Chapter - 9
I woke up slowly, like my body didn't know whether to come back or stay in the dark. My head felt heavy, my mouth dry and every bone in me ached like I had been crushed and then put back together wrong.
It took me a few seconds to realise the bed under me wasn't the one I had been sleeping into for the past few days and my heart skipped a beat.
Before I could force myself to sit up, I heard something, a slow, controlled breath from somewhere in the room. Not loud. Not obvious. But enough to make every part of me freeze.
My eyes opened fully.
He was there.
Rudra.
Standing a few feet away, his arms crossed over his chest, his face unreadable, but his eyes sharp and fixed on me like he was trying to understand something
My stomach twisted.
"You're awake." he said. His voice was deep, steady, without a hint of softness. It didn't need to rise to be terrifying.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out and my throat hurt.
He stepped towards the bed. Before I could push myself up, a wave of dizziness hit me so hard I shut my eyes. A small sound escaped my throat, embarrassing and weak. His hand touched my shoulder instantly. It was not a tight grip but it was firm enough to stop me from falling again.
"Aap ek jagah kyun nahi baith paa rahi hain Miss Sharma? Baith jaayiye." he asked.
I hated how my body listened before my mind could register a protest. He reached for the glass on the table and lifted it, holding it near my lips.
I turned my face away, but he didn't move his hand.
"Drink." he said.
I found myself first looking at him and then taking a few sips because I practically had no energy to even talk to him, let alone argue with him.
Then he asked, "Why were you washing the cars?"
My stomach dropped.
He didn't blink or look away.
"Who asked you to do it?" he asked again.
I stared at the blanket. My heart thudded painfully against my ribs.
"Parthvi," he said, my name sounding too sharp in his mouth, "look at me."
I didn't. I couldn't.
"Tell me who made you do it."
I decided to remain silent again because how was I supposed to complaint about his grandmother to him? That would just make me look like a pathetic girl who cannot handle her own problems and has to run away to some figure of authority for protection of some sorts.
And I may be a lot of things here, but I was not about to become a charity case.
His jaw tightened, the muscle near his cheek ticking once. He was losing patience. And Rudra Adhiraj Raisinghania losing patience would probably not be a very pleasant sight according to me.
"Do not test me." he said quietly, and somehow that was worse than shouting.
Still, I stayed silent.
When his expression hardened even more, I flinched before I could stop myself and for a second, the anger on his face was gone. He shut his eyes and breathed out slowly, like he was forcing something inside him to calm down.
When he looked at me again, his anger was tucked away, hidden behind that frightening stillness he always carried in front of me.
"I have hundreds of people who will answer me," he said. "Everyone in this palace will tell me the truth if I ask."
His stare didn't waver.
"But I want to hear it from you."
My throat tightening painfully.
"You won't." I whispered. "You won't get anything from me."
He did not look angry after hearing my words, he looked unreadable and that scared me. Who knew what this man was capable of? Anger, I could understand but predicting him, that was not possible for me yet.
I pushed the blanket aside and tried to sit up. My body protested immediately, but I forced myself. I needed to get out of this room because his presence felt like too much to me at the moment.
"I'm going back to that room." I said, even though I had no idea where that room where I had been staying all this while was. I was absolutely terrible with directions.
He took one step closer.
"You are not going anywhere."
"I don't want to stay here," I said, my voice shaky but firm. "Let me go."
"No."
I glared at him even though my vision blurred slightly.
"I can walk." I said. "I can stand."
"Barely." he replied.
I swung my legs off the bed anyway. The floor felt cold under my feet. I placed my hand on the mattress to support myself and pushed up.
My knees trembled and I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, but I didn't fall. I refused to fall in front of him again.
My knees were shaking, but somehow they held. I took one slow breath and forced myself to straighten my back. I kept my eyes on the door, refusing to look at him again.
One step.
My legs felt stiff, like they didn't belong to me anymore.
Second step.
The room tilted slightly, but I ignored it and kept moving.
Third step.
That was when everything simply stopped.
My legs gave up completely, almost like someone had cut the strings holding me upright. The ground rushed toward my face, and for a split second I thought, Great, I'll fall again and this time he'll probably send me to some mental hospital.
But I didn't hit the floor because two hands caught my upper arms, gripping firmly and pulling me upright before I could crash. My breath hitched from the sudden contact and from the sharp humiliation burning inside me.
"Parthvi." he said, tone low but steady, "stop."
I tried to pull away because I didn't want him to see me like this again, but I couldn't even gather enough strength to stand on my own feet. My legs were giving out again and before I could protest or pretend.
One moment I was trying to push myself up, and the next, my entire body left the ground.
He picked me again in his arms just like earlier, without asking, without waiting or without giving me any chance to argue.
My breath stuttered in my chest. I hated how small I felt in his arms, how easily he lifted me as if I weighed nothing.
He carried me back to the bed and lowered me onto it, making sure I didn't hit my head against anything.
"Do not move again." he said and took one step back.
"Aapko aaraam ki zaroorat hai." he spoke up again. "Sleep now. I will take you back to your room tomorrow."
I blinked up in confusion.
"I could have just left right now." every bone in my body wanted to pick a fight with him but my head mentally slapped me for being such an idiot because he practically just carried me to the bed because I was going to fall down after a failed attempt to go on my own.
"And I said that you are not going anywhere tonight." he interrupted, like he already knew what I was thinking.
His voice wasn't loud, but it cut straight through the room."There is no point arguing about something you cannot do."
I pushed myself a little higher on the pillow, trying to sit up properly, but the moment I moved, a wave of weakness rolled through my body again. My arms shook, my head pulsed and my breath caught.
And he noticed everything.
His eyes narrowed just slightly.
"Stop trying to prove something you clearly cannot manage right now." he warned me.
"I'm not proving anything." I muttered, hating how tired my voice sounded, "I just don't want to stay here. That's it."
He just watched me for a long second like he was reading every thought in my head and then exhaled slowly, as if he was reminding himself to be patient.
"You fainted twice today." he said. "Not once. Twice. And both times you would have injured yourself if I had not been there."
I looked away quickly, embarrassment crawling up my neck.
His next words came softer, barely but still firm.
"You cannot even hold your body weight for more than a few seconds. You are not leaving."
I hated that he was right but I hated even more that he was right about me.
I swallowed. "You could have just let me fall, you know. I am your enemy's daughter anyway. You did not have to save me."
"Parthvi, you can make me the villain in your story because I am no hero.
I am a scarred man but a man nonetheless.
If I see you falling, I will save you. You will become my wife in sometime and as your husband, I will always protect you because that is all I will ever be able to offer you.
" He replied, his eyes looking into mine.
I scoffed, anger taking over.
"Aap....aap bachayenge mujhe Ranaji? Par tab kya hoga jab mujhe aapse hi bachne ki zaroorat hogi jaise ki abhi na?
Aapne mujhe mere ghar se door kar diya, mere parivaar se door kar diya, meri zindagi mujhse hi cheen li, mere sapne tod diye aur meri marzi ke bina aap mujhse shaadi karne jaa rahe hain.
Yeh meri sabse badi museebat nahi hai toh aur kya hogi zindagi bhar?
Mujhe iss sab kaun bachayega? Aap?" I could feel it.
I could feel returning to myself because I was never the girl who would remain quiet to any injustice that went around her, let alone with my own self.
It almost made me angrier and when he finally spoke, his voice was calm enough to make my stomach twist.
"No one." he said simply. "No one will be able to save you from me."
My breath stopped.
"But I am also not here to destroy you, Parthvi." His jaw tightened slightly. "What has happened and what must happen is not negotiable. But I do not intend to harm you."
I laughed a short, humourless and broken laugh."Not harm me? My life is already in pieces."
He did not deny that, how could he? It was the truth.
"Pain is not the same as danger." he said. "And you are not in danger with me."
I glared at him, fury prickling at my skin. "You don't get to decide that."
"I already did." he replied.
The bluntness of that made something in my chest twist painfully.
I pushed myself higher on the bed, my arms shaking, but I refused to show weakness now.
"You don't have to marry me to keep me here as your prisoner. You can just leave me alone in that room for the rest of my life and forget about me." I said, trying some freaking way to get out of this fucking stupid wedding.
"You think I want this?" he asked, anger vibrating in his voice now, reaching his eyes and making me want to look away from him.
"You think I enjoy binding my life to the daughter of the man who killed my mother and destroyed my family?
You think that if I had an option, I would not exercise it?
Your father did not just kill my mother, he killed the Maharanisa of Ratangarh and he is the reason why my father, their beloved king could never rule again.
" Each and every single word of his was stabbing me all over.
I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off before I could even breathe.
"And because of that," he continued, his voice cold and steady, "your family triggered a law that has been dormant for more than a century."
I frowned, confused. "What law?"
His eyes didn't soften. Not even a little.
"Rakhtadharm Pratishruti."
Rakta what now? That name meant nothing to me.
"It is an ancient royal clause." he said, "invoked only when someone kills a member of the royal family."
It just felt like my brain playing some stupid heavy words.
"It states that when royal blood is taken," he continued, "the firstborn daughter of the offender's family must be married into the royal bloodline."
My fingertips turned cold.
"What?" I whispered. "That's....that's not real. That's not an actual law."
"It is." His voice didn't waver. "It is archived, signed by Ratangarh's ancestors and legally binding till date. No king has ever broken it."
"That is absolutely insane," I breathed, shaking my head, feeling something like panic crawl up my spine. "Why....why would anyone...."
"To prevent chaos." he said. "To prevent civilians and royalists from tearing each other apart every time something like this happened. To stop the kingdom from collapsing. To keep peace."
"And what peace is this?" My voice cracked. "Forcing two people together like this?"
"That is how Ratangarh has survived." he replied.
I felt sick but he kept talking.
"If I refuse this marriage, I break the oldest law in Ratangarh.
The Royal Council collapses, my mother's honour is stained forever my father's throne becomes disputed, my security council resigns, the trust funds sustaining the kingdom freeze, my family loses its stability and traditionalists will revolt. "
He looked at me like he wanted me to truly understand.
"I do not have the luxury of choice, Miss Sharma."
My throat tightened painfully. My nails dug into my palms because everything inside me wanted to scream.
"And what about me?" I whispered. "Where is my choice in all of this?"
"You do not have it either." he said. "Rakhtadharm Pratishrutidoes not allow your family to refuse."
My chest twisted.
"If your family denies this marriage," he continued calmly, almost disturbingly calm, "they will be declared royal offenders. Their assets will be seized. The state will take their home. Your father will face the death penalty and your mother and brother can be imprisoned under the clause."
His eyes held mine.
"And society will treat them as traitors for the rest of their lives."
I felt my breath stumble.
"You are lying." I said weakly, even though something in my gut told me he wasn't.
"I do not need to lie." he replied. "This law predates both of us. It predates our parents. It predates our entire lives."
I pressed my hand to my forehead, trying to breathe, trying not to break.
"So what am I supposed to do?" My voice trembled despite my best effort. "Marry you to protect my family?"
"Yes."
The word was simple. Final. I hated how steady it sounded.
"And if I don't?" I whispered.
He didn't blink.
"If you don't, your family will pay the price written by our ancestors."
My eyes burned. I looked away because I couldn't look at him anymore.
"You said earlier that you are not here to destroy me," I said. "But this feels exactly like that."
He didn't respond for a moment.
And then -
"I am not destroying you," he said. "I am upholding a law that was never meant to involve us. But your father made it involve us and now I have to put my family through the fact that the daughter of my mother's murderer will become their Raanisa."
My hands curled into fists in the blanket.
"So that's it?" I asked quietly. "My life is just... decided?"
"Yes."
I let out a shaky breath. I felt hollow. Exhausted. Angry. Terrified.
He watched me with that same unreadable expression he always wore around me.
"I will send someone with your dinner," he said finally. "Rest. You will not step out of this room until I allow it."
Then, he turned to leave.
For a second, I thought he would look back.
He didn't.
He walked out, the door clicking shut behind him and I lay there, staring at the ceiling until my body had no strength left to stay awake.
Eventually, without meaning to, I fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I didn't know how long I slept but when I woke up again the room felt darker and strangely quiet. My body still hurt, but the heaviness in my chest was worse than the pain in my legs or head.
For a moment, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember how my life had reached this point. Nothing made sense anymore.
Someone had brought dinner and kept it on the table near the couch. I didn't even remember hearing the door.
I looked at the food for a long time. I didn't want it. I didn't want anything.
Slowly, I sat up against the headboard. Even that small movement made my body weak again, but I ignored it. My mind felt too full, too loud.
And that was when it hit me again.
I was going to have to marry him.
My throat tightened. I pressed my hand over my face because tears were already forming and I didn't want to cry especially not here, in his room.
But thinking about Mumma about Jai bhaiya, about home... God, it hurt. They must be terrified. They must be wondering where I was, if I was safe, if I was even alive.
And I was here, trapped by a law I had never heard of, tied to the man who hated my father and everything connected to him, including me.
I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, trying to hold myself together.
This wasn't supposed to be my life.
I wanted normal things. College. Work. A life where I chose what to do every day. A life where I could eat breakfast in my own home, argue with Bhaiya about silly things, listen to Mumma complain that I never woke up on time and with sitting for hours with Papa watching cricket.
All of that felt so far away now because he committed a crime and because I was born as me, the firstborn daughter.
My eyes burned again, and I whispered into the dark room,
"Why me?"
No one answered. Of course no one would.
Tomorrow I would go back to the room I had been staying in. And then what? Pretend everything was fine? Pretend I was not going to come back to this very room as his wife? Pretend the rest of my life wasn't already decided?
I curled further under the blanket. It was warm, but it didn't bring comfort. The room wasn't mine.
My eyes slowly closed again because my body was too tired to fight it.
And the last thought I had before sleep pulled me under was painfully simple. No matter what I wanted and no matter how loudly I cried inside myself, nothing belonged to me anymore.