Show Her

By T. L. Curtis

Erika is the perfect woman in 2090 Louisville, Kentucky. She is obedient, flawlessly beautiful, married to the wealthiest man in the region, and has even built a business on showing others how to live a life like her own. After ten years of marriage and turning a personal trauma into a blessing for herself, she is the happiest she has ever been.

Until the first mistress confronts her and turns her worldview inside-out.

Erika refuses to sit back and allow her world to crumble. She takes the actions she thinks are needed to save her marriage, her reputation, and her sanity. But how far is too far?

From the author of 'Feign: Volume 1' comes a psychological thriller that will have you engrossed until the very last scene!

• Language: English
• Publisher: T. L. Curtis
• Release date: Nov 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477507964

T. L. Curtis

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, T. L. Curtis currently resides near Decatur, Georgia with her husband and 2 dogs. As a former full-time mental health therapist, her knowledge of the multitude of variables that make up the human psyche is evident throughout her work and melds flawlessly with her literary creativity. In the summer of 2016, she decided to stop working in social services and turn her passion for writing into her career. She established Volo Press, LLC (Volo-Press.com) through which she sells her books, manages a blog, and produces items for the lifestyle of the avid reader and writer.

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Show Her by T. L. Curtis

© 2017 by T. L. Curtis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying form without written permission of the author, T. L. Curtis or the publisher, Volo Press.

Books may be purchased in bulk (returnable) from www.volo-press.com/booksellers

Volo Press

P. O. Box 1084

Clarkston, GA 30021

Published by Volo Press, LLC

Cover Design by Volo Press, LLC

Editing by Volo Press, LLC

Show Her

Library of Congress Control Number:2017905193

ISBN: 978-1537509785

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1. Fiction 2. Dystopian 3. Psychological Thriller

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

0

Everyone knows you can’t force a man to come back if he doesn’t want to. But coercion, enticement, and allure can work wonders.

Of course, none of this was Erika’s intent. She was an eleven-year-old girl still silently reeling over the departure of her father for a younger, prettier version of her vessel—the woman who gave birth to, and raised, her and her younger sister, Elena.

About two days after the packed bags, begging, and arguing, Erika was sitting on the front porch with her sister. She attempted play, pushed to feign joy, but she couldn’t get Elena out of her funk. But Erika was old enough to understand that once he was gone, he was gone. There was nothing else to be done. So why wallow? Why fret? Why not get on with things?

Erika was using the mobile television to play one of her favorite movies about a man fighting to find his kidnapped son. Erika laid back on the black silk, goose down quilt, on top of a day bed, her sister beside her. A drone the size of a dollar bill projected the film onto the ceiling. Erika commanded the drone to turn up the volume as the sound of their vessel in the kitchen chopping shallots became increasingly distracting.

Erika giggled and squeezed her sister as the puppy that opened the movie came on screen. Erika made sure Elena noticed her being okay, laughing, enjoying spending time with them. Erika wanted her happiness to be contagious. Somehow, then, it would be real.

She felt Elena’s sniffling slow and her whining calm. Elena’s face inched away from Erika’s hairless armpit and towards the ceiling as the boy found the puppy and decided to bring it home in an attempt to keep it as his own. The meek laughter that sounded from her sister when the boy had to stop at some park sprinklers to try to get some of the puppy urine off of his shirt comforted Erika.

Erika could feel the tension in her sister’s body easing away as the film went on, only to return with a vengeance when the boy finally got home and confronted his father about the puppy.

Even though the father was kind, thoughtful, honest, and pleasant in his interaction with his son, her sister couldn’t stand to be reminded of what they’d lost. She began crying again. Erika felt her frustration rising and left her in the day bed to rot in her sadness.

You big baby! She yelled at the melancholy strain surrounding the house.

Erika went back into the house and upstairs, passing pictures of herself and her sister at even younger ages. An eight-foot-tall portrait of her father was painted directly onto the slate wall at the top of the stairs, dominating the hallway. Erika paused to glare at the portrait with clenched fists. Her father was by all accounts a handsome man. Hair always freshly twisted, neat. His face, in the portrait, carried a light that only creative license could inject. In person, her father rarely smiled or laughed. Not that he seemed depressed or particularly sad, simply…uninterested. The portrait showed him in a tailored midnight blue suit, the color complementing his café au lait skin. His hazel eyes were not (maybe could not be) painted to show the intense judgment and power that emanated from the real things.

Erika blinked her stinging eyes and walked to the master bedroom. Before her stood a piece, ten feet long, molded into a semi-circle, glistening in the light of the crystal and white gold chandelier in the center of the room, and adorned with five mirrored panels. This was her vessel's personal makeover studio. Erika had snuck peeks at her vessel making her face throughout her early childhood and the transformations she witnessed seemed nothing short of magic. Years fell away, fatigue disappeared, anger softened into angelic peacefulness.

As she grew older—as was her vessel's duty—Erika got lessons from her on how to dress, speak, and craft her face to entice, seduce, and maintain the attention of a potential master. Erika was fascinated about the fact that she could create happiness and tranquility with dusts, creams, and stains.

She stepped up to the center of the bow of koa wood trimmed with ebony, allowed her eyes to glide over the various boxes, baskets, cups, and trays of oils, powders, fragrances, conditioners, and paints.

In her peripheral vision she saw a sparkle. Looking up at the last mirror on the right, she saw her father’s watch hanging on the corner of the frame. With hands and digits made entirely of black diamonds, the watch had been his most prized possession. This was the utmost confirmation that he would never return. If he had left something so important to him behind for so long, he meant to stay away.

Erika pulled on one of the crystal knobs on the top drawer and withdrew some of the brushes and pencils. She used cleanser pads to clear her skin, allowing it to dry before she got to work changing her face. When she finished, she pulled a short, pleated, black skirt and long-sleeved, gunmetal blouse from the closet. She peeled off her white-lily-print sundress and put her vessel’s garments on.

She was surprised that she had developed enough at eleven that the skirt stayed up and the blouse didn’t hang off of her, but hugged her swelling chest. She pressed a button below the center mirror and it moved forward and tilted down so that she could see her entire body and not just her head and torso.

This was the first time she saw herself in her own styling. The first time she realized that, as she grew older, finding someone willing to purchase her was going to be the least of her worries. The thickness of her thighs and flare of her hips told the story of a body that would draw masters for miles. She would have her pick. A tiny, mournful smile touched her lips as she observed herself. Erika, the grown up.

After a few more seconds of twisting, turning, and modeling for herself in the mirror, she had worked up some laughter. Heartfelt laughter,

Reviews for Show Her

[volopress · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Erika is the perfect woman in 2090 Louisville, Kentucky. She is obedient, flawlessly beautiful, married to the wealthiest man in the region, and has even built a business on showing others how to live a life like her own. After ten years of marriage and turning a personal trauma into a blessing for herself, she is the happiest she has ever been. Until the first mistress confronts her and turns her worldview inside-out. Erika refuses to sit back and allow her world to crumble. She takes the actions she thinks are needed to save her marriage, her reputation, and her sanity. But how far is too far?