“Grandpa, you came too fast!” Michelle shouted from the other side. Two muscular men lay on the ground. Three others knelt. They were all unarmed.

  “Sir, no one shot a live bullet, why are they on the ground?” one police officer said as he switched on the light.

  The criminals took their weapons. Others picked up things that were on the table. They were fighting the police officers.

  “Sir, call a backup,” one police officer who was on the ground cried. Then someone made a groan painfully.

  Someone's jaw had been broken. There was a mercenary among them. It was the fiercest person. The captain of the special forces.

  “Grandpa teach them!” Michelle cheered loudly. She used to watch fights on TV, but now, it was live in front of her. Miya was still adding up events. She hadn't eaten anything and therefore felt dizzy.

  In just minutes, all the criminals were down on the ground. They had fought many police but never met someone like General Charles. He was an experienced man in the field. He truly worked in the army before coming to the police.

  “Handcuff them!” he ordered with his coarse voice.

  The police who were on the ground grabbed the criminals by the back. The criminals had given in. How could they fight with an iron fist?

  “Who sent you?” General Charles asked them. All of them knelt in front of him. Some had their jaws broken and could not speak.

  One of them wanted to spill the beans, but remembered the code of conduct they had. Betrayal was never to happen, no matter what.

  “They were forcing mommy to take drugs her father had given her earlier,” Michelle, who was carried by the general, said cheerfully.

  Rajel, who had stood there for a while watching them and how his hired men were being taken down, wanted to defend himself. He glanced at Miya, who sat on the sofa quietly sobbing. She had found out what he was up to. Her trust in him completely thawed away. She regretted marrying a stranger. A stranger who hated boys.

  “I shouldn't have married you!” she yelled, pointing a finger at Rajel.

  General Charles was shocked by her statement. The statement justified all that the kid said. His niece was in trouble. Why was the man so determined to get rid of a child born in wedlock? That was strange. He was a criminal and belonged to jail.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Handcuff him!” he ordered.

  The police ran to where he was and held his hands by the back.

  “Stop!” Miya said. Though he had turned rogue, she couldn't just let him go to prison. Who will feed them when they send them to jail? He was their provider, and she had no choice but to forgive him.

  General Charles was astonished by the sudden change of events. He could not help but ask, “Do you want to forgive him?”

  Miya nodded. General Charles sighed. She was actually naive, as he had been told.

  “If you make any decisions, remember what happened to your elder sister,” he said to her. Miya nodded. He then took Michelle to the ground.

  “Is either you let the baby live or both of you die!” He roared and walked away from the door.

  He then said, roaring in anger, “Rajel, you deserve a death sentence! The baby must be born. His needs must be catered for. That's a decree from your ancestors!”

  As he talked, anger filled him. His eyes turned green. He wanted to fight him.

  On seeing the anger in him, Rajel halfheartedly accepted the decree. He was forced to love what he hated. He just hoped the baby would be born faster so that he could chop his head off. That way, he won't endanger his beautiful wife.

  “I'm sorry!” He apologized to her. They gave each a warm hug and Michelle joined them. They all retired to bed. Rajel began his countdown. He set the timer. He also promised to make her suffer indirectly.

  The next day was the first day of the decree. As he got out of the house, he saw five bandaged men cleaning. What was wrong? The men had been punished to be doing all the chores in the home and also doing whatever she said. At the end of the month, General Charles would see how to sort them.

  The cows had been fed. The chicken and rabbit stalls were sparkling clean. The compost also appeared to be cleaned. Even the house had been washed. When Miya woke up, everything, including breakfast, was in place. Who did all this?

  Her face shone with a smile for a while but was replaced with a gloomy face after she heard words that cut deep through her heart. It was her husband again. It was no joke at all. He said, “I'll make her pay for all this. She and the kid! I made a wrong decision.”

  She could not believe her ears. Was she really a wrong decision? She had given up a rich guy to be with him, but now he had become the wrong choice?

  What puzzled her more was why he didn't want a boy. Was this his second family? Boys automatically became heirs. Girls could choose not to get any inheritance. If he had property and another wife, where did he hide them?

  That day she didn't take breakfast. She prepared another one for herself. It went on for sometime until a few weeks before giving birth. Each week, the distance between her and Rajel grew. She felt the distance. He didn't love her anymore. He sometimes stayed weeks before coming back home.

  Then one day she called her husband.

  “Please come back home! I'm in pain, our child will die,” she said on the phone.

  “Sort yourself! "I don't love you anymore,” a male voice on the other side said. She knew she was done. Michelle was not home at the time. She had begun feeling extreme pain. It was not like the first child. There was no electricity at home and her phone battery died. How could she get to the neighborhood? She closed her eyes. After sometime, someone slammed the living room door.