The pain kept twisting in the pit of her stomach, tearing apart every shred of sanity she had left. Indriyani could no longer just stand there.
Finally, her legs—she had no idea where they found the strength—suddenly began to move. One step, two steps, then she started walking faster.
Her hands trembled, but she kept moving in long strides toward the gleaming black car. Her heart pounded, no longer because of love, but from the burning rage mixed with unbearable pain.
She reached the car door, raised her hand, and frantically tapped on the window.
“Akbar! Akbar! Open up! I know you’re in there!” Her voice was hoarse, barely recognizable, swallowed by the wind. She struck the glass again, harder.
Her hand hurt, but the pain in her heart was far worse. “Akbar! Don’t pretend you can’t hear me! Open the door!”
The car window slowly lowered a little. Akbar’s face appeared behind the dark glass, his expression shocked for a moment before turning annoyed.
He stared at Indriyani as if she were an annoying bug that had just ruined his moment.
“For God’s sake, Indriyani,” Akbar scoffed, his tone flat and cold. “What is it? What are you doing here?” he asked, his tone growing slightly sharper. There was a defensive edge to his voice.
Indriyani felt as if he had slapped her hard across the face—not with his hand, but with his voice. “What is it?! You’re asking me what it is?!”
She was gasping for breath. Tears streamed down her flushed cheeks. “My father is dying, Akbar! I just came from inside, begging your father to save Dad’s life! And you… you’re here with her?!”
She pointed at the blonde woman beside Akbar, who now looked at her with a contemptuous smile. The woman swept back her hair, revealing the sparkling diamond necklace around her neck. Her smile widened, filled with triumph.
“Where have you been all this time, Akbar?! You disappeared without a trace, and it turns out you’ve been having fun with this woman?!” Indriyani screamed, her voice breaking through her streaming tears as her trembling hand pointed at the blonde. “I looked everywhere for you! You wouldn’t answer my calls or reply to my messages! And you… you’re just having a great time here?!”
Akbar glanced at the woman for a moment, then looked back at Indriyani. His eyes rolled lazily. “Oh, more drama? I knew it.”
“Drama?!” Indriyani nearly shrieked as she stepped closer to Akbar, her face red with blazing anger.
“You call this drama? My father is dying! His life is hanging by a thread! I humbled myself and got on my knees, begging your father like a beggar! I was willing to do anything for you! And you… all you can say is that this is drama?! You bastard! I hate you!” Her voice trembled, a mixture of screams and sobs, but her eyes still burned with uncontrollable hatred.
The blonde woman let out a crisp laugh that pierced Indriyani’s eardrums. “Who is she, honey? A new beggar? Oh, wait—could this be that girl you’ve told me about? The one who likes to ‘entertain’ you at the tea plantation?”
Indriyani’s heart plummeted. The word “entertain” struck her like a sledgehammer. She looked at Akbar, searching for denial, searching for even a trace of regret in his eyes. But all she found was emptiness and disgust.
Akbar leaned back as if Indriyani truly didn’t matter. He let out a long sigh, as though answering the most boring question in the world.
“She’s nobody, Mila. Just… a cute tea plantation girl. She used to be a little entertainment whenever I got bored in that village. You know how it is—the weather’s cold there, and there isn’t much else to do.”
Indriyani’s world collapsed. It was completely pulverized into dust. “A little entertainment”? “A cute tea plantation girl”?
The words replayed over and over in her head, and each repetition felt like a knife ripping into her soul.
“Entertainment?!” Indriyani could no longer hold back. She screamed, her voice raw from unbearable pain.
“You said I was entertainment?! You said you loved me! You promised you’d marry me! You said we’d live together! You said I was the only one! All of it… all of it was a lie?!”
Tears ran uncontrollably down her face, mixing with snot and soaking her cheeks. She no longer cared. Her dignity had been shattered long ago. Now her heart was shattered too.
Akbar smiled mockingly, the smile she had once thought was a sign of love now feeling like a devil’s laugh. “Love? Marriage? Don’t get carried away dreaming, Indri. We’re in different classes. You think what happened in that shack was real? It was just… an escape. It’s freezing on this plantation, and I needed some warmth—as a biological need I had to satisfy. I was bored, Indri. You know there’s nothing in the village. You were decent enough for entertainment and to pass the time.”
Every word was poison seeping into her veins. An escape. Entertainment. That was all? Every promise, every touch, every sweet whisper beneath the tea trees—had it all just been a game to him?
The blonde woman, Mila, now stroked Akbar’s arm. She looked at Indriyani with feigned pity, but beneath it lay a cruel satisfaction.
“Oh, you poor thing. Did you really think you could move up in the world? You’re too naive, little girl. Know your place. Status matters. Love alone isn’t enough to live on.”
Indriyani felt her blood boil. A rage hotter than anything she had ever felt engulfed her. Hatred. Pure hatred. Untainted by anything else.
A hatred she would carry to her grave. She was no longer Indriyani, the girl who loved. She was Indriyani, freshly trampled, humiliated, and betrayed to the bone.
“You ba-j1ng4n!” She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. “You liar! You ba-j1ng4n! I hate you, Akbar! I hate you!”
Akbar shrugged as if her curses meant nothing to him. His expression grew bored again. He gestured at Mila, and the woman gave a small smile.
“Enough. Go,” Akbar said, his tone flat once more. “Don’t make a scene. I don’t have time for your cheap drama. I need to leave.”
He didn’t even look at Indriyani again. His eyes were fixed only on Mila, as if Indriyani no longer existed. Mila giggled and wrapped her arm around Akbar’s.
“Leave? You’re telling me to leave?” Indriyani could hardly believe it. This was the end of everything. The love she had thought was real, the future she had dreamed of—it was all crumbling before her eyes. All for a man who saw her as nothing but a toy.
“You’ll regret this, Akbar! You’ll regret it!”
Akbar didn’t answer. He merely moved his hand. Slowly, the car window began to rise. The soft hum of the motor became a curtain closing over this scene of destruction.
The window continued rising, higher and higher, separating Indriyani from the man who had taken everything from her. She could no longer see Akbar’s face, only a vague shadow behind the dark glass. The car began to move, slowly at first, then faster.
Leaving Indriyani standing frozen in the front yard of the luxurious house that felt like hell. Leaving Indriyani with nothing but tears and a new hatred. The car sped away, growing more distant, as if carrying away all her hopes and dreams.