Chapter 2: Five Years Later...

Catherine Wells found that she was hyperventilating.Her heart was pounding in her chest as adrenaline pumped into her. Her hands and indeed her whole body was trembling but the fact was that she was not trembling from fear, she was not afraid. That had been in the past. She was trembling from suppressed anger and bitterness and now that these feelings were going to be let out, she could not wait to get it over with. She was going to give it all that she had. She must teach him not to mess with her and indeed any person again as long as he lived.

She had been waiting for five whole years to exact her revenge on the man and today, she was not going to allow anything stop her.

She had plotted and planned how she was going to make him pay for what he had done to her but had not really thought of this means. It was by sheer luck that she had got the news that Jake Hunt was wedding today.

At the news, five years of frustrated and suppressed anger had come bubbling out.

He had destroyed her life and was going to get married and continue enjoying his own life? No way. That which is good for the geese is also good for the gander.

She got herself ready. It was time to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. She owed this to herself and her little sister.

The memory brought her close to tears and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. No man could do what he had done to her and her loved ones and get away with it.

She arrived the venue of the wedding and her mind flooded with memories. She hold back the memories because it was fitting that she remembered why she was here.

It had happened five years ago. She had been twenty and her sister had been thirteen. They had had just each other since their parents had died in a ghastly motor accident.

Things had not been very easy. But they had managed. She had worked as a teacher and her salary was not much and hence they had no money left for luxury after paying for the necessary things they needed. They were content in the little flat her salary could afford because they had each other.

Things had gone on this way and they were happy until Carrie fell I'll. One day, she had been the happiest and healthiest teenager around and the next, he was fading before her very eyes.

They visited almost all the hospitals on the country and consulted almost all the specialist until the strange illness was diagnosed. Though a little disease, a treatment had been found for it and there was a great chance of recovery. The hitch was that Carrie would have to undergo a surgery and would have to be flown out of the country for it. The cost was staggering.

'But it is too expensive', she wailed, wondering where she was going to get such an amount from. 'Couldn't you do something about the cost, doctor?'

'That is just an estimate, it might be more than that after all is said and done', the doctor said. 'But if you get the amount I just mentioned, then your sister will be as good as cured'.

She had of course tried to raise the money but she had nothing to sell and no collateral for the size of the loan she needed.

As her options ran out, so her sister's deterioration seemed to increase its pace.

She had tried to put up a brave front especially in the face of her determined cheerfulness, she had been frantic with worry when she recalled Jake Hunt.

She felt that it was the answer to her prayers and wondered why she had not recalled him before then

Her father had once told her as though he knew that he might not stay with them for much longer that should anything happen to him and their mother, she was to go to this Jake Hunt for help. He had been so confident that he would not turn them away. They had been friends for many years and still corresponded.

'He will surely help if you need it. So do not hesitate to go to him', her father had assured her.

With renewed hope, she had found an addressing the phone directory and had gone to see him for help.

Looking into the church hall, as she came back to the present, Catherine saw that the bride had arrived and the procession was about to commerce.

Soon, she thought, she would have her revenge for that night, five years ago, when her world had been ripped apart.

Carrie had been so sick that she had hated to leave him alone but there had been no time to waste, so she had braved it out, left her sister and home to Jake Hunt. While she was there pleading her cause, her sister had been rushed into hospital. Still there might have been time, if the money had come to save her but Jake Hunt had refused.

She had gone home in agony, her desperation overtaking her only to discover what had happened to Carrie but before she could leave for the hospital, she had received a telephone call telling her that her sister had gone into a coma. She died on the early hours of the next day.

The blow was too much for her. She had gone into shock, recalling very little of that night beyond the fact that Jake had refused to give her the money and which she knew had sealed the fate if her sister and she vowed that one day, he would pay for the pain he had caused her.

She had remained in shock for days and the little funeral held for her sister did not penetrate the ice that had settled inside her.

Something vital within her had died. She hadn't been able to feel anything anymore and she hadn't wanted to.

Back in the echoing emptiness of her flat, she had known only one thing, that lack of money had given the man the power of life and death over her sister. Wealth could have kept Carrie alive and wealth meant power.

She had then become determined to make it in life. She bowed that someday, somehow, that wealth and power would be hers.

A week or so later, she ran into a friend - as n old friend Allys Colt. They had gone for coffee and rekindled their friendship. Catherine discovered that Allys was a taken scout for a modelling agency. She could not stop praising Cathy's looks. Anxiety and loss of appetite had worn her always slim and leggy figure into perfect model lines. Grief had fined her face, showing up the good bones and the haughty remoteness of her eyes.

When Allys had suggested that the agency would not be able to resist employing her and that she would make a fortune, Cathy had not been so sure but Allys had been so right.

She had gone with the idea because it was better and more energy saving than arguing. And overnight, it would seem, she had found herself, the new sensation. Both the agency and advertisers loved her and soon she was commanding the kind of money that made the head spin.

The goal she had set for herself to accomplish came within her grasp and she had reached for it with an energy of one possessed.

She had worked every available hour of the day, giving all that she was asked, making herself indispensable, knowing that a job successfully completed meant more money in the bank.

Even when she became financially secure, she hadn't stopped

Work filled her life. Men were always in the periphery where she kept them and never came close. She worked with them, dined and dated them, but never did they break into her 'real' life.

Besides, she felt nothing. Their kisses and caresses left her cold and unresponsive.

Her aloofness, rather than putting the men off, made them want her the more and would cluster around her like bees in a hive, each wanting to outdo the other in a bid to win her love. But their efforts never paid off because she remain cold and remote. Someone coined the name 'Ice queen', and it stuck, but she didn't care. Nothing was allowed to interfer with her goal. If a man became too possessive or too intrusive, she dropped him and that was the end of it.

It made her enemies. She didn't care about that either. Men had no place in her scheme of things. She was aware that each wanted to be the one to 'thaw' her but only she knew that it was absolutely impossible. So she watched their antics from her lofty position and was not amused but was very indifferent.