Pulling himself back upright, he followed the sounds from the bedroom. When he entered the room, he found Lisa naked, sitting on the end of the bed with nothing but a gold-coloured velvet cushion in her lap to cover her vanity.
“Hey, big boy. Remember what you have been missing?” She was holding the cushion so that one corner was between her legs whilst the opposite corner rested between her breasts, holding them up like a support bra.
Hofmann stumbled, catching his fall before colliding with her on the bed whilst doing his best to make it look intentional.
“Whoa, easy, Tiger, there’s no rush. I’m not going anywhere!” This is your last chance, Jarvis.
This time his lower back seized, and a spasm of pain shot down his left leg.
Shaking it off, he pulled the cushion out of Lisa’s hands and pushed her firmly backwards onto the bed. The roughness of his action made her bounce on the soft mattress, and she let out a small scream.
“Michael, be careful!”
Hofmann ripped at his clothes, pulling down his shorts and trousers in one go, as if every second counted, which he honestly believed it did. Jarvis would rather kill them both than allow Hofmann to have his way with his wife. Jumping onto her, he ignored her protests, and gripping both legs under the knees, he pressed them up and apart, tilting her up towards his angry penis before ramming the member into her vagina.
The shock did not stop the pain of the sudden insertion, and Lisa stared up at her husband in complete disbelief.
“Stop, stop, you’re hurting me. Michael, stop!”
Hofmann ignored her, battering her as hard he could, each thrust rewarded with a howl of pain, each thrust a warning to Jarvis. He could see the look of fear and confusion on Lisa’s face.
“No, no, Michael, please. You’re hurting me!”
Hofmann just smiled at her, and letting his grip slide down to her ankles, he expertly flipped her onto her stomach before taking her from behind.
“Michael, Michael, what are you doing?”
Reaching up to the bed head, Lisa grabbed the metal decoration and pulled herself up and free of him, twisting herself back onto her bottom to face him. When the impact came, Hofmann’s head jolted to the side, and pain flooded his right cheek. But this time, it wasn’t Jarvis. Lisa was obviously left-handed. She had slapped him across the face with all the force she could muster. The pain shot up the side of his head, and he felt himself losing control. Michael jumped from the bed, landing intentionally on his damaged shins, the pain firmly closing the door on a Hofmann return. Lisa, surprised at the effect her slap had, saw her opportunity to escape him and bolted for the on-suite bathroom.
Michael watched her go, grief and anguish filling his chest.
“Lisa!” he cried after her.
Slamming and locking the bathroom door behind herself, Lisa slumped down on the floor behind the door. Pulling her knees up under her chin, she hugged her legs in search of comfort. The cold bathroom floor added to the chills that were pulsing through her bones, her skin was crawling, and she was unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Michael has never treated me like that before, not in all the time we have known each other. What has happened to him? What kind of a monster has he become? She could hear him on the other side of the door, and she realised she was scared, scared of her own husband.
Michael was at a loss as to what he should do. Lisa had no idea what was going on.
How can I convince her that it was not me who assaulted her? That bastard Hofmann has just torn my world apart, hurting the thing I hold most dear.
He knelt on the floor in front of the bathroom door. He could not hear her, but he could almost feel her torment, despair, and desperation.
“Lisa, that wasn’t me!” he said desperately.
He waited, not expecting a response. The door creaked without him moving, and he knew she was close. She was listening.
“I am going to try to explain. It’s crazy, and you probably won’t believe me.”
Lisa was still sat against the door, shaking from a combination of shock and cold. Michael’s voice was in her ears, but she was unable to interpret what he was saying. She wanted to be anywhere but where she was. In that house, in that country, in that life.
“I love you, Lisa. I would never hurt you—that wasn’t me.”
“You bastard!” she screamed out.
He has just raped me, body and soul. I can never forgive him for that.
“It wasn’t me! I swear, it wasn’t me!”
Silence.
“Lisa, I am going to try to explain what has happened to me. What has just happened to you? Please, just give me the chance, just listen.”
Lisa was numb.
Whatever his excuse, it’s over. He has destroyed everything I cared about.
She didn’t answer him.
“You know how I said I had been drugged? It wasn’t a drug, it was a virus. The people at Meyer-Hofmann infected me with a virus. ”What is he talking about? What kind of a game is this? He doesn’t honestly think he can win me back with some fairy tale, does he?
“Darling, they changed me. They made me into somebody else.” Michael had no idea how to explain what had happened to him. Taking his head in his hands, he pulled at his hair, hoping for inspiration. “The Underground, the speech, that wasn’t me. You know it wasn’t!”
Lifting her head from her knees, she listened. He felt the door move on his back as her head leant back against it.
“They are Nazis, all of them, Reichard, Von Klitzing, everyone. My grandfather was one of them. That’s why I am here—why they lured us here with the job offer—they think they can bring him back through me.”
What kind of bollocks was this? “Fuck off, Michael!” The words exploded from her mouth, shocking both of them.
“I know, I know, Lisa. It sounds ridiculous, but it is true. They think they can bring him back by giving me his memories. By blocking my own. You have no idea what it is like when you can’t remember who you are. When you look in the mirror and see a stranger.”
She could hear the fear in his voice. She had heard it before, when they first met, but she had not heard it for a long time.
“He was some kind of industrialist, and he knew Hitler personally. His name was Heinz Hofmann. He was the Hofmann in Meyer-Hofmann.”
She shook her head and sniffed the tears and mucus out of her nose. Moving to the sink, she stood up and spat the substance into the basin. Turning on the tap, she bathed her face in the cold water, rinsing her mouth out, spitting the bad taste into the white porcelain bowl. The pain between her legs was a constant reminder of what had just happened. Looking in the mirror, she made her decision.
I am leaving him. She didn’t verbalise it, but she had made her mind up.
Michael was motivated by the sounds from behind the door and waited for them to die down, before continuing.
“He is a monster, Lisa. He took control of me at the station. It was him talking German at the Town Hall. It wasn’t me, how could it have been? You know I don’t speak German!” It made no sense, what was he saying?
“Lisa, they are all related to people who were in Hitler’s inner circle. The Company was set up to continue their work after the war. They want it to start all over again.”
He sounds so convincing; it doesn’t sound like he’s lying. But what he is saying is rubbish! She shook her head and stared at her reflection in the mirror, hoping for some guidance.
Michael stood and stretched. It was going better than he had hoped. He was now sure that she was listening. Moving back to the door, he put his hands flat on the door panels. In the bathroom, Lisa wrapped a towel around herself and sat on the side of the bath. Staring in the mirror at the streaks of mascara slashed across her face, she could not believe this was happening.