Terrorized By Love [ON HOLD]

Chapter 2: Two Weeks Earlier

Mahima Ashtikar had hidden herself in her closet. It was late at night and her brother Dinesh was looking for her. This had been almost a nightly ritual for many years. Actually, it started when she hit puberty and developed curves.

She was taken in by President Ramnath Ashtikar when she was ten years old. Mahima had been living in an orphanage and spent the days going through mental and physical torture. The place she was staying at was not exactly comforting or luxurious, but somehow, the President visited this one.

Perhaps it was so the adoption would be lowkey, that he hadn't gone to a well-known adoption centre.

As he had taken his stroll around the place, his eyes landed on Mahima, who was sitting by herself in the corner of the room. The President approached her and asked her what her name was.

"M - Mahima," she managed to say.

The President introduced himself and asked if she would like to come and live with him. Mahima nodded shyly, because she didn't like it there at all.

She found out later on, after overhearing the President and his wife Divya talking, that Divya was unable to bear anymore children, and she longed for a girl. To fulfill his wife's longing, the President adopted Mahima.

Mahima had a lot of respect for the man who saved her from the orphanage's miserable life, and the President loved her as much as he loved his own child Dinesh. She had no doubt about that. However, in Divya's eyes, she always saw a bit of resentment, as if she wished that Mahima had been born of her.

The President loved his wife more than anything else.

It was when she was fourteen or fifteen years of age that Dinesh began to bother her. Before, he would leave her alone and hadn't ever spared her a second glance. He was two years older than her, and one time, she caught him gazing at her body lustfully. She had developed breasts and a figure, and his gaze just wouldn't go away.

A few days after she caught him, he cornered her in her room and held her arms against the wall.

"W - what are you doing Dinesh?" Mahima asked him as he held her to the wall.

She was very innocent.

"All brothers and sisters do this," Dinesh said and he leaned closer to her, trying to capture her lips in a kiss.

"I - I don't like it," she told him, trying to push him off.

"C'mon let me feel you," Dinesh urged. "Let me touch you."

Mahima shook her head, saying no.

"Your curves are perfect. Your breasts look sexy. Let me touch them. Just once. C'mon Mahima," Dinesh begged, but she shook her head no again. "Okay do you want me to tell mom that you're disobeying me?"

She gulped with fear.

The President always chose Divya over anything, so nobody would be on her side if Divya was against her.

Finally, and reluctantly, she nodded a yes.

That was when she felt Dinesh's touch on her. Not once, not twice, but over and over again throughout the years. It was like a ritual for him to come into her room and touch her. He made her do things she wished she could rip the skin off her body for, but she had no choice.

She was indebted to the President and his family.

Today, she was tired. She knew Dinesh was looking for her, but she didn't want to see him. So she was hiding in the closet.

The closet opened slowly. She was sitting in the dark room, her knees brought to her chest, hiding her face in her legs. As the light from the room filled the closet, she finally looked up and her breath was taken away when she looked into the menacing dark eyes of a tall man, who was almost familiar, but not quite. He was handsome. He had a good physique, dark hair and his jaws were coated with light stubble. His hair was black and straight just like hers, but it was tousled.

The man entered the closet and held his hand out for her. Without thinking twice, Mahima took his hand and followed him to her window, where he picked her up in his strong, muscular arms and began to carry her out.

"Who are you?" she finally asked, when he reached the garden with her.

"Dev Gupta," he answered in his gruff tone. "I've come here to take you on the President's orders. We are to depart now since your life is in danger."

She nodded and allowed him to carry her off the property. She didn't question him. She didn't suspect him. She was almost hoping for something like this to happen, because she was eager to get away from her brother.

"Thank you," she said, and he ignored her, as he carried her into the back seat of an expensive looking sedan and placed her there.

He got into the back with her, and told the driver, "Let's go."

Then they drove off to what she thought was her protection.