In the morning, Anaika entered the kitchen in her bathrobe sipping blueberry juice. Her wet hair were wrapped in a towel. A woman in tattered sari was washing the utensils in the sink. The air inside the kitchen was freezing as the AC was at its minimum temperature. The woman was shivering with cold.

"Sukku," Anaika looked at the woman who once was her aunt from up to down, "I've told you na! Mahua is my favourite servant and here she's shivering with cold. So sad!"

A woman wearing black frock came running with a utensil of water and said putting it on the kitchen platform, "Anaika ma'am. Here is warm water. Mahua won't feel any cold now."

"Nice," Anaika said, and started pouring boiling water on Mahua's hands. Mahua pulled away her hands with a scream, "It's boiling water ma'am!"

"I know," Anaika smiled, "You were feeling cold na? And don't you dare pull your hands away? You remember na, your husband is in jail for embezzlement of funds in his firm. So if I fire you from the job you've gotten after begging me, what will your daughter and you do? Eat the garbage fished from trash can? Now wash the utensils with this boiling water only."

Anaika kept pacing up and down the kitchen until the hands of Nitya's aunt were full of blisters. Then when she walked towards the hall, she saw Nitya's cousin polishing her entire collection consisting of 200 footwear.

"Stand up," Anaika said.

Nitya's cousin, Sakshi stood up.

"Sit down," Anaika ordered.

Sakshi sat down.

"Stand up," Anaika said.

"Sit Down," Sakshi sat down and resumed polishing the footwear.

"Stand up," Anaika said again, "Come here."

Sakshi came towards Anaika, looking up at Anaika.

"Keep your gaze down, servant," Anaika said, then she slid her hand through Sakshi's hair, "Your hair are beautiful, Sakshi."

"W...what ma'am?" Sakshi was surprised, then finally thinking that her mistress actually liked something of hers, she shyly said, "Thank you ma'am."

"You don't need to thank me, Sakshi," Anaika's voice was almost motherly, "Your hair are really beautiful, too beautiful for a worthless piece of garbage like you." Saying that Anaika pulled Sakshi's hair with full might and dragged her behind herself.

"P...please ma'am ," Sakshi pleaded, "L...let me go. I won't repeat if I've done any mistake. I'll polish your footwear. I'll clean all the toilets. Please ma'am it's hurting."

Anaika then left her hair abruptly, "Fine. I leave you." Then Anaika gave a scissors to Sakshi and said, "Cut your hair. I want to see you bald."

Anaika knew Sakshi was too proud of her thick, curly hair reaching below her knees. It was Sakshi's favourite physical feature.

"I can't cut them ma'am," Sakshi's was sobbing now, "I love my hair the most. I'm proud of them. They are my best feature."

"That's why darling, I told you to cut them," Anaika said, "You are so proud that you never even hesitated to crush the less fortunate people below you. And what use do you have of your beautiful long hair? All you do in the day is polishing shoes and cleaning toilets. If you want to use your hair for that, I can understand."

Each snip of scissors on Sakshi's hair reminded Anaika when Sakshi laughed while cutting up Nitya's college books. Sakshi was bald now. She was too broken.

"Let's see how princess Sakshi is looking," Anaika made a house help bring mirror in front of Sakshi. Sakshi closed her eyes in horror. Anaika pressed Sakshi's face and forced Sakshi to open her eyes to see her bald face.

"At least your face now looks better with its arrogance gone," Anaika whispered in Sakshi's ears.

On the other hand, Mahua was nursing the blisters on her hands, wondering which birth's karma was she and her daughter facing in the present time. She was unable to understand why Anaika who was always kind and polite with other house help was making their lives a living hell. They didn't even know her.

=============

Anaika's car suddenly stopped on road. Anaika took off her sunglasses and asked the driver, "Why did the car stop? What's the matter?"

The driver craned his neck and then got out of the car. He returned after a minute and told Anaika, "Ma'am that rich guy on car hit that young man on scooty and instead of apologizing, he's beating up the poor young man on scooty."

Anaika got down from the car and moved through the crowd. A bespectacled young man was huddled on the road and a rich guy was kicking him repeatedly.

"P...please let me go," the young man was pleading, "T...today is my first day at job."

The rich guy spat on him and said swearing obscene abuses, "How dare you touch my BMW? Who allows these worms to be on the road?"

The young guy pleaded everyone in the crowd to save him but everybody started looking away. Finally his gaze met Anaika's and Anaika didn't look away but after sometime she got into the car.

"Aneja Ji," she told her driver, "I want entire kundali of that rich guy. His car is too expensive for him, it seems."

"Ma'am, can I ask you something?" The driver said.

"Ask away, Aneja Ji," Anaika was looking at a business proposal on her tablet and she didn't look up on hearing Aneja's voice.

Aneja Ji said, "I saw concern in your eyes for that poor boy, and I'll know you'll ensure that rich guy is punished. But why didn't you save that poor boy when he was being beaten black and blue."

"It wasn't concern, Aneja Ji," Anaika again wore her sunglasses, "That boy...he just reminded me of someone I used to...know. And yes I could save him, but I didn't because if I saved him that time, that boy would never learn to fight back. He'll never grow out of his weakness...and anyways, that's none of my business. Similarly like what I do and what I don't is none of your business Aneja Ji."

"S...sorry ma'am."

In the afternoon, Anaika was walking through the office corridor discussing the launch of a new product with COO when someone collided with her.

"What the..."

"S...sorry ma'am," Anaika looked at the person. It was the same boy who was getting beaten on road. His face had injuries. He said it was his first day at job...

He began picking up the documents that fell on the floor when he collided with Anaika but his hands were trembling too much from nervousness.

Anaika kneeled down and helping the guy to pick up the documents, asked him, "What's your name?"

"My name... It's Shaurya Sharma," the boy replied. His gaze was on the floor the entire time.

"So Shaurya," Anaika said, getting up, "Your first job is to go to infirmary on the ground floor and get your injuries treated. Then you can resume what you're doing."

And without waiting for a reply, Anaika walked away breezily.

========

Satyaki's POV

I have been calling Shaurya since one hour but that fool was not picking up the phone. What will I tell our boss now? Shaurya is the only guy I'm senior to in our department and even he doesn't listen to me.

"Shaurya where are you?" I said gnashing my teeth, "Boss will barge in any time and you're not at your seat."

"I am at Picosys, Satyaki," Shaurya said, "Just five minutes ago I was face to face with the Anaika Mullick."

"What the...? What are you doing at Picosys? What on earth...?"

"Nothing great," Shaurya said. I could almost hear him chuckling. Gosh! I hate his confidence! He is one year junior than me and yet so brash! "I'm just trying to unravel the great Anaika enigma "

"Listen Shaurya," I tried my best not to shout at him, "Anaika is very smart... she's not who you think. And why the hell you're doing a story on Anaika and her Empire? This story would be handled by departments at the higher level, not by insignificant department like us."

"I told you na I received a call from a girl named Sakshi?" Shaurya said.

"Sakshi..." I thought hard, then it clicked, "The girl whose rich mistress was making her and her mother's life hell? But what does that have to do with you being at Picosys?"

"Sakshi's mistress is Miss Anaika Mullick," Shaurya dropped the bomb.

So Sakshi's mother was Nitya's monster aunt? And Sakshi was that cruel cousin who tortured Nitya? Anaika never told me the names of persons involved while narrating her past and she still hadn't told me anything about her life after marriage. But I deduced after seeing the debacle in the life of business tycoon Patrick D'Souza that it was his son who had taken Nitya's dignity. And so I knew who was going to be next target of Nitya.

I searched the Internet. For a second, I decided to warn Ryan D'Souza about Anaika but then I remembered Nitya's tortured screams, Ryan's leering eyes, his laughter at seeing Nitya's bloodied skirt...I decided to put off informing Ryan. I'll inform him once Anaika goes too far but not now...

So Shaurya was undercover in Picosys but I was worried for him. Anaika wouldn't spare him if he creates an obstacle in her revenge plan. You are playing with fire Shaurya! I thought. I just wish you're not in danger!

As always, waiting for your feedback ☺️☺️☺️☺️