"What do you mean I was gifted to you?"
"It is not good to eavesdrop but you heard it right. You are a gift that was forcefully imposed on me."
"Y-You... are.... lying..."
"Am I? You know what? Gift is a very fancy term for you. 'Trash' suits you be...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
One week later
"Nana, I am leaving for Italy today. Please make sure everyone does their work on time, and tell the freeloader to not call me unnecessarily," Yuvaan informed Grace as he ate the last bite of his sandwich, his eyes roaming over me.
I was standing in a corner of the kitchen, waiting for my turn to eat. It had been one week and still Yuvaan refused to acknowledge me. He would scowl whenever I made eye contact with him, or would insult me by calling names like 'extra baggage', 'liability', 'trash' or the recent one 'freeloader'.
He refused to eat with me, and said that his mood only worsened when he saw my face. So, I was not allowed to roam around freely whenever he was in the house, and the times we were in the same place, I kept my head low.
I also avoided him-against my wishes-and tried not to get in his way. He always kept his gun close to him, and would threaten to blow off my head even when I didn't do anything. He would laugh at my reaction and then get serious all of a sudden.
He kept repeating 'You don't belong here', 'I will get rid of you too', 'Just one more year' etc. And I understood that I had no future in this house-or with him. If my parents, who gave birth to me and raised me for twenty three years could toss me off like a rag doll, then whatever Yuvaan was doing, was nothing in front of it.
I was used to hearing taunts, but I didn't want to hear such harsh words from his mouth, the person I had come to develop feelings for. I knew I was being unreasonable, but I had a small hope that one day he might accept me-maybe not as a wife, but as a human being atleast.
Whatever happened was wrong, and just like me he was also suffering. Though he had an upper hand in this matter, he was also tied in an unwanted relationship. But it didn't justify his violent and inhumane behaviour towards me.
His friends would join him in the fun and tell him that he didn't have to wait much longer. One year would pass away in a blink and then he would be a bachelor again. They would party everytime they came and would leave no chance to disgrace me.
Fortunately, after that day, Yuvaan hadn't hurt me-physically atleast. He always stirred away from me and by chance, if we bumped into each other, he would just hurl curses at me and storm out.
Well, I did that too, but in my mind.
I had a very good vocabulary when it came to cussing, and currently he was really trying my patience. I would have loved to slap his handsome face if I wasn't so afraid of him. I was just standing there without saying anything, but he had said that 'Freeloader' word atleast twenty times. I was counting it.
Why wasn't he getting up if he was already done eating? My stomach was growling, and if I didn't eat within a few minutes, I will faint.
When I noticed that he was doing it on purpose and prolonging his stay just so that I couldn't eat on time, I started moving slowly towards the fruit basket on the kitchen counter. He was busy joking with Grace who was preparing some snacks for him.
