"You cannot ignore her. You need to shower your love on her to show how much you love her," the old butler said, his voice assuming a sagacious tone. "You need to speak your heart out, to pour your feelings---"

"Stop," Ahanay said, angrily biting into the croissant. "I thought she loved me. The look she gave me at the party."

The butler loving the drama, lied, "She gave the same look to the man she goes out with."

"That thug." Crushing the croissant that crumbled in his hands, Ahanay narrowed his eyes at the butler. "What should I do?"

For desperate times required desperate measures. After all, Ahanay had retrieved all data about Ohas and realized that the two of them were childhood "chaddi-buddies" as pointed out by the neighbors and that idea didn't settle well with him. He could barely sleep after he got that information, what else was his wife hiding from him?

The butler grinned slyly like a cartoon fox, rubbing his two fingers together. "Money."

"Money?"

"Humans want two things in life- love and money. Often, they mistake one for the other."

"Naina isn't like that," Ahanay defended, causing the butler to cough suspiciously. "She doesn't care about money or power. She's pure."

"How do you know that, Sahib?"

"She isn't." He couldn't remember a single instance where Naina had expressed her materialistic desires apart from an abroad honeymoon trip, dining at a fancy restaurant instead of Udipi, the jacuzzi--- "She can have some small wishes once in a while. But she can't be bought with money."

"You're not buying her with money," the butler chimed. "Simply, expressing your love."

"Alright." Grabbing the nearest laptop and opening up multiple tabs of the most premium and luxurious shopping websites, he asked, "So what will she like?"

* * *

Naina wasn't prepared for the sleek bags and cute boxes to appear one after the other in their bedroom, the short butler carrying several of them stacked together till his head disappeared. "What's all this?"

"Yours." Ahanay entered, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, observing her. "I want to give the world to you."

Naina giggled, catching the awkward exchange between the butler and Ahanay. "Did you teach your Sahib to be this cheesy?" Jumping from the bed, she checked one bag after another like a butterfly fluttering from one flower to another. "Wow, this must have cost a fortune. I can't even pronounce this- what's this? Eh, what's this?" She fingered a flimsy, netted dress, chucking it back in the bag. "You shouldn't have paid more than 200 rupees for that. Wait, what? 20,000!"

"That's the cheapest item among all," the butler added smugly.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" She stared at Ahanay, flabbergasted. At her alarmed voice, he unfolded his arms, losing control over his composure. "I thought you had some sense to not spend recklessly!"

"I-uh---You don't have to worry about the cost."

"I can't believe I married a stupid man," she muttered and Ahanay glowered at the butler who was slowly inching towards the exit. Sighing, Naina said, "You know I don't want any of this."

"What do you want then?"

"Orgasm."

"Oho," the butler cooed and when the couple's eyes landed on the intruder, he bowed down. "Excuse me, I'll take my leave for now."

"Give me back my orgasm," she demanded, walking straight towards him. Immediately, his arm stretched ahead and his hand rested on her head, preventing her from moving forward as if she was a bull being held by the horns. "Damn you and your one-arm distance!"

"You can ask anything else from me."

"Why is it important for me to love you to do that?"

His hold on her head tightened before he lightly pushed her and she stumbled back. "I have something else for you."

Massaging her forehead, she barked, "What?"

"Tickets to Maldives." He flashed the flight tickets and she continued to glare at him, not believing a word. His voice softened, "Come with me."

"Show!" Leaping and snatching the tickets like a professional basketball player stealing the ball, she examined them to establish legitimacy. But before she could dance in celebration, the date grew larger in font size in front of her. The date of the protest.

Protest! Ah. How could she be so foolish as to even think of going on a trip with him when her entire house was in crisis? What about her people whose lives were going to be taken away?

She tossed those tickets away. "Not interested."

"Why?" He sounded suddenly hurt and that voice pinched her heart, bringing an urge to pacify him. No. No pacification. Only protest.

As she whirled around to leave, Ahanay pulled her by her wrist, causing her to crash against his chest.

"Wha-what---"

"Is that how badly you want me to fuck you?" His crudeness reached his eyes, hard and mean and he quickly caught her other wrist that she raised in protest. Holding both her wrists against his chest tightly so she couldn't move and was forced to look straight into his eyes, he challenged her, "You'll not be able to refuse me by the end of this." Naina could barely breathe looking at the wildness in his eyes to even feel the power of making a man who had everything, want her, her only. Pushing her against the wall and holding her wrists above her head so she was completely at his mercy, Ahanay brought his face closer to hers and rasped, "This is how helpless you make me feel."

Her curiosity got the best out of her as she breathed, "You can have any woman you want in the world. Why me?"

"You're a demon, hardly from this world," he joked and she struggled against his hold in response, only to be pinned back by his unswerving gaze. "If you could see what I see, you would fall in love with yourself."

"Nonsense," she said immediately, freeing herself just then when his hold was weak to shoo away the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She must focus only on the protest, on working hard like ants with her neighbors, to bite him in the end. "You didn't marry me out of choice. You married me because of the messed up business deal with my pathetic father. Your father and you owe him for the empire you built here."

"I only owe him for his daughter whom I could marry," he said squarely. "I can lose this empire in seconds and it wouldn't mean a damn."

"You say this, but---" she quickly held back her tongue, almost revealing the secret that she knew what he was up to. He was manipulating her, he had to be! Why else would he say such sweet things? "You don't owe my father anything because he barely treated me as his daughter. Your empire was more dear to him."

"So it was to my father too. More important than me or my mother. For the longest time, I believed I was like him."

"Didn't your father kill his wife, your mother?"

He smirked. "Are you afraid of me?"

"You should be afraid of me," Naina said, resting her hands on her hips. "I have killed someone."

"You didn't. Those were rumors. She fell."

Naina was surprised, she had never told him any of this. "How did you know?"

"I know all about your past and I know that your tiny hands can never imagine killing someone," he said with a conviction that unnerved Naina. Was he reading her thoughts? Was he aware of her plans to kill him? "I don't want you to suffer anymore because of what happened then. I want you to have everything in this world and beyond. I don't think money alone can get you, but I still want you to have this."

His hands disappeared in his pocket, but his card had actually disappeared from there. He searched everywhere, puzzled, not realizing that Naina had stolen it to fund her protest. If she knew this shiny card that was tucked safely in the band of her skirt was going to be hers eventually, she would have never undertaken the trouble of stealing it. Shaking her skirt, the card fell out and she picked it up, exclaiming, "Was this what you were looking for!"

He was still perplexed as to how it landed on the floor, but continued, "The password is our anniversary date."

"I know." She had seen it when he was purchasing something online, but the importance of the date never struck her. Did their wedding mean something more than a business deal to him? "I mean, I guessed it was our anniversary date."

Smiling, he ruffled her hair as she swatted his hand away. "You can get anything you want. The card has no limit."

Hope twinkled in her eyes like stars as she jumped, "Can I get a new house and live away from you?" 

"I'll buy one right next to yours."

The hopeful stars dimmed. Sticking out her lips, she said in a mock, sad voice, "I thought money could buy me freedom."

"It's always the opposite." He ruffled her hair once again, only to start a playful fight where she made numerous attempts to hit him as he dodged her.

(Tap on the little star if you're liking this story :))