The Bargain

Madam first lady

Rachel did not wake up until many hours later. She opened her eyes to a doctor bent over her.

Her mind traveled back to the conversation with her father and she sprang up, and withdrew in fright.

Her head began pounding in protest.

"Relax." The doctor cooed. "I am glad you are up. How does your head feel?" Racheal looked at the woman with distrust.

"I have a terrible headache." She said,

"That was expected, the blow to your head was quite..." The woman paused with an uncomfortable smirk. "Bad." She added. "How is your vision?"

Racheal slowly removed her gaze from the doctor's face and looked around. "Fine." She announced.

The room looked a little hazy but she suspected it was because she had been out for so long.

"How long was I unconscious?" She asked.

"About six hours." The doctor responded. "You should really not be receiving blows like this. They are very dangerous."

"You should tell HER that." Racheal said.

She had been maltreated for years. Roselyn would hit her violently, and sometimes when she felt unsatisfied, she instructed one of the guards to hit Racheal while she watched.

"Avoid her face." She would always say. Perhaps she was too angry today to care. She hated anyone reminding her of her past as a home wrecker.

"Tell me what?" She heard her stepmother say as she walked closer. Racheal felt an involuntary shiver go through her body.

How did she walk in unnoticed?

The doctor hurriedly stood up and bowed in greeting. "Madam first lady."

Roslyn did not even pay her a glance.

She continued walking and stopped just beside Rachel's bed. She roughly grabbed Racheal's face and examined it.

"Will she scar?" She asked, still without looking at the doctor.

"Not with the lotions I brought." The woman picked them up jerkinly from a nearby table to show the first lady.

Roslyn took one with the tip of her fingers, and examined it with a sneer. "They were made by the very best scientists." The doctor added.

"You talk too much." Roslyn spat, finally looking the woman in the eye. Irritation was clear in her tone and eyes.

"I'm sorry Madam." The doctor quickly said with an apologetic bow.

"You're still talking." Roslyn snapped. "Get out."

The doctor hurried away, completely forgetting to take her bag in her haste to exit the room.

Racheal could not blame her, she felt sorry. Her stepmother had a way of reducing a person to an i***t.

Racheal turned to steal a glance at her and caught her staring back at her. The hate in her step-mother's eyes made her shrink.

"You passed the examination." Roslyn said.

"What?"

"The doctor said you still had your hymen intact." Her stepmother said pacing the room.

"What?" Racheal found herself saying again.

"Your father was so proud. I think there is nothing to be proud about, there are many ways to get your pleasures without penetrative s*x. A hymen does not make you a saint." Roslyn continued.

She finally stopped walking and stood beside her bed again.

"You should know those other ways." Racheal wanted to say but instead said "How could you?"

"How could I what?"

"You violated me. I was unconscious, I did not give anyone consent to touch me or examine me." Racheal felt angry and hurt.

"I gave them consent. I am your step-mother."

"I am an adult." Racheal practically screamed. "Only I can give consent about my body."

Her step mother laughed darkly. "Like you give consent to be confined here and the other things i do to you?"

She laughed again, this time she sounded genuinely amused. "You should know things do not work that way here."

"You are evil."

Her stepmother did not get angry or try to hit her. She still looked amused. Racheal felt pain deep in her chest.

Why did she have to go through so much humiliation. Everyday her step-mother found more ways to make her feel less human. She was debased every day, the next time worse than the last.

Her father said and did nothing to protect her, she had absolutely no one to protect or save her, not even Maxwell anymore. She terribly missed her mother at that moment.

"You won't even show me my mother's grave." She felt tears fall from her eyes as she looked at Roslyn.

"And you think I would do that after your little act just now?" Roslyn scoffed and began walking away. "Rest, you will need your strength in the coming days." She said over her shoulder as she exited the room.

Racheal collapsed back to her bed in tears. This became her life since Roslyn stepped into their world. Tears and pain.

She had always technically been in their lives though.

From what Racheal learned, Roslyn became her father's mistress a few years after he got married to her mother.

They had Claire together, while Racheal's mother had difficulty getting pregnant.

And they had Celia a few months after Racheal was born. Her mother was ignorant of all this, till her father began climbing high in the political ladder.

The rumors became too big to ignore by the time he became vice president. Her mother went out to clear her head after confronting her father one day and never came back.

Her father announced she had been found a few months later, dead. And he married Roslyn, Racheal was only five years old.

Her maid came in, distracting her from her thoughts.

"It's time Miss."

Racheal blew her nose into the piece of paper napkin she had plucked from the roll on the table. "Time for what?"

"To prepare you for your wedding day. Your father has made the arrangements, and the first person is waiting outside the door." The maid said.

"First person? I don't understand what you are saying Diana." Racheal said. Her head felt hot and she feared she would soon be burning with a fever.

"The wedding is a national affair and your father instructed that he wanted you to look your best. An esthetician is waiting outside the door." The maid explained.

"Esthetician? What do I need an esthetician for?"

The maid said nothing but was staring at a spot on Racheal's face.

"Please get me a mirror." Racheal said. The maid hurriedly did.

Racheal gasped as soon as she looked in the hand mirror, her face was swollen red with a cut that looked ugly but thankfully not too deep.

Racheal sighed sadly in resignation and handed the mirror back to the maid. Her looks should be the least of her worries now.

"When is the wedding?" Racheal asked. Diana should know, maids had a way of knowing everything.

"You don't know?" The maid looked at her with surprise. "You are set to get married this weekend."