Cruelty is a lot like charity. 

Aagnay

2020

As I rounded the back of my car, our gazes met over the roof of the vehicle and I read the emotions in her pupils, loud and clear—hate. She had no idea how hard it was for me to show as much restraint as I was managing. I could feel the blood throbbing in my temple when my strides quickened to near her.

"What are you doing here?"

I wanted to leash her, choke her—dominate her. I wanted her at my mercy, pinned down helplessly while I nailed her. She was a tigress, wild and uncontrollable. I loved her wilderness but she was loose cannon and I had to find a way out, fast. "I'm assuming you are being well taken care of."

Her hands were slender and delicate when she clasped them and heaved a breath. "Courtesy of your bastard of a father," she hissed under her breath when she glanced at the bungalow. "Very."

I could feel my temptation spurring me further. I needed her under me, hard, fast and furious. "Good," I murmured as I held her waist. "I don't want you to be feeling pressured into this."

She backed away from me as though I'd burned her. "You want me to believe that you have best interests at your heart for me?" She jutted her sharp chin and looked away. "It's a little late for that."

I couldn't catch my breath because she was subduing the air around me. I needed her to submit but before that, I had to iron out the details. "I don't see how any of this is so bad for you." I stepped on the gravel grounds and tugged my jacket, wishing I could set my thoughts or life just as easily. She was a handful. "There's staff assigned to meet your needs. You have access to my credit cards—" She stared at me. I turned my head to face her and my breath escaped me in an agonizing rush. "Look, I know it's a rough transition but it's what's best for you."

"You mean for you," she bit out as she paced to the bungalow and I followed after her. "How could you act like you didn't ruin my whole life? How dare you put me through hell and show up later with your riches as you own me?"

The situation made me mad. I had barely visited and it couldn't end soon enough for me. "Look, I can't change the past—"

"Because it's not yours to change."

The look on her face ignited a soul-deep agony inside me. It ached me to witness her aversion towards me. "Why can't you forget the past and move on?"

"Because it was me who was put through the ringer. I didn't sign up for this when I sought your company, Aagnay. You—" She bowed her head into her hands and sighed. "I don't want you visiting me. I'm doing everything your father wants me to and that's as far as it will get."

"We have been managing the last few months just fine," I told her evenly and we stepped into the foyer. I felt cornered between her reality and mine, almost dizzy.

"I have been managing," she retorted venomously and I shoved my hands in the pockets of my dress pants. "You have been out and about with your life and what am I left with? This place that you call some fairy tale castle to cage me; to keep me away from the world so I can be the doll you can play with—ruin me whenever you want, is that all? To be a puppet at your mercy?"

The mention of her past and mine had me rounding her. "Just to be clear, do you want pity? Damn it, is that all you want? Guilt?"

"I want you dead, plain and simple." Her words ripped through me, reached me, and seared through me. "Since this property is supposed to be in my possession, I want you to get the hell out of here now."

I left to avoid any further ripples that could have been sent through the near future.

*

The track changed to Crazy by Adona as I reclined the seat and gazed at the dwindling stars in the night sky as Ella's musical laugh floated through the air.

"Everything comes so easy to you," she said lowly and tension fired in the pit of my stomach, pumping through my blood. "How did you wind up in the boarding school anyway?"

I'd nearly felt crushed by the scale of questions I was facing. Rolling my shoulders back, I admired the darkness of the night. "Ah, that's quite a story."

"Oh you have my time," she said and turned her head to face me. "You have my undivided attention."

What little patience I had, disappeared. "It's complicated," I muttered and lowered the volume of the stereo. "Let's just say my parents didn't want me around at the prime time of their lives."

Her gaze lingered on my face as my grip tightened on the steering wheel. "So they chose themselves over you?"

"That isn't surprising." Alcohol and two am thoughts are a deadly combination, I'd figured.

"In your case, it is." There was a note of surprise and pity in her tone and it gave me no pleasure to hear that. "You're the sole heir to the empire. That must have meant something, isn't that right?"

"It didn't matter because I was the nuisance that had to be set free." The sadness that was encased in my chest spurred with a terrifying languor that was still left inside me. "They bid me off to Spain—the caregiver—he was the best Europe had. He raised me." Perfection was instilled in me like ice in my veins. It didn't matter anymore because I was never open for bargains and deals that were once already conceded.

"He made you covet over victory?" Her eyes glinted to a distant swath of light and I breathed harshly. I didn't want her pity or shock, damn it. "You must have worked hard."

"I dare people to come at me Ella," I admitted and she met my gaze. "I always love a threatening challenge. I compromise to buy people out or negotiate. That's not hard work."

She sipped the wine slowly and nodded in agreement. "Devils aren't born Aagnay, they are created."

"Cruelty is a lot like charity," I kept my replies brief and unrevealing because I didn't want her to insinuate questions she might not like answers to. "It always begins at home."

*

The gray irises in the reflection stared back at me with rancor. I had reined over my actions, thoughts, and plans—calculated them patiently before the strike but this time, it was different. It changed dynamics fundamentally. I went along with my father's strategy and I had failed. I lost the only thing that truly made me happy.

Fucking damn it to hell. I lost her.

She intoxicated me, captivated me and I killed her—massacred every shard of her being. I was at a point of no return and the only way out was drawing the finish line. My gaze dropped on the perfume that was set on the nightstand—it was a local perfume but it conjured up thoughts about the memories we had shared while spending time in a room that had black and white chrome accents.

"Aagnay Bhasin, right?" Her voice was soft and low like a surreal classic melody. I turned my head towards her and she dropped her hands to her sides. "I was told that you tutor freshmen for Calculus so I just dropped by to check if I can get on board."

I got back to my laptop and opened another tab to check my schedule. "I have a seriously escalated work schedule," I muttered and saw her lean to the frame of the door. "I'm afraid adding you would interrupt my agendas."

"Is there no way I can pitch in for a quick drop-in?" She sauntered into the room and placed her bag on the tabletop beside me. "You're the best tutor, or so I've heard," I smirked without meeting her gaze. "I won't take much of your time, maybe just a couple of days a week? An hour tops? I swear I'd do the homework!" She propped her frame on her slender hands as she leaned closer to me. "Please agree to this? I can't flunk the paper."

I looked at her briskly and briefly. She sounded tensed and desperate as she stared at me for a long minute. Damn it. She was hovering with her doe eyes.

I turned my gaze on the people in the cafeteria, getting in the groove of the day. I lightened my tone, not wanting to cause her any further tension. "Weekends, mornings, two hours, and not more than that." That was the most I could concede.

She laughed and I grinned at the sound which was bubbly like champagne. "Yes!" She fetched her bag from the table and slung it over her shoulder. "I have your digits. We'll coordinate accordingly." I didn't bother to ask how she had it; most of the women on the campus somehow already had it and the knowledge of that was no pleasure for me. "Thank you for agreeing to this arrangement. I owe you one."

And the devil always came back to collect—she had missed that key detail.

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't miss her and that I wasn't conflicted about her but it was a dead-end for us. She had made that abundantly clear; she didn't want me in her world while she was the center of mine.

*

Ella

2020

Aagnay's house party was raging by the time people showed up. "You look gorgeous tonight," Aagnay said and pressed his lips against my cheek. His chivalry always made me smile. We were very similar that way—we orchestrated shows to remember.

"Aw, thank you, sweetie," I said and placed my hand on his. "Let's make this a night to remember?" I winked at him and he smirked.

"Hm." He turned his head towards the bar and I followed his gaze. "You should begin from there."

My mouth quirked. "Sure you would want me drunk to shut up."

He arched a brow at me. "I need you in your senses to deal with the crowd tonight," he told me and lead the way towards the bar. "Doesn't mean you can't do that with a light head."

"I was wondering if you would like to spend the night with me." I watched him make the drink for me and he smiled.

"Say no more," he said and handed me the glass of champagne. "We will."

That made me smile with relief. "Okay, let's host this party and rock."

I was willing to strike a conscious effort to build our budding relationship since we were supposed to be together. The arrangement determined by our parents turned against all the odds. Quite frankly, Aagnay was a convenient lover. It was easy to be with him and that was the only reason that kept me going.

"I'm not going around your fans for making a fool of myself," I muttered as I lowered to the coffee table that divided the sofas into either side.

"I never said you have to," he asserted as he held me by my waist and I leaned into him. "I'm assuming you are ready to meet my friends."

"Ready as ever," I said and noticed Ranveer and Vaanya indulging in conversations. It baffled me how someone like Vaanya could stand to be in the same room with a juvenile delinquent. I faked a semblance of a smile as Aagnay pressed his lips against my cheek and strode to his friends. It was showtime.

*

Sambhavna Gupta was a solid bitch. I despised her guts but more than anything, I hated that she didn't agree to be my minion and I always loved a good game. I was going to have so much fun with that doll. I smirked.

"Oops." I stepped away as books toppled from her hands and dropped to the floor. "You should watch where you walk."

"Why don't you follow that advice yourself, huh?"

I pivoted to face her and leaned on the wall behind me. "Only because the social outcasts should obey."

She scoffed. "Social butterflies don't scare me." She crouched to pick her books from the floor and I rolled my eyes. "Don't you guys have anything else to do than pick on people?"

"And here I thought you were growing balls to strike back." I chuckled and rooted my phone in my satchel. "What happened to that?" I glanced at her and clicked my tongue. "No friends?"

"Better have no company than shit," she muttered and I glared at her. She smirked. "If this is the best you have got then I'd say you don't deserve to be the queen."

"You will regret your move," I told her placidly. "I promise you on that one."

I didn't want love. I needed fear—it crazed me to subdue people around me, to make them fear me. It was truly thrilling and that was exactly why I was always the perfect queen.

"In that case, I have to work on payback," she smirked and I narrowed my gaze on her. "You are just one scared girl, aren't you?" I remained silent, curious to hear her ridiculous theories. "Scared to fall off the social radar, scared to be left alone and scared to live so you pick on people to make yourself feel better about your pathetic life."

Rage simmered through my blood, making my jaw clench. "So delusional," I cooed and tsked. "It's cute." I was determined to make her life a living hell. I stepped closer to her and she backed away. "By the time I finish you, you will know why they advice to never poke a bear." I bolted out of the hallway towards the parking lot silently.

Why wasn't she giving in? It rubbed me wrongly to think that she had other motives to take over the social radar but I wasn't going to let her. I knew I had to get creative with her social annihilation.

I wasn't going to fall weak, I'd had enough with my father—CSU was my field and nobody was going to take that away from me, especially not someone who grew up in a trash can. Sambhavna Gupta had to be dissipated.