Alizeh

It started with fate

And ended with my heart

And this, my pretty reckless rival, is how

our fucked up story starts.

I drag Ace to my house to confront my apparent step-mother. He tells me it's a bad idea but I pay no heed and glare at him.

"It's cute that you think your glare scares me baby." He kisses both my eyes and smirks.

I push him away, take a deep breath as he holds my hand firmly. I try to wiggle it away but he holds it so tightly that it hurts. So I give in.

She opens the door with a smile and her grin falters when she sees the both of us.

"W-What are you doing here?" she stammers.

No hi, hello, you are back?

I push her aside and sit on the sofa, legs crossed, my hands still tightly held by Ace. I curse him as he winks back. He looks so delicious in his black t-shirt that I kiss his neck.

Focus.

"When did you come back baby? she asks me as her eyes dart between me and him.

"You guys are finally together!' she exclaims as she comes to hug us, I put my palm forward.

"Why did you lie to dad?" I ask. Ace looks at me incredulously. Did he expect me to start with some foreplay?

"What do you mean?" She says, suddenly nervous.

"You are my real mother. So why did you create this drama?" I ask as her eyes turn wide.

Ace's hand wrestle my fingers.

"The birth certificate you gave him was fake." I say.

What does she think? The first thing I check would, of course, be the authenticity of the document. It is hilarious how dunderheads like my dad could end up ruling the entire business in India.

"Why did you make him believe that someone else was my mother?" I ask again.

"Baby, I think you-"

"Listen, Millie, I really don't have any time or patience for this bull shit. Sooner or later you would come out, please don't make me threaten you." Ace says as my mother gapes at him. Regret wishing we end up together don't you, mother darling?

"How dare you disrespect me. I am your-"

I get up and take a breath. "Ace, let's go and have a chit-chat with dad."

"No no no. Wait." she shouts as we walk away.

"I am your real mother not Liza." she says as I smirk and turn around. I grip Ace's jacket harshly waiting to learn how much more can my life fuck me in the ass.

"I did this because I didn't have an option. I wanted to marry Viaan, your father. He cheated on his girlfriend, Liza with me. We just spent a night together and I fell in love with him."

"With his money you mean." I sneer as Ace stamps on my foot.

She ignores me.

"I got to know I was pregnant with his child a week later. I knew he would never want a child with me so I stayed away from him for nine months. Five months after you were born, I got to know Liza and him broke up a year back. I sent him a letter from Liza's side telling him that she was pregnant and her child was born."

I stumble back and sit down. Ace just chomps on his gum making me want to punch him. But he is a sociopath, he doesn't really know how to act in tense situations.

"I wrote in the letter that she was coming with her child to claim her right. I even sent him the fake birth certificate and DNA Report. I threatened Liza to take part in it and kept you with her for a few days."

"I...I don't know what I was doing. I didn't think it would go so far. A child out of wedlock would have been bad for business so Viaan ordered his men to kill Liza and hid you. He asked Sia to look for a nanny. Zohravar was around a year and a half that time."

No. No. No.

"You were just seven months old. I wanted to protect-"

"Shut the fuck up. Don't give me the protect bullshit."

"I swear on-"

"One more lie and I swear to hell I would go to your husband with this."

"Okay, okay. I basically interviewed for the role of a nanny, he selected me and later married me immediately. We had shifted out of the state to avoid any controversies and came back only four years later. But I only wanted to protect you in this evil world so I went through so-"

"You wanted his money and his lifestyle. You craved it and you used me as a puppet to get it. End of story. You aren't a heroine and you sure as hell aren't the victim so shut up."

She flinches and I realise there isn't even an ounce of guilt in her eyes. Its the kind of life she chose for herself.

I take deep breaths as Ace rubs my back.

"Stop it." I whisper to him dangerously.

"I had to distance myself from you because I was still just your nanny, you know, in his eyes. There were so many times I wanted to come to your room and see if you are doing okay, but I resisted it for your sake."

Dimwit and delusional. How deadly.

I looked at my watch as I say " Safe to say it's too late for you to tuck me into bed. You realise I'm going straight to daddy dearest with this if there is even an ounce of lie, correct?"

She nodded.

I realised my loyalty was to no one but Ace and myself at this point. And it didn't escape me that I'd just put Ace's name before my own.

Ace shook his head, gave her salute and dragged me away before I murdered her.

Zohravar

Star was scaring me.

She was too happy. I stared at her as she pushed my face away and laughed. I clenched my jaw, she almost seemed robotic as hummed a tune.

"Why are we going towards your farmhouse?" she asks.

"Do you wanna go back to my house or stay at a hotel instead?"

"Is-"

I stop the car.

"No. Staying alone is not an option." I stress out forcefully.

Over my dead body will it ever be an option.

Actually not even over that.

"Too bad, I don't need your permission." She opens her window as the guard recognises her and then sees me.

I pass the car keys to the house help and hop out of the car, walking into my house.

She follows me.

"I will tell your dad about all your school vandalisations."

She stops and looks at me like I killed her pet.

"If you run away from even once, even try to, I will tell him quite a few of your extra- curricular activities, enough to stop your inheritance."

"How do you know?" she whispers.

"I know how you spend every second of your day especially without me baby. It's high time you realise you just can't escape me."

" I can tell your banker as well." she smirks.

"My dad can never stop my inheritance, due to granny's deed. You know it too baby so why are you boring me?"

"You have no proof against me."

I kiss her and she pushes me away after a minute.

Betrayal never tasted so sweet.

"It's my word against yours baby. There is no way he is choosing you" I bite.

She looks at me like I punched her.

I don't know what I am doing. Maybe I am riling her up, just so she can finally break.

Something in her just changes as she smiles, holds her head high and walks into the loo in my room.

A second later I hear the shower. I think about her shaving blades in my cabinet. There is no way she would do anything with them.

The moment Star walked into my life I owned her. She would never be free again. If Star thought she'd leave me by killing herself, she'd hate me for eternity when I kept her alive

She is my caged bird. Sometimes with a tight leash and other times with a loose one.

But always caged by me.

I hear her sing as I look at the door astonished. Unpredictable as always.

I take my t-shirt off, just wear my grey sweatpants and go down.

Fuck I am hungry.

I look into the fridge, eat some left over pizza, kill some time on my phone, do normal people stuff as I wait for her to come down.

She doesn't.

I hurry up and go to my room and see her snuggled into my bed with my blanket.

Isn't she starving?

I creep into the covers and pull her body into my arms kissing her face and her neck, I tuck my head into her shoulder and doze off.