The sound of my green saree bursting echoed through the main hall of the palace. It was not a faint sound, it was a scream, which announced the end of my honor.

I felt the cool night breeze on my naked skin. My hands were tightly on my chest, trying to cover my shame, but it was in vain.
My mother-in-law, Mrs. Vandana, and my sister-in-law, Priya, held pieces of my clothes as if they were victims of war.

“Look at this!” shouted Vandana,
“Look at this thief!”
“That’s the way poor girls hide jewelry.” ”

I was shivering, not only from the cold, but also from the shock.
I stood in the middle of the hall, half-naked, humiliated, tears streaming down my face, while people from high society were circling around me like wolves.

I looked at my husband, Rohit, the man who had promised me protection, for whom I had left the quiet life of my village and stepped into the world of this city.
Rohit was standing near the loft, a glass of whiskey in his hand.
He was not looking at me.
He was looking at the ground, embarrassed, not by the atrocities being committed against me, but because his poor wife had been blamed for the theft of their family’s jewels.

“Rohit, help me,” I said in a cracked voice.
“I didn’t steal anything. They put it all on me. ”

“Shut up,” Priya said, pushing me away, causing me to fall to my knees on the carpet.
“We’ve seen you hiding. You are the shame of this family. ”

“Rohit, say something. Take them out. ”
Rohit looked up.
There was no love in his eyes as before, only emptiness.
“Go, Elena,” he said softly.
“Leave before you call the police.” ”

“Do you hate me and tell me to go?” I asked.
I was half naked.
“This is how you came and this is how you will go,” Vandana interjected, with a vicious smile.
“Taking nothing for granted, because you really are nothing.” An ordinary girl who thought she could blend into high society. ”

“Get it out.” ”
Two security guards grabbed my hands and dragged me out of the Marble Hall.
I tried to cover up, screamed, tried to ask for anything, but no one moved.
They left me outside the garden.
The door closed before my eyes.

And there I was, Elena, the daughter of the person they called “ordinary peasant”.
In the rain, half-naked, lying on the street while the party was going on inside the castle.

I hugged myself, the chill seeping down to my bones.
But at that moment another feeling was deeper than the cold air.
Angry, completely, sure and hot.
They thought my father was just an ordinary farmer.
They thought I was just an ordinary girl.

But he made the biggest mistake.
They did not know that my father, Mr. Arjun, was not just a farmer.
They were one of the largest landowners in North India, controlling grain and food distribution throughout the state.
He had hidden his wealth so that I could be taught the importance of humility.
His power was greater than the entire bank balance of the family Vandana even in the finger of his little hand.

I looked at the guard.
“Give me your phone,” I said, my voice no longer trembling.

The guard got scared and gave me the phone. I dialed the number I remembered.
“Hello?” the father’s voice was calm and warm.
“Dad,” I said, and broke a little as I heard his voice.
“Daddy, help me.” They took away everything. Left me naked on the street. ”

The father’s voice changed in shock. He was no longer a loving father, but a power-wielding boss.
“Who did this to you?” he asked.
“Vandana, Rohit, her mother… All. ”
Don’t move.” I’ll be there in 20 minutes. I was giving you a birthday surprise, but now the plan has changed. ”
Daddy, I’m cold. ”
Bear it, daughter. They will feel cold when they experience the hell I am about to bring them. I won’t come alone. ”

I disconnected the call.
Sitting in the rain, I waited.
These 20 minutes were to be the last 20 minutes of Vandana’s aristocratic lineage.

The first warning came when the sound of helicopter wings scared the security personnel.
It wasn’t the sound of a car, it was coming from the sky.
Two black helicopters landed directly into the palace garden without number plates, crushing Vandana’s award-winning rose plants.
The wind from the wings blew away the exterior decorations and forced the guests standing on the terrace to rush inside.

At the same time, where I was sitting, the main gate also hit. It was not a remote-opening gate, it was broken. A black matte military-style ambulance crushed the iron trap as if it were paper. Three luxury SUVs drove in behind it. The ambulance stopped in front of me. The door opened before the car came to a complete stop. My father landed. They were not dressed in their work clothes, but in black suits, with long woollen coats over their shoulders and the stern look that they showed in multi-crore agreements.

They ran towards me, took off the coat and wrapped me in it. He hugged me with such force that my ribs were squeezed, but it was the sweetest pain in the world. “Sorry, daughter,” he whispered into my wet hair. “I’m sorry I left you alone at the hands of these monsters. ”

He pulled me apart, looked into my eyes and wiped my tears with his rough thumbs. “It’s over, Elena. Get in the car. There are clean and warm clothes. ”

“Wait. I don’t want you to see what’s going to happen, but know that every tear you bring will be worth a crore rupees to them. ”

“I have to see them, Dad,” I said, feeling a new power within. “I want to see their faces. ”

My father nodded. “Okay, come with me, but come like a queen.” ”

I just sat in the car and wore a simple but elegant black dress that my father always kept for any emergency. I dried my hair, put on heels and stepped out.

We headed towards the main gate. The palace security guards wanted to stop us, but my father’s men, ex-servicemen and professional armed men, disabled them in a matter of seconds without firing a shot. My father kicked in the main door. There was a blast and the music suddenly stopped. We entered the hall. Chaos was rife. The guests were terrified of the helicopter landing. Vandana was screaming as she ordered her servants. Rohit was trying to placate an investor.

When they saw us coming in, there was silence. I was in my father’s hands. I was no longer that weeping naked woman, I was the daughter of Mr. Arjuna. Vandana came forward from among the people, red in anger.

“What does this mean?” he shouted. “Broke my garden. Broke down my gate. I’ll call the police. And why is this girl here again? Who is this old man? Your village lover?”

My father laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh, it was the laughter of the predator looking at the foolish prey.

“Shut up, Vandana,” my father said. His voice was not a scream, but a controlled thunder.
“I am Arjuna Vardhan, the father of the woman you just stripped naked and threw on the road. ”

Rohit turned pale. “The same owner of the agricultural industry?” said my father, who also owns many other properties that you don’t know.

Vandana understood that this farmer was really rich and tried to change the strategy, but his ego was too big.

“I don’t care who you are, your daughter is a thief.” He stole my diamond necklace. ”

“This necklace?” asked my father’s man, who had just come in, dragging Priya in. Priya was crying, holding the same famous necklace tightly in her hand.
“We found it in this girl’s bag when she was trying to escape through the back door,” the guard said. Hall was stunned.

“Mom said do it,” Priya immediately shouted, trapping her mother. He worked to trap me so that Rohit could leave me and marry the banker’s daughter.

Rohit was horrified to see his mother.
“Mom, did you do it?”
“Shut up, fool!” Vandana scolded her daughter.
Everything was for the good of the family.

My father slammed his wand on the ground, which he kept only for the sake of pride.
“The play is over. I’m here to collect debts. ”

“Debt?” asked Rohit.
“We don’t owe anybody. We are Vandana. We have money. ”

My father took the document out of his coat.
“Are you Vandana?”
“Yes.” Pretentious family. ”
A family whose textile company has been in losses for the last 5 years. 6 months ago he took a large loan from a private fund so that it would not lose the palace. This fund is me. ”

Vandana was shaken.
“What?”
“I bought your debt. Your mortgaged properties, letters of credit, all. I own the chair you sit on, the roof that is over you, and also the clothes. ”

My father looked at the clock. “According to Section 4B of the contract you signed, if the debtor behaves unethically or criminally, I have the right to seize the property. Stripping your daughter naked, falsely accusing her of theft and throwing her out in the rain, this is criminal behavior. ”

My father took out the phone.
“Issue orders,” he said at the other end of the line.

Palace lights off and emergency lights on.
“What’s going on?” shouted Vandana.
“I cut off your electricity. My lawyer froze all your accounts. You are doomed, Vandana. Absolutely. Nothing. ”

Rohit fell to his knees in front of me.
“Elena, my dear, I didn’t know. Sorry. Mom seduced me. I will always love you. Please talk to your father. We are husband and wife. ”

I looked at the man who left me behind in the most urgent moments.
“Husband?” I said.
A husband does not allow his wife to be naked. The husband doesn’t throw her on the street. You are not a husband, Rohit. You are a coward and I feel sorry for you.

“Elena,” she held out, but my father stepped on her chest and pushed her back.
“Don’t touch him.” You don’t even deserve to breathe in his air. ”

My father looked at the guests standing there, who were in both panic and fascination.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “the party is over. I suggest you leave. This property is mine now and I will close it. ”

The guests hurried out. No one wanted to be near Vandana’s downfall.
Vandana stood in the hall in anger.
“I’ve been here for 40 years. You have 10 minutes,” my father said.

“10 minutes to pick up your personal things. Personal means toothbrushes and underwear. Jewelry, furniture, everything will remain with me as the interest amount of the loan. ”

“Where shall we go?” cried Priya.
“Go wherever you want. The road is big, and you know what happens there. At least you have clothes. I didn’t have them. ”

My father pointed to his people.
“Get these people out of my house.” ”

The guard pulled Vandana, Priya and Rohit out just like they had pulled me.
Vandana was screaming. Priya was crying. Rohit just kept repeating my name.
They were thrown on the soaked dirt ground.

My father asked, “Are you okay, daughter?”
“Yes, Dad. I’m fine. ”

We returned home. My father ordered the palace to be demolished the next day.
In the following months, Vandana’s downfall became the talk of the town.
Rohit could not get the honor even once and remained as a waiter in a small bar.
Priya married an elderly man.
Vandana kept telling others that she was once the queen, alone in a government ashram.

I went back to the village, with my father, but not to hide. I took over the family business. I am now the head of international exports, doing multi-million dollar deals, and helping women who have faced the same hardships as I did.

Sometimes when I have a difficult meeting, touch my designer suit and remember the silk saree bursting that night. I smile, because that night they tried to break me, but they exposed the warrior within.

They wanted to see me naked and humiliated.
In the end, the real naked and empty, deprived of their wealth and vanity, were the same.