Her Innocence, His Obsession

Chapter 13

Diya was terrified of her mom now. She was still hurting her really badly and she wanted to pull away from her but she was helpless as she knew that would only provoke her mom's anger more. She always tended to be very careful around her as she had many mood swings, but today, she had a valid reason to be mad at her. Heck, she herself would be suspicious if she caught someone else in that kind of a position. Gathering all her energy, she spoke "Mama, it's not what it look like, I can explain." "Shut up," Latha replied angrily and with even more force, dragged her home. Once, they reached home, she unlocked the door, and pushed her daughter to the floor. Diya, who has been trying to control her tears up until now, started sobbing on the floor, helplessly. "Now, you can explain to me what happened" Lath asked. "You will tell me everything that has been going on between yourself and this boy." She didn't beat around the bush. Latha went straight to the question "Why did that boy say you got a job offer at a hospital he works on when you're not even doing a medical degree? You know we can't afford it. Besides, we joined you in engineering for a reason, so that you can work at your father's company once you graduate." 

Diya tried hard to reply but she couldn't help it as she continued sobbing. She wasn't able to find the words or figure out what to reply. If she shared the entire ordeal with her mother, then she wouldn't even let her go to college and force her to stay at home. It was the only rest and peace she had in her life, and she absolutely did not want to lose it. Instead, she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind. "It was in the hospital's IT department that I got an offer. I didn't want to work there so I rejected their offer." Her mom, looked at her suspiciously for a moment, as if evaluating whether her statement was correct or not, then responded by saying "And you did not think to tell me this?" Diya looked towards the floor and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to bother you as I knew you wouldn't let me work anywhere." Now, Diya's mom was curious, "How much did they offer?" she asked her daughter. So, taking this as a chance, Diya told her mom her current salary working part-time: 1 lakh rupees per month. Latha looked at her daughter in amazement and walked away. 

Lath was troubled now. She knew her husband doesn't let the women of the house work anywhere but the offer that she got was definitely very big. It was more than her own husband makes working full-time and they definitely have had a lot of financial struggles, so her income could improve the quality of their life. She could buy all the sarees and jewelry she has ever wanted to and spoil herself. She didn't even so much as give a thought to her daughter, who that money rightfully belongs to. Diya, who had received a scholarship at her college, which covered her whole tuition, didn't have much of a need for any of the money, so she had always donated the whole amount to a local orphanage, where she volunteers during the weekends. She found her happiness there whereas her mom only found her happiness in luxuries. 

Latha decided to talk with her husband, Shankar, and convince him to let their daughter work. Greedily thinking about how to spend that much money, Latha entirely forgot about the entire ordeal with Rudra at the temple that day. However, poor Diya, was still thinking about it and terrified on how her father would react if he gets to know about it and even more terrified about Rudra. She remembered the possessive, demented look in his eyes as he held her wrist and the way he glared at her as she left the temple with her mom. She never ever wanted to be anywhere near him again in her life. But she wasn't sure how to go forward or how to deal with any of her problems. It has been 48 hours since she has even properly slept and was feeling extremely weak. Unable to escape her thoughts, her body started severely shaking. She noticed her hands getting clammy and her knees getting weak and felt like she would collapse any second.   

That day, after coming home from work, Diya's father, Shankar Sharma, found Diya collapsed near the entrance. He tried calling out to his daughter but she didn't respond so he panicked and ran into his room, where he found his wife and, together, they called the ambulance to take their daughter to the hospital.