Aaron got up from his seat and walked round the table and towards her while she was still sitting as if glued to that seat. He bent towards her, his one hand on the table and with the other he held her chin. His eyes were at level with hers. Livia was scared to hell by this form of Aaron and was now kicking herself in her brain for this stupid stunt she had performed.

"Listen to me very clearly, Mrs Livia Aaron Rodriguez. You are my wife now so you can only think of me, talk to me, smile at me and be around me only. You will do what I say."

"I am not your slave." Livia protested.

But it was as if he didn't hear her reply or rather ignored it as he continued.

"And if you are feeling very needy and if you want to sleep with a man so much then don't worry, just come to me and I promise you, I'll give you the best physical pleasure in this world. After All I'm quite experienced in this physical pleasure department."

"Bastard!" she slapped his hand away and Aaron straightened himself and looked down at Livia from his great height.

"Trust me Livia, each and every word I said just now is true and if you dared to defy me I will burn your world down. I'll start with your parents then their hotel and house even the life of those who work for them will become difficult and then I will come for you."Aaron said in a menacing voice which chilled her to her bones.

She stood up to face him,"How can you be so cruel? Do you think everything is a game? Do people not have a right to live their life the way they want? Do-"

Before she could even complete her sentence Aaron's mouth came down crashing on her own... hard. The more she fought against him the tighter his hold became. She bit on his lip but even that didn't stop him. Finally when he released them to get some air she pushed him away.

"You are a devil Aaron Rodriguez. I hate you!"

"Hate me as much as you want but in this life you can have only me and me alone.'' he smiled and cleaned the blood coming from his lips with the back of his hand and walked towards the door and then he suddenly stopped and without turning to look at her he said,"Be ready at 7. I'll be here to pick you up. We have to go for a business dinner and if you are not ready by then... then you know the consequences. It will not be me to blame then."

And with that threat he left.

Only after Aaron had left that Livia allowed herself to sit and allowed the tears that she had been holding for so long flow freely.

All the pain and hurt that she had kept to herself and locked deep within her heart was flowing out today. She had lost her mother at such a young age, then her father abandoned her, the sneer remarks from her stepmother, comparisons with her younger sister as if she was always invisible to people around her, her boyfriend with whom she had dreamt of a happy family left her for some other girl and as if all this wasn't enough she was forced into a marriage where all she got was a man who didn't care about her, who she was sure will never love her, who wouldn't give a damn about her wish.

'God! did I commit a grave sin in my past life that you have to punish me like this?'

She had no idea about for how long she sat there, filled with grief and now even the tears had dried. Her eyes fell on the clock on table and it showed 5:30 pm. She remembered Aaron had told her to get ready for the party.

She slowly got up and walked towards the bathroom. She stripped herself and stood under the shower allowing the falling cascade of water fall on her face first, allowing her mind to just go numb to whatever had hurt her till now.

And when she walked out of the bathroom it was as if she had also shed off her sadness just like a snake shed its skin. Wrapped in her towel she stood in front of her full length mirror and looked at her image for a few seconds.

"You are Livia. You don't need the Smith or Rodriguez names to define you. You are strong and brave. You fought hard to survive everything and now just because of a control freak you cannot lose your freedom. Yes I will not allow anyone to rule on me like that. It's my life and only those worthy of my love and trust are allowed to stay and the rest of them can go to hell."

She turned towards the cupboard and started looking for a dress. She applied a little makeup, eyeliner and dark lipstick on her pouting lips then she finally turned towards the dress she had selected.

"Aaron Rodriguez, I am not a meek little creature who will be scared of you. I'll fight for my freedom."she smiled to herself confidently and finally put on the dress.

When she looked in the mirror she was shocked because what she saw wasn't the Livia she had known all these years. The Livia whom she knew was a simple girl who had never cared to put anything other than sunscreen and a little lip gloss and had never really cared much about her appearance.

But now in front of her dressed in rich maroon dress with the thigh high slit, long hair reaching till her lower back and plus those curves which were being a bit too highlighted in that dress standing a seductress which was definitely not her.

In just a fit of moment and because of her anger she had chosen this dress of Ada but now she started to have second thoughts.

"Maybe I should change this dress." Livia talked to herself while still looking at her image in the mirror.

"No you don't have to." A voice came from the doorway..