BOOK I in Dark Heart Series
Arthisha Shankar, she was the unwanted, ill-treated person in her family. She was a burden according to her parents. Growing up in an environment filled with failed and dysfunctional arranged marriages, the only thing she...
It has been two weeks since I ate pasta which was made by him. I was on the way to the market, alone. My mother gave me some money and a very long list as if she doesn't want me back soon.
I entered the mall, took a wheel cart from a corner of the mall and started looking and roaming in the mall with a very long list given by my mother.
"Oh! Hey Arthisha, what are you doing here?" I heard a male voice.
"Haunting an elephant", I rolled my eyes at my neighbour's stupid question.
"In the mall?" He barked and started following me.
"Yes! Why not?" I huffed in annoyed tones while putting Garam masala's pouch in the wheel cart.
"Bye, my friends have come", He said and walked away.
"Thank You God", I muttered and started keeping all those things which were in the list.
After I brought everything from the mall whatever my mother had printed a long list, I walked back to my house. It was a quarter to eight, I saw the time in the mall when I was about to exit the mall and my mother sent me at four in the evening. She didn't give me fares for the rickshaw. The mall was a half hour away from my house.
"Finally, I made it to my house", I whispered to myself, exhaustively.
"......you did a great job my sister-in-law by sending that dirtiest ugly face away on my wedding anniversary. Now I can happily enjoy tonight", I heard what my first younger maternal uncle's wife said to my mother.
"She is a very easy, dump, unwanted, unloved and what not", My mother said and kissed on her forehead.
"I was thinking of selling her off soon to some men", I heard my second younger maternal uncle's wife say while coming out from the kitchen with a bowl in her hands.
"Shut up!" My second younger maternal uncle came out from his room and slapped his wife on her left cheek.
"Not before I used her first. She would satisfy me more than you", He barked on her face.
"I hope you love that slap", My mother said to her second younger brother's wife.
"I'll decide to whom I'll sell her, got it?" My mother said on her second younger brother's wife's face while pressing her fingers on the same cheek on which her brother slapped his wife.
"Slap roughly this time on her same cheek on which you just slapped a few minutes before and start your that program which you told me that you will give it as a gift to me on my wedding anniversary", My first younger brother's wife said to my second younger maternal uncle while sitting on a dining table, beside my mother.
I ran away from there without letting them know. I left all those things there that I brought from the mall. I knew where I should go. I ran to the Mahal.
I directly stopped in front of the Mahal. I was breathing heavily. The guard didn't even ask me who I'm neither they blocked the door, their heads hanging down just as they saw me.
"Can I go inside? I'm Rudraabiravi's friend", I asked, they nodded their heads together, their heads still hanging low.
"Ji, dhanyawaad", I joined my palm together and thanked them before entering the Mahal. I ran toward my best friend's room, tears were continuously flowing through my eyes. Without knocking her chamber's door, I entered it.
"Ru..Rudrabhiravi", I roared painfully while calling her name but she didn't come out. My sobbing was increasing.
"Rudra — ", I stopped when I saw him, he was sitting on the sofa, laptop was placed on his lap, his right hand was on a handle of the sofa, standing vertically on it and his right three fingers were placed between his lower lips and his chin, his right thumb was at rest below the chin while his right index finger was placed on his right cheek, his left hand was placed beside him while all the left fingers were tapping on the sofa's seat one by one continuously, his left thumb was at the rest on the sofa's seat. He was staring at my soul without blinking his eyes.
"Come here", He darkly said. I shook my head.
"No, where is —
"COME HERE, I SAID", He cut me in the middle and clenched his jaw angrily.
My tears began to flow again, I silently walked to him. I stood in front of him, the table was in between me and him.
"Sit", He tapped with his left palm on the sofa's seat. I sat beside him while leaving noticeable gaps between him and I. I was biting my lower lips and looking at the floor which was in front of me while my hands were trembling on my lap.
"Don't", He pulled out my lower lips away from my teeth though his left thumb. He made me face to face, I was looking at his white shirt's third button. He was caressing my lips with the same thumb. I was trying hard not to cry again in front of him. All those words and sentences started coming into my mind. I began to cry. He wiped my tears away from my cheeks from his left fingers. He placed his laptop on the table and pulled me toward him through my shoulders, placed my right cheek on his lap and caressed my hair.
He removed the shawl from him and covered me with it.
"If you are comfortable you can share it with me", He said, deeply.
"I...I...I don't know", I shuttered and looked into his eyes.
"I don't think you want to hear", I said while fighting with my own demons inside.
"Try me", He said coldly, I gulped my saliva and nodded my head.
"My mother sent me to the mall at four in the evening. She doesn't send me to the mall because she wants to, she sent me there to get rid of me and my ugly face. Today was my first younger maternal uncle's wedding anniversary and I heard his wife saying to my mother that she was so happy that my mother indirectly threw me outside the house, well it wasn't the first time that they threw me outside the house. I mean I was on the day first pe... nothing, umm, my body was hella aching. She could just let me stray at my house and told me not to come out of the room", I told him just an overview.
"Are you on your periods?" He asked, my eyes widened. Out of everything he just asked this.
"Umm... I'm sorry, if you got uncomfortable", I started mummering fast while getting up away from his lap.
"Lied down in the same way you were before", He said darkly.
"No, sorry, don't hurt me", I said, shifting back, leaving more gaps between us while tears were coming out in my eyes.
"Huh — Hurt? I'll choose my death over hurting you", He whispered darkly just in front of my face. I held his shoulders as he picked me up in his arms and placed me in a sitting position on his thighs.
"I'm sleepy", I yawned and put my face on his neck. He carried me in a bridal style and was about to leave my best friend's chamber but before that I asked him, confused, "Where are you taking me?"
"To my chamber", He said and walked out of her chamber.
"But why?" I asked, my side face was over his black shirt.
"You'll get scared at night if you wake up in the middle of the night", He said, softly. I didn't say anything but I do trust him so I let him take me to his chamber.
As soon as I felt the mattress on my back, I came to know he was placing me on his bed and tugging the blanket over my body. I snoozed off on his bed while he was caressing my hair.
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