First Life!: The Refusal

[Warning: The chapter contains scenes that might be triggering and traumatizing for some.]

Neel immediately jerked out of his seat. "What?" He slammed on the table. "Father, Aisha is our slave we cannot give her to someone else."

"Shut up! Neel and sit down this instant." He yelled, then calmed himself down and popped a sweet smile on his face then looked at Aisha.

"My dear, Aisha!" He held her hand, making Aisha raise her head to look into her father's eyes, which were looking at her hands that were fidgeting with her gown. Aisha looked at her father. He was smiling softly and humbly but something didn't feel right to Aisha.

"You shall marry the youngest son of the Raichand family."

And there it was. Everything the head maid had said was true. Aisha was pushed aback at the thought of how merciless her father could get. Immediately tears started shedding out of her eyes which were completely ignored by her father.

Raichand Family.

The biggest and richest business family in India. But that identity is only a cover in reality, it is in fact, the biggest and cruelest mafia family active in the entire history of India.

They have everything and they sell everything. Illegal weapons, drugs, medicines, poison, healers and elixirs, etc. Even though the Khurana family is the biggest merchant dealer in poison, everything else is owned by the Raichand family in its entirety.

But the problem wasn't that they were a mafia family. Aisha's family is also a mafia. The problem is that Raichand's house is worse than the snake's well, she had spent her childhood in. If Khuranas are tigers then Raichand's are Lions. No matter how strong a tiger is, a lion will still always be the king of the forest. Only those who have a death wish would want to enter a lion's den.

Only the strongest of all can survive in that family and the weak are cut down on their root and thrown into a gutter like they are some useless trash. In short, Aisha, who is as weak as a rabbit would never survive there for more than a month. If she goes there only her dead body would ever come back.

"His name is Arun Raichand. You will love him. He is handsome and dashing, caring, and will love you, my daughter." He smiled.

"I don't want to," Aisha whispered.

"What? I couldn't hear you quite well, dear." That was a lie he heard it loud and clear, not just him but everyone present in the room. But he acted as if he couldn't, for he didn't want to believe that Aisha, who had never once opposed her father, even when she was beaten or her blood was extracted, was refusing. He wanted her to change her answer, so he acted.

"I do not want to get married— yet." She said loudly.

Neel's eyes widened at what she had said. He was astonished to know that his little sister had the tongue and courage to say NO. However, he also knew that she had called for the death itself by denying Dhananjay's order.

Dhananjay pushed the seat behind him and then slammed the dining table, which was well decorated and filled with food, breaking it into many pieces. "How dare you?!"

"You—you said I got my freedom as a gift for my contribution to the family. I— I do not wish to get married yet. I want to live with you all." She didn't dare look above while saying so.

" Oh my god!" Neel sighed and slapped his head with his palm in disbelief. How could a person not read the room?

'Did she think saying this would melt a stone-hearted demon? ' he thought.

"What did you say?" He grabbed Aisha's neck with one hand and pressed it hard. Aisha clenched on her father's hand which had been strangling her, in an attempt to free herself while struggling to breathe.

Dhananjay let go of her neck after realizing that she might die if he continued. He pushed her, making her fall along with the chair she was sitting in.

Asiha coughed in pain and crawled out of the chair. "Father, please don't send me there. I'll die. I can't survive there." She grabbed her father's leg and begged in his feet.

'Finally, this useless piece of crap said something sensible ' Neel thought.

Dhananjay grabbed Aisha by her turtle neck, " That is what I want. You have to die so that I can charge them for murder by law. I want to ruin them after all. You must lay several pieces of evidence. Evidently. My lovely little daughter." He smirked and then pushed her back on the floor, tearing her turtle neck in the process.

Aisha was horrified at learning the fact that her father wished for her death. She thought he loved her even though he had abused her a little. She thought he would never let her die, for somehow he treasured her.