“Hey… that's enough, man. How many drinks is this now? Is this the state you're going to go to her in…?”
“I'm going… I'll go to her exactly like this. She needs to know me as I really am… By tonight she has to understand what the rest of her life is going to look like.”
Sprawled among the liquor bottles — some empty, some not — he slurred the words carelessly.
“He's right — didn't she reject him in front of the whole college? And look how it turned out… It's her fate to end up squirming in his hands after all.”
As if his friend's words had stirred something in him, his eyes gleamed wildly — red veins standing out in them, a reminder of the beast inside him.
“Enough, Stephen — don't keep winding him up. She's a poor, helpless girl. How is she supposed to accept a man she doesn't even want? And it's not as if he proposed out of any real love for her… It was a bet — to spend a single day with her. When he put it to her, she refused. What girl from a decent family would come and sleep with someone just because he asks for a day? He nursed a grudge over that, and the moment we finished our studies he married her out of pure spite…”
With contempt curling on his lips, Vic pushed himself up off the floor.
“That's right… it's vengeance. The vengeance of some worthless girl who dared to say she didn't want me… Everything I've ever wanted, I've brought to heel. Not one woman has ever turned me down — not for a single day, not even for a few hours. So what makes her so special? Every day from now on, she'll live remembering that she should simply have accepted me back then. She'll think — if only she had, it would all have been over in a single day…”
Ram knelt down beside him.
“Vic… don't. She's not like the other girls you've known. You saw for yourself how even her own family treats her. You bought her — named a price and closed the deal. From that alone you should understand what her life has been. Don't hurt her any further… Haven't you already won your little war of pride? That's enough, Vic. If you don't want her, just send her away. She'll go somewhere and live her own life.”
“Ha… just sit quietly, will you, Ram. It's his wedding night, isn't it? All this time he's been waiting for this one day. Let the man celebrate… Or what — do you have some special feelings for her yourself?”
“Shut your filthy mouth, Stephen… I have a sister at home, about her age. I'm only thinking — what if it were her in this state? Haven't you lot done enough ruining him? At least now, leave him alone…”
Hearing Ram grab Stephen by the collar, Vic got up off the floor, walked over, and forced Ram's hand away.
“My dear Ram… don't waste your temper on him. No one corrupted me. This is simply who I am. I want her — under my feet. And when I tire of her, I'll send her away myself. I knew none of this would happen with you around, so I made up an excuse about a project and had you sent away from here…”
“Vic… every girl who ever spent time with you was infatuated with your money or your looks. Whatever you did, you did with their consent. She isn't like that, Vic. Are you really going to force yourself on her? Don't sink that low…”
“True — I've never touched a single woman without her wanting it. I don't like it that way. The thrill, for me, has always been when the woman I want wants me back. But her — I want her. That's why I married her. Now I hold complete power over her. I can do anything to her… she can't even stop me. She said she didn't want me, didn't she? Well — now she'll have to satisfy that very man with her body. Only then will it pay her back for the humiliation she handed me in front of that entire college…”
“All of that was a long time ago… Now that you've actually married her, why not try to live happily with her?”
At Ram's words, Vic began to laugh. Watching him burst into laughter, Ram and Stephen looked at each other, baffled.
“Live… with her? Never. The moment my need is met, I'll be rid of her. What I want is a woman who can stand up to me, toe to toe. Only a woman like that would I keep beside me for good…”
And with that, he tipped the whole bottle in his hand into his mouth.
“So — everything as agreed. Let me go to my wife now… good night.”
Hurling the bottle to the floor and shattering it, wiping the laughter from his face, he staggered off — and Ram watched him go with an ache in his heart.
He was Victor Sterling… the sole heir to Sterling Enterprises. A child born late in their lives, he had been given a little too much love and indulgence by his father, Richard, and his mother, Catherine. Blinded by affection, they never realised the bad influence it was having on their son. Their one anxiety was to set whatever he liked before him before he even wished for it — and as a result, the urge to seize whatever he desired grew in him. The only friendship that ever came to him free of self-interest was Ram's. Everyone else were tails trailing after him for his money. It was only after Ram came along that the arrogance-swollen boy began to treat others with even a little humility. Vic had first met Ram when they joined the eleventh grade. A meek boy who kept to himself and never picked a fight with anyone, he had often been Vic's prey; mocking and tormenting him had been a sport to Vic.
Then once, Vic came to school even though he was running a fever — because the school's annual celebrations were on that day. Not long after the programme began, he started to feel ill. On his way back from freshening up in the washroom, he collapsed. He had struck his head as he fell, and his forehead had split open and was bleeding. Just then a tug-of-war was on out in the grounds, so all the students and teachers were out there.
It was Ram, passing by just then, who found him. Holding nothing Vic had ever done to him against him, it was Ram who propped him up, carried him out, and told the teachers. That is how the friendship between them began. Because Vic recognised Ram's sincerity, Ram alone held the right to advise and correct him, more than anyone else. Vic didn't like to upset him. Ram's company brought small changes in him — though his arrogance and obstinacy never fully left him.
Once he reached college, he set about celebrating life. The money in his hands and his beguiling good looks were what drew people to him.
The web of attraction that formed around him was a thrill. The girls' infatuation with him — and the envy it lit in the boys' eyes — was intoxicating. He never disappointed those who desired him; the hunger he saw in them when he took them pleased him.
And to a man like that, there was one girl who simply did not want him. Her refusal had been a great humiliation.
Besides Ram and Stephen, his friends were Chloe, Kevin, and Danny.
College life rolled by in a blaze of fun, and the final year seemed to arrive in no time.
It was while the friends were all standing around talking that Stephen laid down a bet: could Vic win over, and show off, any girl he named? Vic brushed it off with a laugh — he had never once approached anyone himself. But when it turned into a challenge, he said okay.
Just then Stephen pointed out a girl coming out of a classroom — their junior. It was the first time Vic was seeing her, or rather noticing her. He studied her closely. Always in plain, modest clothes. Clutching her bag to herself, eyes down, walking as if afraid to hurt the very earth beneath her. Not bad to look at. Not a trace of make-up on her face. A pale, washed-out complexion. The only thing worth mentioning was her rather long hair, worn in a braid. The more he took her in, the more his face wrinkled; his distaste was plain to them all.
“Man, this backwater little thing is the best you could come up with? Name someone else…”
“That's not the point. It's a challenge for you, isn't it? You have to win over a girl exactly like this. Nothing more — just one day with you, that's all. So? Can you do it?”
Vic looked at her once more.
“What's her name?”
“Elena.”
This time his eyes travelled over her body. He drank in the curves of her figure, and it brought a smile to his lips.
The moment he saw the girl and understood she was a gentle, helpless thing, Ram objected — but Vic paid him no mind.
The very next day he cornered her and told her what he wanted. Terrified, she ran from the spot. After that he made a habit of it, and the moment she saw him her eyes would begin to brim.
When days went by with no favourable answer from her, he grew angry; and when his friends began mocking him over it, he couldn't bear it. As she came out after class, he dragged her off and stood her beneath a tree. Her body trembled with fear; her eyes welled and overflowed.
“Listen… I'll give you one more day. Tomorrow I'll propose to you in front of everyone, and you will agree then. I have no grand love for you — one single day is all I want, and that only to prove a point to my friends. Otherwise I wouldn't so much as turn to look at you — and then she gets to feel so proud. If you agree tomorrow, we can keep this whole thing quiet. You hear me?”
The moment he said it and walked off, she sank to the ground, weeping.
The next day, in front of everyone, he proposed to her. Crying, she begged him to leave her alone — she didn't want this. “I am not the kind of girl who will go and spend a day with someone,” she said, and knelt before him with her hands folded in plea. For the first time, he saw scorn fill certain eyes that turned on him. When the very people who had once looked at her with admiration now looked at him as though he were some lout, his eyes reddened with rage. As he hauled her up from the ground, she shoved him away and ran. It struck him like a slap to the face. With every eye on him, he felt utterly humiliated. That was where his vengeance against her was born — the obstinate vow to make her his own.
The moment Vic left, Ram shot Stephen a hard look and walked off too. Stephen lay sprawled on his back. In his eyes, just then, was Elena — her body. He had been the one who meant to have her first; but she would not come near him by any means. That was why he had goaded Vic into making her his. Once she yielded to Vic, he could use that to subdue her himself. But she had pushed him away too, and that had fired his obstinacy — and he had been right there to fan Vic's. The idea of marriage, too, had been his. Before long Vic would tire of her and she would be cast out, and then he wanted to savour, to the full, the taste of her standing there broken.
Reckoning up who-knows-what in his mind, he lay there.
✦
It was his mother who opened the door for Vic. The sight of the state he was in filled her with sorrow, and she watched in pain as he staggered past her.
He opened the door of his room and stepped inside — and what he saw was Elena, asleep on the sofa. He locked the door and walked over to her.
He knelt before her and brought his face close to hers. When he saw her lying there still wearing the wedding ring he had placed on her finger, a contemptuous smile spread across his lips. Without touching her, he drew her scent deep inside him. His hand rose toward her chest — and the next instant, a powerful kick to the gut sent him sprawling backward.
To be continued…