First Life! The Announcement

Aisha didn't kill her nanny, she loved her. Her nanny was like a mother, a friend, a sibling, and a father to her. She was Aisha's everything yet she was blamed for her death.

Aisha denied it thousands of times but the head maid, her nanny's sister never believed her and continued accusing Aisha of a crime she had never committed.

"Oh! Shut up! I'm done with hearing your excuses." Said the head maid pulling the door open. "Get in now." She pushed Aisha inside the room which she was unwilling to enter now. "This shall be my vengeance towards you. Refuse your father and you might die."

'No! No! I believe in my father. The headmaid is lying. My father loves me, very much, very, very much, he would never throw me into the lion's den. He would never! Yes! All of that was a lie. I shall only believe it when —when—'

"What are you doing standing over there?" Dhananjay asked.

Aisha's eyes finally stopped staring at the ground and moved up to look at her father and then turned towards her brother who looked confused because of Aisha's arrival.

"Um— that— it's —" Aisha was still in shock and couldn't get herself together to spit out a correct and full sentence. It felt like her brain cells had died and couldn't connect with her body for a while.

"What?" He didn't scream or shout, that was his first ever gentle question to Aisha.

'Yes! My father would never do anything that pesty maid said. '

"No! That — father, actually— I am just a bit nervous for this is my first time having dinner with my family." Aisha forced a smile on her face that had turned cold from fear and was wet due to sweating.

"Oh! That!" He laughed. "Don't be nervous come sit beside me." He patted the seat beside him, asking Aisha to sit there.

Aisha was never allowed to sit with them for either lunch or dinner, let alone come over here. Just as she had imagined the dining room is the most beautiful part of the house.

The chandelier which is made of glass is hung above the dining table and the huge table with a capacity of 12 even though there are only three living in the house, where Aisha stayed as if she never existed, that makes it two then.

The candles were placed at a specific distance on the table and all the dishes joined with them in a line. Everything was beautiful in this room. Even the light wallpaper that had not many flowers of purple color— 'oh! I guess from now on purple is my favorite.'

Aisha stepped to the opposite side of where her brother was sitting and pulled out a chair near her father. She gently and gracefully shifted between the two chairs, one empty and one hers, and after adjusting her gown sat on the chair.

"My! My! You are so graceful." Dhananjay laughed, then he scanned Aisha's gown and stopped his eyes at the stain. "However, my beautiful and graceful daughter needs a few more sets of beautiful gowns." Aisha smiled looking down at the gown while fidgeting with it.

"Tut! Tut!" At that Aisha immediately looked up. 'Brother?'

"You are so petty! If you needed new gowns you could have just said so. Why wear that stained dress? What are you trying to show? that we don't treat you well? Or perhaps that you are a slave? A blood slave?" He always called Aisha that, repetitively reminding her who she was and what her status was in the Khurana mansion.

'I'm no slave. I am my father's daughter and am just helping him while on the other hand, he is doing nothing. '

"I—" Before Aisha could say anything Dhananjay interrupted her.

"Enough, both of you." He slammed on the table and then smiled calmly towards Aisha. "I have an announcement to make."

" My dear daughter, you have done a lot for this family and me. I shall now grant you your present. Your freedom. My dear, you are free now." He said. To this Neel was shocked. He had never expected that his father would actually set Aisha free.

After all, he knows his father more than anyone. While Aisha, his Naive sister was relieved that her father had set her free and that all the things the head maid had said were a bluff, Neel was sure that there was a hidden meaning behind his father's words.

"What I mean to say is—" Aisha who had thought everything was nice and smooth and had finally started breathing normally, held her breath again when Dhananjay said that. "— I shall marry you off in a fine family."