Author's Pov
"Good girl," he whispered, the words a condescending praise that made her skin crawl. He reached out, his thumb roughly wiping a tear from her cheek, smearing the moisture across her skin.
"Tomorrow I will be busy doing an important work. When I come back home, I want you naked in my bed, spreading your legs for me." He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. She was drowning in shame, a prisoner in her own body. With no option left, she nodded, her eyes looking straight into those terrifyingly dark pools that held nothing but cold possession.
She was ready to turn, to flee the suffocating space of his presence, when he jerked her forward. Her front slammed against his naked, muscular chest, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs.
"You are forgetting something," he said, his eyes never leaving hers.
Trapped, she knew what he wanted. She forcefully stood on her tiptoes, the strain in her calves a minor discomfort compared to the revulsion churning within her. She pressed a quick, stiff peck on his lips. For a fleeting moment, his eyes closed, and a strange warmth seemed to spread in his chest, a flicker of something she couldn't name. She had always felt weird whenever she gave him this kiss, this brief, unguarded moment when he closed his eyes, as if he were savoring something precious.
"Now go," he said, his eyes snapping open, the warmth replaced by a familiar, dangerous glint. "Go and complete your sleep before I lose my control and fuck you so hard you won't able to walk for a week." He growled, his eyes turning even darker, a promise of brutal pain.
Nandini didn't take a second. She spun around and fled from his room, not daring to look back.
Just as she walked a few steps down the dimly lit hallway, she bumped into Priya, who stood with her arms crossed, her sharp eyes filled with a venomous disdain.
"Took you so long," Priya sneered, her voice dripping with acid. "Sometimes I wondered what spell you did that he only wants you in his bed." Her eyes pierced Nandini's soul, looking for a weakness to exploit.
Nandini had nothing to say. All she wanted was to wash away every drop of his touch she had felt, to scrub her skin raw until she felt clean again. She was ready to let Priya's comment slide.
After all, Priya was right, but only half. She hadn't cast a spell on him; it was just that her luck was so wretched, so cosmically terrible, that she had caught the devil's eye.
"Samne se hatho, Priya. Jaane do hume," Nandini said, her voice a low, strained whisper. For the first time, a flicker of defiance ignited in her chest. Her fist clenched at her side, and though her eyes glistened with unshed tears, she tried to hold Priya's venomous gaze.
But her weak show of spirit had no effect on Priya, who let out a short, sharp laugh.
"Why? So you could go and warm your husband's bed now after stabbing him in the back by fucking his brother?" she spat, each word a poisoned dart aimed at Nandini's heart.
"Priya..." Nandini began, but her voice cracked, the protest dying on her lips. After all, it was the truth. In Priya's eyes, and increasingly in her own, she was a slut. A bed warmer. A shameless woman who slept with two men, one out of love and the other out of fear.
"Isn’t that true ?" Priya taunted, stepping closer, her presence suffocating.
"But what could Devraj do? A pathetic, blind husband like him doesn't deserve a wh're of a wife like you. If he wasn't blind, he would have already died of shame seeing his wife roaming so freely, flaunting off the marks his brother left on her." She walked right up to Nandini, her eyes raking over her with disgust. "You should be ashamed."
As she spoke, Priya reached out and dug her sharp, painted nail into Nandini's arm, right where Vikram had gripped her earlier. Nandini hissed in pain, the fresh agony a brutal echo of the last few hours.
"You are nothing but a whore," Priya hissed, and with a final, violent shove, she pushed Nandini against the cold, hard wall. Nandini crumpled slightly, the impact knocking the air from her lungs. Priya leaned in one last time, her face inches from Nandini's, and spat on the floor beside her.
"Remember that."
Then, with a flip of her hair, she turned and walked away, leaving Nandini alone in the dark hallway, sliding down the wall as the truth of Priya's words buried her alive.
Tears streamed freely, flooding her eyes and blurring the path back to her room. Each step was heavy, weighted down by the filth of Vikram's touch and the poison of Priya's words.
She pushed open the door to her room, and the moment she crossed the threshold, it was like stepping into another world. A wave of calmness, a fragile peace, washed over her. It was the scent of her husband, the familiar arrangement of their shared belongings, the soft light from the bedside lamp he always left on for her. This room was her sanctuary, the only place in the world where she felt a semblance of safety, and it was all because of him.
Not wanting to disturb Devraj's sleep, she immediately slipped into the bathroom, closing the door softly behind her. With trembling fingers, she stripped off the saree, the garment feeling like a shroud of violation. She turned on the shower, twisting the knob to the hottest setting, and stepped under the scalding spray.
The water was a punishment and a prayer. She began to rub her skin, not with a cloth, but with her bare hands, then her nails, scrubbing fiercely as if trying to scrape away the memory of Vikram's hands.
She rubbed her lips until they were swollen and raw, trying to erase the feel of his forced kiss. She scrubbed her neck and her back, where he had pressed his disgusting manhood against her, the skin turning an angry red under her frantic ministrations.
She moved lower, washing the place between her legs that had been so brutally defiled, her tears mixing with the hot water that cascaded down her body. She washed and washed until her skin was on fire, until she was too exhausted to continue, a desperate attempt to cleanse a stain that went soul-deep.
Leaning her forehead against the cool tiles, her body wracked with silent sobs, her eyes puffy and sore.
When will I be free from this torment?
The question echoed in the steam-filled air. A dream, fragile and desperate, bloomed in her mind. She would go with Devraj. They would run away somewhere far, far away. To a small village, a quiet hillside, anywhere where no one knew them. A place where no one could hurt him, where no one would dare taunt his disability.
A place where it would just be the two of them, living a simple, happy life, wrapped in each other's love, far from the clutches of the devil who had ruined her world. It was a beautiful, impossible dream, and for a moment, it was the only thing keeping her from shattering completely.
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