“Jean, ma boy!”, a round, jolly old white man shouted as he swung open the front door, allowing dusk orange sun rays to fill a large living room.

A lanky man, wearing a half-buttoned dress shirt with shoulder-length black hair and smooth porcelain skin, looked up from his book. The jolly man walked in with several military officers following close behind, while surrounding a bound person with a black bag over their head.

“Father, didn’t I tell you that that key was for emergency purposes only?”, Jean scowled.

“Well this is an emergency, son! A happy emergency!”, he laughed as he took the book out his hand and tugged him off the couch.

“There’s no such thing as a happy emergency”, he corrected.

“Oh, please stop being so negative. Now I would like you to meet some people”

Jean looked at them, but before he could speak, the most decorated man interrupted.

“General Hesinger. Nice to meet you. I’m told you’re good at taming wild animals”, he says.

“Not anymore. I retired from the service years ago. Now I’m just a businessman”, Jean stated coldly.

“Business or military, there’s not much difference. You still need to know how to make others do your bidding”, he smirked, “Now this one here is defiant. Had to separate her from the other females and blacks at the camp. She has a very strong maternal instinct towards the other females and a violent nature. She quickly became their leader after intake, so she’s caused us some problems”, he said. “I need you to break her.”

Jean’s jaw tightened, “I’m still trying to understand why you’re so happy about this father”, Jean inquired, “What sort of shady dealings have you made once again that I will need to clean up later?”

“Shady? I’ve done no such thing! Simply made an investment in your future. Best part about this investment is she’s your new wife!”, he exclaimed.

“What?!?”, Jean shouted.

“Unfortunately”, Hesinger interrupted, “we can’t exactly do away with her legally or “accidentally” due to her status. Virgins her age and race make her a—“, he smirked, “rather rare and valuable commodity.”

“Due to her nature, I can say I got quite the bargain over some other girls I was looking at; just for fun of course. Don’t tell your mother”, the old man laughed, “but I’m sure she’ll forgive me once she knows her darling son has finally gotten married after all this time!”, he beamed.

“I am not agreeing to this, Father”, Jean growled.

“It’s too late, ma boy. The contract has been signed and the fee’s been paid! Now…”, he gestured, “Father Mackewicz, would you please start the ceremony?”

“Certainly”, Father Mackewicz said as he moved from behind the crowd of soldiers.

The soldiers proceeded to cautiously remove the bag to reveal a clove toned woman with unspeakable amounts of filthy, blood ridden bruises and cuts on her face. For the first time, Jean actually took a close look at the figure surrounded by the tense soldiers. A woman of medium height with a fierce look in her barely visible eyes. Her hair was wild; matted with dried blood in some places and sticking up in others. Her eyes and lips were blackened and swollen. The rest of her visible skin matched the abuses on her face; her wrists and ankles were cuffed with chains connecting them, her neck had a collar with a chain leash protruding from it.

The priest held out the marriage contract specially designed for free white men and servant wives.

“Mr. Minami-Evanston, will you please stamp your thumbprint in the box next to the groom’s line and sign, please”, he asked.

Jean hesitated, but his father, with all prior happiness removed from his face, stared at him threateningly. He tensed his jaw, then quickly placed his thumbprint and signed. The General grabbed the woman’s wrist and fought to unclench her hand to ink her thumb. He finally pried it from her fist to stamp the only area designated for servant wives; a box next to her name that was digitally filled in.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. Congratulations.”, Father Mackewicz said monotonically.

Jean’s father returned to his jolly self, clapping rapidly and beaming with a smile from ear to ear.

“I thank you for taking this degenerate monkey bitch off my hands”, General Hesinger maliciously grinned.

“You know, General”, the woman said, “by the look of your face, your line isn’t as white as you think.”

His face wrinkled in anger as he backhanded her with the full force of his hand. He immediately turned to Jean, “Forgive me for harming your new property, but hopefully you’ll be able to teach her to learn her place. Send me an invoice for the fine.”

“Funny how you call me names and slap me when you don’t have a counter argument”, she smiled a bloody grin.

“Release this wench and let’s be on our way. She’s not our problem anymore.”, Hesinger barked, handing Jean a pair of glasses and briefcase.

The soldiers released the bonds and quickly backed away.

“Boo!”, she said and they jumped back in fright. She laughed and smiled maliciously.

“So, you’re my new husband, huh?”, she asked, “you’re supposed to tame me? By the look of your brow, I’d say otherwise, but anyways, I’m Lalianna, Lali or Lalia for short.”

“You know, that’s what gets you in trouble. That mouth.”, Jean pointed out.

“Yes, people can’t handle the truth. I find it such a shame.”, she jested. “Where’s your room?”

“It’s the first room at the top of the steps.”, Jean answered without thinking.

Lali nodded, took the glasses from his hand, and made her way to his room, leaving him standing in the living room with an unsure look on his face. Upon entering, she went through his drawers and dug out a night shirt, a pair of pajama pants, and briefs. She went to the bathroom to find a grand master bath, with an elevated jacuzzi bathtub, multi-head walk-in shower, and a two-sink vanity. With an impressed smirk, she grabbed towels and washcloths from the linen closet and hopped into the shower.

Lali flinched at every droplet of hot water and rub of the washcloth against her skin as she tried to clean off the dirt and blood from her body. She started to get used to the pain and began to scrub as though to pull her own skin off. She then moved to cleaning her hair and stood directly under the shower head to let the water wash out as much blood as possible. Filling her hand with all the shampoo it could hold, she slowly began to massage it into her hair.

“Ah! Shit! Damn it!”, she cursed as she touched a sore spot on her head.

She continued to gently rub in the shampoo until she couldn’t stand the pain any longer.

“I guess I can try to soak the rest off in a bath”, she sighed to herself as she tried to pull strands of hair out of the severely caked on spots to clean more blood from underneath.

Frustrated, she relented and angrily turned off the water. Flipping on the tub faucet all the way to quickly fill it up. All the while, she rummaged through the cabinet under the sink.

“Well, well, well, he obviously has women over or, he’s quite the metrosexual”, she said as she happily snatched up the herbal soaps and closed the cabinet.

She poured a generous amount into the almost filled tub and slowly climbed in. Stepping into a tub of hot water only seemed to exacerbate the pain further. Lali bit her lip so as to not cry out and alert Jean. She took deep breaths as she lowered her whole body into the bathtub, and submerged herself until only her nose and lips were sticking out for when she needed air. Floating under the surface, the bathwater already began to turn red from her wounds. She gently tugged and rubbed her hair to remove more dried blood, which caused the water to become a darker hue. When close to pruning, she stood up and quickly did a once over with the herbal soap, rinsed, and hopped out. Hastily, Lali walked over to the mirror to check her hair and skin. Her body showed signs of emaciation and every inch of her seemed to be a bruise.

“You look like a goddamn mess…”, she mumbled to herself, “...at least your hair is pretty much back to normal.” She stroked her black curls, letting them recoil on their own, then twisted her puffy hair into two even braids.

After drying off, she slipped on the oversized clothing and gently laid her aching body in the large bed in the room, cocooning herself in the comfortable down blanket where she quickly fell asleep.

After over an hour and a half of his new wife’s disappearance into his room, Jean began to worry. He cautiously approached the door and went to knock, but hesitated.

“Why do I feel like I’m a guest in my own house? I shouldn’t have to knock”, he grumbled to himself.

Still, he lightly knocked, then let himself into his room. Lali was sleeping, cuddled in the center of his bed. He tried to wake her, for it obviously hadn’t been that long since she laid down.

“Hey,”, he tapped the blanket, “come eat dinner”, he said, but she wasn’t budging.

Jean left her to rest, assuming she was just exhausted. He ate dinner and opted to sleep in the guestroom for the time being.

Jean awoke just after dawn to get ready for work. He climbed the stairs to his room to retrieve a clean suit and undergarments. Lali was still in the same spot he left her yesterday. He quickly checked her breathing. After determining that she was indeed still alive, he quietly crept around the room gathering the things he needed for work. But even when he opened and closed the drawer too loud, she did not move an inch.

“It’s only been about 12 hours, I’ve slept that long before. Let’s not worry just yet”, he thought.

As he entered the bathroom to shower, he jumped at the sight of the bathroom. The tub looked like a scene from a horror movie. The porcelain white tub was dyed red with blood. The marble floor had light red footprints from the shower to the tub. As Jean approached the shower, clumps of blood caked the walls and floor.

“Yeah, l-let’s not worry just yet.”, he encouraged himself.

Jean hastily bleached the bathroom and got ready for work, leaving Lali’s breakfast covered on the kitchen island.