ILLUSIANA (CONTRACT MARRIAGE)

CHAPTER 7

With grace the metallic black Mercedes entered the yard of a house that was quite spacious when the high gate made of thick wood was wide open.

Although tired of ambushing him, but Ferdian quickly came out from behind the wheel and stepped around the face of his car and opened the door for Lusi. Then let the girl down.

Slowly the girl set her foot on the court and stared at Ferdian's face at a glance then turned her gaze to the green grassy courtyard that lay wide in front of her eyes.

“Come in. This is my house. Do not be afraid, here you are safe,” invite Ferdian to Susi who is still glued to the edge of his car.

Hearing Ferdian's invitation, Lusi nodded then followed Ferdian's steps into the luxurious residence.

Arriving at the living room, Lusi circulated his gaze around the room. The impression of shade and comfort was so obvious he got from the room.

The crystal lamp hanging in the middle of the ceiling with a series of rays emanating from it made the room so bright but not dazzling.

Added to that with the entire wall covered with vertical patterned wallpaper with light brown color, making the room look so beautiful and very elegant.

And in some parts of the wall perched some abstract paintings and calligraphy decoration that seemed luxurious but still simple.

Lusi's step stopped because something suddenly stuck in his mind. The girl's gaze was fixated on the sturdy back of Ferdian who stood behind him and was rolling his shirt arms just like that.

“Why? You scared ?” asked Ferdian as he looked back and found Lusi who was just flinching in

his place.

Lusi quickly nodded. Clearly he was afraid and immediately his heart was filled with prejudice against Ferdian.

Naturally, because he had just escaped from the savage tiger, lest he would enter the mouth of a hungry crocodile.

The man in front of him smiled. Then he moved closer to Lucia. “Do not be afraid, here you are safe. My

not a bad guy, though. You just calm down,” Ferdian explained trying to calm the mind of Lusi. Because he understood the fear that now controlled the girl.

“Where is family, Om? How quiet?” lusi asked with suspicious eyes looking at Ferdian's face.

“Family?” Ferdian asked back. Both of his eyebrows are intertwined to see the gelagat Lusi who seems to be suspicious of him.

“Yes, whose mom and dad Om? Or Wife and son Om?” cecar Lusi.

Instead of answering, Ferdian chuckled softly. Then he stepped again his feet closer to Luci as Lusi slowly took a few steps back to get away from him. And stopped because he didn't want to make the girl even more afraid of him.

“My parents are gone. Died about seven years ago,“ replied Ferdian later.

“Wife and child? Must be dong? Where are they?“

“I'm not married yet. Still single. Already looked old huh?” ferdian replied interspersed with laughter to melt the atmosphere even though it seemed to have not succeeded in removing the suspicions that still stuck in the mind of Lusi.

“In this house I live with Ma'am Ira the housekeeper and Mr. Dirman who opened the gate.“ continued Ferdian again.  However, Lusi just shook his head and still looked at him suspiciously.

“Already, I guarantee you're safe here. If you are afraid, I can take you home right now,” said Ferdian softly while throwing his smile at Lusi.

“Do not. Don't go home. I'm scared, Om. My stepmother is evil, I do not want to go back there,” Lusi pleaded with her palms clenched in front of her chest. His voice trembled with panic and fear because he imagined the bad luck that would befall him if he met his stepmother later.

“Ya is already that. You rest here. You can use my sister's room. It just so happens that the room is empty.

Come on, I drive,“ take Ferdian, then turn around and then drive away to climb the stairs to the second floor. With a doubt, Susi followed him from behind.

“This is his room,” Ferdian opened the door of a room when it was on the second floor then stepped inside.

“You can wear my sister's shirt in the closet. You're about the size of my sister.” Politely continues.

Lusi nodded at a glance. Her originally stiffened face now seemed to calm down and her small smile slowly began to expand.

“Alright, I stay first huh. I want to rest too,” said Ferdian, then turn his body about

leave that room.

“Oiya, if you need anything, you can knock on my door next to this room. Or you can call

Ira's mom over the phone. Press the number one and it directly connect to the room Mba Ira.” he explained back when there was something he had to tell Luci.

Lusi nodded faintly, then ventured closer to Ferdian who was now standing in front of the room door

“Om, thank you for helping me. If you do not meet Om maybe now I just stay name aja,” said Lusi Lirih while looking at Ferdian's face with sad eyes.

Ferdian looked back at Luci's eyeballs, then said, “I really want to know also why the people were chasing you, but tomorrow the story. You rest first yes, calm your mind.”

Lusi nodded weakly and tried to bring down the smiles on both corners of his lips to return Ferdian's smile that looked etched into his handsome face.

A moment later, Ferdian turned around and walked out of the white room leaving Susi who had closed the door.

Stepping over with his body that felt empty, Lusi entered the bathroom in the corner of the room. For a moment he stared at the image of himself reflected on the surface of the mirror perched on the sink.

There were still obvious bruises under his eyes and scratches on the scratches next to his neck. And wounds

it was slicing as he washed his face with cold water pouring from the tap.

But he did not understand the pain, the most important thing for him is now the fear of the shadow of his self-defilement which since last afternoon on his shoulder now seems to melt down with water droplets falling from his face.

Just a minute to clean up, Lusi went out to walk in closet located next to the bathroom. In his eyes a row of beautiful clothes hanging very regularly when he revealed one of the closet doors of several cabinets that lined up neatly.

Then he grabbed a short-sleeved gray T-Shirt and Teddy Bear-patterned long sleeping pants from one

the closet that he expected was a place for clothes that are specifically used for everyday life. Then she put on it immediately and stepped towards the bed then laid herself down slowly.

He pulled a blanket that was still folded neatly at the end of the bed, then wrapped his entire body which now began to be pierced by the cold coming from the air conditioning. The burden on his eyelids was no longer able to hold, until the fatigue he still felt at two o'clock this morning forced him to close his pair of eyes to enter his sleep.

Morning time.

The sweet girl blinked her eyelids which still felt heavy as her dark complexion caught the sound of knocking coming from the door of the room. Until once again a knock on the door was heard and forced himself to collect his life that had not been fully fused.

Disbursed blanket thick with lazy, then moved from his bed even though drowsiness still hit him.

A woman in her 40s smiled kindly before her as Lusi opened her bedroom door. She's Ma'am Ira, the housekeeper who works at this house.

“Sorry, I woke Non,” he said politely with a few nods.

“Sir papa, Mom,” replied Lusi was also polite even though his eyelids were still half open due to drowsiness that still struck. One time the girl opened her mouth gaping wide, evaporating to absorb oxygen into her brain.

“Non want breakfast in the room or under the same father?” ask Ira again.

“I go down aja, ma'am,” replied Lusi later.

“Good, Non. I prepare.” Ira's mother bowed respectfully and then drove down the stairs to the kitchen downstairs.

Meanwhile, Ferdian sat leisurely in his lazy chair facing straight to the pool in the back

homehouse. His eyes focused on staring at the laptop screen above his lap. With his concentration when his brain had to work researching his work files sent by email by his secretary.

“Good morning, Om,” a polite greeting behind him made Ferdian look up then turn to the owner of the voice.

Lusi stepped up by bowing his head to his place. His face began to look fresh radiant, not as pale as last night. His long hair in the ponytail, made bruises and scratches more visible on his white neck.

“Good morning,” reply Ferdian while throwing his sweet smile.

“Please sit down, bring your breakfast here,” tell him again.

Lusi complied and headed to the minibar table not far from where he stood and he poured a glass of milk and then

she spread a loaf of bread with chocolate jam, then slowly returned to Ferdian's presence and she shook herself in the seat opposite Ferdian, which was only bounded by a round table between them.

Ferdian closed his laptop and fixed his sitting position then looked at the sweet girl who was chewing bread greedily in front of him.

The man's gaze was fixed on the scars and bruises on the poor girl's face and neck. So many questions suddenly came to his mind.

Susi who was stared at so intensely of course felt a little uncomfortable. But because of the hunger that gnawed his stomach since noon yesterday made him behave bodo time in order to enjoy his morning meal which is dear to him to miss.

Luci gave his answer just by nodding while bribing the last piece of bread into his mouth. Ferdian returned with a smile.

“Kalo can tell, what the wounds on your face have to do with the people who chased you last night?” ask Ferdian again, interrogate.

Lusi nodded again then looked back at Ferdian's face. It seemed like there was still such a deep fear in those clear eyeballs as the footage of the events that had befallen him yesterday spun again in his mind.

“Who are they?“ search Ferdian curious.

A moment Lusi took his breath, gathering strength to say what he was going through to the man in

ahead of him. “They are the bodyguards of a great businessman, Om” replied Lusi but still hanging.

“Great effort? Meaning?” Ferdian squinted his eyelids sharply waiting for the continuation of the answer that Lusi would throw at him.

Lusi was downcast for a moment to feel the pain of his heart that was still injured given how strong the stepmother who had sold herself to an old man.

Then he lifted his head again but his eyes could not stare at the interlocutor. “This great entrepreneur teamed up with my stepmother to cheat on me, Om. At first he came home with the excuse to express his condolences for the death of the father whom he acknowledged as his old friend. I trust. Moreover, he knew enough about the company of father. So I trust more.” Lirih Lusi begins the story.

“And suddenly he said he was going to have a party at his house and he needed quite a lot of flower arrangements

for decorating his house. Then he asked me to come to his house and talk to his wife. I believe again. He spoke very convincingly and very politely. Mother also helped convince me by willing to accompany me to his house,”

 “Then?“ asked Ferdian curiously. A moment Lusi paused to wet his throat by sipping the milk in his hand.

“It turns out that up there I was just left behind by my stepmother. He pretended to be on the phone outside the house

that, but then it doesn't show up again. And I was locked up in that house till night.“

Hearing the expression of Lusi so sliced in his ears, Ferdian's lips half-gapped imagining what

the next one befell the fate of this girl before him. “Yes God, then did something happen to you? Hardness or perko.” Ferdian hung up his sentence.

“Nearly, Om. I was almost raped. Thank goodness it didn't happen.”

“That night I was locked up in his room and forced to serve the man, but I revolted with all my might," continued Lusi back.

 “What?!” Ferdian. He gasped at the words of Lucia.

Lusi nodded weakly then continued his pill story.

“He slapped me, scratched, even hit me in the face. It.” Lusi's index finger is attached to the temple and under his eyes.

It is obvious what causes beret wounds and bruises in some parts of the body. Ferdian shaking his head, miris.

‘One-time cruel person,’ thought. ‘How can there be a heartless person to the heart to beat a plain girl like Lusi.’

“But fortunately there is a helper angel, Om. If there is no one, I may be dead now.”

“oya? Who?“

“The wife of the old man. He helped me out of that house. He gave high doses of sleeping pills to

her husband, who put her wicked husband to sleep like a dead man. That's when I was helped out the back door and ran away as fast as possible. His guards chased me, until I finally met Om on the road.”

Lusi bowed his gaze, bringing his memories back to Mother Tantri, the kind woman who had managed to save her.

How's his fate now?

‘Protect him yes Lord.’ please Lusi in heart.

“Hmmm, have the heart of that man. Who the hell is he?” ask Ferdian, getting curious.

For a moment, Lusi thought about trying to remember the name of the old man who was mentioned by his stepmother several times.

“As I recall his name is Bramanto. Bramant....Raharjo's. Yes, it was, Om,” replied Lusi later when a name appeared in his brain memory.

Degh's....

Ferdian's heart decub seemed to stop when he heard that name. Suddenly, that charming face appeared

stiffened and his eyeballs looked at Lusi deeply to confirm a name he had just heard.

“Bramanto Raharjo?“ he muttered with a trembling voice.

“You're sure it's his name?”

Lusi nodded. “Yakin, Um. I didn't hear wrong. I remember that name that she and my stepmother called when she introduced herself to me.”

“How does it look? You remember his character? Or did you hear any other information about the man?” cecar Ferdian was more serious looking at Luci's face.

Lusi again knitted his eyebrows together to replay the recording in his brain memory, to remember what his conversation with the foul-hearted man who came to his house yesterday.

“The body is tall, large and quite authoritative like most entrepreneurs. I guess I'm probably about fifty years old. His voice was very heavy but his words were friendly and polite. And as I recall, he said his company was engaged in the same field as his late father, the expedition. But he's much bigger because it involves interstate. What is its name?”

Examine every word expressed by Lusi, making Ferdian's heart thunders faster. I can't wait for the girl who's trying to remember something.

“What does he do, Lusi?” hunting down.

“Business I expedition as well but on an international scale and a very large quantity with a conveyance in the form of a container in the port,”

Terngiang back in the light of all that the man named Bramanto Raharjo said to him yesterday.

“He said, the business is international and very large. He called something related to the container in the port,” call Lusi finally.

Degh's....

This time Ferdian's heart seemed to die for a moment, for the sake of hearing the information. His heated blood murmur instantly flowed rapidly uphill to the nerves in his brain, making his head pulsate violently to display a reddish hue that gushed all over the surface of his facial skin.

‘Tak is wrong again. That's it!’ bathin Ferdian with his growling face and his tightened jaw line.

‘Bangs4t!’ hardship in the heart.

His hand immediately grabbed his phone lying on the table and pressed a few numbers that he seemed to have missed.

Tuuuts... Tuuuts....

A connecting tone sounded as he stuck the flat plate into his ear and waited for an answer from the guy

the receiver across the phone line.

“Halo, Bro...” greet the voice of a man –laki from across.

“Can you stop by the house for a while, there's something I want to talk about,” pinta Ferdian.

“OK, wait yes, I take a shower first..” say that voice again.

Ferdian just ended the conversation on his phone, then he got up from his seat and looked at the face of the sweet girl who was downing a glass of milk in front of him with a myriad of curiosity and question marks that pooled in his mind.

　

　

　

　

　

　

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