Abhyansh slowly walked towards her, his predatory steps giving her a mini-heart attack...

"M...Ma...Maharaj, I'm sorry, please forgive me... please", Isha sobbed, she didn't know why is she so afraid but his presence itself created a dark aura scaring the sh*t out of her...

"Where were you??", He asked reaching her... His eyes unusually held emotions that were undeciphered…

"I was at the office... I promise, I'm not lying...", she said still looking down...

"You defied my orders, you deserve a punishment", he said, and she thought he wouldn't let her go to the office from the following day, so she started crying...

"Ma..Maharaj, I want to work, please... I won't repeat this again... please forgive me", she begged but that didn't melt him, not even an ounce...

"Bring that...", he said pointing towards a file...

She nodded and stepped front to go to the shelf where the file is lying when he put his foot in her way making her fall on the floor, her hands met with the broken glass pieces that are on the floor, and both her palms are pierced with glass pieces and blood oozed out of them... He bent down to her level and held her face in between his rough fingers digging his nails into her cheeks...

"I'll see how you design clothes with these palms...", he said pointing to her injured palms... She sobbed looking down, he left her and moved back...

"Clean the mess and get out", he ordered sitting in his place and resuming his work...

He knew she got late at work and as a punishment, he wanted to make her stop doing that work for a few days at least, and by looking at her hand injuries, she will always remember to come home on time... he thought

She pulled out the glass pieces from her palms and rolled her dupatta to stop the bleeding and cleaned the glass pieces with her injured palms and left the place...

She ran away to his chamber, and as soon as she reached the room, she dropped to the bathroom floor and sobbed hard, after five minutes, she gathered herself up, and cleaned her palms, as both of them are injured, it became a lot more difficult for her to clean them, but she did it...

She is happy that he at least didn't stop her from going to the office... She encouraged herself and, got freshened up, changed, and went down to help her mother-in-law...

"What happened to your hands??", Amruta asked worriedly seeing the white bandages on her palms...

"I fell down, and I didn't see the glass pieces, so...", Isha said softly looking away and Amruta understood what would have happened...

She hugged Isha, tears flew from her eyes at her son's cruelty...

"I'm sorry Isha... please forgive him...", Amruta said

"No ma, please don't say like that... I'm happy that he didn't snatch my freedom... I can still go to work...", Isha replied with a smile...

"But you can't work...", Amruta said with a sad smile showing her injured palms which faltered Isha's smile, but she shook her head and smiled again as if no one could falter her spirits...

"I can explain the designs to Reetu, and they can work on it", Isha said... "Oho ma, I didn't tell you about Reetu na, come I'll tell you, we'll talk while cooking", Isha said cheerfully and Amruta nodded with a big smile thanking God for sending Isha to her son... She prayed he realizes her value before it's late...

"You can't cook with these hands, I'll make the food today....", Amruta said

"But ma... it's my duty na??", Isha said

"No worries, he is the one who gave you those injuries right?? He purposely did that so you can't work, so he knew you can't cook as well... don't worry", Amruta said and started cooking while Isha narrated all her office details... Amruta knew her son is cruel but not that cruel to make Isha work with those injured palms for which he is responsible... he is not empathetic towards other's feelings but he is egoistic enough to value his punishments at least... but this time she was wrong when it came to Isha, his cruelty exceeds all limits...

"Ma, I forgot to tell you, Today, Avyan dropped me at the office", Isha said

"Avyan??", Amruta is surprised to see her daughter-in-law calling her younger son by name as her daughter-in-law called everyone by their traditional relations, and also, he said he wouldn't drop her then how??

"Ha ma, he asked me to call him by his name, and you know what happened....", saying this Isha narrated everything except how she told him about her being caged for more than 15 years...

"If you didn't have money, you should have asked me....", Amruta scolded her daughter-in-law...

"Ma, I have, actually Maharaj gave me some money, but I forgot to take it", Isha half-lied...

"Abhyansh gave you money for your expenses??", Amruta asked surprised...