Lilith's Lucifer

Chapter 24.

Nandini Murthy's P.O.V.-

I huffed as I rested my head against my arm clutching a wet cloth. Sweat glistened my forehead which I wiped away roughly. I was tired by doing all the cleaning around the humongous house. The only part that was remaining now,was the railings of staircase and the window glasses and sills. I encouraged myself by mumbling 'few more task' and stood straight. With that, I begun wiping the dust off of the railings of staircase.

While doing so,I heard the opening of the main door from behind. Therefore,I turned around only to find Manik carrying some essentials in two polythenes in his each hand. He had a day off today. So considering he had an ample of time to waste,I preferred to give him some work.

Since we ran out of some basic stuffs like, bin-bags , dishwashing liquid,a handwash, and a pesticide spray to kill bugs. I had given him the list to buy them.

"Took you so long!" I sighed as I resumed my tidying process.

"Yup,I was confuse in the selection of their best brands." He answered in honesty while taking off his shoes and putting them in their place. That stopped me and made me face him thoroughly by folding my arms across my chest. The dusty cloth dangled at the corner.

I raised my eyebrows at him and spoke with a partly dreading and partly defeated tone,"Don't tell me you bought expensive essentials in the name of a brand!"

He sat there at a chesterfield by resting his leg over the knee and faced me with a blank face. I knitted my brows more at him and it was that moment when he knew, he had screwed up.

He opened his mouth to say otherwise but then closed it. As I kept glaring,he was quick to shuffle his hands into the polythene and dragged the stuff out one after the other. My eyes didn't waver from him as he kept on going through the prices written over the packed essentials.

"Manik?" I queried in a soft warning. He glanced up and smiled ever so innocently at me.

I shook my head, not at all buying that face and sauntered towards where he sat. As I got close,I bent down and went through all of their rates. My eyes just went on getting wider with each amount I read. He on the other hand did nothing but kept looking at me expectantly for my outburst.

"Where's the bill?" I asked and he immediately pushed it in my hand.

Total:856₹ the bill read and I felt like my eyes will pop out of their sockets at any given moment. I gasped loudly as I kept staring back and forth between him and the bill.

He closed his eyes,daring not to meet mine and chucked his tongue inside his cheek.

"Manik!!" I yelled and with an astounded state he looked back at me.

"What have you done!" I whined, couldn't believing that he spent eight hundred over such basic things just in a name of brand.

"What have I done..." He repeated rhetorically, knowing very well that the damage was done.

"How could you spend that much money so carelessly? Do you have any idea that a normal person can easily live on that money for 4 maximum days." I dramatically shoved 4 fingers near his face.

I was so wretched because I knew the feeling of hunger,I knew that knot in the stomach due to the lack of food very well. It reminded me of my 14 year old self,who had starved in the walls of this house due to my penniless condition. Old man was no more by my side to check on me or to provide me proper meals. He deceased and slowly the struggle for my own survival started.I had been this stubborn child, I never acknowledged him when he was with me but I learnt very well that he was like a backbone in my life in those days when I faced the consequences by starving myself to death.