Reena Desai: Kill Lady

Chapter 8

Thank you for all the kind comments! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

*********

"Do you like this helicopter, Sona?", Rocky asked, ostentatiously, sitting beside me."See, now I don't have to drive. I can give you my full attention."

So that you can be entertained?, I thought wrathfully.

I looked at him coldly and turned my attention to the window.

"I've been gone for months. Did you missing me?", he asked in his typical broken English.

"I missed you so much, Sona. I thought about you every night", he said, with a deliberate emphasis on night.

I clenched my fists, tightly into my folded arms. He was adding petrol to a building fire. Every second I spent in his vicinity served as a reminder to my own folly. How did I imagine myself to be in love with this man? What did I even know about love?

He kept chattering non-stop, none of which penetrated the thick haze of anger.

I tried to distract myself by looking at the mountainous terrain, which was so far from the world I knew.

Soon, the helicopter landed in front of a huge palace, replete with fountains and sprawling lawns. It was ten times larger than the mansions and villas I was accustomed to.

A guard opened the door on Rocky's side, while mine was still closed. I looked questioningly.

"Wait, Sona", he said, getting down.

Rocky, pretending to be the world's most chivalrous man, opened the door from my side and held out his hand hopefully.

I rolled my eyes at his gesture. Did he also expect me to throw my arms around him and shower him with kisses after everything he did?

I folded my arms more tightly around me and ignored his hands.

Obviously, he was not very pleased.

Some men, wearing maroon uniforms walked upto him and spoke something about the mines, in hushed voices. It seemed urgent.

He asked them to wait and turned towards me.

"I'll ask the guards to escort you to your room, Sona. You take rest", he said softly, as if trying to apologise for not coming with me.

I just stalked away with the escort, in a hurry to put as much distance between us possible.

*******************
As we reached the foyer, two ladies dressed in simple grey sarees were waiting with ceremonial Aarthi plates. As if I were a new bride, who had come of her own volition. I could think of a hundred cutting things to say, but I held my tongue because they seemed genuinely happy to see me. No one had greeted me like this, as far as I could remember.

Then, something weird happened. Two male servants, kept a bottle of beer. I frowned in confusion. Something stirred painfully in my memories.

'When we get married, we don't need the auspicious rice pot in the foyer. I'll ask them to keep a beer bottle. You come and kickers all this the bottles.'

It also increased my anger and humiliation to newer heights. I wanted to beat the hell out of that man.

"Boss asked us to do this, when you first came into the house", one of the women said, innocently.

That ba****d! He had the audacity to kidnap me, humiliate me in a room full of men I had known my entire life, call me entertainment over and over again, take me hostage, threaten to kill my father if I didn't comply and then pretend to be a loving husband welcoming his lady, with titbits of their shared memories (however silly they might be).