Guilty Pleasures

6

"Family is often where we experience our first heartbreak..."

The moment Pallavi entered the Deshmukh residence, she could practically feel the hostility radiating through the corners of their living room, all of it directed towards her.

She let a short sigh escape her lips. She was overly exhausted, her head thumping and now she had come home to what seemed like world war three right at her doorstep.

For a moment she wondered if she could silently sneak back out and call it a night at the shop again, but she stopped short when Nikhil had met her eyes.

He looked at her sympathetically, walking towards her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. And she mistook it for comfort, where in reality it was the protection of a brother, from a fire she didn't know she was entering.

Her innocent Aayi was standing glaring at Sulochuna who had an equally menacing glare on her face; she wanted to ask what had happened, but found herself not even wanting to know the answer.

It wasn't until Sulochuna had caught sight of her that she knew that she had lost her chance to escape.

"Ah look here she is the whore of the hour."

Pallavi looked at her in bewilderment, her eyes suddenly sparking with anger as she looked towards her.

"What? Kaku-"

"Sulochuna DONT you dare say anything about my daughter."

"And yet it's okay for you to say whatever you wanted to mine Vahini?"

Pallavi looked towards her father, who stood their silently quaking in anger, once again directed at her.

"Baba..." she called out, her hand reaching out to him, until she was roughly shoved back. She thanked Nikhil for catching her quickly before standing in front of her like a shield.

Her patience began to run thin, her hands clenching into fists as she looked around.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Oh so you still have the audacity to ask what's going on!" Sulochuna walked over to her, slamming a small piece of paper in her hand.

Watching the small scrap fall to the floor for a moment, Pallavi willed herself to not lose control. She bent down, picking it up reading the contents.

The bold black letters for: ABORTION CLINIC AND MS DESHMUKH staring back at her.

She looked up confused.

"Who had an abortion?"

Her Kaku laughed. "Wow, so you still wish to maintain your innocent streak Pallavi? We all know what's been going on between you and Raghav and now what you've aborted his child."

"I'm sorry what? Where the hell is all this nonsense coming from. I am not pregnant, I never was pregnant, and even if I had been I would not abort a child. It's a life and therefore has rights."

She stalked forward, ignoring the way her father looked at her disapprovingly.

"You are entitled to think whatever you want Kaku. You're more than entitled to also protect your daughters but how dare you accuse me with no solid evidence." She threw the paper roughly on the floor.

"What Raghav Rao and I have is a professional working relationship. I'm the only one he deals with because no one else here seems to care about this family business. So let me clear that accusation up right away."

She paused, silently asking god to forgive her sin of lying. But they could never know the reality of the relationship she and Raghav shared.

"Tell me Kaku were you aware of how easy it is to forge documents these days? So if you can take your daughters words that it isn't theirs and it isn't mine, then who knows maybe someone such as yourself who has nothing but malicious intent did this."