Crushed Flower - Some blooms are born from darkness.

Chapter 2

Aayna’s grandmother had always seen her as nothing but a burden.

To her, Aayna was the cursed bloodline of a man who had ruined her daughter’s life. Because of him, their family had suffered humiliation, disgrace, and the collapse of their once-proud social standing. And Aayna, quiet and innocent, was a breathing reminder of everything they had lost.

Despite being financially comfortable, her grandmother never hired any help. She made Aayna do every chore in the house, not out of need, but as punishment for simply existing.

But her grandfather, Jabir Ahmed, saw things differently.

Aayna had been barely a year old when her parents abandoned her. Her mother had remarried, and to secure her future with a wealthy foreign husband, her grandmother concealed the truth. Her daughter already had a child. What if he found out? He might walk away. And so, to protect her daughter’s future, she erased Aayna’s existence from the story.

Aayna’s father was still alive, but he had long since turned his back on fatherhood. After his affair and the divorce, he vanished from their lives, leaving only silence behind.

The unwanted child was left in the arms of the one man who never stopped loving her—her grandfather.

From the moment she was placed in his care, Jabir Ahmed loved her fiercely. Even now, at nineteen, he had never once raised his voice at her.

Her grandmother, on the other hand, had once tried to place Aayna in an orphanage.

“A stain like her shouldn’t live under my roof,” she had said coldly.

Only Jabir’s unwavering resistance had stopped her.

He guarded Aayna like she was the last flicker of light in his fading world.

Her grandmother hadn’t even wanted her to go to school. But thanks to her grandfather’s persistence, Aayna was finally enrolled, though much later than most children. Still, she was bright, resilient, and determined.

As she scrubbed piles of laundry, her mind wandered through those memories. She didn’t even realize how long she had been working.

Then came the voice.

“What are you doing, Your Majesty? Why aren’t your hands moving?”

Her grandmother’s scorn sliced through the quiet.

“The dishes won’t clean themselves. Or do you think your father is sending servants to help you?”

Aayna said nothing.

Her stomach ached with hunger. She hadn’t eaten since morning.

Her grandfather had given her money for lunch, but she had spent it feeding a shivering kitten behind the school building. The chicken roll, her only warm meal that day, had gone to the little creature.

Now, standing at the sink with her hands trembling from exhaustion, a smell drifted through the kitchen.

Pizza.

Her favorite.

It sat on the table, fresh, hot, and untouched.

She moved closer slowly, her gaze locked on the box. Just one bite. One slice.

She opened the lid and lifted a piece, placing it in her mouth before she could think.

At that moment, her grandmother entered.

She stormed forward, tore the slice from Aayna’s mouth, and slapped her hard across the cheek.

“Don’t think you have the right to eat this kind of expensive food. Your father doesn’t send a single coin for you. Who do you think you are?”

She snatched the entire pizza box and marched away. The food had been meant for her high-society kitty party guests.

Aayna stood still, her cheek burning from the blow. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she swallowed them back.

She looked up at the ceiling, or perhaps at the heavens beyond, and whispered,

“God… why did You give me such a painful life? Maybe it would’ve been better if I had never been born.”