The Maltreated Wife's Glorious Comeback

The main door to the house was widely opened shocking the lady who just appeared on the porch. It was a sunny afternoon and Ashley had just returned from work since her boss retired early for the day. She hadn't expected to see her door widely open.

"Keith!"

Recalling her five year old was home with his babysitter, the fear of the unknown crept in as she bursted into the building. She dropped her purse on a couch in the living room and began her search.

A noise from the kitchen got her attention. Her heart skipped a beat as she walked to the direction of the noise. Slow and steady steps until she got to the corridor, her eyes widened when she spotted her son trying to pull a hot pan off from the stove.

"Keith.."

The young boy was startled when he was suddenly scooped into his mother's arms. Ashley held her boy close to herself. She took a glance at the pan to see a broken egg in it. 'What in the world?'

"Mummy, you're back!!"

Ashley turned off the stove and led her son out of the kitchen already getting pissed off that the babysitter failed to look after her son who could have burnt himself up in the kitchen. Once they were out of the kitchen, she knelt before him staring into his cute blue eyes.

"Where's Michelle? And what were you doing in the kitchen?"

The young boy pouted his lips with his head facing down. "I wanted to make scrambled eggs. I'm very hungry--

"You could have asked Michelle to make you something to eat. Where is she?"

"Michelle left after daddy came back home, I asked daddy to make lunch for me but he asked me to leave"

Ashley's face fell. How could she forgot the monster of a man she got married to two years ago? She stood to her feet vibrating in anger.

"That son of a b--

****

Ashley proceeded to the bedroom ready to pour her anger and frustration on her husband who was so heartless to make lunch for their kid. Once she got to the door, she pushed it opened without warning. Her sudden intrusion startled Andrew who was halfway into pound town with a lady beneath him.

"Andrew!"

The moment he saw that it was Ashley standing by the door, he pulled his gaze away like he saw nothing and continued with his thrusts filling the room with his groans and moans. Ashley didn't look too surprised either almost as if it was a regular thing to witness.

Ashley was unhappily married to Andrew Morales, otherwise known as a manwhore. A man who only thinks with his lower half. He could literally chase anything that wears skirt and the most painful part about his affairs was that he openly does it and also brings them over to his home.

In the beginning, Ashley spent nights crying and sometimes questioning if she was good enough for him or maybe she wasn't attractive enough. His promiscuous ways started from the first day of their marriage. He never spent their wedding night with her. He had the audacity to invite a bitch over that night and banged her all night opposite the room Ashley had spent the night.

"Our son almost burnt himself up because he was trying to make something to eat and you're here--

"Yeah..right there baby..Ahhh"

The woman underneath screamed in pleasure totally cutting Ashley off from her speech. That made her incredibly mad. They could continue their atrocity in peace only if she got the response she wanted to hear. 'Why the hell could he ignore their kid?!' She screamed in her head.

She spotted a jug of water sitting on the table and walked towards it. When she was near, she grabbed it and threw it at the pair. Instantly, Andrew was forced out of the bed after the cold liquid splashed on him. He grabbed the white towel from the bed and wrapped it around his thin waist.

He glared at Ashley and walked to her in firm steps, when he was close enough to her, his hand met her face. The glass jug Ashley was holding fell off her hand crashing to the ground. It shattered into tiny pieces.

"How dare you?! Do I look like your kid's babysitter?! It seems to me that you're gradually forgetting why we are still together Ashley. Don't make me explain it to you in a hard way. Now beat it!"

Ashley still remained in that spot staring at the floor in despair. Why was she still in this marriage? That's what most people ask but only her knew what awaits a single mother like her. The world was cruel to them.

"You're still his father Andrew. You can punish me all you want! Hate me! Hit me! But don't punish my son for my mistake" She said in a pleading tone. Tears slowly welling up in her eyes amber eyes.

One would think that her words has finally managed to pierce through his thick skull but Andrew wasn't like every other men out there. He grabbed Ashley by her arm and lowered his face with a glare directed at her.

"That kid shares no relationship with me! And I give no fuck about him. I'm doing you both a favour! Remember that!"

He started walking to the door pulling Ashley along with him. He stopped right by the corridor and pushed her out like she was nothing.

"Spend the night in the guest room or under the bridge..I honestly don't care as long as you don't disturb me in any way" He didn't give her a chance to retort before slamming the door shut.

****

Later that night..

Ashley patted her son's back gently as she cooed him to sleep. Keith snuggled close to his mother on his bed. He noticed that she was lost in her thoughts. He was feeling extremely guilty thinking his mum was upset because of him.

"I'm sorry mummy, I promise you that I won't go near the kitchen again. Please don't be sad"

Ashley was jolted out of her thoughts, she pulled her son close to herself forcing a soft chuckle to put his little mind at ease."Oh.. baby. I can never be mad at you. You're a good boy. Mummy is only thinking about work" She lied through her teeth.

Every choice she made, she made sure that her son wouldn't suffer the brunt of it no matter what. "Go to sleep honey. Everything is okay?"

Few minutes later, Keith was sound asleep. Ashley stood up gently detaching herself away from him to avoid waking him up. Her lips touched his forehead softly.

"I love you baby" She whispered softly and left the room.

Right at the door, she was yanked away by Andrew. From his expression, he didn't seem pleased by something.

"Let me go!"

She forcefully pulled her arm from his grip which seemed to surprise him a little. "You think you can go around throwing that attitude of yours?! Why didn't you make dinner for my guest?!"

"She's your guest, not mine. Why don't you sought that out yourself Andrew?.." She fired back at him.

Ashley turned around and began walking away only to be pulled back by Andrew. Her back touched the wall harshly and a low grunt left her lips at the impact.

"Don't you dare give me that attitude!"

The next morning..

Ashley dropped off Keith at school and hurried to the office since she was running late. She almost forgot that her old boss was stepping down today for his son to take over. Being his personal assistant, she always had to be at the company before him to get things done before he got there.

According to the rumors she had heard of the CEO's son, it was said that he was a spoilt brat who squanders his parents money lavishly on women and drugs Abroad. The CEO was none other than Eric Black, the owner of one of the biggest company here in New York. The Black's were known to be wealthy and well respected people in the society.

She suddenly wondered why her boss would choose to make his scoundrel of a son the new CEO of the company if truly he was as bad as people say. The Black's were very private with their lives and it's no wonder almost all sites she has been to knows nothing about this son of theirs.

She quickened her pace spotting the elevator that was about to close. Some men were in there, although they saw her frantically running towards the elevator, they still chose to ignore and didn't bother to stop the doors from closing. She was a second late to stop the door.

"Damn you guys! How could you all be so heartless?" Ashley cussed at the closed door in a loud tone obviously directing her words to the men in the elevator. It would be totally pointless using the stairs to get up to the 20th floor, she might reach the floor next week tuesday. Suddenly the elevator's doors opened shocking Ashley.

Her cheeks flushed red in embarassment. She bowed her head walking in without daring to raise her head up. There was a total of five men in the elevator including Ashley making them six. She noticed one particularly stood at the front with both hands into his pants pocket while the other four stood behind him. There was a good chance that they all heard what she said a while ago.

"What floor?"

Ashley's heart skipped a beat after the deep male voice spoke next to her. She raised her head sharply only to lock eyes with the blue eyed dude standing two metres away from her. She swallowed hard at his intimidating beauty.

He stood at a massive height of 6'2 with an athletic build. His chiseled features and piercing blue eyes seemed to command attention, His dark hair was perfectly styled framing his face. He looked like one of those male lead characters usually described in romance books. 'Did he escape from an author's book?'

"Ma'am..?"

Ashley snapped out of her daze. She cleared her throat in embarrassment. 'How could I zone out like that?' She questioned herself mentally.

"Uhm..sorry..20th floor" She responded with her head facing down.

How could anyone be so goodlooking?

Along the ride, Ashley noticed that the men were oddly quiet and none of them had the intention to get off from the elevator either. A part of her started getting scared. Finally, the elevator doors opened and she almost flew out of it out of fright and didn't bother to look back for once.

Surprisingly, she has never seen those guys before. Maybe they were new employees? So she thought.

When she got to the CEO's office, she began gathering the files needed for today. A meeting that was scheduled to announce who the new CEO would be by 9:00 AM and it was almost 10:00 AM.

This had everything to do with Andrew who for some reasons wanted a full table of breakfast knowing fully well that she had to be somewhere that morning.

"The boss will be so mad at me".

Ashley left the office and proceeded to the conference room which wasn't so far away from her boss's office. She opened the door a bit to take a peep of how crowded it was in there. Most of her colleagues were inside already and there was no possible way she could sneak in without being noticed.

She finally mustered enough courage to walk into the room and as expected, all eyes fell on her as she scurried her way to the middle aged man sitting at the head of the table. Eric Black shook his head slowly at her and she mouthed a quick apology to him.

"I have no excuse to give you today boss" She whispered.

Luckily the old man wasn't in any bad mood today so he pardoned Ashley's lateness. After handing over the files to her boss, she stepped away from him and began moving towards the door when she felt an intense stare on her.

For a moment, she seemed frozen, her gaze locked on the gaze of the same man from the elevator. Her eyes sparkled with surprise and her brows arched slightly. 'Heavens! He is a business partner?!' She screamed inwardly.

She left the conference room and returned back to the CEO's office pacing around. She was rehearsing her apology just Incase the business partner tried to rat her out to her boss. She also needed to ensure that the new boss likes her enough to avoid replacing her.

Ashley had served Eric for two years and he had never complained about her work ethic in the past except her lateness to work sometimes.

Ten minutes had passed and Ashley was still rehearsing what to say to her boss when suddenly the door opened. She was quick to turn around "Sir! I can explain--

To Ashley's amazement, it wasn't her boss standing before her. It was him, the same man who she met in the elevator and also in the conference room. They both had a surprised look on their faces but Ashley's look was more obvious.

She hurriedly grabbed his hand "Mister, i'm very sorry for what I said. Please don't tell my boss" She bashed her long lashes at him hoping that he could forget what happened.

However, the man remained quiet. His eyes dropped from Ashley's face to his hand which she boldly clasped in hers. It didn't seem like she had the intention of letting him go any time soon and neither did he want her to let go either.

Ashley took his silence as 'no'. Was he that desperate to get her fired from her post?

The door opened again and this time, it was Eric Black. Noticing the arrival of her boss, she released the grip she had on the young man's hand. Ashley backed away and bowed to her boss and at the same time feeling anxious.

"I see you've met my assistant already, Cameron" Eric spoke moving closer to the two facing themselves. "Ashley, meet my son and the new CEO of the company"

Ashley's lips parted in shock. Her eyes grew large at Eric's words. This was even worse than being a business partner. He was her new boss! And according to the rumors about him, they all turned out to be wrong! He didn't look like any of those he was rumored about.

Cameron walked past her slightly bumping his body against her's to bring her out of her state of shock. His actions seemed to work immediately. He moved to the CEO's seat and touched the top of the black leather swivel chair.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Cameron" She finally found the voice to speak after a few seconds of silence.

"Is it?" Cameron questioned back meaningfully with a sly smirk on his lips which made Ashley gulp down nervously. She couldn't afford to lose her job all because of one little slip of the tongue. In her defense, she really had no idea that he was her new boss.

Eric was a bit lost in the awkward conversation between the two. He assumed his son didn't like Ashley as his assistant.

"If you want another assistant, you're free to get someone else. I'll arrange another position for Ashley"

Ashley's heart pounded hard awaiting Cameron's response. So far being Eric's personal assistant has made her earn higher compared to other employees in the company. She was the one who sought most of the bills at home since Andrew lavishes his money on women.

"There's no need for that. This one seems so interesting" He raised his head the moment he noticed Ashley's gaze on him and their eyes met. "Right Ashley?"

For the rest of the day, Ashley avoided reporting to her new boss Cameron. Instead, she sent other employees to him because she was feeling so embarrassed to meet him again. After her old boss left the office, she hadn't returned there and she hoped nothing should send her to his office.

Luckily for her, it was already lunch break and she was the first to close her laptop ready to sprint out but unfortunately for her, the telephone on her desk rang. The sound of it made her heart skip a beat. This was a direct line to reach from the CEO's office.

She shut her eyes briefly and picked up the phone placing it against her ear. "Yes boss?" Her brows creased slightly after hearing his order at the other end. "Like right now?"

Ashley frustratedly place the phone done on its holder and changed the direction of her movements to his office. Along the way, she kept on mumbling silent prayers and feeling so anxious to look at him again.

When she got to the transparent office door, she knocked once and entered without waiting for his response. He didn't raise his head right away to look at her since he was deeply engrossed in the file he was reading.

She cleared her throat to gain his attention even though he already knew that she was standing before him. Cameron spared her a glance before placing the file that he was reading aside. Ashley caught sight of the photo on the file and it made her speechless.

That was her!. She raised her head back to him and this time, their eyes met again. Why was he going through her file? Could he have found a valid reason to fire her?

"You sent for me boss." She said with her head slightly bowed.

She heard his deep breath. "When I was going through your file, I couldn't find anything about your personal life"

Ashley nodded to his words. She took a quick glance at him and he appeared to be in a deep thought. She had no idea what was going through his mind at the moment but it should have nothing to do with sacking her from her position. Keith's tuition fees hasn't been paid yet. No one knows about her marriage nor Keith since she got accepted into the company before getting married to that loser.

"I didn't think that it was necessary to include all of that and since Mr Eric didn't ask for it, I didn't bother to fill him with the details."

Cameron rested back on his chair staring at Ashley. A corner of his lips pulled up into a smile "I hope you don't get me wrong Miss Ashley, i'm only trying to know the kind of person that'll be working alongside with me. And since my dad didn't complain about you, I guess you're good to go"

Ashley breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn't a bad person after all. She had a feeling that he'll be exactly like his father. UNTIL...

"By the way, I heard what you said back there at the elevator" Ashley's heart skipped a beat when he spoke. "You're right, I'm heartless and starting today, move your things over to that cubicle, I want to watch you while you work and if by any chance you slack off, you won't get the chance to use the elevator in this company again"

Although Cameron sounded mean, but a smile still played on his lips like a daunting predator watching its prey carefully. At the other hand, Ashley was dumbfounded. How could he think like that? She loved her privacy and now..??

"That will be all Miss Ashley" he dismissed her and returned back to his work.

Once Ashley was out of the office he raised his head up a little watching her walk away through the glass walls..

****

On getting home late that evening, Ashley was welcomed to the sight of a lady parading the living room with one of her dresses. That was the last gift from her late father and she wore it only on special occasions and this bitch had the audacity to go through her things and wear the dress so casually.

Driven by rage and anger, Ashley walked to the lady who hadn't noticed her presence yet. She caught her by her arm and made her turn around before sending a slap to her face. Her chest heaved up and down in anger as she glared hard at Andrew's fling.

She had made it clear to Andrew several times that he was free to sleep with whatever thing he wanted to sleep with but he shouldn't in any way let his bitch touch her things or her son.

From the lady's brown orbs, she looked visibly upset. She suddenly splashed the content of the glass that she was holding on Ashley' face.

"How dare you lay your hand on me?! Andrew!"

"That's right! Call him out but before he gets down here i'll teach you some manners!" No sooner had Ashley said that, she pushed the lady down to the couch hitting and pulling her hair at every chance that she got.

Andrew must have heard their screams because he came rushing down the stairs and the second he got to them, he pulled Ashley away from his girlfriend and sent a slap to her face. The impact sent Ashley falling to the ground. He stood before her glaring hard at her.

"How dare you touch her?!" He barked sending a kick to her back.

"Mummy!!!"

Keith's scared voice broke in the room. He rushed forward to his mother still bawling in pain on the ground. When he saw how much pain she was in, he rushed to his dad and pushed the latter to the couch.

"Why did you hurt my mummy? You're a bad man!"

Andrew wasted no second pushing the kid off him like he was a disease he didn't want to get infected with. "Get the f*ck away from my face!" He yelled at Keith before leading his mistress away with him.

Ashley lay there for God knows how long crying softly, her son lay next to her on the cold floor crying alongside with her and also consoling her.

"Please don't cry again mummy. I'm right here"

All throughout the night, Ashley and her son spent the night on the couch since Andrew locked them out of the rooms in the house. She was grateful to have an understanding son who didn't throw a tantrum at a time like this.

"When I grow up, I won't let anybody bully you again. Anybody who makes you cry again will be beaten up really bad by me"

Ashley pulled her son closer to herself planting small kisses on his face. This phase in their lives will surely pass by with time. And for that to happen, she had to work twice as hard for it to happen. All these while she has been thinking about her son's wellbeing. She didn't want people to address him as a fatherless boy.

"Don't hate your father, he really isn't that bad. He loves you a lot"

"No! Daddy doesn't like us. He yells at me everytime and also hit you. I don't like daddy, he's a bad man"

Ashley stroked his back gently hushing him to sleep.