"Let's get married, Aiesha." The divorced Alpha said to his childhood friend in a dry monotone voice. 

"Hmm?" Aiesha first thought that perhaps she might have heard wrongly that she almost choked on the water that she was drinking.

"I want to take responsibility for what happened between us the last time. Sorry that I had to leave the country right after then." The man explained but he didn't sound, nor did he even look like a man who just proposed marriage to someone. 

But the 36-year-old Aiesha, was too overjoyed at this great news to even notice his stoic expression and nonchalance attitude.

This is everything that she ever dreamed about and wanted. "Yes! Yes. Yes. I'll marry you, Renjith. Yes. Let's inform all of our people." 

Aiesha then paused in her jubilation and asked. "But wait, Ren. What thing do you need to take responsibility for?"

Aiesha was genuinely confused, but Renjith thought that she was just playing coy. Yet he too didn't want to repeat the details of their time together two weeks ago.

This proposal felt more like a chore to him than one of love. 'But a gentleman must do what is right.' That's what he kept telling himself.

*********************

"It says here that your daughter is two weeks pregnant. Congra...tulation?" The doctor didn't know whether this was a good or bad news for the "parents" of her teenage patient. 

"What?!" The girl's "parents" exclaimed.

"How, doc?" Sevina wanted to ask out loud, but she was nonverbal, so she couldn't speak; she could only hear. She herself was very surprised and perplexed by this news. 

She grabbed a pen from the doctor's desk and wrote on a small piece of paper. "How, doc? Are you sure that there's not been some mistake?" 

Her question made the doctor dumbfounded. Like, 'What the hell?'

*

Slap!!! 

Parvesh served a series of slaps on his omega daughter's face, causing the girl to fall on her ass. "Which boy did you allow to deceive you and put that bastard into your belly? Huh?" 

Charvi rushed to Sevina's side to prevent her father from beating her up. She was their neighbour who had brought the girl to the clinic after she suddenly collapsed.

"Oh Parvesh, please calm down! You two can talk it out at home. Do not rush into doing anything. Please." 

Meanwhile, Sevina was in her own world going over the matter. She hasn't even experienced her first heat yet, and neither does she have a boyfriend, so how could she be preg...wait, it can't be right? It can...not be. No!!!

Tears started to flow down as the realisation as to how she could be pregnant dawned on her. This is the only thing that made sense in her case, and yet it is the most absurd. 

How is she to tell her family the truth about who the father of his baby is? That would destroy everything. 

She felt very sad to disappoint her father, who has sacrificed his whole life and his dreams just to raise her.

**

"Sevina, tell me the truth. There's no way that your father would do anything that is bad to you. You need to abort this baby so you can continue on with your life. You're too young to be a single mother, for Christ's sake! 

And you know very well how harsh this society is on omegas, especially, those who do not have good backbones. So why would you want to put yourself through that? 

See how your father's situation is, even after all his hard work and efforts. Is that what you want for yourself also? Hm?"

Charvi has tried and tried and yet, her neighbour's daughter still didn't open up to her. And the dad too continued to insist on getting rid of the pregnancy, which she sides with him on that part.

********************

That Evening...

The marriage proposal had come as a nice surprise to Aiesha today, but what Alpha Renjith added to it keeps niggling at the back of her mind all throughout the day, and it is now disturbing her sleep.

"The last time? What happened between us that he needs to take responsibility for?"

She turned on the bedside lamp and paced back and forth in deep thoughts as she tried to recall all the events that had taken place the last time the two of them met. 

"Wasn't it the day that I had to leave due to an emergency after serving him some food here? Wait, the food! It's that same day that I drugged his food. The drug was supposed to make him go into a rut. Oh no!!!"

Aiesha slumped on her bed with her head held in-between her two palms. 

"Did he end up sleeping with my servants and thinking that that was me? Huh! Who is that whore? I need to find them and get rid of them before he realises the truth and takes back his proposal."

Aiesha used the next few days to find which of her servants her friend had been with, but what she found from the CCTV cameras was not something that she was prepared for.

"Well, as long as she stays far away from my home and Renjith never finds out the truth, then we won't have any problem.

*********************

Three Days Later...

"Since you've chosen to not tell me the truth, then you're not going to stay under my roof with that child you're carrying. I am taking you to the hospital to take that thing out of you first thing tomorrow. We cannot afford another mouth in this tiny place.

Parvesh then turned to warn his neighbour, "Do not interfere with my decision by helping her in anyway. Do you hear me?"

Charvi just nodded. She supports him on this decision, as she too would've done the same if she were him. Things are already hard enough for the man and his daughter without this problem adding to it.

Sevina ran to her dad and kneeled down, holding his leg as she pleaded but still refusing to divulge the name of the baby's father.

So try as she might, her dad also did not give in. At the end, he sacked her out of the compound with nothing else except for the clothes that she was wearing and her phone, which she had hidden.

*

One week later...

Sevina opened her eyes abruptly, startling the creep who was straddling her with no pants on.

"Arrgghhh!!!!" 

The loud screaming drew the attention of the diners that were at the restaurant.

The restaurant owner sent one of the workers to go and check what was wrong. Not long after, he returned with Sevina behind him.

*

"What did she just say?" The middle-aged woman asked another worker of theirs to translate the mute girl's hand sign for her. 

"Your son was trying to pull my undies down when I opened my ey..."

Slap!!!

Unexpected slaps landed on Sevina's face, making the interpreter unable to complete her sentence as the teenager stumbled back a few paces.

"Say that nonsense again. My son did what?" The woman pulled the girl's hair and dragged her out of the eating area to the back of the restaurant. The interpreter followed suit.

Meanwhile, the said son was nowhere in sight.

"Now, repeat what you just said." She insisted, but the Sevina chose to remain quiet, knowing that there was no way that this woman would believe her.

"I said repeat it. How dare you try to lay a false claim on my innocent son? Why will he touch you? Who are you? Have you seen his girlfriend? Why will he leave her and touch a filthy thing like you?

This is why they say that if you lie with dogs, you end up with fleas. 

If my husband and I hadn't taken pity on you and offered you a job and shelter here, you wouldn't have gotten the chance to even think of smearing our good reputation. Now this is how you choose to pay us back? Huh?

"Hm. Hm." The teenager vehemently shook her head in denial, trying to retract her previous startment as the tears flowed. 

She has nowhere else to go if they too should sack her.

The woman raised her hand to slap the girl again, but then a tall and stoutly built man stepped in between them and ended up being the one to get hit instead, though it landed on the chest due to the difference in height.

"Who...who are you? How did...you come here, and... why are you butting in our business?" The woman stuttered, as she was finding it quite difficult to breathe.

She could tell by the man's aura and dominance that he is an alpha and no ordinary one at that.

Sevina, whose eyes were shut earlier in expectation of the hit, opened them again when she felt a new yet familiar presence. 

Her heart almost skipped out of her chest from the shock of seeing who it was. It's the one person that she must avoid at all costs!