TWENTY FOUR: TRUTH REVELATION & AGONIZING TOURTURE

"DON'T YOU THINK too highly of yourself?" Saying her turned to the other side, so he was no longer facing me. I felt filthy under his gaze.

I didn't say anything out of the place, did I? 

"Sorry? What do you mean?" I stuttered, my eyebrows peaking with concern and confusion.

"How can you come to a conclusion without the content of the other person?" He exaggerated with questioning and mocking eyes. 

"I was just-"

"You were just what?" 

Silence prevailed. I was speechless. My mind stopped processing. Deafening numbness. 

"You see, how you are so judgemental, dying to come to conclusions? Like, just with a few interactions with me you are falling at my feet to accept you. I knew you were alone and Shit but who knew you were so clingy…" I stared at him with a gaping mouth and air supply dropping.

Sense dawned to me after a moment. "What the hell are you talking about?" I screeched. "Everything was just all right a few hours back?" I said out loud, pulling up my hands in hyterics and talking a step in front of him. 

"Acting. I was acting. Do you know how you get on my nerves like a leech. You think that I will work on your orders. You want a contract marriage, you don't wanna walk down the aisle, you don't wanna take vows, you don't wanna attend the rehearsal dinner and what not! But you know what, I am extremely sorry to break this bubble of yours and tell you that it does not work like that. Already not in my home."

I just kept quiet, because he wasn't wrong but certainly not correct also. Moreover, I was too shocked to form an illegible sentence. 

"The look on your face tells it all." He exclaimed ridiculously and I was no longer sure if I'd come out of it sane. 

"Priceless. Who knew that such a tough Racer would be so easy to break." He laughed. His laugh sounded like destruction and chaos. My thoughts have scattered, trying to grip anything but slipping helplessly. 

"What was your record again?" He continued his taunts. I dare not speak. My vision was zooming out at the wall behind him.

"Doesn't matter." Scoffing carelessly, he looked at me, examining and enjoying. 

I looked up to him with drowsy eyes. "How did you change just like the second hand of the clock?" My voice was void of any sound, a mere whisper it was. 

"Honestly… Acting wasn't my thing, at all. Just like you. But some situations requires a bend in the rule, don't they?" His face wearing a derision and eyes needling me, my being. I don't remember feeling this helpless, limbless ever. 

"Now, would you have ever agreed to marry the person who I actually am? Huh!" His laugh echoing and bouncing back from the four corners. Things started making sense ...

 "It was all a trap. And you fell. Simple. But… Why does your face say that you have not a single clue of what is going on?" 

"Damn, I was so tired to follow your commands as if you were on the throne." He scoffed. He turned towards me in a flash and my eyeballs expanded. "But no darling," his voice went back to a cold one. "I am the one at power, with money and now, authority over you." 

"You cannot force me to do anything with you. Do you get that?" My throat shrieked as I pointed at my chest with bleary eyes. I took a few steps backwards, feeling safe then. A vase tumbled over, when my hand connected with it unknowingly. The sound of the broken glass shreds, synchronizing with that of my heart. 

"Are you dumb or what? Or is your head exceptionally slow? No," He scoffed. "I am expecting too much."

"What is this game you are playing with me? What have I ever done?" My heart teared as I voiced out quietly, avoiding his eyes hoping this episode would perish from my life. 

"On the cliff that day, when you said you believed in love, I knew which screws to loosen and which to tighten. And even if you'd have denied, though I must appreciate your honestly, I wouldn't have believed that. Not even a cent." He was circling around me and I felt like the world was spinning, ground slipping. 

"I know how you distance yourself from people because you are so scared of them."

"I am not." I mumbled, my voice not recognizable to me. 

"I don't know what the reasons are… most probably too much expectations or getting attached, whatever. You. Crave. Human. Contact. Still." 

"No, I don't." I shook my head lightly. 

"Kept feeding yourself those lies. I know what I see and what to believe."

"No, you don't know anything-" I yelled just to be cut off. 

"Shh… " His mouth right behind my ear making my shoulders tense, creating ripples of current march down my spine. He enclosed his palm on my shoulder, firmly. 

"You don't know how much I know about you."

"Let me tell you a story," His voice whispery, feeling like a feather over my collarbone. I stepped forward, to escape him. 

"Once upon a time, there were two best friends - Alexander Hargrave and Dalziel Raymond. From college days to university, they were inseparable. From being each other's shadows to being right hand man, in whatever they both did - good or bad, right or wrong, they were together, as a team. By default they trusted each other. So, they created a company called 'Kings and Queens'. 

Things were going great in the initial years. Then, they got married and they grew stronger overtime. Things couldn't have been any better. 

But someone was selling the shares and private information to other companies, making millions overnight. 

Betrayed. That was how Dalziel felt when he recovered that it was his best friend for years doing it under his nose. 

And you must have already realized who the criminal was." 

"My father wasn't a criminal." I retorted immediately, yelling at the wall in front of me. 

"Yes, he was! He sold all the secret information for money. He was so selfish. And things became so bad that my father was thrown out of the company. He was left with nothing. Literally nothing but stomachs to fill with no money at hand. He was devastated. 

Then, my mom died of cancer within the next two months. Then there was nothing left for him. So, he became the monster. He gave up on life and used me to release  his stress. I WAS HIS EVERYDAY PUNCHING BAG."

"STOP, I don't want to hear it." A sobbed escaped my lips and the feeling was so unnatural. I felt weak till my bones.

"What?" He asked incredulously. "You are just listening to it and blood is flowing out of your ears. Can you imagine how it felt in real life? You cannot." His tone was unbelievably emotionless. This scared me to my death. 

I wasn't reacting that way because I was afraid, no. But because it was a fucking lie!

"You were the princess, bathing with and sleeping on bundles of money. And a spoilt ungrateful brat which you were, you never even said hello to us or anybody when we came over dinner. You nonchalantly piled your plate and stormed off, despite the repeated warnings of your mother. You were just fourteen. I wondered whether it was your father's money or your hoax beauty. But, you always maintained your distance in events or parties. You always hated humans… " He trailed. 

" And you gave me another reason to do so. I wonder if I should be thankful."

"So… yeah. Back to story." He began revolving around me again. I kept still, I felt like I was a cold stone and the chilly night breeze coming from the open windows was hardening me futher. 

"Then this boy, the son you know… who was eighteen at that time used to witness his father bringing a new mistress every night. His father used to beat him when he dared to question his endeavors. In the beginning, it was just a slap, hot against the cheek. Then it became better… kicks, belts, you say and it was, depending on the level of alcohol in the system. Now, if he was beaten like a filthy price of meat, he had to mold himself, to something stronger and rebellious, to take out his aggression. So he chose to be the fuck boy. A replica of his father. 

And hence a little boy who wiped the first tear which rolled down his mother's cheek, cried himself to sleep, soundlessly till there was nothing left. Empty yet claiming power, immensely."

"But why am I being the victim for the crime I haven't commited?" My voice, defeating quiet, unwavering and strong yet as soon as the words left the throat, I felt empty till the stomach. 

He took a step forward and I took one back. He stopped, thankfully. "The same blood flows in your veins." 

His words rattled my inside and my pain rushed down to my bones. How sadistic he was! My heart contracted and the channel of tears followed then. 

"But you must have been mistaken!" I lunged at him, holding him by his collar, climbing up on my toes. "My father could never do that. And I don't want to be a pawn in your game. Just let me go." I cried out loud in agony, banging my head against his chest between sobs and my hands clutching his shirt material into my palms. I dared to break down in front of the rascal beast.

"Let you go?" He held my shoulder callously and shook it, jerking me back and forth like a rag doll.

 "NEVER." his tone was promising and dangerous. I knew I lost. 

With that, he got rid of me with a flick of hand. I rolled onto the ground, over the broken glass flakes as a cry of frustration rolled out of my tongue. The pain of glass prickling my skin open was not more excruciating throbbing clogged in my heart. My head dropped to the ground, in defeat. 

I heard him saying at a distance, "Welcome to hell and the devil is your husband."

***

Your emotions are the slave
of your thoughts
and you are the slave
of your emotions.

***