Treat You Better

Chapter 34

A Few Years Ago

I was a new recruit to Razak's gang. To prove my loyalty they had send me on a special and dangerous mission to Sri Lanka. There, I had been assigned to gather intelligence on a rival gang's plans to overthrow our boss Razak.
Once they verified my findings, I was given full access to the gang's inner circle and even to Razak's house.
And it was there I saw Revathy first. She was Razak's third wife. She told me her name was Rezia. She appeared demure on the outside with her downcast eyes and her modest dressing. I was completely smitten by her but she expressed her reservations when I bared my heart to her. She was afraid of the repercussions she would have to face if Razak came to know if we ever moved further with our relationship.
So we agreed to remain friends. We shared everything with each other. She told me her life story. That is how I came to know about Raghuvaran and her relationship.

She was very dissapointed that the man she had loved so dearly had betrayed her and that had caused her to board a train to visit a distant relative,  aiming stay away from her hometown for little while to clear her head. But during the travel she was drugged by a friendly looking woman she had met on the train, who robbed her of all the jewels and sold her to a brothel.

Once she regained her consciousness and came to know where she had ended up she tried to escape several times, but failed in vain. She had no means of communicating to her family. They weren't even aware that she was on her way to her relative's place because she had decided against informing them just to spite them. She was truly trapped. That's when Razak decided to visit her brothel. The Madam who owned brothel decided to present Revathy that night before him.
The next day Razak had found it very difficult to leave her behind at the brothel as he was mesmerized by Revathy's beauty. He had asked her to marry him and at that point Revathy was so desperate to escape the brothel that she was willing to do anything. Razak had promised a decent life if she married him and she accepted his proposal. And that's how she had become his fourth wife.
As soon as they got married, she had adopted a name that was more suitable for her husband's status. Rezia.
She had pulled herself back to the role of a housewife and was living a content life until I came along.
Even though she refused to initiate a relationship with me due to fear, she still appreciated my presence in her life.

On one such night, when Razak was visiting his other wives, Rezia invited me to have dinner with her, as she didn't want to be lonely.
She looked sad as if she was reminiscing one of her better days and I took advantage of her vulnerability.
I took her to bed that night and we made mad and passionate love and that was the biggest mistake I had ever committed.
We kept meeting in secret and Rezia also started wanting more from me. She also started enjoying the thrills attached with meeting me behind the doors. Somehow the risks associated with the act aroused her. But as time passed she also started getting over confident and wasn't careful enough to cover her tracks properly.
The maids and workers at the house started talking and soon the news reached Razak.

We were lounging in her bedroom entangled in the bedsheets when Razak barged in to the room. He was fuming with rage and was holding a gun.
'You bitch!You thought you could cheat on me?', Razak had asked flinging his hand across her face. He grabbed her by the nape of her neck and pushed her onto the arms of her brother and then turned towards me.
'I trusted you and invited you into my house and is this how you repay me?', he had yelled kicking me squarely on my chest. The kick had caught me off guard and I fell over a glass cabinet, shattering it into pieces. I had hit my head badly and glass pieces had pierced my body causing me to bleed profusely. And some of his goons had started thrashing me with hockey sticks. Deciding that I wasn't worth anymore of his time, Razak turned over to Rezia. 'One thing I detest is Betrayal. And you have surpassed all stages of betrayal. All though you are very dear to me, I can't let you go. I need to make an example out of you other wise everyone will think they can cross my path without any fear.', he said menacingly before grabbing her hands and pulling her towards the balcony of the room.
The men who were attacking me had left me for dead and had scrambled out of the room as per Razak's brother's instructions who was sitting there looking bored
Soon I heard some fussing happening outside the room in the balcony.
There were screams and profanities being yelled. But soon it was all over.

I heard a loud thud and a gun shot and a woman's blood curdling scream which was followed by a mind numbing silence.