chapter 27

Chapter 27A devastating lossHer mother came in to soothe her. “You saw, beta, how father and son behaved? Imagine having such a father-in-law! Eyeing his son’s fiancé shamelessly! I told that boy, we belong to a respectable family. He had the cheek to turn on me! You can’t imagine how he hurt me…!”Anu turned on her, cutting her. “Are you happy? You did everything possible to make that man angry with us.” “Isn’t it better that you know their true colours before you got married to him? You have only me to thank for.”“I will thank you to keep out of my life! You don’t want me to marry Chintan. You don’t want me to marry at all! You are selfish!” Anu screamed, throwing a pen she had picked up angrily on the floor. Her mother flinched then slowly drew herself up and looked at her daughter blankly. She wearily left the room, leaving Anu sobbing.Anu’s cell rang. It was a new number, and she let it ring. But when it persisted, she picked it up impatiently. “You are not going to get away this time. Just try meeting Chintan again, and you will know,” Mr. Arya threatened.Kaki came running into the room. “Your mother!” she said and ran back.Panicking, Anu rushed to her mother’s room to see her struggling to breathe. She quickly rang for a cab and with kaki, hurriedly took her mother to the hospital. It was an emergency, and the doctors didn’t give her much hope.“Ma, I am sorry,” she whispered trying to hold back her sobs.  “Just get better,” she  prayed silently.Even after surgery, her mother’s condition remained unstable. Anu called her office to ask for leave, only to be told that she needn’t bother to report for work. She realised the full force of Mr. Arya’s power as she found herself jobless. Over the next few days, while sitting by her mother’s bedside in the hospital, she tried contacting some other companies. But either her effort was half hearted, or Mr. Arya really had an effective network, so that even after a week, she didn’t have a job in any of the media companies that she knew of. Chintan called repeatedly. She didn’t pick up the calls. He messaged, wanting to know where she was, why the house was locked, why she was not at her workplace. “Please, please, please, I am going mad with worry. Could you respond…PLEASE! What anyone says doesn’t matter. I LOVE YOU…PLEASE!” She didn’t respond. “At least tell me you are okay!” his message pleaded a day later. She switched off her mobile. What was the use? Her mother on one side, his father on the other… What chance had they to live happily even on a remote farm. If they married, there would be no financing and no farm… That would break Chintan… Would that make her happy? Not at all.Couldn’t they start afresh? But seeing her mother in the ICU broke her will. And then the question would pop up – would Chintan be able to break away from his father? Would Arya let them be?Frustrated, she rested her head in her hands.A week later, her mother opened her eyes feebly. “That boy!” she said a day later, when her condition seemed to stabilise. “Never that Arya boy!”Anu nodded. In her confusion, she didn’t know what she herself wanted. Her mother had suffered, had been humiliated, and she – Anu – herself had been nasty to her mother because of Chintan. How could she ever be happy with Chintan, even if he was the only man she wanted to spend her life with? “Ma, I promise…just come back,” she pleaded. But her mother was on her last mile, and that night, breathed her last.Distraught and jobless, Anu didn’t linger long in the house. Chintan had been coming, her neighbour said, and had left his number with them so that they could inform him whenever Anu returned. Anu smiled tightly and said, “I will call soon, when I am free. Thank you.” But she didn’t. She did not want to face him, her mind embroiled in a chaotic debate. She was torn between a deep desire to go back to him, to have him hold her in his arms, reassure her that all was well with the world, her world; and the deep fear that Chintan brought with him the menace of Arya, and nothing could ever be right in her world. And then her mother… oh poor mother… All because she, Anu, couldn’t contain her disappointment and anger.Seeing her so lost, kaki suggested that Anu return with her to the village. Seeing no end to her road of misery, she agreed. There was nothing holding her back in Delhi, she thought bitterly, and she didn’t need a large space – even if it was only the size of Mr. Arya’s outhouse, it was still too large for her. The house contained too many memories that she couldn’t bear. She instructed her lawyer to sell it.She cut herself off from this world, knowing every inch of the city would only give her pain. She would go back to her roots and give herself space. She would decide what to do when she felt better.