Mike takes Rebekah by the hand and leads her into the park, the pleasant aesthetics from lunch earlier that day, transformed in the evening to a foreboding landscape. Scrawling shadows from the tall windswept maples danced across the path ahead. Had she been alone, Rebekah might’ve been apprehensive about entering the place but with Mike at her side, she felt that familiar reassurance, stepping forward with conviction. She was so different already, the freedom that came from absolute submission had been the missing link she’d yearned for virtually all of her adult life. He’d asked much of her these past weeks and each time it was as though the weight she’d shouldered all these years, had grown lighter. Now all she wanted was to please him.
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