His Unloved Bride

✿ TO BE COMFORTED ✿

ALAIA

“Are you free tomorrow?” Agastya asked, looking up from his plate when we were having dinner.

“I have nothing else to do.” I replied. 

“There's this brunch with my business partner. He wanted to meet you, I couldn't say no to him since he's investing in our company's biggest project. So—”

“I'll come.” I cut him middle.

He gave me a small nod and then proceeded to eat his dinner. I tapped my fingers on the table and began wondering about things. It is my duty as his wife to do whatever he says but here this man is asking for my consent If I want to go and meet his business partner or not? Isn't he ashamed of me? What if somebody in the media gains access to my sex tape? His reputation will be tarnished, isn't it? And then my mind took me back to last night when my sister-in-law said that I shouldn't let him find about my tape; I shouldn't let him know that I'm a whore.

“Can I ask you something?” I questioned.

“Go on.” He replied, taking another bite of the food.

“Aren't you ashamed of me?”

His eyes flickered at me and for a moment, he tried to read my expressions before shrugging his shoulders. “Why would I be?”

“My video trended on porn sites.”

“I know that.” He said, not being interested in our conversation. “And as I promised, I made sure to take that video down from everywhere.” He added.

“Mhm.” I hummed, playing with my food. “And what if people came to find about it? Now that I'm married to you, it would be catastrophic to your public image.”

He didn't say anything to me in response and I clicked my tongue to act as if I don't care about anything when in reality, my heart was aching.

Biting my lips, I stood up to go back to my room but then his words stopped me.

“Sit back.”

“Huh?”

“Sit back and finish your food.” He demanded.

“I'm full. I think I should —”

“Sit back.” He said, calmly.

I nodded and did what he say. How am I supposed to eat more when my appetite is long gone? The fear is chilling my bones; the fear of being labelled as whore. I was okay back then, seeing my family behaviour, I was okay with being called degrading words because at one point I despised them so much that nothing mattered but now with Agastya, I fear about everything. I don't want to ruin his reputation. If Paparazzi and the whole world laughs at him just because he married someone like me, It'll hurt me.

“Tell me why did I marry you, Alaia?” His tongue rolled out my name softly.

I looked at him in the eyes. “To protect me from my own family and the society.”

“No.” He exhaled a breath.

“Then?”

“To stop you from giving up your life.” He said.

I knitted my brows and in no minute, I was taken back to the time when I first met him. It was merely a week before our marriage. After my family threw me out of their house, I honestly had no hope to live but it didn't mean that I wanted to end myself. It was just, I don't know, maybe a moment of weakness?

I remember seeing the green traffic light, I remember waiting for it to change back to red so that I can cross the road and go find a place to stay. I stared at the rush but it seemed soothing, I wondered where I'd go if I cross this road and nothing came to my mind. I forced myself to think again but instead I was hit back with an ugly memory of me begging them to fuck me. That drug made me sick and I enjoyed whatever they did to me. And then something clicked that what if the boy I loved drugged me, I shouldn't have enjoyed his friends fucking me? But in those videos circulating on porn sites, I was pleading them to have sex with me. Remembering all that, something in me irked to step on the road. So I did, I did walk through the intense rush on the road to succumb my pain.

And there, I came infront of Agastya's car. Thankfully he stopped the car before I was hit by it. I don't know what happened next. I went unconscious and woke up in the hospital. He didn't say a word to me and when I was about to leave the hospital, he asked me if I need any help? I laughed and cracked a joke if he can marry me? At that time, I wasn't aware that he's the Agastya Singhania. I thought of him as some random kind person who saved me. But then in return he asked if I can survive a loveless marriage? And then the rest is history. On the day he met my family and told them that he was marrying me, I came to know that he's one of the richest man of the country. He never asked me any question neither did I feel like telling him anything but I asked him if he can remove my videos from online, he just nodded his head.

“Have you seen my sex tape?” I asked, a needles pinching in my throat.

What are you doing, Alaia? Why are you pushing yourself to get more pain? Isn't it enough what you have already gone through?

“No.” He answered.

A relief washed down to my heart. But then I asked another question. “What if I'm really a whore, Agastya? What if whatever people say about me is nothing but truth?”

“Since the moment I filled vermillion in your head, you became my wife.” He replied, serving me more rice. “And no one can dare to say a word against my wife, understood?”

With the intensity he said those words, goosebumps pimpled all over my skin and a hiccup escape pass my lips. He passed me glass full of water which I took gladly.

Wife.

My heart took a summersault and something in me itched to tell him that it wasn't me. It wasn't consented. That I was raped by them. I was drugged and used. In that moment, I craved for comfort. I craved for him to wrap his arms around me and tell me that it wasn't my fault.

But I didn't.

I didn't because before I could say something, his next words dragged me back to the reality of our marriage.

“We don't share any sort of relationship and even if we did, I'm not the person to care about one's past. To some extent, I married you for my personal reasons, I wanted a wife who won't expect anything from me in return.”