Destructive Love (#1)

CHAPTER 2

|PRIYANKA|

I sighed, opened my eyes, and snoozed the alarm for the fifth time. I guess the fifth time's the charm. I ambled to the window and gazed outside. I breathed a satisfied sigh as the sun's rays caressed my face. The warmth of it always reminded me of my mother's caresses and her presence.

Ma passed away three years ago. Just before my 22nd birthday. Papa hired the best doctors from around the world to save her but the cancer was detected late although Ma went through many rounds of chemotherapy., it was pointless.

Her last words always rang in my ears. "Guddu find happiness in every moment of your life. Don't get sucked into the mechanical lifestyle that everyone is living. Take care of your father." Ma and Papa always called me Guddu. A few tears slid down my eyes. I wiped them and smiled.

My mother wanted me to be happy at all times and I am happy. I studied engineering but after Ma's demise, I wanted to do something else. Something meaningful. So I took a photography course and started my own blog.

My blog's name was "Spreading Love". I never revealed my real name. I was an anonymous writer and I liked it that way. I always sign off the blog as Anonymous Love. I had gathered quite a few followers over the past two years. Nearly ten thousand people. I clicked pictures and wrote down whatever I felt. It was the most fulfilling thing ever.

Along with that I took up some freelance writing jobs and ran the charity fund of my father's company Delta Technologies. There are offices across the country and a few in other countries as well. Sharma Foundation Trust was founded by my mother Geetha Sharma. Most of the operations related to the trust fund happened in Pune. She used to run the foundation before she passed away. I occasionally used to volunteer when I was in college but taking complete responsibility for it was life-changing.

However, my father Gopal Sharma wasn't happy about this. Since I was his only child he wanted me to join the company and learn the ropes of it. He wanted me to hire someone else to run the foundation. He always said that I was wasting my degree by taking full control and responsibility for the charity work. That was always what we argued about.

He wasn't happy about my move to Bangalore either. He insisted that once I'm done exploring I should and will come back to handle things in the company but it wasn't like that I hope with time he'll understand me and my dreams. He even made sure to send me money every month but I never used it. I want to live with the money that I have earned.

Since I had moved here I rarely saw him. I tried to talk to him at least twice a week. They were usually monosyllabic words exchanged between us. I missed the easygoing person he used to be before my mother passed.

Ma used to be the glue between us. She was the one who held us all together. But when she passed it completely changed the dynamics between us. Without her, my father was a different person. But I know my father. I know that we'll sort this out.

I walked to the study table that was in the corner of my room. I picked the frame from the table it was a picture of the three of us. I was standing in between Ma and Papa and grinning widely. Ma's eyes were glistening with tears as she grinned widely and Papa was smiling proudly. I traced my fingertips over their faces. I sniffled as tears glistened in my eyes. This was taken on my 12th-grade graduation. I wish I could make him proud of me like that again. I placed it back and took a deep breath. Hope is all I have to keep me going.

I folded the duvet and tidied my bed. I grabbed the book that I had read yesterday before going to bed and arranged it back on the bookshelf that was next to my bed. I pulled the Polaroid picture that I had taken of a building yesterday and stuck it on the wall right above my bed. I smiled at my creation. I stuck all the pictures that I have taken so far here and made a collage of sorts. I even hung some fairy lights around it. My room was painted in a light purple color. This place was my salvation.