His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 48
My eyes flung open. There wasn’t any point pretending if he knew I was awake. And sure enough, there he was, right in front of
me, staring into my eyes. I flinched.
He had switched on a dim light, because I could see now the table placed in the centre of the room, a single chair across from it,
one on the other side fallen to the floor, cracked beige walls with red stains that I hoped and prayed weren’t blood, and
cockroaches. So many cockroaches everywhere, including the floor I was on. But the thing I could see the most was the blue in
the man’s eyes looking down at me with a disgusting hunger in them, along with speckles of grey. A black cloth covered the rest
of his face.
1 wriggled. Eyes wide, I screamed. My voice got muffled due to the tape on my face. My wriggle got a laugh out of him.
“You know, my guy did ask me to not touch you,” He snickered, “But what I want to do to you doesn’t require a lot of touching.”
Once again, the pure fear gripped through me. I shook my head violently trying to get my hands free when I watched him remove
his belt. His laugh echoed in the air around us, and I hoped, prayed, wished he would walk out and leave me alone. The dark
and the stink seemed more comforting
He kneeled-down, his belt clutched in his one hand while the other reached out to me and tucked my loose hair strands behind
my ear.
I couldn’t speak so I just pleaded with wide, tearful eyes. I begged while shaking my head.
I couldn’t see his face, but I could make out the smile underneath the mask. “Your new family wronged us. It’s time we wrong
them back, hm?” His voice was soft with a fake love that wanted to make me throw up. “And what better way than by using you?
I’m sorry sweetheart, you’re just collateral damage.”
I gulped. Tears made their way out, trickling all the way down. Sobs I couldn’t control broke free, getting muffled because my
mouth was taped shut.
Fear, that’s all I felt. He hadn’t even touched me yet, but my skin burned.
I was scared. I was praying to any God to listen, to stop this.
I didn’t want to be touched. I didn’t want to be raped.

I watched the man unbutton his pants with one hand, his other tracing the skin of my face to my neck and the mud of my chest,
trying to force its way into the lose sweater I was wearing.
Everything was blurry and I kept focusing on the door, wishing it would open any minute and someone would save me-
anyone.
I shut my eyes to take long blinks and focus on my breathing while he took his hand off me to unbutton his pants properly. hoping
that when I open my eyes, my husband would be standing in front of me to save me.
Nothing of that sort happened.
The nausea overtook my senses when I watched his rolled out pants, and I threw up.
I don’t know how, maybe because of how suddenly I wanted to vomit, the tape got off my mouth and I vomited all over his rolled
out pants.
It took me only a second to register it.
I had thrown up over him.
1/3
Chapter 48
My mouth was free.
“HELP” I screamed as loud as I could, ignoring how my throat hurt. “Is there anyone? HELP! PLEASE HELP!”
My scream echoed back to me, and when I looked back at the man, his eyes were covered with fury. “You holding his belt more
firmly
b*tch,” he spat,
One second it was in his hand and the other second it was against my arm and torso in one sharp movement.
1 screamed.
my tears

And then I screamed some more till my mouth was covered with a new tape and I was left alone in the room with my and muffled
screams.
I didn’t fall asleep. I think I may have passed out, because I clearly remember the spinning of my head when I lay it on the floor,
hugging my knees close to me. My legs, which were tied together just like my hands, hurt. I could feel the rope cutting through
my skin when I wriggled to get free or get up to struggle my way out, blood trickling down them.
When my eyes opened again, I felt weak. I was running a temperature, I knew, because my skin burned,
I kept blinking, but the vision was blurry.
All 1 could register were noises around me. Loud noises.
I wasn’t sure if the door was banging or was I hearing them in my head because of how much it hurt.
I gulped, my mouth dry. I blinked. Tears seemed to not be ending today, because my vision still didn’t make
to me.
Maybe I was drugged again.
But there were voices coming from outside the door. I could make them, faintly.
“She has to be here... Damien...”
Gabriel?
too much sense
I wriggled, suddenly a new found energy in me. Even though my screams were muffled, I used every last bit of my ene trying to
produce a noise, any noise, but voices outside me faded.
Gabriel.
He was here.
And then he wasn’t.

Or at least so I thought, till the door was broken with a noise so loud, it was almost deafening.
My vision was still blur, but I could see him. I could faintly make out his face, him calling my name, him running to me, the tape
being pealed off my face and me being lifted, his scent covering me as he hugged me close to him, talking to me incoherently.
I didn’t register anything
Nothing except this scent- one that reminded me of home and comfort.
My eyes shut again, knowing I could let go and I would still be safe in the arms of the man I loved.