Marriage Prison

"Do you think I'll just let you go, Danas?" asked Melvin who was gripping a girl's jaw.

Emotion could be seen on the man's face, there was emotion clearly drawn from his eyes. A look of fear was clearly visible on the girl he called Danas, more fully named Danas Cakrawala.

"Melvin. Let go, it hurts." Danas' voice was so weak, her eyes looked at the man who was in front of her, filled with emotion.

Raka Melvin Mahameru, the owner of the company and the President of Neha'v Group engaged in pharmaceuticals. The man, not even 30 years old, had a handsome face with a firm jaw, silver hair that made him look even more perfect. Charismatic and elegant, but with a cold aura that made him unapproachable to any woman who tried to get into his life.

Who doesn't know the man, a cold man with so many accolades bestowed upon him, surely a woman's dream. Well-established, handsome, and wealthy is the outline of that man.

"Remember, I won't let you go. Keep suffering," Melvin said as he threw Danas on the floor. "Marrying me is not the end of your suffering but the beginning of your suffering. It's worth it for what you've done."

"What am I doing? Why do you hate me that much?"

"Don't pretend not to know," snapped Melvin.

"I really don't know what you're talking about. What wrong have I done, that you want my life to be so miserable, huh! You made my father's company go bankrupt, and you forced me to marry you, why don't you just kill me."

Melvin rested on the soles of his feet, then grabbed Danas' jaw again, staring intently at the girl on the floor. Seeing that there was resistance, he wanted to take the life of the girl in front of him.

"Kill you? I won't, I want you to feel every day is full of suffering, your days are full of hell. You're even asking what you did? Huh?! Until when are you not going to admit what you've done wrong?"

For Melvin, killing Danas wasn't difficult. He could definitely kill the girl whenever he wanted.

"Mistake? What mistake did I make? Tell me. You always say I made a mistake, that you want to make my family and myself suffer. Tell me, Melvin," a high, snapping voice echoed in the room.

"Shut up, you have no right to call me names." Melvin's hand slammed down roughly on Danas' face, knocking her to the floor.

The girl, could only swallow her saliva, getting treated like that. The memories of a few days ago were still vivid in her mind, when that man came to her house.

Melvin's voice could be heard, arguing with someone from a study in the wooden-walled house.

"No, we can't possibly give our child to you," the middle-aged man insisted.

"You have no right to refuse me," Melvin insisted. "In three days, I will come. You must prepare yourselves from now on, and don't embarrass me," Melvin added as he walked out.

Tears were held back. Danas' feelings were mixed up at that moment. Everything happened because of him.

When some people came to pick him up with his parents, the worry in his parents' eyes was obvious.

"I can take care of myself, Mom. Take it easy, I'll be fine," Danas said.

"You're feeling uneasy, mom, Danas," her mother said.

The girl could only carve a smile. Yes, only a smile could be carved on the lips even though her heart was mixed up she didn't know how she really felt.

The wedding dress was worn, she should be happy like a girl who became a queen for a day in general, unfortunately there was no happiness at all on her face.

The glass in front of her seemed to reflect her body wrapped in a wedding dress.

"I liked him once! No, to be precise, at the bottom of my heart I still like her, but not as much as before when I admired her figure. Because I had to let go of the thing that made me suffer, but this time she came back and made me suffer continuously," Danas thought.

"God, I don't know what you're planning for me. The path I'm on right now is so hard for me, strengthen me," he thought again as he lifted both ends of his lips, sighing softly.

A forced smile on a happy day, really made her heart ache. She had to look okay, and also happy in the eyes of others and in the eyes of her parents.

Melvin's treatment of her was indeed cruel and ruthless.

Hearing, the man who had just a few hours ago become her husband, made her have to strengthen herself to accept the harsh treatment that would happen.

"Danas, you have to survive. You can make it through," she said to encourage herself.

She turned her face left and right to see the marks of Melvin's hand.

"Yes, I can do it," Danas said once again while trying to smile.

He was now reflected in the mirror. He still looked beautiful, even without any makeup.

When she looked at herself, there was a tightness in her heart, there was pain that made her tears flow without being ordered, a few moments later sobs broke out in the room that had been decorated all white, as well as rose petals sown on the bed.

Danas belonged to Melvin, and Melvin belonged to Danas. But the girl also knew that there would never be the same meaning between them. There would never be an acknowledgment of who she was to that man.

Staring at the bed that was one and a half meters away from her made her clutch her chest, there was only pain she felt.

Brak!

"Don't think anything strange, if I'm going to sleep with you tonight," Melvin said as he went back to changing his shirt and picking up his suit.

Danas was about to say something, but hearing Melvin's voice made him pause.

"You don't need to know where I'm going, your job is to stay at home, and you have no say here. Understood?"

The girl nodded her head, not daring to answer.

"Answer my question, Danas Cakrawala," Melvin's voice rose with an emphasized intonation that made Danas startle, clutching the wedding dress she was still wearing.

"Yes," Danas replied stammeringly.

Melvin stepped closer to Danas, a sharp gaze full of strong intimidation. The girl could only round her eyes, her body tensed up, she was afraid that the man in front of her would do even harsher things to her.

A devilish smile, etched on Melvin's face. A lopsided smile that was so frightening to look at.

"Don't show me a face like that, a fake face, a face that wants to get mercy from me."

So quickly, Melvin's hand gripped Danas' jaw. That man, couldn't hold back his emotions when he saw Danas' face, for him the face that Danas was showing was a fake face.

Urgh!

There was a cry of pain, due to the grip of Melvin's hand and also the impact on the dressing table, which was behind Danas at that time.

"M-Melvin, let go. S-pain." Danas patted Melvin's hand that was gripping his jaw.

The girl was trying to release herself. Melvin's treatment was so rough. The pain from the grip made her shed tears.

"Damn it, you think showing me tears, I'll sympathize with you?" asked Melvin who saw tears starting to come out of Danas' eyes.

A moment later he released his grip and put on the suit he had taken.

"Listen carefully, Danas Cakrawala, I, Raka Melvin Mahameru, will make your life miserable. I'll make sure it happens!" The man's voice was so trembling, full of emphasis, intimidation that the girl in front of him was so scared.

"This is the room for you," Melvin said, opening the door to the room he was referring to.

"T-this-"

Uhuk! Uhuk!

Danas coughed, shaking his hands to keep the dust from making him cough. The room was dusty, dirty, and there were so many unused items in there.

His mouth dropped open at the sight of the room in front of him. She never even thought that he would tell her to stay in a room that was not worthy of being called a room at all.

A sense of claustrophobia, helplessness, and suffering came over her. Danas's rough breathing could be heard.

"Why, do you wanna sleep with me??"

Danas wanted to say something, but when he heard Melvin's voice, he fell silent.

"Don't dream! Don't dream about sleeping with me."

"But I'm your wife!"

"Wife? Yes, you are my wife but in front of people. I don't consider you my wife. You don't deserve to be the wife of Melvin Mahameru."

Danas squeezed the hem of her dress, she wouldn't have expected the man in front of her to hurt her heart again and again, breaking it time and time again, her heart was stinging, her tears wanted to spill out immediately, but remembering her words to her mother, she chose to try to be strong in the face of Melvin's treatment of her.

After saying that, Melvin left Danas just like that.

A man who had no feelings at all.

"I have to be strong," she said. "This place will be nice, if I tidy it up. I'll make it a beautiful room," he said again.

Srek!

She had only taken one step, when she heard the sound of the dress she was wearing tearing. Danas looked behind her and saw that the skirt of her wedding dress was caught in a piece of junk.

"Oh, Shit. I hope he won't scold me for ruining this expensive dress."

"That dress is so cheap, turning it into a mop isn't worth anything to me."

Danas looked towards the door, it was obvious that Melvin was carrying some objects in his hands, then threw them unceremoniously on the floor.

"You need these to clean this room."

Danas swallowed his saliva, the man told him to clean the room at night. As if she was a maid. The mansion had so many empty rooms, but Melvin had told her to clean the warehouse that was going to be her room.

The man who was her husband now, considered her worthless.

The sound of the door closing allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief when Melvin wasn't home.

Shoulders down, face resigned slowly the girl began to clean the room. It was 3 p.m. when she finished cleaning the room. Mopping, arranging the things she didn't use, then laying down on the old bed.

Her face staring at the room's Melvins, she was still looking for where she went wrong. She never even knew what she had done, until he hated her. Melvin never told her what she did wrong.

The man he loved for a long time, yet hated him for no reason. Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes without prompting when remembering Melvin's treatment of her.

It felt like a heavy burden that she was thinking about right now.

Her father's company had gone bankrupt coupled with the accident back home not to mention they had to move out of the house where she had grown up because all their assets were seized by the bank. It was Melvin who did all that to her.

There was never an explanation, only anger, which said don't pretend not to know what happened, in fact the girl did not know anything about what Melvin said.

The daydream that made her eyes slowly close, coupled with the breeze coming from the balcony of the room whose door was not closed by her.

Byur!

The splash of water made her jump in surprise and fall to her knees.

"Slacker!"

Hearing that heavy voice, made her get up immediately, when she saw who the man was who splashed her with water.

"M-Melvin."

"Melvin? Don't ever call me by name," the man once again emphasized that his name should not be called by Danas.

Danas lowered his head.

His body shivered, accompanied by the fear of the presence of the man in front of him right now. His body was too tired, making him oversleep.

"Sorry." Danas lowered his head, not daring to look.

Melvin crossed his arms over his chest staring intently at Danas.

"Shit. Don't show that annoying face."

Danas looked at Melvin for a moment, then immediately lowered his head back. His heart was beating erratically, there was fear especially since the man's face looked cold.

"Why the silence? You didn't cook for me, huh?!"

"Ee..."

"From now on it's your job, cooking, cleaning the whole house. I've fired some maids."

"B-but, I have to go to college."

"I don't want to know, you have to clean the house before you go to college. I hate rejection. Do you understand?" asked Melvin.

There was no answer from Danas, the girl's mind was wandering.

"Do you understand?" asked Melvin once again, this time his voice rising.

"Yes," Danas stammered.

"So, what did you do? You didn't make me breakfast?"

Danas rushed out of the room, heading for the kitchen, still with his wet clothes clinging to his body. His hands were nimble with the knife on the cutting board, chopping ingredients.

From the second floor, the cold man stared at Danas who was cooking.

It wasn't Danas' first time cooking, he usually prepared breakfast and dinner for the family. He was getting used to living independently after his father went bankrupt, having to cook his own food, without a maid. Occasionally she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

Organizing food for the man who was watching her.

Melvin frowned, looking at some of the food on the table.

"What is this food? You want me to eat food like this?"

Danas swallowed his saliva, hearing Melvin's words insulting his cooking.

"If you don't want this food, don't insult it. It's not nice!"

"Oh hoh! You want to patronize me?"

"N-not like that."

Melvin's sharp gaze made Danas tense up.

"W-why don't you eat it first, if it's not good I'll cook you something else."

"No need. Seeing what you're cooking makes me lose my appetite."

"But you haven't tasted my cooking yet."

"Didn't I say no need? Why do you want to force me? Huh?! Or, did you put something in this dish to poison me?"

"N-no, I wouldn't dare do that, you saw me cook it too."

"Maybe, you put something in when I didn't know,"

Again, Melvin gripped his jaw hard. That man always did that to him. Danas could only grimace in pain, and tried to break away from the man in front of him.

"I-I didn't do it."

A look of hatred, as well as emotion was clearly visible on Melvin's face at that moment.

"Why don't you just be honest, you must have put something in your cooking right?"

"N-no, M-Melvin, I didn't."

The strong grip made Danas so tormented.

"Your face makes me sick, your actions make me want to make your life more miserable."

"Why did you do that to me?" asked Danas as tears again welled up in the corners of his eyes.

"Always showing a face and tears that piss me off. Why do you always show it to me? I hate your fake face, it makes me sick."

Danas couldn't say anything, whatever he did, was always wrong in the eyes of the man in front of him. He didn't know what to do to not look wrong in Melvin's eyes.

He still didn't know what the root of Melvin's anger was.

"Why are you married to that woman?" asked a man who had just arrived and was cooking vodka.

"Why do you still ask? Obviously, I want to make her suffer."

"Marry the girl and then make Renata suffer? Selfish!"

Melvin looked at the man in front of him, shaking the glass that was filled with beer and a few pieces of ice in it.

"Isn't it enough to bankrupt her by taking over his family's company?"

"No! I'll make her suffer more, crawling on me, begging for mercy!"

The man in front of Melvin could only shake his head. Perhaps the man thought that if Melvin was a demon incarnate in the world, how could he torture a beautiful girl like Danas.

"Don't treat a woman like that. You'll get your comeuppance from God, Melvin. Your wife is beautiful, a designer, independent again!"

"Shut up, I don't want to listen to your judgment about that woman!"

"If you don't want to, just give it to me."

Grep!

Melvin grabbed the shirt collar of the man in front of him. "She's mine!"

"Relax, I'm just joking, after all, I can't possibly take what belongs to Raka Melvin Maheswara," said the man as he tried to release Melvin's hand that was gripping his shirt.

"Good, if you understand, Delta."

The man, called Delta, took a sip of the vodka that had been served to him earlier. "Thanks," he said to the bartender who was wiping the glass.

Ilawana Delta Maheswara, an architect and Melvin's best friend. The man who had been the designer of all of Melvin's buildings for the past few years. A man who had repented of approaching women, even though Delta was a notorious playboy who dated almost every student on his campus, back in college.

"You ordered drinks without me?" asked a man who had just arrived, patting the shoulders of his two friends.

"Want a drink?" asked Delta.

"No, if I drink no one will drive me home, right? Besides-"

"Alcohol isn't good for your health, you always tell us, the doctors of the universe," Delta taunted as she took a sip of her drink.

"Dare you call me that again, I'll make you-"

"You're like always, Ja."

The man called Jagad could only straighten his suit.

Ilalang Jagad Rahwana, a doctor specializing in surgery, handsome, good career in medicine, and he was a single man, just like his two friends who had many female fans, but his heart had yet to find the right girl to fill his heart.

"So what about your wedding?" asked Jagad.

"You didn't even attend my wedding, and now you're asking me now."

"Sorry, I wanted to attend but something happened that required me to have emergency surgery."

"It went well," Melvin replied simply.

Seeing that look on Melvin's face made Jagad raise one eyebrow. "Why, what's wrong?"

"The problem is that he didn't marry Renata."

"What does that mean?"

"He is not married to Renata but to the woman."

"Which women?"

"The woman that killed Amaira."

"Wait... let me get this right. Melvin isn't married to Renata, but to another woman?"

"That's right, Ja."

Bukh!

So quickly, a punch flew across Melvin's cheek, even Delta was surprised by what Jagad had just done to their friend.

"Fuck!" cursed Jagad. "You're dating Renata but married to the woman whose life you made suffer, where are your feelings Melvin? Huh?"

The corner of Melvin's lip was cut, from the blow Jagad had given him. He knew he deserved it. Jagad might be a different kind of man, more precisely, respectful of a woman's heart.

Delta tried to calm down Jagad, who was emotional at the moment.

"Jagad, calm down!"

"I can't let him do whatever he wants, you two make me sick. Playing with women, like you have no self-respect. Look at you, Delta, when Sea leaves you, it's regret that you get, and I'm pretty sure if even this jerk would accept it, he would regret what he did."

"Shut up, you don't know anything. You know, she didn't even feel guilty after what she did, she even asked me what she did wrong. Making her life miserable is the best thing."

The atmosphere was getting tense. Even some people were looking at the two people who were arguing in front of the bartender's table. Delta did not know what to do, she could only break up the fight between her two friends.

"I won't regret doing it," Melvin said as he took his suit and put it on then left the two friends.

The man hit the gas hard, sending the car speeding through the streets of Jakarta.

He hit the steering wheel several times, out of annoyance.

"Aarrgh!" he shouted, as he pulled the car over.

Feeling so upset, she tried to call but the call was not connected at all, making her even more annoyed.

"Ren, please pick up my phone," she muttered as she tried to call back the same number but it didn't connect.

She threw her cell phone on the car seat in annoyance.

"It's all because of her," Melvin growled as he started the car and hit the gas.

His hands clenched the steering wheel very tightly, making his arm muscles pop.

It didn't take long for him to arrive at his mansion.

The sound of the car door slamming was heard, coupled with the sound of the door closing so loudly.

"Danas... Danas..." the man called out with emotion.

He threw his jacket on the sofa, while the sleeves of his shirt were being lifted up to his arms.

"Danas..." he called in a loud voice, making the owner of the name suddenly wake up.

Hearing his name being called, made him immediately go downstairs and find Melvin with a face full of emotion.

"Y-you called me?" asked Danas stammeringly.

"Why did I have to call me so many times, did you not hear me calling you."

"S-sorry, I fell asleep."

"S-sorry, did you say?"

Again the man tortured Danas, this time not grabbing her neck, but strangling the girl.

A shocked, frightened face could be seen. Danas tried to remove Melvin's hands from her neck, the man wanted to kill her.

"Who told you to sleep at this hour? You think I brought you here to sleep?"

"Let go, Melvin. You're going to kill me." Danas stammered.

His voice choked, he had so much trouble breathing the man in front of him was suddenly angry at him, without him knowing why.

"Turns out you're afraid of death."

A devilish smile appeared on Melvin's face, his grip strengthened, Danas's face turned red, his hands patted Melvin's hands to release the man's choke from his neck.

The man in front of him, was very different from the friendly man he used to know. The man was filled with hatred, no more compassion for him.

"Will I die today?" asked Danas silently. "It turns out I can't take care of myself well." She said again.

Now he was resigned to what the man was doing to him.

"I really hate the face you're showing!" growled Melvin as he pushed Danas' body making her fall to the floor.

Hosh! Hosh! Hosh!

The girl was able to breathe freely again, holding her neck. Her body stiffened as Melvin approached her, she tried to step back to get away, but he kept following her.

"You deserve it, worth suffering. You murderer."