Two weeks had passed.

Two weeks of pretense.

Two weeks of tested patience.

Two weeks of late night cries.

Two weeks of anticipated escape.

Two weeks had passed painfully slow for Radha and her parents.

Radha thought the weeks went by too slow because she was in a hurry to vacate the town and her parents thought the weeks went by too slow because they were in a hurry to finally get rid of her.

Finally, the wait was over.

Tonight was the night she would write her own destiny. If she failed to escape, she was as good as dead, no matter how patient Mr. Patel had been with her. She had done her digging and had found out that Mr. Patel was into very young girls so he could take their virginity and discard them like rubbish. Five women had died because of his abuse in the past thirteen years. If she let herself, she would be the sixth girl. However, if she was able to escape, she would end up in the streets at best, try to make ends meet then get a stable job to keep her moving for while until she was able to at least open a small eatery.

Radha was dressed in a red bridal lehenga with lots of jewelry and make up. Radha looked entirely different tonight.

Her hip long black hair was held in a neat bun and a white flower band was used to hold the bun.

Her palms, unlike every other bride, did not have mehndi. Apparently, the husband to be hated it.

Both of them couldn't get engaged either because he had an important meeting that very time.

Radha was made to wear beautiful red bangles. She had on a stomach chain with matching necklaces and earrings. Against her protest, her make up was made heavily.

Once she was ready, Kavya left the room to check the other things.

The bridal preparation and wedding was taking place a five star hotel in the town, Kolkata.

Radha stared at herself in the mirror.

"Are you ready?" Her sister's soft voice ruined the silence. Radha quickly turned to look at her as Nandini locked the door and walked to her.

"I don't know, didi, I'm so nervous." Radha said. "Yes, but don't worry. We cannot use the main entrance. The groom is yet to arrive so everyone has gone to the entrance to welcome him. Thank goddess there's a back door and nobody is there. So let's go, this was too easy than I thought." Radha nodded and held her sister's hand, ready to escape.

And so they ran. However, the moment they realized that the back door was locked, dread filled them as they heard a dark chuckle behind them.

"What? You thought we would not know that you were just pretending to play along with us so you could run away? Come on, kids, we know how this works."

Nandini and Radha turned to see their parents smiling at them. Kavya held them captive in her firm grip while Raj slapped Nandini once then Radha twice.

"Stupid girls, our reputation would have been ruined because of your innocently foolish plan. But it's good. I realized that my daughters can play well." He chuckled.

"What do you want from me? Why do you keep treating me like a sore? You could have just abandoned me in the streets or taken me to the orphanage than to keep me and hate me. What did I do to deserve all this? What was my mistake?"

Radha cried, fighting to get out of her mother's grip.

"Should we tell her, Kavya?" Raj asked.

"Oh sure. What difference will it make anyway? In a matter of three hours, she would be married and be leaving the country. Lucky her." Kavya laughed.

Radha had a feeling she was not going to like what was to come. Raj finally revealed, "your biological father gave you to us in exchange of a son to be his heir. You see? Since birth, you have always been unwanted. Your own father didn't want you, we didn't need our son either, he compensated us with a million European dollars, that's the money we used to cater for Krishna and Nandini. Poor Radha."

Raj laughed, as Radha let herself fall while crying.

Her own father had given her away, just because she was a girl?

"So who is my father?" Radha asked in a soft broken voice.

"That's for us to know and you to never find out, because we won't trade our son's happiness for anything. He deserves the luxury we wouldn't have given him." Raj growled at her and slapped her again.

"Nandu baby, take your sister back to her room and get her ready. As for you, once this wedding is over, your punishment will come to you." Raj said as Kavya let go of Nandini, walking away with her husband.

The two sisters cried. "Didi, nobody wants me." Radha cried in her sister's arms.

"No, Radha, I want you. Your brother wants you. People need you to stay strong. Don't mind those two. Please, I'm so sorry, our plan failed." Nandini cried while trying to console her sister.

Sadly, they both walked back into the room. Radha already had a back up plan but didn't tell Nandini because she didn't deserve to be punished for her sake. The moment they entered the room, Radha hugged her sister tightly.

"I love you, Nandu. Please, tell Krishna bhaiya that I love him too." Radha cried.

Nandini hugged her back while crying.

"I love you too, little one. Stay strong for us okay?"

Radha nodded against her sister's chest.

"I'm so sorry, Nandu. Goodbye." Radha said.

Confused, Nandini pulled away and looked at Radha. Radha smiled sadly. All of a sudden, she pushed her sister farther away and quickly took out the small knife from the fruit plate, holding it to her neck, while moving backwards towards the balcony. This plan had to work because it was either she was going to die and that would be the end or she would survive and be faced with two things; one. Get strength to run away. Two. Get caught and forced to marry the old man.

Filled with panic and fear of loosing her sister, Nandini began shouting, "Radha! Please I beg you, don't do this, I don't want to loose you please. Mom! Dad! Radha wants to kill herself!"

Nandini cried. Radha kept stepping back.

"Stay away from me!" Radha cried.

Raj, Kavya and Mr. Patel, along with a few family members rushed into the room at the sound of Nandini's cry.

"Radha. Have you gone mad?! Step away from the balcony and come here, stop that stunt you're pulling this minute!" Kavya scolded her.

"You think if you die, it will make any difference?!" Raj asked as if it will hurt her more.

Radha laughed instead, "no. It won't make any difference but I will have rest because I need that rest away from you, from this world and from this cruelty! I never asked to be born but I was. Once I have come into your lives, shouldn't you at least love me? Even if I was given to you, you could have just I don't know, given me to a family who needed a child. There are so many couples out there looking for ways to even have an abnormal child to call their own...and you're here, you have three and look at what you are doing, exchanging your child for luxury, vanity. Things that you will not take to your graves. Shame on you!"

Nandini cried.

When Kavya tried to move forward, Radha turned and jumped over the balcony without looking back. "Radha!" Everyone shouted, rushing to find her awkwardly sprawled on the floor.

"Radha!" Nandini shouted and fainted, shifting their attention from Radha to herself.

Meanwhile, Radha groaned as she slowly got up, she had injured her arm. Tearfully, she quietly but quickly ran into the woods behind the hotel, never to return to the town, ever.

Well thank goodness, she had a back up plan. Turns out, majority of us do not dream of marrying old men. Like, tell me why I should marry a man old enough to be my grandfather.

Poor Radha. So all this time, she wasn't part of the family? I'm sure some of us have already started to guess how the story is gonna be like 🤭

I'm so tempted to make Radha a cold hearted person because of what she has gone through but we should not conform to the things of this world but we should be transformed by the renewal of our minds.

Just because people hurt you in the past does not mean that you will hurt anyone that comes your way in the future. When you do that, what makes you different from the people who hurt you in the past?

Oh my gosh, I'm loving this. Do you know? The part where Radha jumped over the balcony, I have always had that scene in mind since teenage but I didn't know how to incorporate them into my other stories.

I hope you like this chapter. Thank you for reading up to this point.

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Julie Cooper.