Rukmini

Chapter 19: Helpless

'One attempt of yours to tell anyone about all this, leads to the death of ....', Rajnish paused and continued, '...., the death of a certain person called Arjun. Do you know him ?', he asked me in a sarcastic manner.

'What ?', I shouted at him.

'Are you deaf, my princess ? I said, one move of yours to tell anyone the truth, leads to your beloved older brother - Arjun, dying.', he said.

'And, knowing you very well, you might want proof. Isn't it Rukmini ? I have proof.', said Vikramaditya who was gesturing Abhimanyu to show me something.

Abhimanyu came upto me, and showed me some live footage of Arjun kept in a room. He was tied down to a chair, and some men were hitting him.

'ARJUN !', I screamed when I saw blood oozing out of his wounds as the men hit him.

It was then, that Abhimanyu called someone, and asked them to stop hitting Arjun. I saw the man picking up the call and talking to Abhimanyu. They stopped hitting him.

'Please, let him go. Don't do anything to him.', I begged them.

'Did you say something, Rukmini?', asked Abhimanyu.

'I said please, let my brother go. Don't do anything to him, I'll do anything for you .... But don't do anything to him.', I told Vikramaditya.

'Anything ?', he asked me.

'Yes, yes. Anything. But you'll have to keep him safe and not do anything to him. Please ...', I said before falling at his feet.

'Okay, that's settled then. You do whatever I want, and I'll keep your brother unharmed. But ....', he paused.

'But what ?', I asked.

'But, one little thing you do against me or my wishes will lead to the death of Ar ....',, he said as I interrupted him and shouted, 'NO ! PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING TO HIM ! I'll do whatever you say.'

'Good ...', said Rajnish and Abhimanyu at the same time.

'Now, although we're legally married, I know you would like to do it in the traditional way too. So, Rukmini ....', he spoke as I was pulled into a vacuum of thoughts.

I don't want to marry him. That's the last thing I would willingly do. What can I do to save Arjun and myself ? Isn't there any possible way ?
I guess, at the moment, I'll have to do this. I'll have to get married to him. Should I contact baba ? Yes. That's a good way to get out of all this. I'll call baba. But, the question is ... how do I do it ? I'll have to call him without anyone noticing.

Everything is making sense to me now .....
Why Abhimanyu and the others wanted a small scale wedding with no relatives or friends, why Abhimanyu was behaving so strange during and after the wedding, and mainly what Arjun wanted to tell me that day before mummy pulled me away from him. They had it all planned, no wonder they didn't let us take any photos at all. No photographers were allowed either. So that I wouldn't have any proof of the wedding. (Refer Chapters 1-4 and 6)

That dream .... could it have been a sign, about Arjun ? (Refer Chapter 10)

How did Vikramaditya manage to get my signatures on those papers ? I still haven't read all the papers. If one paper could be so horrible, I can't imagine how horrendous the other papers' information might be. What I still don't understand, is that how the hell did my signatures reach the papers ? It is my signature, but I haven't signed any such papers, at least in my memory.

Oh my God ... It must have been yesterday, when I went to the office with Rajnish to sign those papers for changing my name.
The last few papers had been signed by me without reading. All thanks to Rajnish, sarcastically enough.
He must have slipped in all these papers without my knowledge into the pile of papers that were there from before. No wonder there were so many papers to sign ! (Refer Chapter 7).