Ganga's POV:

"Marry me."

The words did not fall from his lips like a request... they struck like a verdict-cold, absolute, and impossible to defy. The air around me seemed to freeze, as if time itself had paused to witness the weight of his command.

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

My blood ran cold, so cold that it felt as though ice had been injected into my veins, spreading mercilessly through every inch of my body. A sharp shiver crawled up my spine, settling at the nape of my neck as my fingers trembled ever so slightly.

I gulped hard, the sound echoing unnaturally loud in the suffocating silence around us. It felt as if every vein in my body was screaming..screaming to break free, to shatter, to destroy everything that dared to corner me like this.

My heart... it wasn't beating anymore. It was pounding..violently, painfully.. against my ribcage, as if trying to escape the cage it had been trapped in for far too long. Slowly, almost mechanically, my eyes lifted to meet his.

And there he stood... Unmoving. Unyielding. Unreadable..yet painfully clear. His gaze was fixed on me, sharp and piercing like a blade dipped in poison. There was no warmth there. No hesitation. No trace of humanity that could soften the brutality of this moment.

Only hatred. Only disgust. It burned in his eyes so fiercely that I could almost feel it scorching my skin. And yet... Here he was. Demanding me to marry him.

A bitter, hollow chuckle escaped my lips before I could stop it..dry, broken, laced with disbelief and something far darker. The sound didn't even feel like it belonged to me.

"Shaadi?" I let out, my voice trembling despite my desperate attempt to steady it.

I fisted the heavy fabric of my bridal lehenga, my trembling fingers clutching it so tightly that my knuckles turned pale.

The weight of it felt suffocating..like chains wrapped around my body, dragging me deeper into a fate I refused to accept. My breath came out uneven, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I gathered every last ounce of strength left within me.

Slowly... painfully... I lifted my gaze and faced him.

My eyes locked onto his with a burning intensity..mirroring the same disgust, the same hatred that he held for me. The air between us thickened, heavy with unspoken chaos, with a storm that was seconds away from tearing everything apart. And then..I screamed.

"Marry you? I would rather burn myself alive in this mandap than ever marry a monster like you!"

My voice echoed through the hall, raw and sharp, slicing through the silence like a blade. Gasps erupted around us, whispers spreading like wildfire, but I heard none of it. All I could hear was the deafening sound of my own heartbeat, pounding violently against my ribs as if trying to break free.

For a fleeting second..just a second..I saw it. A flicker. Something shifted in his expression.

Shock... disbelief... maybe even a crack in that cold, impenetrable facade of his. It was so brief that I almost thought I had imagined it. Because the very next moment, it was gone..completely erased, as if it had never existed.

His jaw clenched so tightly that the muscle ticked visibly. His eyes... those dark, stormy eyes... turned a dangerous shade of red, blazing with a fury he was barely holding back. The veins on his temple stood out, betraying the storm raging within him despite his rigid composure.

The entire atmosphere changed. It wasn't just tense anymore. It was terrifying. Then... he moved. One step.

Slow. Controlled. Predatory.

The sound of his footsteps echoed against the marble floor, each one sending a fresh wave of fear crashing through me. My heartbeat spiked, thundering violently in my ears, my body instinctively screaming at me to step back..run..escape-But I stood frozen. Because something far more dangerous than fear held me in place. Him.

With every step he took closer, the distance between us shrank, and the air became harder to breathe. His presence was overwhelming..suffocating..like a storm closing in with no escape.

Fear curled in my chest... but so did something else. Something I refused to name. Something I refused to feel.

Before I could even react, he caught my hand..tight, unyielding, merciless.. leaving absolutely no room for escape.

His giant palm completely swallowed my small wrist, his grip like iron shackles closing around fragile bone. Pain shot through my arm instantly, sharp and unforgiving, as his fingers pressed into my skin, leaving behind a burning mark as if branding me in place.

I hissed in pain, my breath catching sharply, but he did not spare even a fraction of mercy. Not a flicker of hesitation. Not even a glance that suggested he cared.

I tried to pull back, to wiggle free from his grip, but it was useless..like trying to break free from steel chains. Before another word could leave my lips, he raised his other hand slightly, a silent signal.

And everything changed.

Within seconds, the entire atmosphere of the brothel turned into a battlefield. His guards..armed, alert, and already positioned..moved in perfect synchronization.

Guns clicked, safety locks came off, and in a heartbeat, every exit, every corner, every breath of freedom was sealed.

The women from the brothel froze in terror as rough hands grabbed them, dragging them into control. Guests who had once been carefree moments ago now stood trembling, eyes wide with fear as cold metal barrels were pressed against their heads. Panic erupted instantly..silent screams, shattered breaths, and helpless cries swallowed by the weight of authority.

My heart dropped. And then I saw them.

"Shivansh bhaiya..."

His face twisted in rage, his entire body tensed like a coiled storm ready to explode. His eyes burned with fury as he took a step forward, clearly ready to launch himself at the man standing in front of me..this beast who had turned everything into chaos in seconds.

But before he could move even another inch, a guard stepped in front of him. A gun was raised directly at him.

And then..At Saanvi bhabhi. And their daughter..little Anvi. My breath stopped.

My eyes widened in absolute horror as the barrel of the gun pointed at the innocent child who was now crying uncontrollably, her tiny body trembling in fear, unaware of why the world had suddenly turned into something so cruel.

A choked gasp left my throat. My entire body turned ice-cold, every drop of blood draining from my face as realization hit me like a brutal storm.

Shivansh bhaiya's expression shattered in an instant. The rage vanished. The fire in his eyes died.

His face went pale..completely drained of color..as he stared at the man in front of me. The betrayal, the disbelief, the helpless fury... all of it collided in his gaze at once.

The same man he once trusted. The same man he once called his closest ally. Now standing on the opposite side... weaponized against his family.

The air turned suffocating. No one moved. No one dared to breathe too loudly.

A tear finally escaped my eyes. I turned my gaze away from him..just for a second..and looked at them. My family.

My mother... my bhaiya... bhabhi... and all the people who had once loved me without condition.

They were crying. Trembling. Begging for their lives with helpless eyes filled with fear and desperation. Their voices broke into silent pleas, but none of them reached me fully..only fragments of broken sounds drowned in chaos.

Something inside me shattered. My chest tightened painfully as if my heart had been crushed between invisible hands.

I snapped my gaze back to him. Disgust. Rage. Helpless fury..everything boiled violently through my veins like molten fire. My entire body trembled, not from fear anymore, but from the intensity of hatred rising within me.

But he... He didn't flinch. Not even once.

Not a trace of regret. Not a flicker of guilt. Nothing.

He stood there like a storm carved in human form..cold, composed, and terrifyingly unbothered. His eyes, sharp and emotionless, locked onto mine with an unsettling calmness that made my skin crawl.

And then he spoke.

"Shaadi toh hokar rahegi... chahe aapse ho ya aapki laash se."

(The marriage will happen... whether it is with you or with your corpse.)

The words didn't feel like a threat. They felt like a decision already made. Before I could even process what he had said, he moved.

Without another word, he struck a burning matchstick and threw it carelessly around us. In an instant...flames erupted.

Fire crawled across the mandap like a living beast, forming a burning circle that closed in around us, trapping both of us inside along with the pandit ji. The heat rose instantly, suffocating, violent, and inescapable. Orange flames danced wildly, reflecting in terrified eyes and casting horrifying shadows on everything around.

Screams echoed faintly outside the fireline, but they felt distant... unreachable... like a world already slipping away.

My breath hitched. My body went cold despite the raging fire surrounding me.

And then he grabbed my hand again.

Tighter this time. Dragging me forward toward the mandap.

My heart dropped violently as reality sank in..there was no escape left.

Before I could even process it, he threw me onto the seat. The force made me gasp sharply, my breath catching in my throat. Within seconds, he settled beside me, too close..too controlling..his presence suffocating every inch of space I had left.

His hand immediately found its place again, gripping me firmly, grounding me to the seat as if even the thought of escape was a crime punishable by death.

And then his voice cut through the chaos.

"Jitne kadam yahan se door... utni laash tumhare kadmo mein giregi."

(The number of step you take away from here... the same number of corpse will fall at your feet.)

"Ya toh aaj yahan ham dono ki shaadi hogi... ya in sabka janaza."

(Either our wedding happens today... or their funeral will.)

His tone was calm. Terrifyingly calm. He wasn't shouting. He wasn't angry.

And that made it worse. I froze completely.

My body turned cold, a deep chilling sensation crawling beneath my skin as the words sank into me like poison. The fire around us crackled violently, but I could no longer feel its heat..only the unbearable weight of his threat pressing down on my chest.

Tears streamed down my cheeks without permission, hot and painful, as my voice finally broke through the silence.

"Kyun... kyun kar rahe ho tum yeh sab? Kya mil jayega tumhe yeh karke, haan?"

(Why... why are you doing all this? What will you even get by doing this, huh?)

My voice cracked in the middle, raw with helplessness and disbelief. My chest heaved as I struggled to breathe properly, my emotions spilling out uncontrollably.

For a moment... He didn't answer. The silence stretched painfully between us, thick with tension, as if even the flames outside were waiting for his response.

Then slowly... He turned his head toward me. And what I saw made my stomach drop.

A faint smirk curved his lips..cold, sharp, almost inhuman. It didn't hold warmth. It didn't hold emotion. It was the kind of expression that belonged to someone who had already decided the ending. Someone who enjoyed watching it unfold.

He looked like a devil sitting in human form. And then he answered, his voice low and final..

"Tumhari barbaadi..."

(Your destruction...)

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.