"Did you just slap me?" Viraj asked as he stared at his hand that just got slapped away.
"I...I told....you to...not touch me. I will...protect myself." She managed to speak as tears fell on the floor. She didn't want to cry. But, she had never thought that such a day would come in her life. She could be killed today! She could be physically and sexually assaulted today! She could never go back home and meet her parents and sister again. But, only one thing played in her mind. She will protect herself even if she dies. At least her parents would be proud of her. She thought.
"Boss." Gaurav interrupted Viraj by putting a hand on his shoulder." She might be innocent. What if she really saved your sister? It would be wrong to treat her like this if she indeed protected Ananya." He added and tried to make some sense.
Sneha only looked at the floor while her tears flowed freely.
Viraj looked at her for a while more before he finally took a step back. He didn't understand what bothered him more. Her resistance towards being checked by a man or her resistance to being touched by him. He better hoped it was the former because he had never met a woman who has resisted him. And it would hit his...male ego.
"Call Ananya." He told Gaurav as he went back to the sofa and sat casually.
Sneha sighed in relief. She wiped her tears away and focused on the floor again. Viraj kept on staring at her.
"Bhai. You called me?" Ananya asked as she came back downstairs.
Viraj finally looked away from Sneha and turned to face his sister.
"Ananya, take her to the guest room and check her thoroughly for any...suspicious thing. You know what I mean. And I am trusting this task on you because she doesn't want my men to touch her. If you try to play any trick, you better know what will happen." Viraj said the last sentence to Sneha. But, Sneha wasn't even looking at him. It infuriated him even more.
"Yes, bhai. Come Sneha." Ananya guided her the way.
In the guest room, Sneha sighed in relief.
"I hope he didn't threaten you?" Ananya asked cautiously as she asked Sneha to sit on the bed.
Sneha sat on the comfy bed while giving a once over to the room. It was a huge room. It was only slightly smaller than her entire house itself! She wondered how exactly huge the mansion is if a guest room was this luxurious.
"Why is he doubting me? I was just trying to protect you!" She sighed.
"Bhai is like that. He doesn't trust anyone. Especially, when it comes to family, he is always at the edge. I am really sorry for bringing you trouble." Ananya said and Sneha could see that she was being honest.
"You can check me now." Sneha said so that she can get over this quickly and go home. She wondered if her parents had already gone to the police!
"Can I use someone's phone here? I need to inform my parents that I am alright and that I will come back soon." Sneha said as Ananya began searching her.
"I don't think bhai would allow it until he is satisfied that you are innocent. He won't let you contact any outsider till then. I will ask him as soon as we got out, okay?" Ananya suggested. Sneha only nodded in response.
Sneha controlled her laughter when Ananya touched her thighs. She was ticklish there.
"Okay. We are done. Let's go out. And, please, don't talk too much in front of bhai. He doesn't like it." Ananya said as she finished her task.
Sneha nodded again. She wasn't interested in talking to him either.
When they came out, Ananya informed her brother that she found nothing on Sneha.
"Did you check properly?" Viraj asked.
"Yes, bhai." Ananya answered while Sneha searched for her bag.
"Bhai. I was thinking... how about we let Sneha talk to her father on phone and let her inform them about her safety?" Ananya suggested in a soft tone. Sneha wondered why she talked so formally with her brother. She would never talk to her sister in this way.
Viraj nodded and took out his phone from his pocket and gave it to Sneha after standing near her again. She looked at his phone for a second.
Taking the phone, she realized that he had already unlocked it with this thumb.
She struggled a little to search for the dial-pad. She rarely used smartphones and this model had a different software. He came closer to her and tapped on the phone to open the dial-pad for her.
"Thank you." She mumbled lowly and carefully dialled the number.
"Hello?" Came her father's concerned voice.
"Papa, It's me. Sneha." She said quickly so that she doesn't consume much of his phone's balance.
"Oh my God! Where are you, Sneha? We are at the police station for you!" Her father asked quickly.
"Papa. I am fine. Please go back home. I will come back home soon...in an hour. I will explain what made me late, later. Okay? Bye." Sneha didn't even let her father reply and she already cancelled the call.
Viraj was about to take the phone from her grasp when she turned a little.
"Just a moment, please." She mumbled while she opened the call history and deleted her father's phone number from the list. Viraj could only chuckle at her nativity. If he wanted, he could get anyone's number in a second...even hers. But, he let her feel the fake sense of security.
"Can I go home now?" She asked Viraj and Ananya.
"Yes. But, remember that I still have eyes on you. So, if you are up to anything suspicious, tell me now or else it will be problematic for you later." Viraj warned for the last time.
Sneha narrowed her brows but then looked away after giving a short nod.
"Here is your bag, Sneha." Gaurav said as he passed her belongings.
"Thank you, bhaiya." She said. Gaurav only chuckled when she titled him as her brother.
"Bye, Sneha. See you in college." Ananya said.
Sneha smiled a little.
"Yes. Bye." She said politely while hoping that she would not recognize her in the college. She did not want to engage with a bully like Ananya.
She walked towards the door while searching for her phone to check if it was still there or not. But, what she felt in her hands froze her on the spot.
She opened her bag and looked inside to see that her phone was not in one piece. She removed the broken pieces of her phone and turned around to glare at Gaurav.
Everyone was already looking at her in curiosity...again.
"You...broke my phone?" Sneha asked while looking at Gaurav in disbelief. Her eyes almost teared up at the monetary loss. She couldn't ask her father to get her a new phone!
Gaurav shuffled a little.
"I had to check the phone thoroughly for any hidden chip. Thus, we had to dismantle it." Gaurav explained professionally while she continued to look at him in shock.
'Don't cry. Don't cry, Sneha. We will sell the pieces and get a new one.' She consoled herself. Looking at the broken pieces, she turned around slowly. She had so much to say...shout at him...them. But, she kept quiet.
Viraj watched the entire scene in amusement. He wondered why the girl was so upset over a broken cheap phone like that.
She threw the content in the bag again and walked faster to exit the building. Viraj followed her out of curiosity again. He wondered how she would react when she sees her cycle. If she behaved in this manner after seeing a simple phone, he wondered if she would hit him for what his men had done to her cycle.
When Sneha came out and tried to spot her cycle, she became even more irritated. It was nowhere.
"Have you seen my cycle?" She asked politely to one of the guards. The guard pointed towards the corner of the garden. She followed his direction and saw that her cycle was lying on the ground. She walked towards it but then ran in its direction when she saw its condition. It was dismantled too. The handle was lying near the tyre while the tyres were cut open. The metallic body was broken into small pieces as if to check what was inside. Even the mirror was broken. The basket was lying near a flowering plant. The jingling keychain was smashed too. This time, she couldn't stop herself from crying. This was not an ordinary cycle. Her sister, Priya had gifted her this. It was so close to her heart. It was her sister's first salary's investment. And, these morons just broke it.
Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm the raging anger. She hated everyone here. She hated Ananya more. She should have stopped her brother from doing all this! She helped her for heaven's sake.
Turning around in anger, she first glared at the guards whom she thought did this thing to her cycle. Then her eyes unintentionally went towards the entrance of the mansion and she saw Viraj standing there with hands crossed over his chest and eyes fixed at her. She quickly looked back at her cycle.
She really wanted to go and scold him for what he did...or asked his men to do. She would have gone and asked for compensation. But, nothing would replace her sister's gift. She wiped her eyes by the back of her hand and took the broken keychain in her hand to leave the compound. It was the only thing that she could keep as a memory, perhaps.
So much so for saving the mafia boss' sister!
She walked slowly out of the main gate of the house and turned left in the direction of her home. She must have walked some two minutes when she saw a black-coloured car stop just beside her. She ignored it first. But, when the car honked, she turned to look at it.
"Come in." Viraj said while gesturing towards his car.