The Waves Whisper ✓

14 | you had my heart inside of your hands

10
𓂃𓊝𓂃

The next day, everything took a 180 degree turn. I cried myself to sleep on Sunday night after thinking about the things my stepmother said. And when I woke up on Monday morning, Ratan still wasn't in his room. He would have checked on me if he had come home in the evening.

"How do I know where he is?" My stepmother glared at me when I asked about Ratan. I went around my house, hoping to find him somewhere. My legs were quivering since I was dehydrated and hungry. I went home after finding no trace of him. In the afternoon, a man in his early twenties came to my home.

"Is this Ratan's house?" He said, looking around.

"Yes." I replied.

"He hasn't been to work since yesterday." The man said. His words felt like someone had poured melted iron into my ears.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my lips trembling.

"Here." The man extended me a letter. "I found this in his drawer this morning." He said. I opened the letter and read it.

My dearest Roopali,

I know this is the saddest thing you have to face, but I have to do this. I am sincerely sorry. I am leaving Rajasthan, with the woman I love. We cannot go on like this forever by hiding our relationship from the world. So we came to the decision that leaving here was the best option. Please don't come looking for us.

Yours,
Ratan.

I felt the sky above me tumbling over and the ground beneath me splitting into two. The hot tears falling from my eyes burned my cheeks on their way. My stepmother quickly snatched the letter from my hands. I ran inside and locked my room so I wouldn't have to hear her cursing my brother. I fell into bed, crying and pulling my hair.

What about the plans we made together? What about Calcutta? What about Neelam?

Apparently, everything was a lie. He had a woman waiting for him, and he didn't say anything to me about her? The Calcutta dream is over now.

'You'll die here, or worse, you'll die in the house of a man that you never wanted to marry!' I thought to myself while tears streamed down my cheeks.

In the evening, my stepmother said to take anything that I might have left in the Rathore house back. She said she's not going to let me work in their house anymore. I walked to the Rathore house that cold evening. I didn't have anything to take back from there; instead, I had to put back some books in the library that I had taken home to read. I went into the library and put those books back. On my way out, I stopped in front of Sapna's room, hearing her cry. I was worried for her and thought something had happened to her. I thought about going in, but I stopped as I heard her father's voice coming from the room.

"You think you can fool me, girl?" He was furious.

"I thought you liked me. How could you do something horrendous to your own child?" She let out a wail.

"The reputation of my family comes before the love for my children." He said in a stone cold voice.

"How could you do that to him? How could you? Tell me, did you kill him? Like you kill everyone who is a threat to you."

"You thought you could elope with him? You thought you could bring a scum like him into your life? Into my family?"

"Ratan is not a scum!" She screamed. Her screams pierced through me.

Ratan! Ratan was in love with her? But in the letter, he said he eloped with some other woman. Was the letter fake? Did something bad happen to Ratan?

My mind was inside a whirlpool, trying to comprehend everything. I could stand there. So I ran as fast as I could to Apoorva's room. I wanted answers. I burst open the door. He was sitting by the window. He stood up, seeing me barge in.

"Roopali?" He asked as concern spread across his face. "Why are you here this late?" He asked as he walked towards me. I was panting heavily. "Did someone see you?" He asked, looking out of the door.

"Where is my brother?" I asked, ignoring his questions.

"What?" He asked in confusion.

"WHERE IS MY BROTHER?" I could feel the blood rushing to my face, my body shivering in anger, and words getting trapped in my throat.

"I don't know." He said. "I swear, I don't know."

"Was your sister in love with my brother?" He was taken aback by my question.

He sighed. "Yes." He said, pressing his temple.

"Was she planning to elope with him?" I asked again.

"Roop..." He tried to calm me down.

"Just answer my question."

"Yes. She was in love with him, and she was planning to run away with him." He said it in a single breath.

"What did your father do to him?" I asked, tears falling from my eyes. My rage was slowly turning into helplessness as he answered my questions.

"I... I honestly don't know." He replied.

"You know. You know." I said, shaking my head in denial.

"Roop. You need to get away from me and my family. I am saying this for your own good." He said. I could see tears forming in his eyes.

"Yes. You're right. And you know what? My stepmother has stopped me from going to school." I said.

"What?"

"She'll be marrying me off to someone soon. And like that, I'll be away from you and your vicious family." I spoke without thinking. His face fell, his jaws tensed, and his eyes darkened. He stood there still, looking into my eyes. Our breathing was loud, and it was the only sound in that whole room.

"Say something." I said, breaking the silence.

"I don't know what you're intending." He said, regret eminent in his voice. "Roop, You need to leave."

I don't know what I was expecting him to say. But his cold response broke my heart. "You don't mean that." I said, wiping the tears off my face.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Fine, I'll leave." I said. "And... I hope." My words trembled. "I hope I never see you again."

He took a few seconds to respond. "That's better for you and your life."

I don't remember if I walked home or ran home. I don't really remember how I got home. My vision was blurred because of the tears in my eyes. When I got home, I saw two men and a woman sitting there.

"Where are you running to?" My stepmother grabbed my hand, stopping me from going into my room. "They are here to see you." She said.

"What?" I said, looking at her.

"Vikram has shown an interest in marrying you." She said, looking at the man sitting on the chair. Surprisingly, I didn't feel anything, neither shock nor sadness. My heart had been through a lot in those two days. I looked at Vikram. He was in his late twenties or early thirties. I couldn't figure it out. He had a beard, which added a couple of years to his age.

"Oh, she's a beautiful girl, isn't she?" The elderly woman beside him asked the other old man. The man nodded his head in response, looking at me.

"Okay, now we should talk about fixing the marriage date." The old man said to my stepmother.

"Yeah, we should." She said and gave them a fake smile.

"You, go inside your room." She whispered in my ears. I obeyed her. And just like that, my wings were cut off!

____

I know that Roop is going through a lot now, and I hate myself coz, I'm the one who's responsible for putting her through all these... 😬

Fun fact, even though this story is named as 'the waves whisper' and revolves around the characters who like the ocean, I am not really fond of the sea. I am a bit thalassophobic and the ocean really scares me :/