K#lling the Billionaire's Brother

Chapter 6| You want to starve yourself to death?!

Ben and Cindy were husband and wife now. Ben welcomed Cindy in his house. It was big and warm. The colours of his walls ranged from cream to yellow. His couch was grey-brownish. His fridge was silver, his TV set was black and his carpets were brown. It was warm. It was more like a home. He carried her bags to his room.

He dished a meal for her and himself, but she did not eat it. He invited her to their room. She sat up the entire night. On the edge of the bed. He found her the next morning in the same position. She also refused to eat breakfast. He left for work. He returned on time. He saw her on the couch staring into space. He bent over to kiss her as his greet.

She ate nothing. She drank nothing. She slept not a wink for days. One evening, he came from work and he found her unconscious on the floor. He quickly rushed her to the hospital. “She is being discharged,” said the female nurse.

“Phew!” Ben sighed, “I thought she’d―”

“Yeah, you would.” The nurse would not hide her disapproval of the situation, “What did you expect? Huh? Starving her like that? Huh? Not allowing her to sleep? I have heard of men abusing their women sexually, verbally, mentally and physically but this... I have never heard of it.”

“Is that what she said to you?”

“Like hell she would! You must have threatened her not to say anything to anyone. But listen here,” she tilted towards him and continued in a soft tone, “your day will come when she finally gets fed up with you and she’ll report you. And every other woman will stand against you and I tell you this, it won’t be nice for you. You know what they say; you strike a woman, you strike a rock.” With that she walked off.

That did not sit well on Ben. He tried so hard to make Cindy feel at home, to show her the gentlest love and keep patience with her. He never expected such results.

“You need to eat something,” he said to her. “You need to sleep.” Those words were never new to her. He said them all the time but she would not react. One morning, he made her porridge. The bowl stood on the table for a while. He, thus, decided to sit with her. On the couch. He held the bowl in his hand. He drove the spoon towards her mouth but she would not open up. He went from gently encouraging her to actually grovelling at her feed.

“That’s it!” he started forcing the spoon into her mouth. “What’s your plan exactly?!” he held tight on her jaws. “You want to starve yourself to death?” he was forcing her mouth open. “Well, not on my watch!”

She struggled through but he was far stronger. Or perhaps, she was a little frail from starving herself. He sat on her legs and constantly thrust her arms away. He made sure that she finished the whole bowl. That night she laid down and slept. He was not proud of what he had done but he realised that it had worked.

It became habit to force-feed her until she stopped her rebellious ways and began eating on her own. And resting in the nights. He may even had added sleeping pills to her food to put her to sleep after meals. Meal times were always quiet. Not one spoke. Not one glanced at another. Each sunk in their own thoughts.

“You are getting stronger,” said Ben. He sat on his side of the bed and watched her put on her night-dress. That was after he put his book down, on the little table next to him. It was one of the novels he collected for his spare time. Cindy knew his great love for reading. During their childhood, she noticed that he would rather read books instead of playing with friends. In fact, everywhere he went, he would be spotted carrying a book. Now, they were adults and still, he would not sleep without having read a few lines of a book. She too slid between the sheets and laid down facing the other side. He put his arm round her and spoke soft into her ear, “Why won’t you talk to me? Why do you hate me this much?” she shook him off and buried her face in the sheets.