The green willow: Chapter 2

“Madam, won’t you go to today’s party? It’s an honourable day for the Anderson family.”

The girl with slightly reddish-brown hair, fair complexion and a slender figure, who was writing something on the paper in front of her, looked at her maid. She was standing before her holding the tea tray. The girl slightly smiled at her and then again concentrated on what she was doing, “ You remember grandma’s words right, Nina?”

“Which one? She gives you a lot of hearing. Which one are you talking about?”

“NINA!!!!!” The girl glared at her maid seeing her sarcastic behaviour.

The glare had a perfect effect on her since Nina remembered the answer to what she was asked, “……….You…you mean the last one?!”

“….Yeah. The last one. I can’t show my face to her until I get married to a man within three months.”

“But madam Eleanor, where are you going to get a man to get married? Not to mention who would also be a gentleman!” Nina sulked while scratching the tea tray and diverting her gaze away from Eleanor’s.

Eleanor peeked at Nina’s sulking face and sighed deeply, “I am trying, Nina! I sent marriage proposals to every man in my reach!”

“But they all rejected you, no?”

“………You know what? Today you are rubbing salt on my wounds more often!! Is that intentional?”

“NO! NO, NO, NO!! Madam Eleanor, I don’t dare to do so!!”

Eleanor dropped the pen on the table and laid back on the soft chair. With pitiful eyes, Nina looked at her mistress.

“AHHHHHH!!!! Please don’t tell me I’m the first woman on earth who sent marriage proposals to men!!” Eleanor suddenly hit the table hard. “UGHH…I want to die!”

Nina was surprised to see Eleanor worrying about that rather than thinking of a way of how to get married within the given time by her grandmother.

Eleanor’s grandmother’s name was Martha Anderson, the chairperson of Aloha Enterprise. It was the most famous multinational company that hailed from Roveign city. About 60 years ago Allec Anderson started from a small company and it soon expanded into a consortium by his wife, Miranda Anderson’s hard work and full dedication towards her husband and the company. Martha was famous for her beauty, skills and also faithfulness towards Aloha. Through her super methods of grabbing the attention of rich investors, she spanned  Aloha Enterprise globally even after her husband’s premature death.

Beside taking care of her business and all, she raised four of her children, who had eight children in total. Altogether, the Anderson family built an empire in Roveign city. They were nothing but other people’s eyesore as they envied their growth and success. So people always looked for a loophole in their family, a chance to disgrace them! However, the strength between the family members didn’t let them fall apart.

The Anderson family used to walk with pride until one day the youngest and most cherished child of Miranda Anderson, whose name was Aiden Anderson had an affair with a woman with no background. The media engulfed the story and made it the juiciest and most entertaining one for broadcasting. They had become the hot topic of Roveign city. But Miranda was a witted woman. Using her wit and power, she shut the mouth of the media as she made her son Aiden marry the woman who caused the uproar. Her name was Emilia Lane.

Emilia was a rising singer of that time who had immense beauty. But she was circulated by many rumours that caused her to lure the youngest child of Miranda Anderson. She was sly as a fox! She knew how to put an end to the rumours around her and she successfully completed her mission since the rumours gradually died after she got married to Aiden. Besides the rumours, money was also a factor for such a middle-class woman like Emilia. Other than that, she never held any love for Aiden. It was always a one-sided love.

 Aiden’s foolish behaviour resulted in getting Miranda’s hatred. Not only was he disgusted by her, but also by his siblings and other relatives started disregarding his presence in the house. Aiden was there, but also he wasn’t. The mistake he had made by getting engaged with Emilia was eating him by time. But it never affected Emilia who was forcing Aiden to have a child with him to ensure the throne of the Anderson family. But her dream also got shattered as soon they had a baby girl rather than a boy. 

Aiden named her Eleanor. She was as pretty as her mother, but also had eyes like her grandmother Miranda. Although Eleanor was the first child of Aiden, her grandmother didn’t go to see her. Thus Eleanor’s grandmother’s hatred cost her torments and disgraces in her family. She was like a disgusted animal that was silently living in a corner of the house. She was misbehaved and verbally abused by her uncles, aunts and her cousins as if whatever she did was always wrong. Aiden didn’t have any power to help Eleanor, so she endured all their torments.

However, Eleanor kept working hard! She tried her best in proving herself to her grandmother Miranda. Although she got tormented a lot by her relatives and faced many difficulties, she never lost her hope. Her hard work paid one day as she was appointed as the chairman of one of the branches of Aloha Enterprise by Miranda.

Since it wasn’t the main branch, Eleanor left Roveign city and it was quite far too. So she was away from her daily abuses for a while. But it hadn’t been two years before she got appointed in the main branch under the supervision of Laura, her aunt. Laura wasn’t that strict on her, but she didn’t even let her loose either! She made Eleanor work as hard as possible. But adamant Eleanor took an oath of ensuring her position in the Anderson family and to Miranda. And that’s why she never gave up. She kept working harder than before. As a result, she was recognised by Laura in no time.

Everything was going as usual for Eleanor until she had turned twenty. She was like a ripened fruit in front of the Anderson family. There was also another young girl named Lucy, Eleanor’s cousin and the youngest grandchild of Miranda who was about to reach the marriageable age soon after Eleanor. So Eleanor was being pushed by her relatives to get a man in her life so that they could think of Lucy’s marriage since it was a tradition of the house that the elder ones get married before the younger ones. 

But everyone in the society knew Eleanor’s position in the Anderson family. So not a single eligible bachelor in the Anderson family’s connection approached her. Those who came to ask her hand were some rich old men or men who had many wives!! Accepting their proposal wasn’t possible for Eleanor, nor could she tolerate the misbehaviour of her family members anymore. Even Eleanor’s mother Emilia tried to introduce her to some men since she was getting an ear from the Andersons. But they were the same level as Emilia. Nothing more, nothing less.

Soon enough, Lucy started nagging about Eleanor to Miranda. Miranda was getting ashamed of Eleanor, because she was turning into the main topic of the Anderson family and she had to hear only about Eleanor wherever she went. It was becoming a pain for not only Eleanor, but for Miranda also. So Miranda ordered Eleanor to get married within three months before her next birthday banquet! The rest is the story…. 

Eleanor kept sighing while resting her head on the table, “ I hate my life…”

“Madam, please don’t sigh that much. You will die soon. You are cutting your age, madam!”

“Yeah right. If I don’t have a normal death, the murderer would be my grandmother!! You should be an astrologer, Nina.”

“I wished to be one though!”

“……..You are hopeless!!”

The Green Willow~by Flora_Barua

Chapter 1

It was midnight and Roveign city was surely silent, but only on the surface. The core of it was filled with lights and shouts! The only fighting arena of the city, that was used by the underworld goons so that they could show off their mighty bodies once in a while, was engulfed in cheers. There was a certain name that could be heard in the sea of screams. 

“Howard!!!!!!!! Beat his ass!!!!!!!”

The man was huffing in sweat by clenching his fists in front of his face. Sweat dripped from the edge of his face and his rough brown face was sparkling in the dazzling lowlights. He turned back to look at the person who caught his attention, mostly distracted him! Seeing a woman shouting like a crazy person, his face was covered in disgust. He turned his face away after giving a cold glare at her, “BITCH!!” He spit aside

“KYAAAAAAA!!!! He looked at me!!!!!!”

Howard despised three things in life the most. The woman was one of them! For him, they were nothing but just some bitches in heat who craved sex and money!!  As for the place he grew up in, Howard’s thinking wasn’t fully wrong since the place was the darkest part of Roveign city. The underworld where drug dealings, kidnapping for money, prostitution, racketeering, internet fraud, smuggling, entryism, extortion, loan sharking, human trafficking, money laundering, robbery, Terrorism, bootlegging, arms trafficking, gambling, bribery, skimming, murder and forgery Allies, these were the common criminal activities there. Not to mention these were the meanings of living for underworld bosses of Roveign city. Being the Don of them, Howard couldn’t skip those rules either.

Barely trying to live, Howard tried his best to avoid nuisances. No bad reputation among the underworld bosses made him rise to the throne of the Underworld Don sooner than anyone expected. However, he didn’t lack in any way either. His solid body which was like a rock in others vision and the ability to move a whole gang alone was the real deal for him to be respected among the big bosses. Rather than respect, he was a terror for them. 

Back to the fight, Howard’s opponent was observing him carefully. He was waiting for the finest opportunity of looking for an opening. Cause he knew that the man in front of him could take his life right on the spot if he had made one big mistake. So, no loopholes were accepted. His face was already beaten to a pulp and seeing his girlfriend screaming for Howard when he should be the one in his place made it clearer that his face lost his beautiful shape! And he might have lost his girlfriend on the way.

Howard was waiting for his opponent to make the first move, but watching him standing was the last thing he could expect at that time. He was losing his patience and was about to rush to him and hit him hard on his face. 

“Big bro!” Howard looked back following the soft voice. A boy in a slender figure was staring at him intensely. Suddenly The boy smiled brightly in return, “NOW!!” 

Howard grinned at him and bent down to dodge his opponent’s only chance! In return, he hit him hard with a feisty punch on his ribs. Blood gushed out from his mouth and coloured the floor in red. As if that would have made Howard less angry at the person who tried to hit him from behind! He kept hitting the man with several strong punches with his bare hands, no gloves at all! It could be guessed that Howard’s rock-like hands broke many ribs of that man seeing the whole gallery gone to silence from the sounds of bones breaking.

“OOOPS! Now he has done it!” The boy sighed and kept watching Howard punching the man as if he was his punching bag. There was anger in those burning ember eyes of Howard. They were declaring, “No mercy!!” Even the rookie goon who was playing the role of a referee ran away from the arena long ago. There’s now left a beast and his prey. 

“Shit!” The boy jumped inside the barrier of ropes and rushed to Howard, trying his hardest to pull him aside. 

“Calm down, bro! You are about to kill that guy!!” 

“ Let me go, Neo!!!” 

Howard was struggling in that boy, Neo’s arms. Neo could barely keep up with his muscled, huge and bulky body. It was like Neo wasn’t pulling Howard away, but Howard was the one who was pulling Neo towards the almost dead man. Seeing no other options, Neo signalled some other men standing aside. They nodded their heads and took the injured man away from Howard’s sight. 

People started leaving the place with heavy hearts since the fight didn’t end properly and they lost money from both sides. There was a rule in this arena that if nobody had won the match then betting money from both sides would end up in the Bet Master’s pocket, who actually worked for Howard.

Neo got some punches in return while trying to hold Howard back the whole time.

“Big broooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop, will ya? You’ve been beating me this far!!”

Howard stopped struggling and turned back. He tightly held Neo’s face in his grip and kept checking his face and body thoroughly. “Where are ya hurt, buddy?”

“Blo…blothel..will ya let mah face go?”

“Oh!” Howard instantly let go of Neo who started to touch his soft face confirming it to be in intact shape.

Howard softly gazed at his hands. They were a bit painful. But it was nothing compared to the pain he had to endure since childhood. Neo grabbed a situation of his own as soon as he saw Howard gazing at his hands deeply, “Bro! You have to give me mah share!”

“What share?” If a glare could kill somebody, then Neo would have died right there!

“Ehe…ehehehehe…you know? The share for giving a hand to ya earlier….”

“Don’t remember!”

“Whaaaaa……? What?!” Neo followed Howard as he tried to walk away from the place. “Big bro! Wait for me…..”

Howard kept brushing his ears, “SHUT THE HOLE, YOU DICKHEAD!!”

Neo halted for a bit, seeing Howard angry, but soon got comfortable as he saw the other boys from Howard’s group start following him. “He might be scary sometimes! Heh!” Waiting after a while, Neo chased after the gang.