author's pov
Author's POV
The car moved smoothly, too smoothly, as if nothing irreversible had just happened. The city lights blurred past the windows, indifferent witnesses to the silence trapped inside. Advika sat rigid, hands clenched in her lap, tears slipping down without sound. She didn't look at him. She couldn't.
Aviraj was the first to break the silence.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small pill, then a bottle of water. His voice was calm, controlled dangerously so. "Take this."
Advika's breath hitched. She turned to him then, her eyes red, shining with unshed terror. Her voice trembled, but there was steel beneath it. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I won't."
The word hung between them small, fragile, yet defiant. It was the first thing she had refused since the wedding, and it cost her every ounce of courage she had left.
Aviraj studied her in silence, his jaw tightening slightly. The car continued forward, carrying two strangers bound by a marriage neither of them understood the consequences of yet one ruled by vengeance, the other drowning in fear, but still clinging to the last piece of her will.
Aviraj's voice dropped, low and edged with warning. "Do you want the hard way, sweetheart?" he said, eyes fixed on her profile.
Advika's fingers curled tighter in her lap. Her tears didn't stop, but her spine straightened. The fear was there raw and undeniable yet beneath it flickered something stubborn, something unwilling to surrender completely. The car kept moving, the silence pressing in again, heavier now, charged with a choice she never should have been forced to make.
Advika finally found her voice again, small but trembling. She looked at the pill in his palm, fear tightening her chest.
"W..what pill i..s this?" she asked, her voice breaking despite her effort to stay firm. "What are you trying to make me take?"
Her eyes searched his face not for comfort, but for truth while her body stayed tense, ready to resist whatever answer came next.
Aviraj's jaw tightened, the last trace of patience slipping away. His voice turned cold flat, final.
"This isn't about your consent," he said quietly. "You'll take the pill... or I'll make sure you do."
Advika's breath faltered.
He leaned back, eyes hard, unwavering. "From now on, you do as I say," he continued. "Refuse me and there will be consequences."
The words landed like chains closing around her. She felt it then, with crushing clarity not just fear, but the terrifying certainty that her life was no longer guided by choice. The car kept moving forward, and with every mile, the distance between who she was and who she was being forced to grow wider.
Her voice finally broke through the fear, raw and aching. "Why are you doing this?" Advika asked, tears spilling freely now. "What did my father do to you? What crime was so big that you're destroying my life for it?"
The question hung heavy in the car.
Aviraj's grip on the bottle tightened. For a brief moment just a breath something unreadable crossed his face. Anger, bitterness, old wounds that never healed. He looked away toward the dark road ahead.
"Your father," he said slowly, each word edged with years of resentment, "took something from me that I can never get back. He played a game he thought he'd won... and walked away untouched."
His eyes flicked back to her cold, merciless.
"Men like him never pay for their sins," Aviraj said, his voice low and venomous. "They die before the debt is collected. But I won't let that happen. I'll make you pay."
Advika's breath caught.
"Do you really want to know what your father did?" he continued, each word carved from old fury. "Then listen. He wasn't the man you believed him to be. He was one of the most powerful crime lords in India. He had many enemies but you can call me the biggest enemy of him"
His jaw clenched, eyes darkening with memories that refused to fade.
"He took my sister,"Aviraj said. "His men ruined her life, shattered her dignity, rape her and then silenced her forever."
Advika felt the world tilt beneath her.
"I won't kill you,""he went on, his tone chillingly calm. "Death would be mercy. I'll make sure you live ,live with this truth, live with this punishment. I want you to beg God for an end... and never receive it."
Silence swallowed the car.
Advika sat frozen, tears streaking down her face-not just from fear, but from the unbearable weight of a past she never knew, a sin she never committed, and a future she had been forced to inherit her heart is not wanted to believe it .
Her heart refused to believe it. She shook her head, tears blurring her vision. "You're lying," she whispered, clinging to the last thread of faith she had left.
She was damn sure of it her father could never do something so monstrous. The thought alone made her chest burn. She shook her head, tears slipping free. he can't be the man Aviraj described.
Aviraj's patience snapped.
"Take the pill, Advika," he said coldly, holding it out to her. His voice carried a sharp warning now. "Before I do something you won't like."
The words weren't loud, but they were enough. The air inside the car turned suffocating, and her certainty began to tremble not because she believed him, but because she knew he meant exactly what he said.
Her hand trembled as she took the pill. Without giving herself time to think without letting fear argue with hope she swallowed it in one go, washing it down with water. Tears slipped silently down her cheeks as the bitterness settled, not just on her tongue, but in her chest, heavy with surrender she never chose.

Within minutes, her eyelids grew heavy. The world started to blur, sounds fading as if wrapped in cotton. Advika tried to fight it, blinking hard, forcing herself to stay awake but her body betrayed her. Sleep pulled her down, slow and unstoppable.
Aviraj noticed immediately.
A cold, satisfied smirk curved his lips as he watched her slump against the seat. He didn't touch her. He didn't need to. One glance was enough for him to know the pill was doing its work, exactly as intended.
______________
At his home office, Aviraj leaned back in his chair, his eyes sharp as he asked his brother, "Did you get any information on who killed Harshvardhan Rathod, Abhishek?"
Abhishek shook his head, frustration clear in his voice. "No, bhai. We couldn't find out who did it. The one who killed him was too careful, wiped out all the proof."
Aviraj's jaw tightened, but he nodded slowly. "Keep trying. I want answers, no matter what it takes."
Then Abhishek hesitated for a moment, glancing toward Aviraj. "Bhai... what did you do to her?"
Aviraj's cold eyes flicked toward the side, a smirk spreading across his face. He didn't answer immediately.
Aviraj finally broke the silence, his voice low and menacing, carrying the weight of control and threat: "I did what needed to be done... she will obey, or she will suffer. Make sure nothing goes wrong, Abhishek."
His words hung in the air like a shadow, heavy and cold, and the room felt suffocating with the unspoken threat behind them.
Abhishek's voice tightened, unable to hide the conflict anymore. "Bhai... but she hasn't done anything," he said quietly. "She's innocent. Whatever her father did, she didn't deserve this."
The words hung in the air, heavy challenging Aviraj in a way few ever dared.
Abhishek's voice cracked as he finally said it the truth he'd been holding back.
"Because our sister Aradhya was innocent too," he said quietly. "She didn't do anything either. she died because of that bastard Harshvardhan Rathod now his daughter pays "
The words hit harder than any accusation.
For a moment, Aviraj didn't speak. His jaw tightened, eyes darkening as memories he tried to bury clawed their way back to the surface. The room fell silent, heavy with grief, guilt, and a rage that had nowhere left to go.
In that silence, it became painfully clear this wasn't just revenge anymore.
It was two innocent lives crushed under the weight of a past that refused to stay buried.
Aviraj's gaze hardened, his voice sharp and merciless. "Don't show pity on her, Abhishek. She is not for pity... she is for revenge."
The words cut through the room like steel, leaving no doubt of the darkness and determination burning in him.
Abhishek stayed silent, the weight of Aviraj's words pressing down on him. Without a word, he nodded slightly and left the office, the door clicking shut behind him, leaving Aviraj alone with his thoughts and the cold, lingering tension in the room.