“How dare you tease me!”
“Now, serve me. Hurry!”
A man’s deep voice still echoed faintly in Nadya’s mind.
That was the voice she had heard just before her consciousness completely sank into darkness.
Nadya jolted awake when the alarm on her phone rang loudly.
She blinked several times.
Her vision was still blurry.
For a few seconds, she sat there in silence, trying to figure out where she was.
The bedroom ceiling.
The curtains, slightly open.
An unfamiliar scent filling the room.
Nadya swallowed.
Finally, she realized. She was in the bridal suite.
And now? Alone.
Her hand slowly moved beneath the blanket.
Then her body suddenly froze.
Nadya lifted the blanket slightly, revealing the body beneath it.
There wasn’t a single piece of clothing on her body.
Her eyes immediately widened.
Her breath caught.
With trembling hands, she hurriedly pulled the blanket back up to cover herself.
“No way...”
The words came out in barely a whisper.
The clothes she had worn last night were scattered across the floor. The wedding dress that was supposed to symbolize a bride’s happiness now lay carelessly beside the bed.
Nadya closed her eyes.
She tried to remember.
But all that surfaced were vague fragments.
A dark room.
The sound of breathing.
A man’s figure.
Then that deep voice, endlessly circling in her mind.
“How dare you tease me!”
“Serve me now. Hurry!”
After that...
Nothing.
She remembered nothing else.
Nadya bit her lower lip.
Could it be...
Had Mahendra really taken her virginity?
Tears slowly gathered in the corners of her eyes.
One drop fell.
Then another followed.
Nadya hurriedly wiped her cheeks, but the more she wiped, the more tears fell.
It had been her duty, after all. But regret still swept over her.
Hadn’t she known from the beginning that this might happen?
Hadn’t she been the one to come to this room?
Hadn’t she been the one to accept Nayra’s request?
But knowing something in theory was clearly different from facing the reality of what might have just happened to her.
Her chest felt tight.
Nadya lowered her head.
Was she really doing all this just for something as worldly as college?
“Just for college...”
Her voice trembled.
“Just because I want to go to college...”
She wrapped her arms around herself.
All this time, she had always thought that life had never given her many choices.
While other people could choose what they wanted, Nadya could only think about what she was capable of sacrificing.
Nadya looked once more at the clothes scattered across the floor.
She shouldn’t be crying.
Wasn’t this the duty she had agreed to?
But her heart still felt shattered.
Regret had come too late.
Far too late.
“Why did it have to be me?”
Her voice broke.
“Why does my life have to be like this?”
No one answered.
Only the silence of the room bore witness to her tears.
Nadya finally rose on trembling legs.
She gathered the clothes scattered across the floor, then walked toward the bathroom.
The moment the door closed, the sobs she had been holding back finally broke free.
She stood beneath the shower.
Water poured down, soaking her body.
Nadya lowered her head.
She hoped the water could erase every memory of last night.
But the man’s voice still echoed in her mind.
“How dare you tease me...”
Nadya closed her eyes.
Her tears mingled with the water streaming down her face.
She didn’t know which hurt more.
What might have happened last night...
or the fact that she had done it only because she felt she had no other choice.
After some time, Nadya turned off the faucet.
She wiped her face.
Then, with hands that were still trembling, she put on the clothes neatly arranged inside the closet.
She had to go out.
She had to act as if nothing had happened.
At least until she found a way to face everything.
Nadya opened the bedroom door.
She had only taken a few steps when a servant walking down the hallway stopped her. The servant looked slightly nervous.