Whispering Desire

A Prince's Persuasion

Meanwhile, I felt like an absolute fucking fool. I couldn't understand what led them to believe that I'd marry Vedant? And why would they want someone from my social status as their daughter in law?

And the creepiest part - They were keeping an eye on me since the Fashion Week? That's fucking absurd and scary.

There were so many questions in my mind that I couldn't make sense of anything.

Kunal and I left the palace right away but that afternoon stayed with me for days. We all got back to our work, targeting the next month and not talking about the palace incident with anyone. Everything seemed to be going great until my mother called me one night, her voice absolutely distraught and shaky.

That's rare and I knew something was terribly wrong.

"What happened?" I asked because I could sense the hint of worry in her tone.

"Nothing," she said. "I just called to check on you," she sniffed after the reply.

"Are you crying?" I enquired.

"No, why?" She asked.

"Mumma, what happened? Tell me right now," I demanded.

She was quiet.

"Tell me what's wrong," I was getting impatient.

"First promise me you won't take stress about this situation," she said.

I knew what was coming but I was internally in denial.

"I won't. Now tell me, please," I requested, almost pleaded. I didn't want to hear the news but I wanted to get done with it. One day it had to happen.

"All the banks have denied us the loan. We will go bankrupt if we don't get the funds to run the mill,"

I took a sharp inhale and closed my eyes.

We are done.

My family was on the verge of going bankrupt and we had no safety net. We were going to lose everything. On paper, we were rich. Like three generations rich but my father chose to live without our ancestral wealth as he didn't want to cause a rift in the family.

How noble of him.
Where were we supposed to go now?

The bank will eventually take away everything. All our assets will be gone in the blink of an eye.

"What can we do now?" I asked.

"I told your papa to get the property division done. He won't budge. He's not planning on getting even his share. Not even now. Where will we go Advi? What will we do?" She went hysterical within a span of seconds.

I didn't know what to say. I was numb. The dreaded day was here. Bankruptcy - the sword which hung over my family's head since the day our grandfather passed away.

"Don't cry mumma. You both can come here and live with me. I'm earning enough for all of us to sustain," I said.

"That isn't the solution. We are going to lose everything. Everything that I kept for your marriage, your masters and your brother's business. All our dreams and the life that we built over the years. We will be left with nothing," she cried even more as she reeled in the loss of our years of blood and sweat.

"How much do we owe to the creditors and the banks altogether?" I asked.

"Ninety five crores," she said between her sniffs.

I could feel my head spinning. Ninety five fucking crores??? WHAT?

"How did we...?" I could not make sense of it. Last I remember, we owed everyone a total of twenty crores.