Married To The Devil

Chapter 16

Veeranshu left for the office. My father and brother went somewhere outside. I and my mother were alone in the house so I decided to help my mother in the kitchen. She was making lunch and by the odour of that, I could tell that that would be delicious.

"Riya, you go and sit. I'm doing this."

"Why? Don't you think you are doing too much formality?"

"It's not like what you are thinking."

"No, it definitely is. Before my marriage, you always scolded me for not doing any work and now, you are behaving like this. Am I your guest?"

She shifted her attention to me, glaring at me. "Riya, go outside," she said ignoring my question. I didn't expect my mother to behave like that. I was always used to her scoldings but she was now treating me like a guest and I hated that.

"Fine, I'm going." I turned around to exit the kitchen but something crossed my mind and I faced her. "Mummy, what about Nancy? Have you heard any news?"

Her eyes softened. "No. I was waiting for you to come and after that, we will go to her home."

"Fine, we will go in the evening there." She hummed.

The bell rang gaining our attention. I headed to open the door and there was standing my brother with a black bag. A piece of red cloth was struck between the zip of it. I looked at him, raising my eyebrow. "What is in this?"

"Nothing." He gave a cold answer making me more curious. "Tell me what is in this?" I said in a childish tone, making him laugh.

He pinched my cheek. "You are the same as you were in childhood but now you should behave maturely."

"You are just behaving like mummy. I'm only married. What's the big deal?" He stretched his hand to place it on my shoulder but I smacked that away. "I know you're offended by my words but mark my words. If you will behave like this your mother-in-law will throw you out of the house," he said laughing. It was a joke for him but that just hurt my feelings.

"Bhai, I never expected you would say something like this to me." My eyes were getting watery. I turned around to leave but he stopped me by hugging the life out of me.

"Riya, I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I was just joking. I'm here and no one can dare to touch you. I love you so much."

"You always say this after making me hurt." I snuggled into his chest more. Caressing my hair, he said, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I'm won't say anything like that ever."

Breaking the hug, I glared at him. "I will not talk to you."

"You-" Before he could say more, I stormed from there. He deeply sighed.

~

I was ready and headed with my mother to Nancy's house. Pressing the doorbell, I looked at my mother with hesitation in my eyes as I wasn't sure whether Siya would have told her mother about the quarrel between me and Nancy. If she did it would be a big problem.

The door opened revealing Nancy's mother. She was in a light colour saree. There were dark circles under her eyes.

"Riya," said aunty making me respond to her. "Hello, aunty? How are you?"

"I'm not good." Her voice was heavy as if she would burst into tears at any moment. My mother hugged her and she cried with heavy emotions. Her sounds of crying were enough to make me cry.

Nancy's father came and told us to come inside. We were in the living room. Her mother was a crying mess. Her tears never stopped. My mother was calming her down. From the corner of my eyes, I saw uncle was also on the verge of crying but he controlled himself. Losing a daughter of such a young age was so difficult for them before her marriage.

"Aunty, I know it's difficult for you but would you tell me what happened to Nancy on that day?" I asked.

She slightly nodded and deeply sighed controlling her emotions. "W-When she was f-found. She was naked and bloody. Someone raped her. There were cuts on her whole body. Police didn't find any clue of the culprit."

"Aunty where she was found and what she wore?"

"She was found in the near forest and I don't remember what she wore."

"Didn't she tell you where she went?"

"No. She went missing in the evening. We contacted every friend of hers but they didn't have the answers to our questions."

My inner voice was saying something was definitely wrong. I needed to find it. "Aunty, can I check her room?" She nodded. I got up and went straight to her room. I pushed the door open. Everything was placed properly. Nothing changed in her room.

I opened the drawers in the hope to find a clue. I checked under the bedsheets, bed and behind the curtains but everything was in vain. The last thing was left to check and that was the bathroom. I opened the door and went inside. The room was dry and clean. I checked everywhere but found nothing.

As I was about to exit, my eyes caught a piece of paper that was crumpled and thrown behind the curtain. I crouched down and picked it. When I flattened it, I saw a red lipstick mark in the bottom right corner but the thing that confused me was that nothing was written on it but the mark was placed like a response to a letter.

Could it be a letter sent to her? How come the police not found it? Is the police involved in this crime? If they are then it's big trouble.

Something big was happening and I definitely needed to find that. I folded the paper and decided to keep that to myself. I would visit the forest where Nancy was found dead to find more clues.

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