Radhika's POV

I descended down the stairs and as I reached my feet touched the marble, I shrieked as something pierced inside my skin and my tears betrayed my eyes. It felt as if something cut deep inside my skin. 

I limped to the nearby chair and plopped on it. I called Mary's name  but I didn't get any response.

"Mary, has gone to visit her son." Out of the blue Veer emerges from somewhere and answers me.

Perfect! Just perfect! When I need her then she is not there, Oh God! It is hurting so much.

"Ah" I wince as I try to pluck out the glass piece out but fail.

"Let me help you." He said as he kneeled down before me.

I rather suffer than have him touch me!

I moved my foot away," I don't need your help." I said rudely.

"Radhika, see its bleeding and there is no other woman in the house except mary, she is going to come tomorrow. Do you plan to paint the whole house with your blood?!" He gave me an 'are you nuts' look.

"Its my house and this is my foot so I will do as I please." I turned my face away from him.

As much as I want to be a stubborn, spoilt bitch, I know I have to take his help if I don't wish to sit on this chair whole day, holding my foot.

"Not a word more or I will have to tie you up." He said locking his eyes with mine and he gripped my heel tightly.

He examined my wound,"So you were telling me that day Arjun loves you and all so you think he will come back for you. I don't think so he'll come back even if he is alive perhaps he will forget about you and take another girl far more pretty than you."

Just the thought of Arjun with another girl drops my heartbeat to my stomach. I know Arjun loves me and only me but he is after all a man. A man thinks with his cock also and I know Arjun loves sex so much. Its like brushing teeth for him or even better, its like breathing. I stare at Veer distastefully and I realise I can't even hate him looking at his face when he reminds me so much of Arjun. My Arjun yes only my Arjun, He did tell me a number of times that what happens between me and him is beyond sex and I can't even compare him because he is the only man who touched me or ever will touch.

He won't cheat on me, I know he is a man of his word and more than that, his love for me is far more greater than anything. He will never hurt my feelings or break my heart intensionally, will he?!

This stupid man can say what he wants to say but I will not buy it. I trust my husband and he will do no such thing that will destroy our marriage.

I stare at him crossly,"Shut up! Arjun loves me and only me, his love is not like moon that changes  every day, he will come back for me and I know that. He has to come back because we are a family and a orphan like you won't understand the value of family.

Ah! I scream out in pain as he pulls out the glass piece and I realise he riled me up to distract me. Oh shit! I went too far when he said things about Arjun, this are not my values, I acted like a bitch and I shouldn't have called him an orphan but I think I will say sorry to him. I smile gratefully when I see him wrapping his hankerchief around my heel to stop the bleeding.

"I am sorry, Veer as much as I don't like you but I should not have called you an orphan. Its just that when you said that Arjun won't come back to me, I lost it because I love him so much but you will never understand because you did not love anyone." I say as I look down sadly.

I love Arjun so much and I must have confessed that at least hundred times since the time he is gone but I feel so heartbroken that not even once he has heard it himself. How will he react?! Will he believe me or not?!

"Probably because I don't have one Radhika in my life."

I turn my eyes away as I don't like him staring at me creepily. For god's sake I am married and pregnant with my another man's child. I belong to someone else, how difficult is it to get it through his thick skull?!

"Just kidding after seeing what love did to my mother, I would not have dreamed of falling in love." He says in tone that sounded more like a whisper but I heard it anyway.

"What happened to your mother?!" I asked curiously.

"She fell for the wrong man who destroyed her life, she was so blindly in love with him that she left her family only to be with him despite knowing he was a married man with a child."

I sometimes feel another woman is a woman's biggest enemy, its sad that women themselves do not respect themselves and throw themselves over some married man. 

"Then?!"

"She got pregnant and she wanted him to marry her which he did but later he stamped over her heart and left her. He never looked back and when she told him about me, he told her he already had a son and he wanted nothing to do with me."

Its not just the woman's fault, it is also that man's fault who cheated on his wife. Arjun has beaten me, called me names but never did he cheat on me. I cheating on him is out of question because I am hardly allowed to step out and If I step out it is with him by my side. I know if I cheat on him then he will strangle me to death but I love him and only him. He has nothing to worry about as the thought of another man never crossed my mind. Veer looks like Arjun but my heart loves Arjun only and I don't want to break my family.

"Why do you blame my husband in all this?! What is Arjun's fault?!" I asked him softly.

I don't understand him at all, it is his dad he should be hating not Arjun. I know for a matter of fact Arjun did not have a great relationship with his father either. I have seen him wake up in the middle of night and with the fear and sweat dripping from his face, I know he has nightmares. He never talks about them though, if I ask him something, he would tell me its over and I should not worry.

Why would anyone even think Arjun was close to his father?! He rarely talks about his father anyways Arjun speaks very less.

"I never got the love, respect and care of a father because his world revolved around your Arjun."

If this was true then Arjun would have loved going down the memorylane. I know something is missing here, either what Veer is saying is a lie or what I have felt through Arjun's sudden fits of fury at the very mention of his father is untrue.

"Arjun's isn't a fan of his father which says their relationship wasn't that great." I state.

"At least he had a relationship, I had nothing!"

Why is he here now when Arnav Mehra is dead and gone?! What does he want now?!

"What do you want now?!" I ask him as I look him in the eye.

"I want everything that was denied to me, I want to be the King!"

Oh my God! He wants everything that Arjun has, this could not get anymore complicated than it already has. I am not even remotely interested in the wealth or forturn or the title of Queen. I don't want anything except Arjun and his love but I know Arjun will never give away the empire because he has worked hard for it his entire life. He has suffered to rebuild what was taken away from him, from his family.

"Just so you know I am not interested in any of this royalty, all I want is my husband." I tell him honestly.

"You are from another world sweetheart, your love is so pure but such a shame it is He doesn't deserve any of it." He says distastefully.

I don't think so he has any right to point a finger at Arjun when he, himself is nothing but a coward to hide behind a woman and use another woman for his evil schemes. He got Lily killed to save himself not that I am mourning her death but he is a weak excuse of a man to use a woman to save himself.

My anger flares up,"Who are you to decide that?! Who are you to give his character certificate when you, yourself are..."

He breaks in on me,"You don't know me Radhika, you know nothing!"

"I saw you kissing Lily and later using her to save yourself. You got her killed." I say with disgust.

"You should thank me, she had such evil plans to kill you and snatch your husband away."

"Arjun would have never gone back to her, he loves me, only me" I add firmly.

"Tell me something, if god forbid you die then can you guarantee he won't bed other women?!" He rubs salt on my wounds.

If something ever happens to me then I am not that kind to expect my man to stay faithful even after I am dead and buried. I just don't want Arjun to return to his old days where he changed women like shirts. I would rather he finds a right girl and settles down for good. I am not selfish to have my Arjun live alone and lonely after I am gone.

I know what Veer is trying to do, he is trying to mess up with my brains but I will not let him impair my judgement. I am better than this, I trust Arjun and I have confidence over our love. He will do nothing to break our marriage or our family. I, Arjun, Sam, Mariam Aunty and our baby are all going to live happily after all this is over.

"You are trying to turn me against him, aren't you?!" I smirk.

"You are smart." He admits.

"I love Arjun and I will never betray him." I confess.

"Of course you are not lily."

"Don't compare me to that whore." I feel ire at the very mention of that godawful woman.

"There is no comparison, Radhika."

"From what I see, why are you wasting your life here when you know there is nothing for you here." I ask him.

He could do so much better than this. Here, its all Arjun written over everywhere, he can never replace him neither can he create his own identity. Everything here screams of Arjun, the mansion has pictures of him with his mother and father, those pictures must be piercing Veer's eyes like needles.

"What you mean?!" He asked me, confused.

I shake my head,"People are not hurting you because you look like him and they thinks its him. It's Arjun they bow down to, you will never be accepted by them if you tell them who you really are."

"Why do you think I made the deal with you?!" He asked me with a smug look.

"Living as someone else for the rest of your life, is that what you call living?!" I asked him and I know I have hit the right chord.

"Look Radhika..."

"Veer, think about what I told you, you can start afresh far from here, far from any of us where you will be loved and respected for being Veer and not Arjun." I tell him in a truthful tone.

How can I hate him when I know his judgement is impaired and he is not such a bad person I thought him to be. In his eyes, I still see that  child whose heart was broken after his own father rejected him.

I turned to leave but he sidestepped me, blocking my path," What does he have that I don't?! Tell me, what is so special about him?!"

I took a few step back but he advanced towards me, endangering me now. I was scared now, really very scared!

"Stop! Don't come any closer!" I warned him.

"Answer me!" He grabbed me and pulled me closer.

I winced as he tightened his hold on my arms, bruising me.

"Answer me, Radhika! Tell me what do I have to do to prove to you that I am better than him?! Tell me what I have to do to make you mine?! What is it you want?!" He asked me.

I glared at him,"Nothing! Nothing you say or do can make me unfaithful to my husband! I belong to him and I will always be his!"

He touched my face," You want freedom?! I will give you freedom, anything you want, Radhika, anything you want. Leave him, he is not worth it, be mine......"

He was stopped short on his words as I slapped him as hard as I could," You have no shame! Don't touch me again ever!" I pushed him away and my hand curled around my baby bump, protectively.

He straightened up," I asked you nicely and now you have left me with no choice! You will marry me or I will kill you!" Pointing a gun at me, he gnashed a threat through his teeth.

My eyes widened at his threat and the vile in his eyes scared me to my bone. My baby! My child! I don't want to die, I want to live to give birth to this child and I want to be there for my baby. The only blood relative I have left and the only one I will ever have if Arjun doesn't make it! Please God, please don't let me die, please I don't want to marry him, please help me, please save me and my child.

To be continued....