smile a little bit, and cross my arms nervously. I haven't even known this guy for 10 minutes, and he was already such a flatterer.

"Well, thank you. That's really nice of you. Uh, it's kind of not my place to tell," I say timidly, as suspicion hasn't left Asher's face.

"What do you-" he asks, but before he can finish his sentence, Colin comes racing down, with a stack of documents in his hand.

"I got your damn documents. Now will you go through them and get the hell out of my house?" he snaps, as Asher takes the documents and scans them. He gives an occasional nod, and a "hm," here and there to voice his approval. After he's done looking through them all, he neatens them up a bit and holds it closer to his chest.

"Ah, they're all great! Thank you, Colin," he says, and Colin just rolls his eyes again.

"Yeah. Now get out please," he snaps again, and Asher seems taken aback by his words. The neutrality on his face suddenly jumps out, and is replaced by hurt and a little bit of offense sprinkled in there as well.

"Wow. I thought we were family, Colin. Family doesn't speak to each other like that," he says, with an ounce of the hurt in his face poured into his voice. I start to feel a little bit bad for Ash. Colin's always saying bad things to everyone. He doesn't deserve this. Colin scoffs, like his remarks mean nothing to him as a whole.

"You're anything but family to me. Do yourself a favor and get the hell out of here," Colin orders one more time, and Asher nods. Although the neutrality has returned to his face, I can still see a bit of hurt in there, as the neutrality doesn't act as a thick enough blanket to cover the pain he felt at Colin's words.

"Fine fine. Later. And it was a pleasure meeting you, Nicole. I hope I see you again. Until next time," he bids, and he throws a small wink at me. I smile a little bit at him, and wave, as he prances out of the house, slamming the door behind him. When he's done, Colin turns back to me, and glares at me.

"You were flirting with him, weren't you?" he growls at me. in contrast to Ash's kind eyes, Colin's are dangerous and fiery, almost as if they're about to explode at this moment. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Wait, what? No. Why would you say that?" I ask. He scowls at me, with his eyes widening at my response.

"I saw the little wink he threw at you. I saw his body language. I saw how close you guys were. Don't you dare lie to me, you little whore," he snarls, and his hands travel up to my neck and squeeze it. He barely gives me any time to react to his sudden actions. His strength causes him to lift my entire body off the ground, including my feet.

My legs squirm in an attempt to find the floor, as I try to get out of his grasp. My oxygen supply is cut off, and I'm gasping for air like a fish out of water. I feel like my lungs are being crumpled up, and my throat is being wrung free of liquid. My hands travel up to his wrists in an attempt to pry his hands off of my neck, but they're like iron against my throat.

"I.... didn't... flirt.... with.... him...," I cough out, as Colin continues to throttle me. He leaves me suspended in the air, as I choke and gasp. My legs flail in the air, as I try to kick him and let me go. He shows no mercy as he watches me squirm and beg for freedom from his wrath.

Eventually, after lots of gasping, he lets go of my neck, and I drop to the ground. I'm coughing and gasping for air, as I lay on the ground, helpless. I hold my throat as I let it get back to normal after having it choked. 

He leans in closer to me, and snarls, "You're never going to cheat on me. You're mine. And I will make sure you're mine for all I care," he growls, and he walks away.

As I lay on the ground, I lament to myself in regards to the situation I'm in. I haven't been married for 24 hours, and my marriage is already off to a really bad start. How much longer will the pain last until my wings are freed and then I can fly again?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow. Again, this chapter really hurt for me to write. A lot of Phoenix hurt for me to write, because I'm not the person to inflict such violence on my characters. What's your guys' opinion on Ash so far? He's actually one of my favorite characters in the book. But, of course, I want to know what you guys think of him!

Hey everyone! How are you all? So, I know I'm going to sound repetitive, but I'm going to say it again. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ISN'T A JOKE, AND I WILL NEVER USE MY STORIES TO ROMANTICIZE AND GLORIFY THEM. If you know someone who is suffering from domestic violence, speak up. No one should suffer alone. I put the hotlines in the last chapter, because no one deserves to suffer in silence.

Oh, and also, is anyone else entering the Wattys? I'm very curious. I entered INI, but there's a fat chance that I'll win. To those that have entered, good luck!

That's pretty much it. Hope you all liked this chapter!

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work. See you all next Saturday with a new chapter of I Never Imagined. Have a great week!

Love you guys,

Shree.