'Bestowed misery.'

Aagnay

2020

"You're living in a parallel world if you think that I won't out those skeletons in your closet."

I had grown a certain aversion to Kunal Dubey's unholy existence. He wasn't ready to back down on the face of my raging fury unlike the rest of the lot. He knew precisely what I was capable of—it didn't matter to him, I'd figured. Good thing was, I was always up for a challenge and I always had my ways around people—Kunal was bound to lose this game, lose the bets, or worse if he dared to play with me.

I strode leisurely even when fury burned through me. "I admire your audacity to declare a war," I paused to face him. "Raising the stakes while you have everything on line has to be the stupidest thing in your track record."

"Guess you will have to wait and watch," Kunal called after me. "Your ways won't always work in your favor Bhasin. If you choose to back away from my commands then I'm afraid you will be losing a lot on the line than I would."

I smirked as I yanked the door open. "Have it your way," I told him and stepped out of the hall. "But make no mistake Dubey, the final move will be mine."

*

"Oh my God!" Ella squealed as she opened the velvet box to reveal a Mateo pearl necklace. "Don't tell me this is a limited edition!" It had earned me a surprised and pleasant grin. "Thank you but you didn't have to."

"Oh but I had to," I told her and brought her hand near my mouth. "You deserve the finer things in the world." I kissed the back of her hand and she flushed.

"Sometimes I think being your girlfriend isn't all that bad."

I laughed. "Say that again in the next few years." We headed towards my car in the parking lot.

"Oh sweetie, I want to tell you all about it but I can't give out spoilers," she said and chuckled as unlocked the door of my car on the passenger's side.

"Why is that?" I ducked my head to slide behind the wheels. "You want to be gone faster than I can say gold digger?" My lips twitched to a smirk and she scoffed.

"Except, I don't find anything worth digging." She rolled her eyes and glanced at me. "No offense."

I shook my head. "None taken." I ignited the engine and drew the vehicle out of the parking lot. "We belong to two fundamentally different worlds."

"How is that?" she queried dryly and as I steered through the streets. "We hail from families with parents screwed up enough to set us up for their vendettas. We have more things in common than you'd like to think."

I chuckled. "Ah, you're good for your confidence," I muttered as I pulled the vehicle to a halt. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Don't be so jealous," she said and looked out of the window. "So," she murmured and her gaze drifted on me. "Did you deal with..." she trailed off and my grip steeled on the steering wheel. "I'm just asking if there are any more loose ends that you might want to pay attention to."

"Let me remind you how none of it doesn't even remotely concern you." I forced my tone to be even. Even the slightest mention of that sent rage firing through my blood.

"Oh but it does," she said and I kicked the gas to pedal through the evening streets. "I was right there and we both know how that can wreak havoc on your life if you don't do something about it faster."

Sick darkness radiated through me. I was glad about my two-piece suit to conceal my vigorous tension under civility. "Back off," I growled and she thinned her lips. "I'd rather you never raise that subject unless you are required to. Do you understand me?"

"Sure," she mumbled and looked back out of the window. "I got it."

*

"And whose fault is that?" Mom's voice was loud and shrill when I crouched near the banister furtively.

"Yours," Dad bit out harshly. "It's your fault we even have a child. Pregnancy was never part of the plan and you ruined it. Now you deal with that garbage because I'm not holding any accounts for him."

"How dare you pin this on me?" Mom was angry and I wanted to cry. Why were they quarreling? What did I do? "You are just as much responsible for this as I am."

"Really?" Dad gulped the contents from his glass restlessly. "You were the one bearing the child. How could you be so reckless with something like that?"

Exasperation was spewing off my mother. "I'm tired of this—sick of you blaming me for all of this when you are just as responsible."

I couldn't take it anymore—I needed to know why they were regretting my existence. Didn't they love me as much as I loved them?

My mother's gaze drifted on to me when I walked into the foyer silently. She deflated and smiled at me. "Honey, we need to talk." I was scared and confused. I couldn't guess what they were up to but I knew it was something that wouldn't have been up to my liking.

"The proposal deck was a hit, son," Dad's voice was warm with approval when I blinked my thoughts away. "I'm impressed. You did a brilliant job."

Unease slid through my spine, stiffening me. It gave me no pleasure to note that tone of his. "I'm glad to know that." Frustration made my voice waiver and his lips whitened. "The RFP files will be on your desk by the end of this week."

"I don't regret raising you to be this man today," he said as he circled the desk and handed me a myriad of paperwork. "This learning curve has been a success."

Out of all the things he had said, I could only register, "You raised me?"

His eyes weren't as piercing as my mother's but they had a similar effect on them. "Why of course, I did. You don't assume someone else paid for your nuisance, do you?" I didn't care how that comment was considered hilarious.

"I assume you never cared enough to be a father in the first place." I raked a hand through my hair. Dad stared at me in shocked silence for a moment. "Ah, you just took a bullet when I was born, isn't it?"

"It all happened for the greater good, son."

I loathed that word. Loathed when he had believed in what he wanted and ignored the contrary. His fake endearments were the lies I had to play along with forever and I needed for them to be over. I wasn't acquainted with a normal family and I didn't need to be.

"My name is Aagnay," I corrected him. "And you don't have to call me son to make me feel better about any of this. I couldn't care any less about it."

"But look around," he told me and dropped his hand to his sides. "You have a life everyone would kill for."

It was his effort to strip an apology out of me but I couldn't retreat. "At the costs, I have paid, I'd rather it burn down to hell." I didn't close the door when I headed back to my bedroom to work.

*

Ella

2020

I pushed through the door silently and headed to Aagnay's room after I failed to spot his parents in the foyer—I thought that was odd but I ignored it because an evening plan awaited us. I took the panoramic view of the property as I ascended the stairs. The Bhasins were insanely rich but it often made me wonder the kind of price they had to pay for the immaculate luxury.

The appetizing aroma of the dinner from the kitchen filled the air as I passed by the kitchen and my head turned towards the door of Aagnay's bedroom. I stepped in without a preamble and walked right into a frenzy of hellfire.

The sight in the room combined with the smell of food began to turn my stomach and I gasped as my hand touched my throat reflexively; my clutch dropped to the floor near my feet. How—what the hell was going on?

My vision began to blur with dark shadows as my gaze landed on Aagnay across the room, past the glass doors of the master bath, stroking his length wildly with an insane speed that reeled my mind. His face was marred with a deep frown under the jet sprays of the shower, water cascading upon him as he raced to orgasm like an unleashed animal.

I stepped back in disbelief and darted my gaze around the room.

Crap!

"So I thought, why not? We can have some fun," Maira's voice jostled me out of my daze and I groaned incredulously. I had no idea what she was talking but I nodded anyway. "So you in?"

I walked over to the nearest couch and sat. "Yeah, sure," I told her, sounding more self-assured than I felt inside. I had to do some damage control before it got out of my hands. If only Aagnay were open to discussion. "So where do we begin?"

"Here she comes," she muttered and my gaze swept across the room to spot Sambhavna Gupta waltzing into the cafeteria.

"Who is she anyway?" I asked her and began to file my nails as I chewed on the gum. "And ugh, why does her sense of fashion have to be so disgusting?" I rolled my eyes and Maira smirked.

"Her family moved to the city recently," she filled in but I was barely paying any attention. I had more pressing issues to tend to. "And she grates on my nerves like the bitch she is."

That piqued my attention and I halted in my tracks. "Is that right?" I asked and dropped my filer in my satchel. "What did she do?"

"Let's just say she has to know where she belongs," she muttered and I cackled.

"Here's to hoping," I told her and shook my head. "She could be my minion." I examined her moves as she bought her lunch and walked leisurely across the room. "Do you think she could be diligent?"

Maira averted her hazel brown eyes on me. "Only one way to find out." Oh, I was about to have fun.

*

Dear diary,

I have been told to write when I feel sad or depressed and there are a disturbing number of entries here. Does that mean it's problematic? I think my life is wonderful and I'm grateful for everything I have but I suppose this life doesn't deserve me.

My parents... are broken beyond repair. Abuse doesn't break a person—it wrecks a home. It's taxing to be sitting here and writing these words when I can live a life I want when I don't have to spend my nights sobbing to my pillow instead of creating memories I could cherish.

Even my boyfriend isn't mine. I feel so pretentious and I'm sure that's what my peers talk about behind my back. The pressure of masking a classic façade when my world is falling apart exhausts me, angers me, and upsets me. I wish I could fly out of this hellhole and find my refuge in something that's truly my calling.

It breaks my heart to hear my parents every night over again and again. My mother doesn't deserve it and neither do I. Our devotion to the only man in our life has only bestowed misery upon us. I'm afraid I'll never be happy—I will never live the life I want. I'm afraid I'll fail.

I jerked away from the table and the pen dropped to the floor as I heard the thin shriek of my mother. Without any second thoughts, I bolted out of my bedroom towards the living room where my mother sat on the floor sobbing, her hands trembling as she heaved labored breaths and I rushed to her instantaneously.

"Get out," Daddy's roar echoed through the room and I flinched mildly. "Remain in your room for the rest of the night."

"Please stop," I whispered as I cupped my mother's face and tears threatened my eyes. "Stop it, Daddy." I braced Mama gently and rubbed her back to soothe her but it was too late, she was hyperventilating, struggling to wail and my heart shattered in my chest.

"Obey your father." Mama's whisper broke out and I shook my head in denial. "Please get back to your room."

My father jostled me away from my mother and I pried out of his grip immediately. "Are you going to kill her?" I snapped at him and yelped as he threw the bottle of scotch across the room. It crashed with a maddening echo that raised goosebumps over my skin. "You get back every night to torture us. What do you want? Why can't you stop?" I screamed to his face and stepped back as he glared at me. His eyes were bloodshot and fiery. "For once Daddy, please stop." My sobs diffused with my mother but my father was stone cold. He never cared.

"How many times have I told you to stay out of this?" His teeth gritted violently but I refused to retreat. I couldn't—I knew he wouldn't back down from killing my mother if he could, and the mere thought of his animalistic violence knocked me to my bone.

My father had a routine. Wake up. Rule the city. Get drunk and abuse my mother. Pass out. Repeat. It had begun when I was in middle school, until then we were nobodies, and then...things changed. My father changed for the worst.

"Don't hurt Mama," I pleaded instead. "Please...please, plea—" My pathetic pleading snapped into the air with a gasp as my head to the side. It took me a moment to register that my father had slapped me.

"Don't," Mama yelled and I cried. She was violently shaking and then I was. I touched the spot on my cheek that burned and fury laced my blood. "Don't touch my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Daddy snapped back at her and gripped her by her hair. She winced softly and I caught his hand.

"I'll go back," I said placidly. "I'll go back to my room but I won't leave without Mama."

"Don't say that," Mama demanded sharply and I glared at her. I was furious at her too. She never stood against him. She was willing to water the dead plant as long as she lived and I wasn't fine by that. I wanted them asunder but my mother didn't share similar thoughts as mine. "It's alright. Go back upstairs and sleep."

"Why do you always have to push me to pretend like this is okay?" I snapped at her and caught my father's wrist. "You leave her right the hell now."

"How dare you take that tone with me?" He slapped me again with the back of his hand and I stumbled back. "This is what you give out to someone who pays for your life?"

"And this is how you behave with your wife and daughter?" He was a sick man. My father's alcohol abuse wreaked havoc over our lives. I was ready to live without the riches but I couldn't have conceded over my mother. She was my family.

"Don't you dare," he muttered and slapped my mother instead. My mother didn't fight back; she sobbed silently and I bolted back to my room. I had to be alone, in the privacy of my room because I didn't have it in me to witness the horror show of my lunatic family. I broke down. 

~~~~

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