Chapter 1

She sat before the mirror, combing her hair absent mindedly, her thoughts elsewhere. The mirror reflected her room with patchy walls, a broken cupboard, a flickering light bulb and an old curtain which hadn't seen the outside world since its inhabitant started living here as she never opened the window.

A sudden noise outside her room jolted her out of her thoughts, making her comb with several missing teeth, fall on the floor. She bent down to retrieve it and swallowed the cry as a pain shot up her spine. She shut her eyes tightly, as an uninvited tear slid down her cheek and then she tried to straighten her back as slowly as she could to lessen the pain.

She dabbed some powder on her right cheek to cover up the flaw in the make-up left by her tear and looked at her appearance in the mirror. Satisfied, she picked up the bangles from the table below the mirror and started sliding them two at a time on her wrist.

She was tired of this routine. Well one couldn't call the third day a routine. But she did because she didn't know how long it will last. She had thought the first day would be the day. But it wasn't. She hated this uncertainty.

In the lone year that she had spent here, she had been dreading this time - the time when it will all start. When she had arrived here first with her uncle, Shyam, she hadn't known that her uncle's definition of home was different from hers. As the realization had dawned upon her, so had the fear - the fear of the unknown.

And this fear had reached new heights three days back when a certain man had taken fancy to her. Many had. But this one was rich, very rich and very adamant and her uncle wasn't having a good business off late or so she had heard.

Her uncle was saving her for the whole year for this moment. The moment wherein he would mint as much money as he could from her.

She had resisted on the first day, of course. When she was asked to dress up to be present for a meeting' she had shut herself up in the room. That hadn't helped of course. They had broken the door and probably would have broken her bones too with all the beating if the guy who demanded her didn't want her in one piece. But that day didn't turn out to be the day when she would be transferred from one hell to another.

She didn't want the next day to be that day. Hence, she tried to escape and she was caught. What had transpired after she was flung inside the room still remained with her in the form of the marks on her back and her arms. They wouldn't mar her face, never.

Now why wasn't she resisting them today? Why was she willingly dressing up?

The answer was him.

The guy with a strong jaw. She hadn't seen his face completely yet. He always sat in the shadows, with only his jaw visible to her as she watched them play from the side. Yes they played. They played with her fate.

His voice still resonated in her ears like he was standing next to her saying that over and over again.

If I win, the girl is mine and so is the money. But if I lose, the money is yours but I will keep coming here, until I win her in the game.

What she didn't understand was why didn't he simply buy her away? Why lose so much money for nothing and repeatedly?

She had witnessed their game of cards in the past two days. For some reason, he wanted her to be present there for the game. The game lasted as long as his money did. But next day he would come back with even more money. Will he have enough money for today? Will he win today and take her away or will he lose again and she will continue to stay here? If he loses today, will he come back tomorrow?

She sighed heavily as she slipped on the last bangle on her hand. She got up from the creaky chair she was sitting on and looked at her room. Was she looking at this room for the last time? No, she had no attachments with this room. She just wanted to be sure " something she hadn't been in a long time. She didn't know what the feeling of being sure was since she was brought here.

Her eyes fell upon a small suitcase with colourful diagonal patches, lying on the bed, waiting to be picked up like the past two times. Again, for some reason, he wanted her stuff to be packed and ready along with her, as if he wanted to leave with her the second he won the game.

She walked slowly towards the now battered door, courtesy the break-in that she had caused the day before yesterday. She smiled to herself, despite the situation. Additional expense to her uncle. But her smile faltered when she realized at what cost these expenses would be made. She opened the door to find a burly man standing outside, waiting for her. He let her move ahead of him, took her bag and shut the door and followed her to the room. She was familiar with this building and she was not proud of the fact. But what could she do if not know the ways of her house', pun intended, when she had been living here since the past year?

She took a left turn, then a right and then climbed down a flight of steps. It was day time and not many visited this place at this time. Despite that, many sounds fell on her ears which made her feel disgusted every time since she found out what they were. She cringed and clutched her kurta from the sides as she heard the man behind her jeering at her state. She hated him. She hated everything about this place.

She paused outside the room, shut her eyes took a deep breath and stepped in.

Today was different.

He was facing the door and she could see him for the first time.

A well carved face, the stubble still present, mouth set in a thin line, jaws twitching and light brown, confident eyes.

He was going to win today. She could see it, in his eyes. She didn't know why and how she arrived at that conclusion when she hadn't seen his eyes in the previous two occasions to make the comparison between then and now. Still, she knew. She was sure for the first time. But what his victory would entail was not completely unambiguous to her, yet.

She shifted her eyes to the man who stood behind him. He was a tall man with a well built body. She called him bodyguard'. His stance was always rigid, ready to pounce on anyone who dared harm his boss'. She stepped into the room completely and took her usual place in the corner and the game began.

The room reeked of smoke, alcohol and sweat. But this room had always smelled like this. Cards were shuffled, slapped on the table, notes, coins and cards were stashed between them. Her uncle was smoking one cigarette after another while a man stood next to him refilling his glass with alcohol. How she hated these two smells!

He neither smoked nor did he drink.

Her uncle was confident, in fact over confident today. Who wouldn't be if he had been repeatedly winning all the games and earning so much money?

But the guy, despite his confident stance was losing again today. His money supply was quickly dwindling. When he lost the last of his money, he surprised everyone around her by asking his bodyguard to come forward. The bodyguard pulled out two bundles of money. But of what she knew this much was not enough. But a gasp almost escaped her lips as he threw the bundle on the stash of money and she saw the dollar sign.

Her face immediately turned to her uncle's, whose eyes glinted with unmasked greed. Shyam called out one of his men who brought in the bag which contained the money that he had won the past two days. He emptied all of it on the table and smirked.

"Show" that man said as he pulled another bundle of US dollars from his waist coat pocket. Her uncle looked at his cards and smugly placed them on the table. She couldn't see the cards from this distance. But whatever they were, they made Shyam very happy as he brought his hands forward to claim the money on the table.

But before he could, a hand shot out and stopped him. The man showed his cards and said "Game over"

And then everything happened very quickly. His bodyguard came forward and transferred all the money in to his bag while he came towards her, took her small suitcase out of her hand, held her wrist and started walking out without a backward glance.

As they descended the final flights of steps, she heard a lot of footsteps behind her.

Fear. Fear gripped her as she realized that something bad was about to happen not only to her but also to the man who held her hand.

They were almost at the gate when she heard a gun-shot and then a lot of noise as everyone emerged from their rooms. She couldn't bring herself to look behind. There were several more gun shots as he pushed her in to the back of a car and went over to the driver's side. He started the car while his bodyguard came running towards the passenger side door which was kept open by his boss. He quickly stepped in and shut the door as a bullet hit the window, without breaking it.

As the car left the street, she turned behind to see her uncle and his men struggling in the arms of some men she didn't know and made out what her uncle was shouting, "This game is not over yet"

The boss turned to look at the man and said "Good job, Aman"

"Thank you, ASR" he said pleasantly as both turned towards the back to see her.

It was the beginning of her end.