Broken But Beautiful

chapter-15

Aarav's pov-
6 years ago-

"Hey mom, I am back from college. Are you here??"

I just came back from college and today I got to know that i got selected for the internship program at "ICOM INFRASTRUCTURE" which is a very big opportunity for me but all i am feeling is emptiness from inside because i don't know if i should be happy or sad. If i accept it then i would have to leave from here and the thought of it alone feels like i am drowning in never ending water, how will I live there when the reason of my living would be here, countries apart from me.

I entered inside my home and saw the front door was broken, i got scared thinking something happened to mom, I screamed her name but in response all i heard was someone sobbing in the living room. I ran towards living room and what I saw there shocked me to core. My mother was sitting on the ground, crying while her hand was bleeding profusely. Everything in the room was smashed and broken to pieces.

"MOM! Mumma! what happened?? Who did all this? And your hand, fuck your hand!! It's bleeding! Let me get the first aid box first."

I was about to leave but she holded my hand, stopping me and then hugged me tightly. She sobbed loudly and my arms unknowingly tightened around her.

"Mumma please calm down, look I am here. Tell me what happened, I will fix it okay? Don't cry please. Just give me a name of a person responsible for this condition of yours."

She didnt say anything, just cried in my arms. I saw she was sitting between the pieces of glass so I picked her up from there and took her inside the bathroom. I checked her hand and there was a deep cut on her palm from glass. I put the hand under running water and cleaned the blood that coated her hand, after treating it medically i wrapped it in bandage. She was quiet the whole time, just staring in the space.

"Mom! Now tell me who did all of that to you? What happened here when i was gone??"

"Y-your f-father-"

She again burst into tears and I embraced her in my arms. My father? But he is dead. I am confused now because how can a dead person do something? I guess only she could answer that. I soothingly rubbed her back to calm her down and it worked.

"Mumma! Please stop crying and tell me what happened here?"

She calmed down and I brought her a glass of water. slowly, she gulped it down and I took her to her room.

"Now tell me everything. I promise you whatever happened, I would take care of it."

She took a shaky breath and just stared at her hands.

"Earlier in the afternoon when i was in the kitchen, some people forcefully burst inside the house. They broke the front door and took me to the gunpoint. They searched the entire house and smashed the things but they didn't find anything. I thought they were robbers because They had weapons with them but then they asked me to leave the house in 3 days, I got so scared and asked them who they were. T-they said they are the friends of your father."

"His friends but he didn't had any friends"

"Y-yeah I told them the same thing but they laughed and said he used to gamble with them. He gambled with them every evening and lost a lot of money but since he was broke at that time, he couldn't clear their debts. They threatened him to kill us if he didn't gave them their money."

"What!! But how come we didn't know any of this??"

"I don't know, I thought your father died because of the stress he had of business but I didn't know he died because he couldn't face the reality, reality that he gambled our security, our respect, the roof over our head, our life everything along with money. Himself, he died like a coward but to us, he cursed us to clear his debts whole life. Didn't even thought for a second what would happen to us after him and that they would come after us to get their money."