Melissa

Chapter 20- Cruel Realities.

Melissa's POV.

Jen, my personal assistant called me at 7 a.m the next Monday morning. It seemed like so many days have passed since I have stepped in my office.

Well, so many things happened the last week that I didn't even had the to breath properly. So many things changed.

Sigh.

"Call me whenever you need me, Madam. Have a nice day." Benzo said as he closed the back door of the car as I stepped out.

I nodded and smiled at him. "Thanks and good day, Benzo." I waved him and rushed inside the main door of my office.

"Good morning, mam." The receptionist greeted politely.

"Morning." I ran towards the elevator and pressed 11th floor. I will directly stop at Pastor's office.

Jen called up in the morning to inform me about an important meeting that was called so suddenly. There were two women who wanted to talk to us. The issues wasn't disclosed to me in the phone but the pressure in Jen's voice told me it was something utterly important.

Also, because the meeting was set by the one of the chief executive officer in the headquarters of Ohio. This is very rare.

I knocked on the wooden door of Mr. James Pastor and waited patiently.

"Come in." He said.

"Good morning sir." I wished him as I entered his spacious office. The room smelled of turpentine oil. I looked around and saw that indeed a lot has changed over the last week. His leather chairs and table were replaced by wooden table and chairs. The room was re-designed. Everything looked brown and green and was so peaceful.

"Feels so fresh in here." I breathed in and said.

"You look fresh as well. Did you come back from a vacation or something? I met your husband the other day in the club he looks so.... Out of place?" James frowned his crinkled face at the end of his sentence. I mentally rolled my eyes.

"Not a vacation. We just had a fight and I needed a break so I'm crashing in friend's apartment as of now." I lied smoothly. James Pastor gave me an assessing look. And then, he smiled, his all knowing smile.

I dropped my gaze and hastily changed the subject. "So what is the urgent meeting all about?"

"Oh, we have Mr. Hakinama coming down in 15mins to the office. He said he needs to discuss a rape case of a Russian model. The model Dominika Petrova​ is also coming along." He informed me. It was my time to frown.

"That's the job of the Russian Police or the FBI. Why we, an NGO is working for it? We are not crime investigators." I said. We are here to bring about change, to support the marginalized. That's what organisations like ours do.

"She has been a victim of corrective rape." James Pastor looked at me and my eyebrows rose. Corrective rape was yet another cruelties of this modern world.

"I see. Finally someone is opening up. We should take action."

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Twenty minutes later, the conference room was filled with 5 people. It was a private and confidential meeting.

Mr. Hakinama sat the first end of the table along with Ms. Dominika Petrova, Mr. James Pastor sat at his right, I sat to Mr. Hakinama's left. And Jen sat beside me. She was here to take notes.

"We do not want to delay, let's start away. Our flight is in the next hour."  Mr. Hakinama said. The man was shorter in height, wearing a grey suit and bald. "Ms. Petrova here needs help."

"Yes sir," James said to Hakinama. "We would like to start with Ms. Petrova. How can we help you, mam?"

Dominika Petrova was 6 feet tall woman with endless tanned legs, wavy brown hair and thick eye lashes with minimal make up. She was really very pretty.

"I don't know where to start." She said, dropping her gaze. She had hid her dark circles pretty well with make up. The frown lines were almost invisible. But if you look carefully, you would know that this woman suffers from depression. Just like me.

"From the very start." I heard myself saying. I wanted to know her story. She was fighting. I could feel it, she is trying to reach out for help but it's not helping her. Nothing is helping her.

"When I was 14, I found out I am homosexual. My family is very religiously orthodox. My three elder brothers were all happily married in the later years. I knew my family wouldn't accept it. When I turned 18, my mother caught me kissing my girlfriend and she lost it. She tried making me understand. She didn't tell my father and brothers. When I turned 19, my whole family knew and after all medical help when they couldn't change me, my grandmother came out with a solution." She laughed and it sounded dead to our ears. "The solution was my own father rape me. And it was taken as a corrective method to turn me into heterosexual. When that didn't work, my brothers started doing it. And when I turned 21, I ran away." She breathed and sat back comfortably in the leather chair, bending her head back and closing her eyes.

She tried to held her tears back. We could only stare. None of us could utter a word. My profession has left me speechless numerous times before. But today, it made me feel anger and pain at the same time.

"After I ran away," she started again. "I thought this was over but as I started my career as a model, I started facing it again but this time it was by my manager. I had always tried to dodge his advances. But one night, I had an headache and he gave me some medicine. As I swallowed it, I fell unconscious. The next morning I lay naked in my room with my manager beside me. When I accused him of this he showed me the video he made. He recorded the rape." Tears fell from her eyes. "I am bound to the contract for the next 3 years and he threatened to leak the video in public if I don't get a boyfriend soon. His explanation to his actions were he wants to please my fans, rise my stardom so that he can make more money from the company." She facepalmed and her shoulders​ shook.

"I don't know how to get out of it." She said at last.

"I admire you." The first words that came out of Jen's mouth made us all look at her. "I mean, you are still fighting. You are a true warrior." She smiled at Ms. Petrova.

"Please help me. I could have gone to the FBI but I also want to spread awareness about corrective rape so that people like me who suffer from it can get justice."  She said to us. She is so brave. If only more people had that quality, then this world would have been such a better place.

"Thanks for sharing with us, madam. We will do our best to help you." James Pastor told her. The way his eyes wavered I knew that he didn't know what to do. He needed a moment alone to calm himself down.

"We can start with sending online petitions." I suggested. We need to start talking to other NGO's to start the motion as we discussed last year with the head of women's association."

"Yes. I can sanction that. That's a good start. Also I have informed the FBI to arrest your manager Dominika. Don't worry and you'll be appointed guards outside your apartment."

Dominika nodded her head and sighed. We both looked at eachother​. A promise was made, from my strong eyes to her vulnerable one.

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Very sorry for the late update. And this chapter needs a lot of editing which I'll do once I complete the book.

Question: Doraemon or shinchan? I ❤ Doraemon!

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Love.
Loren.