“ Where am I?” Paro asked, holding her breath, looking at the person sitting in front of her who had proved himself to be a monster last night.
“You are with me, love, at my place”. Adi smiled at her while taking a step towards her bed.
It took her a while to process his words. What did he mean by his place? It wasn't his room or even his apartment. Where did he take her then? A cold shiver ran down her spine thinking about the possibility.
“ Your place? But… but it's… it's … not your apartment. Then?” Paro tried to sit with a jerk as she felt her heart thumping at an inhuman speed in fear. She gulped hard, seeing Adi near the bed.
“ Relax love, relax.” Adi placed himself on the edge of the bed. Seeing her disheveled hair on her face, his hand instinctively leaned towards her, trying to tuck it behind her ear.
Paro slapped his hand out of instinct, terrified, while trying to place herself away from Adi.
“ Don't.. don't touch me.” The words came out of her mouth as a whisper even though she wanted to shout at the top of her lungs.
Adi didn't like her going away from him. He clenched his jaw at her rejection but tried to make himself understand that she needed time. Running his fingers through his hair, he took a deep breath to cool himself down.
“ Paro.. we aren't at my apartment. This is another place. I just wanted to spend some quality time with you. Here nobody can disturb us, baby!”
Adi climbed on the bed properly and looked at her shivering form. He brought his right hand up to her cheek, stroking his thumb tenderly in contrast to his dark gaze on her. His dark brown orbs bathed in the possessiveness and the crudest obsession that took birth last night.
“ Where is this place?” Paro asked with a blank face, almost forgetting how to breathe.
“ Away from the City. Away from everyone. Only we two will be here. Nobody can disturb us. Only you and me.” Adi said with madness in his eyes.
Listening to him Paro wanted to throw up. She wanted to shout, beat, and curse him. But her overwhelmed emotions didn't allow it. The realization of being kidnapped by her biggest nightmare just came true. Her body was frozen in fear. She didn't know what she should do as the gravity of realization hit her.
“ I …. I want to go back. Please… please take me there.” she somehow managed to utter the words.
Adi looked at her for a while before laughing out loud.
“You are kidding me right? " he asked as if he had the biggest joke in the world.
After last night, Paro already understood that Adi had lost the minimum amount of humanity that was left in him. He was a madman. A monster. Even in that situation, she knew that there was no point in arguing with him. Without trying to make him angry she tried to keep herself calm and spoke up as gently as possible.
“ No. I am not.” She said directly looking at him.
The smile on Adi's face was gone. Suddenly Paro felt a burning pain in her wrist as Adi pulled her towards him.
“ What.. what do you mean by that you want to go back? Why don't you want to stay with me here? Haan? After all, you are my GIRLFRIEND.”
Adi asked, holding her cheeks in a tight grip, making her mouth O- shaped. He smiled half-heartedly, but the coldness in his voice left no stone unturned to show what was going on in his mind. The mockery in his voice was clear as he emphasized the last word. Remembering her betrayal, what happened last evening, made him increase his pressure on her.
“ Lea…Leave. It's hurting.” Paro pushed him with whatever power she was left with. But that wasn't enough to make him loosen his grip even a little.
Suddenly as if her prayer was heard. She heard a known ringtone. It was her ringtone! Her phone was ringing!
For a moment Paro's dead eyes found a sparkle before it fell on the man sitting in front of her. She saw Adi frowning before collecting her phone.
“ Why is Bhabi calling her at this time?” Adi murmured to himself. He wanted to keep this disturbance to her apartment but that would only raise suspicion. Paro suddenly going missing would already create havoc but he knew how to manage it.
With a sigh, he came to Paro. “ Bhabi is calling.” He said in a blank voice.
He didn't miss the slight ray of hope in her eyes when she raised her hand to grab it before Adi raised his hand to take it out of her reach.
“ Listen to me first.” He said with a bitter expression, clearly displeased with how she was so eager to get rid of him.
“ You will say to her that you are with that friend of yours. What's her name? Yeah… Ishita. Tell Britty that you left last night and you will spend a few days with her.” Adi said with a deadly expression.
“ But…” Paro wanted to protest but one look at Adi's face made her stop. He was clearly waiting for her to defy his order. Paro knew that she couldn't do a thing unless she could get out of there.
Looking down, she only nodded, submitting to his wishes. The ringtone stopped as Adi lowered his face to kiss her forehead. “Good girl”.
Paro flinched from his slightest touch before the phone started ringing again. Adi gestured to Paro to pick up the phone not before warning her with his cold gaze. He put the phone on speaker before Paro started talking.
“ Hello!” Paro answered the phone call meekly.
“ Hello, Paro! Where are you? I went to your apartment in the morning but it was locked. Did you go somewhere?” Bidisha asked in one go. She was clearly concerned for her mainly after hearing from her husband what happened last night.
“ I… I am with Ishita. I was feeling lonely so I just decided to spend some time with her.”
Paro forced herself to tell those blunt lies hoping in her mind that Bidisha would somehow understand her.
“ With Ishita? When did you go?” Bidisha asked unsure. She thought after their conversation last evening, Paro wanted to spend some time by herself.
“ I left at night. Ishita came to get me. Sorry, I should have informed you.” Paro felt her voice almost choking as she forced herself to tell the lies.
‘Paro has been with Ishita since last night?’ Bidisha thought to herself, frowning.
‘Didn't she hear about Rishabh then? But her voice didn't sound like that. Did Ishita not inform her about anything or she didn't know by herself?’
“ Paro?” After a moment of silence, Bidisha spoke again.
“ Did… did you speak to Rishabh after last night?” She tried to keep her voice natural. Trying to understand whether Paro knew anything or not.
Both Paro and Adi got stiff listening to her. Paro directly looked at Adi and saw how his face started changing color. She wanted to turn off the speaker but she knew she couldn't do that.
“ I.. no!” Paro smiled nervously.” “I was tired last night so I just slept”. She added, hoping that Bidisha won't prolong this conversation.
‘ Oh! Maybe that's why Ishita didn't inform her.’ Bidisha concluded. She was feeling so guilty and ashamed for what Adi did to
Rishabh that she couldn't bring herself to inform Paro about that. She'd eventually know.
“ Are you okay Paro?” She suddenly asked out of nowhere.
This one simple sentence made Paro stop on her track.
‘Was she okay? No, she wasn't. She WASN'T. How could she be? When her whole world was turned upside down? When she had nothing and no one to hold on to. When she still was sitting in front of her rapist and doing according to his wish like a fucking coward? HOW COULD SHE BE OKAY?’
She wanted to say it out loud but she couldn't.
“ Yeah,” Paro replied, not trusting her voice as she felt it breaking.
“ That's… great. See you soon.” Bidisha hung up the call.
Fresh teardrops came out of her eyes as soon as the phone call ended. Her hands clamped tightly to her mouth to quiet her sobs.
“ So even Bhabi knew about Rishabh, huh?”
Paro looked up to find Adi standing in front of her with a clenched fist, clearly not happy from what he heard.
Without replying to him she placed her face in between her knees. Adi rubbed his face and pinched the tip of his nose hard to control his anger.
‘ So everybody knows about her and that bastard, except him. Even his sis-in-law ! She didn't say a word to him when he told her that Paro agreed to be his girlfriend.’
The betrayal from everyone was setting his bones on fire once again. But it didn't matter now. She was his and only his. And no one in the world can change that.
Controlling his emotions he again came to Paro and took a seat beside her.
“ Go back to sleep, baby! I'll take a quick shower and make breakfast for us. Okay?” He whispered soothingly, not addressing any of what he heard over the phone call.
Paro was somehow relieved for that but still, she didn't pick up her head.
Adi scoffed at what he saw, he wasn't going to allow that, he wouldn't accept disobedience.
“ Paro”. His tone held a warning this time. Without wanting any interaction with him Paro lay down on the bed and curled into a ball wishing to disappear.
After a few minutes, she listened to the washroom being closed. She realized Adi was gone. She opened her eyes and for the first time in the morning took a normal breath. Her eyes again welled up with tears as she cried silently.
Suddenly she remembered something.
“ Rishabh!” Yes, she should talk to him. He was the only friend here she was left with. Probably he would believe her. He’d surely help her out. She hurriedly sat down and took her phone into her hand. She looked at the washroom to make sure it was still locked and the water was running through. With trembling hands, she connects the call.
Her heart thumped at a double speed as the phone started ringing.
“ Please pick up the call… please”. She almost begged.
But her prayers were unheard as the call was unanswered.
Paro disappointedly hung up when she realized what she had just done.
‘What if Rishabh calls her later? What if Adi gets to know that she called him?’
Paro felt terrorized just by thinking about his reaction. She shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't have been so desperate. She decided to leave a message to Rishabh to not call her back. As she started typing with trembling hands her phone rang loudly, almost falling in the process.
‘ Ishita! Why was she calling me now?’ Paro thought, puzzled. Both of them hardly talk with each other after that day. But what if Rishabh was calling from her phone? Making sure that the washroom was still locked she picked up the phone call.
“ Hello!” Paro whispered.
“ Did you enjoy your time with your lover last night?” Ishita's voice crackled with anger as if spitting venom.
Paro was baffled by her sudden attack.
“ What… What do you mean?” She asked, finally finding her voice.
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