Chapter 1

Antara's pov

In my 20 years of life I never thought that one day will come when I will take this extreme step. 

Today is a very special day for me at least that's what I always thought in the past but now I don't think like that. 

Today is my wedding day or I say the day of my destruction. For any girl her marriage is a very big thing and a very happy occasion because they get married with their own will to their chosen partners but in my case neither the marriage happened with my own will nor my husband is the one whom I chose or loved. 

Technically I'm already married to him before only but that was in the papers. today he marked me as his property in front of the whole world. 

Yes property because they think a wife is equal to property. 

But I can't do this anymore. I have already lost many things I can't lose anything else. 

It's time to get free from this cage that everyone calls life. 

I took out the strip of sleeping pills from inside of my blouse that I hid when I was getting ready. 

Taking the water filled glass I gulped all the pills and sat on the beautifully decorated bed… 

I felt drowsy and decided to lay down. I closed my eyes and started to remember how my life changed drastically. 

Flashback few months before 

Antara's pov 

"Shh! You will wake her up. Don't make so much noise kids!" I heard Amma saying to the kids 

I suppressed a giggle sensing the trouble she is facing with this little devil. 

They all think I'm sleeping but if they knew I'm wide awake and just acting to be asleep. I don't want them to ruin the surprise they planned for me. 

" Amma it's Prithvi who is making noise. We are silent." Preeta complained like everytime about her twin 

"When did I say anything? Why are you lying? Amma see what she is saying." Prithvi whined 

"Both of you keep quiet for now. Let's place the things quietly and decorate the place then we will wake her up." Amma said in a hushed tone and I can imagine all of them nodding their head in yes 

If you still don't understand what they are doing then let me tell you. Today is my 20th birthday to be specific. Finally I'm not a teen anymore… 

Oops I didn't give an introduction about myself, how silly of me. 

So I'm Antara. Only Antara with no surname behind her name like other people because I'm an orphan. Well I don't know if it is my real name or my name was something else because this name is given by Amma to me as there was no pendant or bracelet with my name or anything. Maybe it's my real name or maybe not. But who cares? I'm happy with my name. 

I don't know who my parents are as well. I only know that my parents died in a car crash and Amma brought me here after rescuing me from the crash. 

My father was unconscious but my mother was conscious Amma was passing by when she saw the car. 

She reached there to see if she could help or something. 

My mother who was injured gave me to amma and before amma could call for help the car caught fire and I lost my parents and became an orphan. I was 3 years old at that time and the trauma of the accident made me forget everything. 

Amma brought me here in "Hope orphanage" where kids like me who have no one are raised. 

Amma is the caretaker of this orphanage but she is like a mother to us so we all call her Amma.

I bought up with other kids here. Many people tried to adopt me but I didn't want to go so amma didn't force me to go. It's illegal but still she managed to not send me with them.

I was supposed to move out when I turned 18 but I didn't want to leave anyone and for another reason as well that I will tell later so I took the job of dance and art teacher here and now staying here. 

I love dancing. It's like I'm a born dancer. Maybe my mother was one as well. From my childhood I'm interested in dancing and Amma made sure I took training in dance and now I'm myself a dance teacher but as we say there is no end of learning so I'm also learning new dance styles and forms. 

The owners of this orphanage are very kind and good people. They never let us face any kind of problems may it be about education or safety and even let us do the extra curricular activities as well. 

So back to my birthday they want to surprise me but I know about their little plan but don't want to make them sad so here I'm pretending to sleep. 

I hear their talks and footsteps while they are working. 

After some time I started to feel sleepy for real but kept myself awake. 

"Finally we are done and only 5 minutes are left until 12 am." Amma told the kids 

"Should we wake her up?" Pakhi asked 

Pakhi is Amma's own daughter who is 17 years old. 

"Yes wake her," Amma said and I became normal like I'm sleeping for Real 

"Di wake up," Pakhi called me but I turned aside 

Can't wake up immediately and let them know that I was acting. 

"Di wakey wakey!" Anusha called tapping my cheeks in her baby voice 

She is 5 years old and the youngest one here. 

"Diii!" Everyone screamed in top of their voice and I woke up 

"What?" I asked them pretending to be shocked 

"Happy birthday Di!" They all said together and I saw the clock has hit 12 am 

"Thank you so much." I told them and they all attacked me with a bear hug. 

There are 10 kids excluding Pakhi in this orphanage for now. 

All are various ages ; none is the same age except Preeta and Prithvi as they are twins. 

They are left by their mother who is apparently a teen single mom. 

Their mother had left a letter and it was mentioned there. I can't even blame her completely because she is all alone and taking care of two kids when you're a teen yourself and that too without any support is tough and almost impossible but then the kids are innocent why punish them? I can bear anything but not something wrong. I believe in good works and their fruits. I always protest against wrong things. 

"Di what are you thinking? Come on let's cut the cake already." Pakhi said breaking my train of thoughts 

I nodded my head and tied my hair in a bun before getting up. 

Amma has baked my favorite strawberry cake for me like every year. 

She baked cakes for everyone on their birthdays and she knows who likes what. 

I blew the candles and cut the cake and fed it to Amma first as she is older among us and then Anusha because she is the younger one among us. 

After that I feed others as well and then they feed me back. 

And like every time they applied cream on me and I let them do it because they will be happy. 

Their happiness matters to me very much. They are my little angels. 

After it they all gave me gifts obviously that is their hand made cards and crafts that I taught them making in art class and left leaving me with Pakhi in the room as Pakhi and I share a room. 

We both are best friends though I'm just 3 years older than her. 

"Happy 20th birthday Di. Finally you are not a teen anymore." She said with a smile 

"Yes finally now I can go out and try to explore other things as well." I told her 

"By the way won't you give me my gift?" I asked her as she didn't give me anything 

"I will buy tomorrow. And I have a surprise for you as well." She said with a mischievous smile on her face 

"What surprise?" I asked as I know it must be something mischievous 

"What kind of surprise would it be if I told you now?" She asked and I made my best puppy dog eyes in front her 

"OK ok I will tell actually tomorrow….." She was about to say something when my phone rang suddenly 

It is an unknown number. 

Who Is calling me now? That too this late? I decided to ignore it but again it started to ring 

"Di pick it na what if it is something important?" Pakhi said and I nodded my head 

She is right, it can be something important. 

I received the call and when I heard the voice of the person in call the smile from my lips vanished and anger took on.