The Brutal Beast ✔️

Part 1

Japanese cheesecake or New York cheesecake?

I looked at the two delicious items on my dining table waiting for me to devour. It's already 30 minutes since I am sitting on the table for my breakfast and my stomach is rumbling in hunger. The only problem is I don't know what to choose. The 15 seater dining table is empty with all the food prepared as usual for anyone to eat.

Anyone in the sense, my family. Murthy's Mafia family, to be precise. Since my parents, their subordinates, and subordinates subordinates live around this mansion, the food is always being cooked. There are other items on the table as well but I don't want to see and confuse myself with what to eat this morning. I am already confused enough with these two cakes.

"Could you help me choose my breakfast? Jiggling cheesecake or creamy cheesecake?"

My personal, assigned friend, Navya answered, "Princess has an appetite to eat both so why bother asking?"

Her family has been working under us for generations. She is my assigned friend, her mother is my mother's assigned friend, her grandmother is my grandmothers assigned friend. This is because women from Mafia families rarely have social lives so they are assigned a friend who is loyal and trust worthy.

"Don't call me Princess, I am your friend. Call me Nandini." I pouted. "Please, pick one name so that I can eat already."

I have trouble in decision making. Maybe because everything is spoon fed to me or assigned. Any other time Mummy or my Godmother, Navya's mother would serve me breakfast. But today all of them were having secret meeting without me leaving me to this hard decision. What should I eat?

I stopped hitting my feet to the floor as soon as I heard my Papa's voice, "How about eating healthy instead of cake first thing in the morning, princess?"

Healthy? Should I eat Japanese cheesecake or New York cheesecake or healthy? Oh now there is third option for me to choose. God! Please end this misery.

As if God answered my prayers Papa inversed a small bowl on my plate and moved away the cakes. I don't even know the name of the dish I am eating but I started stuffing my face. The last time I remember I used to pick and leave it. Now that I am hungry, I don't mind eating it. It tastes healthy, though.

"Wait, is it carrot or potato?" I asked my papa.

He took a moment of silence before sighing. "Sometimes I think I overpampered you, Nandini. Beans. The vegetable you are eating is beans. And how did you even guessed the cake names right but got the vegetables names wrong?"

"It's written on the cake box, duh!" I mean why can't they do the same for vegetables. It would be easier for me to identify.

By this time the ladies came out as well from their secret meeting and sat facing me as if they planned something against me. Am I adopted? Or do I have an evil twin?

"Can you stop overthinking for a while and listen to us for a second, Nandini?" My mother said in a loud voice.

Now this is scaring shits out of me! Coming from Mafia family we are always dressed in black, and it feels like my own funeral planning. Something is surely fishy and I can't stop overthinking.

"It's time for you to get married. We have arranged your marriage with Mr. Malhotra." Mummy said in a no nonsense tone.

"But I just reached 18 years," I said trying to finish my food and stomp my feet on the floor.

"You are already 22," all of them said in a union as if today was my birthday. But wait, last I remember I was 18 being celebrated for officially becoming Murthy's mafia family. So many years have passed since that day and I am still stuck there.