Broken By Love [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8

Sikha

I feel my body shaking as I scrub the kitchen floor.

I was brought to this new house about nine hours back. Everything was done in such a rush that no one gave me breakfast, too, as they usually did.

It has been more than sixteen hours since I last ate, and I am starving now, but I cannot do anything about it.

I was not allowed to the kitchen or anywhere outside my room in that mansion because Dhruv restricted me from doing so, telling me no one there wanted to see my face.

When he allowed me to leave that room this morning so I could come here, I looked around, and no one was there. Not in the corridors, not in the living room, nowhere.

I felt a pinch in my heart then, realizing how much hatred and disgust each person in that mansion had for me. But somehow, I also felt some relief because I did not want to hear any taunts or allegations from anyone anymore.

When I entered this house, I kept my suitcase in the room that Dhruv's bodyguards told me was mine. Then I came to the kitchen to eat something. I thought the kitchen must have already been stocked, but I was wrong.

The refrigerator was empty, and all the cupboards in the kitchen were bare except for some plates, glasses, and pans.

When I asked one of the bodyguards about the food, he told me he would need to call Dhruv and ask. That bodyguard returned a while later and informed me about Dhruv telling him to have someone deliver groceries here by noon.

'But it is about to be 6 pm now, and nothing has been delivered yet.'

I wonder if Dhruv deliberately delayed the delivery of the groceries to punish me by keeping me hungry.

I know how much he hates me and how far he can go to punish me. The bruises and many aches on my body are testaments to it.

A lone tear slides down my cheek as I remember what he did last night. He was so brutal, so relentless. Hurting me, calling me such vile names, insulting me every moment as he defiled my body. It had been too much to take last night.

Every time he hurts me so much that I think he cannot do worse than that. But he proves me wrong the next time when he hurts me more than the previous time.

Blinking rapidly to stop myself from crying, I continue scrubbing the floor.

As no one has been living in this house and has not cleaned it for the last three months since Dhruv bought it, it is really unkempt and dusty.

I started cleaning the house half an hour after arriving here, wanting to finish it before Dhruv returned from the office.

I remember the angry gaze with which Dhruv had looked at me while promising me a punishment if he found that cleaning was not per his standards.

As I scrub the floor, I hear my stomach growl.

Cleaning all the rooms, bathrooms, and now the kitchen has made my whole body ache, and I also feel weak due to hunger.

I take a deep breath to lessen the shiver I feel throughout my body.

Getting scared that Dhruv might come home at any time, I continue scrubbing the kitchen floor, wanting to complete the cleaning as soon as possible.

After last night, my body is too weak to endure any punishment today.

The more I try to clean faster, the more I feel my movement getting slower.

Taking deep breaths, I will myself to go on for some more time as only the kitchen is left to be cleaned now.

But soon, my vision starts getting blurry. Shaking my head and blinking my eyes, I try to stand up from the floor to go to the sink and drink some water.