CHAPTER 1

DANCING WITH SHADOW

In a dimly lit room, shadows clung to the corners as the solitary figure moved with haunting grace. As she danced, her hands reached for an unseen partner. Each step resonated with a melancholic rhythm, a silent duet with the abyss.

Her eyes, pools of sorrow, reflected the emptiness of her life. As she twirled in a ghostly embrace, her sealed lips whispered the secrets of her solitude. The dance unfolded like a sorrowful ballet.

The room echoed with the haunting melody of her footfalls, a mournful cadence to a love that existed only in the twisted corridors of her mind. The air thickened with an unspoken sorrow, as the lady continued to sway with a spectral partner, trapped in a haunting dance of despair.

" Ma'am, the dining table is set for dinner." A maid informed her.

She descended from stairs, passing corridors and corridors like a twisted maze. Every wall screamed a secret, every frame roared a pain, and every tile bathed with someone's blood.

Suryavansh's residence has never been a happy-happening place. The air is always heavy with the weight of unspoken truths, deceit, and a history littered with concealed conspiracies, making it tough for Shrinaya to breathe.

But then, embracing her destiny she learned how to breathe less, just enough to survive and endure the toxic atmosphere of the place which now people call her home.

She gazed at the marvelous dining table, nothing of her liking, like always. She was fond of Indian cuisine but the relatives of her husband's family love to eat expensive foreign dishes whose ingredients have to be imported now and then.

Unwillingly, she placed something on her plate absent-mindedly as she felt the disgusted gaze of her mother-in-law on her. The older woman, a maestro in manipulation, seemed to relish in making Shrinaya's existence a struggle.

" When are you planning to leave...?" She said, venom laced in her voice.

Shrinaya kept looking at her plate, ignoring the dose of daily disrespect from her dearest mother-in-law.

The last time she could recall, she wasn't a person who took a word of disrespect from anyone and was now sitting silently on the table filled with people who were hardly Suryavansh.

And she has reasons.

Her mother-in-law, who wasn't the mother of her husband, kept her whole leach of the family in the house who knows nothing but to suck the resources out of them.

Shrinaya's marriage wasn't a love marriage, heck it wasn't even an arranged marriage. It was rather an exchange offer marriage.

This venomous mother-in-law has a daughter, who managed to make her brother fall in love with her. And then both of them ran and married for a happily ever after only to force her as a peace treaty trophy to calm the boiling blood of Suryavansh.

" When your daughter is coming back..." I replied. It was enough to shut her up for the next dinner but not her relatives.

" This mannerless girl... Look at her talking back." Her dead brother's wife, Yana, launched at Shrinaya.

Only then, a small cry erupted in the hall. She lifted her gaze to meet her sister-in-law, Dhwani, who was another case to pity upon.

Dhwani tried to calm her little angel but seemed like it was something beyond her abilities at that moment.

" Girls of this generation... Only know how to open their legs, but don't know how to bear the consequences of it. Shameless sluts." Yana's words continued to cut through the air, sharply, each one adding to the toxic atmosphere that enveloped the room.

Oh god! This woman...

" Yana Thakur..." Shrinaya spoke, her voice laced with danger.

To an extent she can take her disrespect because she knows, she is capable of standing up for herself when needed unlike the poor girl sitting across the table, trying to control her helpless tears.

"You are just a guest of the house. Act like one." Warning underlined in her calm voice.

Yana's face turned red due to anger. "How dare you talk to me like that? Have you forgotten who I am...?"

" Yes, tell me.. who are you?" She asked.

" I- I..." She couldn't find appropriate words to describe any of her rights or the power she possessed to say anything to them, because Yana Thakur had none.

" I will tell you, who are you? You are just a sister-in-law of my mother-in-law who has been living in this house as the guest of honor for many years and had forgotten the fact that this house belongs to, Suryavansh. You have absolutely no right to say anything to any of us." Shrinaya spoke as Dhwani, her sister-in-law shed tears in silence.

" Didi are you looking at her... Now this worthless girl will talk to me like that." Yana fake cried.

" Shrinaya you better not forget your place. Just because your family threw you at us, doesn't mean we will bear with this ill-mannered face of yours. If you can't stand my family. Leave." Mayuri said, angrily.

" What are you waiting for? Apologies for to her." She raised her voice, noticing no reaction from Shrinaya.

Shrinaya's chuckle resonated in the room " You wish..." She muttered as she continued to finish what was left on her plate.

" Dhwani will be out of the house with her little buddle of sin this night if you won't." Mayuri dared her, with her Sinister smile.

Shrinaya's disgusted look met this excuse of a mother. She knew Mayuri had no morals, forget a heart.

She would do exactly what she said.

" I am sorry," Shrinaya said, plainly.

The hall echoed with the sound of a glass breaking. " Oh, my bad. I mistakenly dropped the glass. Will you please pick it up for me? Won't you Shrinaya?" Yana spoke, with fake innocence dripping from her voice.

Shrinaya avoiding any extra drama stood up and walked to her, bent to her knee as she picked up the shattered pieces of glass, just like her life.

Yana and Mayuri shared a sense of victory to make Reyansh's wife kneel in front of them.

But she would never know about it. She would never know that the reason behind her humiliation was her husband. They want him to kneel in her place but they can't in a million lives so instead they make her suffer.

The sound of heavy, dominating, powerful steps made everyone sit in attention. Shrinaya lifted her gaze to meet with the emotional less one.

Her husband

Her dark black eyes met his whiskey-brown orbs.

She didn't disappoint herself again, in the attempt to find any emotions in them.

The finely carved man, whom god would have invested in all his time and capabilities, to give him the beauty he possessed, stood in front of her, with this Godly aura yet she continued to complete her task and move out of the hall to throw away the broken piece of glass, and her self-respect.

As she returned, she heard her phone ringing but before she could reach the ringing stopped.

She didn't fail to ignore the absence of her husband.

Missed a call from 'Rudraksh Suryavansh'.

Another pain in her life.

A ping sound came and a message popped on the top of her mobile screen.

'I wanted to talk to you before I leave everything forever. Thank you for everything.'

What the hell!

She called him twice but the calls weren't unanswered.