Sarah sat on the edge of the bed in the room Sebastian had assigned her, her phone clutched in trembling hands. Her thumb moved rhythmically, scrolling through an endless stream of pictures of she and Martin. There they were: high school graduation, college parties, birthdays, their first apartment. In every frame, she was smiling, oblivious to the fact that she was building a future on a foundation of sand. She had spent years thinking she had a life with Martin, but as she stared at his face now, all she saw was a stranger who had tried to kill her and bury her.
With a sharp, shaky exhale, she made her decision. She opened the folder labeled "Us" and hovered over the delete icon. A prompt appeared, 'Delete 10,432 items?'
She hit the button.
She watched as the progress bar climbed, erasing years of her life in mere seconds. As the folder emptied, a physical wave of relief washed over her, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her chest.
A sharp knock at the door broke her trance. She wondered who it was? Sarah quickly smoothed her dress and went to open it. Adrian stood there with a cheerful, beaming face. "May I come in?"
"Sure, come in," Sarah said, stepping aside.
Adrian wasn't alone. Behind her, a women pulled a white clothing rack, while another pushed from the opposite end. They moved into the center of the room with professional precision. Adrian turned to her, her face glowing. "We are here for your fittings. It's time for a new wardrobe."
Sarah's mouth fell open. The rack was filled with clothes of different textures and colors. She saw silk, lace, furs, and feathers; sequins caught the light next to heavy velvet and delicate cotton beading. The colors were a defiant explosion of gold, cherry red, silver, magenta, and ivory. These were clothes Sarah had never even dreamed of touching, pieces Martin would never have allowed within ten inches of her.
Adrian whipped a dress from the rack, flashing it in front of Sarah. "Let's start now. We haven't got all day."
It was a sleek purple mini-gown with a daringly low neckline. The bust was adorned with a faux rosette of the same deep violet, while the hemline was trimmed with feathers that gave it a lustrous, airy finish. The rest of the fabric was encrusted in shimmering sequins.
Sarah felt her knees go weak. She imagined the attention a dress like that would command, and as someone who had been trained to stay in the shadows, she shuddered.
"I... I don't think this is my style," Sarah stammered. "It's too much for me."
Adrian smiled understandingly, as if she had expected the protest. She placed the dress back on the rack and stepped closer, her voice turning affectionate. "Look around, Sarah. Go on, look around."
Sarah obeyed, glancing at the opulent room and the two women waiting with kind smiles. When her eyes returned to Adrian, she shrugged. "Okay, I've looked. What am I supposed to see?"
"Exactly," Adrian whispered. "He isn't here. The man who wanted you to shrink, the man who didn't want you to shine... he's gone. So why are you still acting like he's watching? Mr. Sebastian commissioned all of this for you, and he's going to get more. How do you think he'll react when he hears you rejected his gifts?"
A battle raged in Sarah's mind. Was the dress truly not her style, or was she still unconsciously conforming to the suffocating standards Martin had laid out for her over the years? There was only one way to know.
"I'm going to try this one," she said, reaching for the purple dress.
She stepped out of her mundane clothes and slipped into the gown. One of the women stepped forward to pull the zipper. As the fabric settled against her skin, she heard a collective gasp from the women in the room. In Adrian's eyes, a new look of pure admiration shone.
"I need to see a mirror," Sarah said.
They led her to the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the right wing of the room. Sarah's breath hitched. She momentarily forgot how to breathe, her mouth hanging open in shock.
She had never seen herself in this light. She didn't even know she could look like this. She looked breathtaking, like a masterpiece that had finally been unveiled. The purple was a perfect match for her complexion, making her golden-brown eyes glow with a new fire. The cut hugged her in all the right places, celebrating a body she had been taught to hide.
"This is... perfect," she whispered.
Adrian beamed behind her. "I'm so happy you love it. Mr. Sebastian will be pleased as well."
At the mention of Sebastian, Sarah's smile faltered slightly. "Did he really get all these for me?"
"Well, Miss Sarah," Adrian said sarcastically, "seeing as you arrived here with nothing but a blindfold, were you planning to wear that same outfit for the rest of your stay?"
"I won't be staying long anyway," Sarah countered. Adrian simply chuckled, knowing full well that Sebastian wouldn't let her leave his sight so easily.
For the next hour, Sarah tested dress after dress. Each one fit like a second skin. Sebastian, or perhaps Adrian, understood her body better than she did herself. Her only lingering fear was how "flirty" and seductive some of the pieces were. She didn't want men drolling over her.
'No,' she told herself, slapping the thought away. That's Martin talking. If a man made unwanted advances, she would reject him like the grown adult she was. She was done being afraid of her own beauty.
The two women finished organizing the new wardrobe and stood behind Adrian.
"Rest easy for today, Miss Sarah," Adrian said. "We are going shopping tomorrow to get the rest of your outfits."
Sarah's head spun. "More? What about all of these?"
"These?" Adrian waved a hand dismissively. "These were just the 'test clothes' to confirm your sizes and see which colors suited your skin."
When they finally left, Sarah collapsed onto the bed, exhausted but electrified. These "test clothes" were already more than her entire wardrobe back at the Martin's mansion.
She looked at her reflection in the darkened screen of her phone. 'Welcome to your new life, Sarah.'