Discordance

Chapter Ten

TW: DV

As Akshara got to the women's shelter the next day she kept thinking about how hot and cold her husband blew. He had looked relieved when she had shared food with him but then when she had thanked him he had closed himself off suddenly and was back to being his rude mean self. At least if he was consistent in his mean streaks she wouldn't expect much from him but how was she to not expect niceties from him now that she knew he was capable of it?

He had genuinely looked horrified when he saw the bruise on her wrist thinking that he had somehow caused it and as akshara looked around the women's shelter she realized that while she came from privilege, she kind of acted the same way most of the women here did. She lied and protected her family when they didn't deserve to be protected. Women would forever be a pawn in the game men played and she was tired of it all. Tired of her grandfather determining her life, her career, her marriage. She had gone for the pagphera reluctantly knowing that Manjari Aunty might call Bade Papa and ask if she had reached. So she went at a time when her brothers weren't around and she was barely in that house for 15 minutes and had come out of it with a bruised wrist and a threat to hold on to her marriage or there would be consequences.

"Akshara" she was jerked out of her musings when one of the staff hurried over to her with a concerned look on her face, all thoughts of bade papa and her monster took the back burner immediately.

"What is it Shanta Tai?" Akshara got up and grabbed her arms noting the distress in her voice.

"Diksha..." Fuck. Akshara immediately knew what would have gone down and ran out of the door towards the entrance and there stood a woman barely 20 years old clutching a small tattered bag to her chest, her clothes torn to shreds barely covering her body. Akshara immediately ran to her and the moment she got close, Diksha flung her arms around Akshara and began to sob causing a chill to run down Akshara's spine.

"C'mon, let's get you inside and cleaned up" akshara whispered gently, nudging her along the path to get some semblance of privacy as others in the shelter peeked out from their rooms, the night air deathly still. A look of distraught on all of the women's faces as their collective trauma was reflected on Diksha's face. She kept shaking like a leaf and mumbling words that made no sense and Akshara desperately wished she could take away some of her pain.

Setting her down on one of the empty beds, Akshara began to take a catalogue of her body for any obvious signs of scrapes and bruises, she would have definitely taken pictures and notes in her folder but this unfortunately wasn't Diksha's first rodeo and she refused to press charges even after all the times she had to run away and seek help from Akshara.

Taking out the first aid box, Akshara carefully dressed some of the obvious cuts and scrapes all the while whispering kind words to the barely adult woman. "It's okay shh" she whispered as Diksha's sobs raked up in frequency and volume.

"He said he had changed" she stuttered out and Akshara wanted to shake the woman but she also understood her deeply and knew there was nothing she could do for her other than be her strength. "It's ok, it's not your fault."

"I was just... I made the wrong size of rotis and he said... I am useless and I should go away." Hearing these stories and seeing the visible proof of how terrible people can be on these women daily chipped away something from Akshara's heart and she wasn't sure how much more her battered soul and heart could take before she became so jaded that she would stop believing in the purity of love.

"He then just took out his belt and I ran, I ran like you told me to." Diksha continued and Akshara felt immense pride in this woman's courage.

"I am so proud of you. You're safe here. We have good security and nobody can tell from the outside that we have women hiding here." She desperately hoped that this time Diksha wouldn't let her trauma get the best of her and go back to that terrible excuse of a man. She had seen it over and over in quite a large majority of women they helped here, they were so used to their constant abuse and trauma that a few kind words from their abuser and they would go back hoping things would change, but unfortunately they never ever did.