Sold Like A Property?

How would you feel if you worked your butt off for two years, working from 4 in the morning to 10 in the evening to tirelessly support your husband in his career, only to end up getting sold by him in return?

Like cow dung dug up and smeared all over your face!

That's how Shamsiya felt right now.

Like a smelly piece of shit people were too sickened by to keep within reach, Nick sold her off to a stranger to pay off his gambling debt. Shockingly enough, the bastard wasn't even ashamed. He had the cheek to say to her face that he had the right to do whatever he wanted with her because he was her husband!

"I am not your property! You can't sell me off like an object!" Shamsiya screamed, throwing the vase in her hand.

The bastard dodged and snarled. "You bitch! How dare you throw a vase at me? You should be grateful I married an orphan like you!" Not to be outdone, he lunged at her and kicked her in the stomach, causing her to double over and groan. He rained down punches on her hunched form until she crashed to the ground.

"I was too kind to house an ungrateful slut like you! Should've left you on the streets! Selling you off is letting you off easy!" He delivered another vicious kick to her stomach, spat on her battered figure, and stormed out of the room.

With a deafening bang, he shut the door and an audible click entered her ears. With her sluggish mind, it took her a while to register she was locked inside.

Shamsiya wheezed, her ribs protesting painfully with every inhale of breath and cough. 

She never expected such a rude awakening. Her painstaking efforts for a family turned out to be nothing more than an illusion. Ever since she could remember, she had always been alone. Nobody liked her in the orphanage because of her mixed blood, and everyone made fun of her during her school years.

Because of the nasty comments of her playmates in the orphanage and classmates at school, she became a loner. Not by choice, but by circumstances.

Since she was hated by everyone around her, she became introverted and kept to herself. She had no friends, no relatives, and no one to call family.

So when Nick Jackson proposed to her after their high school graduation, she married him without a second thought. 

There was no wedding. Only a form of documents to get their marriage certificate. Shamsiya hadn't minded the lack of ceremony, after all, marriage was more than about a beautiful dress and vows exchanged before a preacher.

It was two people accepting each other and becoming a family.

The title of Mrs. Nick Jackson gave her an identity, a sense of belonging, and a family member to call her own. She was no longer a loner, an outcast scorned by everyone in society. 

Therefore, when the man who became her husband asked her to pay the bills and earn money to cover his singing lessons, she didn't hesitate to get part-time jobs to support him.

Since they were family, it only felt right for her to support him in his every venture. She trusted him and believed his words when he said he would let her live a glamorous life after he became famous.

That's what brought her to this ending. Her blind faith in him, her lack of confidence, and her desire for family.

But most of all, his acceptance when she had only ever faced rejection. 

She heard somewhere that not all beautiful people were good and all nasty people were bad.

Seeing her situation today, she finally understood the meaning of this saying. Nick Jackson wasn't good looking, but the way he treated her differently from the way others treated her brainwashed her into believing he was a good person.

He physically abused her when he was in a bad mood, made her clean up his mess when he got drunk, and worked her like a slave to subsidize his living expenses. However, she never realized her status in his eyes was nothing more than that of a homeless dog he picked off the street until today.

The people who cursed at her and called her names didn't deceive her. They ignored her, but didn't play with her feelings. But the man who married her and showered her with kindness sold her like a property without feeling a trace of guilt. 

This was what 'beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside' meant.

Shamsiya chuckled in self-deprecation, her chest screaming in pain as if someone was twisting a knife in her heart. She couldn't understand why her life was so miserable. Sometimes, it felt as if the Creator detested her and staged such a gloomy fate for her to torment her to death.

Because a life without love and warmth was nothing more than torture. And she had reason to believe she had no personal rights as a human being, as she was being treated like a product.

No one asked for her opinion. No one cared about her feelings.

"Tie her up and dump her in the trunk! I don't want to touch the slut!" 

Nick's cruel voice entered her ears, just as the door clicked open. Shamsiya struggled to open her eyes, but the task proved difficult, as exhaustion and two days of hunger made her body as heavy as lead.

Up until now, she only believed she married a deceptive bastard. But Nick Jackson's following words made her realize how wrong she was.

"I heard Iblis Jabril has a strange penchant for bound girls. Hehehe...strip her! I'll get black manacles to chain her arms and ankles! It'll most definitely enhance the beauty of her pale complexion!"

"Yes, sir! Leave it to us!"

A wave of dizziness hit her as mortification and horror gripped her chest with thorny hands.

"No...please...don't..." Tears of shame, anger, and humiliation streamed down her cheeks. Summoning up the last bit of strength in her bruised body, Shamsiya scooted backward to evade the nasty claws reaching for her skirt.

Alas, her efforts proved futile. She was powerless and had nowhere to run. Rough hands yanked at her clothes, the jeering sound of ripping fabric and lewd remarks blaring her ears, as she shivered at the sudden cold kissing her bare skin.

"Please, stop..."

Curled in a fetal position, her desperate pleas sounded hollow and weak even to her own ears. Her consciousness seemed to fade from the shameful moment, as it blocked out the disgusting feeling of the hands groping her body, and plunged her into a void of darkness.

At the moment before she blacked out, a single thought seared her mind.

Death would've been a far better option than the abominable future that awaited her.