“Please, stop this! Just let me go! I won’t tell anyone…”
“Damn right you won’t. However, letting you go is not an option…”
Awareness slowly returned to Claire.
She flinched as she awoke, convinced she was going to be beaten, or worse…
Then she looked at what she was wearing…
The black and white French maid uniform met her gaze, all neat and tidy. She gasped, then tried to call out. Nothing happened…
She was mute. Totally dumb, couldn’t speak at all. They’d said she wouldn’t tell anybody, and they were right. Claire would probably never talk again…
Another woman came into the room and gazed down at her.
“Rhonda! Lying down on the job, again! Just because you are handicapped doesn’t mean you can take it easy! You’re supposed to be tidying this room, not sleeping in it!”
Claire tried to explain, but not being able to talk made that impossible. She sat up and caught sight of the nametag on her uniform in the mirror, ‘Rhonda’.
She was still trying to protest as the other woman pulled her off of the bed.
“Damn it! Get working, quickly! If the boss sees you slacking it will cost you your job!”
Claire sadly gave up trying to explain and got on with cleaning the room. What had those bastards done to her? Also, where was her husband? Why wasn’t he looking for her…?
She then caught sight of herself properly in the mirror. She gasped. Her face was totally different. She looked about ten years older; her hair was grey, in a short bob, and her eyes were now blue, not green anymore. She looked old enough to be her own mother…!
Claire just sobbed. There was no way her husband would ever recognise her now…
Claire managed to get through the day; some of the staff were really friendly toward her. It was her immediate superior, Jane, that she had trouble with…
She was a real cow. Always insulting her, because she was supposedly handicapped, and calling her an incompetent cripple all the time. Because she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t even complain…
Then, to her amazement, she saw her husband, Jack. Before she could go to him, though, he came over and wrapped his arms around Jane…
Laughing, they both stared at her.
“Doesn’t she look cute, in her maids dress?”, Jack said.
“I thought you’d like it”, Jane said. “We’ve modified her so she can’t be recognised, as well as removed her ability to speak. Also, her ‘disability’ makes her hands shake so much she’d never be able to hold a pen again, so writing is out as well…!”
“A lot cheaper and less messy than a divorce”, Jack said. “As far as the family is concerned, my wife is away in France on business. Ironic, then, she’s actually dressed as a French maid…”
The pair laughed.
“Oh, she’s going to ‘meet someone’ whilst there, and dump me by email”, Jack said. “I’ve already got the divorce papers; Claire signed them a week ago without realising it, because she ‘trusted me’…”
A tear ran down Claire’s cheek.
“Aw, don’t cry, ‘Rhonda’”, said Jack, laughing. “I’m sure you’ll be happy here. You even get full room and board, because of your disability. It’s in the basement, but I’m sure it’s nice…!”
Jack and Jane left the room, arm in arm.
Claire just dissolved in a heap…
One of ‘Rhonda’s’ friends, Sarah, found her still crying.
“Rhonda! Love, what’s wrong?”
Claire had no way of telling Sarah; the pure frustration just started her crying again…
Sarah was straight on the phone to her floor manager.
“Something’s wrong with Rhonda! She won’t stop crying, and she can hardly walk. I’m bringing her down; call the doctor.”
Claire had had a nervous breakdown. The shock of everything that had happened had got too much for her, and she had snapped.
The doctor had ‘Rhonda’ admitted to hospital. It was there that they noticed the weird scarring on the back of her neck, as well as the damage at the front, as they undid the collar of her uniform.
“What the hell…?”
Tests at the hospital proved the nurse’s concerns were justified.
“No wonder she’s a nervous wreck; she’s not disabled, at least she wasn’t until someone did this to her. Someone has deliberately damaged her spinal cord and cut her vocal cords.”
“What!”, shrieked Sarah. “I’ll kill them!”
She hugged Claire as much as she could. Sarah had been protective of ‘Rhonda’ ever since she had started at the hotel, and to find out that someone had hurt her ‘baby’ infuriated her.
“Is there anything you can do to repair the damage?”, Sarah asked.
“The spinal cord, maybe, its only slight. I’m afraid her voice is gone for good, though, at least her original one. There are some treatments for throat cancer patients that might work for her; we’ll have to see.”
Neither the doctor nor Sarah had noticed that Claire had woken while they were talking… The first they knew was her panicked breathing…
Claire was staring at them, her eyes wide, in full blown panic, clutching at her throat…
Sarah hugged her as she wailed…
Claire’s first proper operation in hospital cured her hands shaking. The police were then able to interview her. They had been called because both Sarah and the hospital had agreed to report it as an assault…
Still having some trouble using her hands, Claire managed to write about what had happened to her; about how she had been snatched from her bed one night by a pair of kidnappers who had taken her to their ‘workshop’…
She had pleaded with them to let her go, asking them what they wanted; was it money? What?
“No, you’ve got nothing we want.”
“Then why? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Someone wants you to disappear. Not die, just disappear. Permanently…”
“Please, stop this! Just let me go! I won’t tell anyone…”
“Damn right you won’t. However, letting you go is not an option…”
Then, the world had dissolved into pain…
She had woken up in the hotel room, in the maid’s dress, as ‘Rhonda’. She’d actually been working there for a week before that, but she had no memory of it as she had been heavily drugged, as well as ‘disabled’.
The drugs had just worn off when Jack and Jane had had their little chat in front of her…
She also managed to tell the police who she really was. Sarah gasped…
The police went to interview Jack and Jane. It was while they were doing this that they realised Jane wasn’t Jack’s wife…
“Can we speak to your wife, please, sir?”, they asked.
“Claire? She’s in France at the moment. Funny you should ask about her; the bitch just dumped me by email; she says she’s initiating divorce proceedings. I’ve tried to phone her but not got any answer.”
“Can we have the number, please? We need to talk to her.”
“Why? She’s nothing to do with the hotel?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Jack had no idea that the police had managed to communicate with Claire…
The hospital had investigated Claire further; they had found out her hair was just dyed, as the colour was beginning to grow out. They’d also managed to remove the contact lenses that she was wearing, which showed what colour her eyes really were…
All this was adding more credibility to ‘Rhonda’s’ tale. The police were now convinced that Rhonda was Claire and said so. Claire cried with relief…
Sarah refused to leave her side.
“I don’t care who you are, I care about you”, she said. “What they’ve done to you is despicable.”
Sarah couldn’t hold herself back anymore. She kissed Claire…
There was only one bright point now in all of Claire’s existence, now, and it was Sarah. She was finally finding out what it was like to be really loved by someone, after her ‘marriage of convenience’ to Jack. She hadn’t thought she was ‘into’ women, either, but this seemed to be completely wrong; Sarah was pushing all the right buttons.
The hospital had done all they could for her; they had booked her a follow-up appointment with a consultant about her voice, but that wasn’t for a few weeks. In the meantime, Claire had already started divorce proceedings online via her solicitor, explaining by email that she couldn’t talk due to the assault. Based on her evidence as well, as well as the physical damage to her, Jack and Jane were looking at serious jail time.
Jack had cracked, under pressure at the police station, and blamed the whole ‘affair’ on Jane, saying she’d blackmailed him into doing it because he’d got her pregnant. Jane, of course, was ‘absolutely innocent’ (she claimed), saying Jack had come on to her while his wife was away, and she felt she couldn’t refuse his advances because she would have lost her job, as he was her boss. In the end, the police charged both of them…
All this didn’t help Claire trying to get on with her life. The changes that had been made to her had made her heavily depressed.
Sarah came home from work one day to find her lying on the floor, unconscious, a broken rope hanging from a doorway. She had tried to hang herself.
“No…!”, she cried, rushing to her. She hugged Claire in her arms and rocked her gently, sobbing.
Claire eventually woke up. Her immediate reaction was to get angry with Sarah and push her away.
“You selfish bitch!”. Sarah cried, slapping her. “How could you do this to me? I love you, you stupid idiot! Why are you trying to leave me…!?”
Sarah just knelt on the floor, wailing. It was then Claire realised what Sarah’s feelings for her really were…
Next day, Claire awoke in bed. Sarah was next to her, staring down at her.
“I’m never leaving you alone again for a minute!”, said Sarah. “I’m too scared I’ll lose you.”
“You… won’t…”, croaked Claire.
Sarah’s mouth dropped open. “You can talk! How??”
“Rope… round… neck… contracted… throat. Reconnected… vocal… cords.”
“Ok, ok, don’t overdo it. Rest it. Hopefully, it’s a permanent fix.”
“Ok…”
Sarah nuzzled Claire, who kissed her back…
The pair were married three months later. They’d given each other time first to make sure that was what they both wanted; Sarah was prepared to give Claire as much time as she needed. That concession in itself was plenty enough to prove to Claire she’d made the right choice in Sarah…
Then came the last surprise. Jack’s entire business ‘empire’ was left to Claire. His brother had found out everything that had been going on; as he and his parents had always been sweet on Claire, they gave her the business as an apology for Jack’s actions, all legally and in writing. That meant Claire now owned the hotel that she had been working in as ‘Rhonda’.
She took great delight in giving Sarah Jane’s old job of floor manager…