Hope Bound

Chapter 7

After a long pause, Roselyn finally says, "Clive? What..what is this? What did Ronny just say? Did you..oh my God.. did you do something to her? Clive? For God's sake will you say something? What did you do to my daughter?" Roselyn yells at him. Her face turns red in anger and fear. Obviously she finds it difficult to believe what she just heard. But then, she cannot unhear it either. And judging by the way her daughter behaved, she is almost sure that something is definitely wrong. Because Ronny usually never treats people this way.

Clive is standing still. He has absolutely nothing to say after all that he has done. But quite shamelessly, he composes a lie, "So this is what you have taught your daughter huh! After all the love and affection I show towards her, this is what I get in return? How dare she hit me? And what do you think I have done to her? Don't you know me well? After living all these years with me, you are not trusting me? And you believe what your daughter just said? Well.. lemme tell you one thing.. this girl Ronny...she has gone crazy. She has always had a problem with me, no matter how much I care for her. Now that we are here, she doesn't want to see me around and that's why she has made up these stupid unreal stories. She hates me Roselyn. She has always hated me. I have tried being a good father to her. But apparently, she cannot accept me. And today she hit me without any reason. How can I ever misbehave with her? She was just a kid then. I have been such a fool to even accept her as my own. You do whatever you want to. Deal with that evil paranoid daughter of yours. I am out of it." Clive bursts out of the house, terrified. Or rather, he is scared of the consequences- of what would happen if Roselyn believes in her daughter.

Roselyn immediately goes upstairs to Ronny's room and knocks at the door a couple of times. But no answer comes from the other side of the door. She bursts into tears as she is really scared of the consequences. Clive had an extra marital affair too, some years ago, of which Roselyn had an idea. But, being the weak person that she is, she forgave Clive. No wonder she has an idea of Clive's character. But this is different, something that she could never have expected from anyone, leave alone her husband. What she saw all these years was the so called fatherly love that Clive showered on Ronny. So it's really tough for her to gulp down the truth, if whatever Ronny said was true. She finally leaves.

Later in the evening, Ronny gets a call from Hope. She is delighted to see Hope's name flashing on her phone's screen. But at the same time, she is scared to receive her call, already predicting what Hope would say. Finally she picks up the phone, "Hello"

Hope at the other end sounds bitter, "Why did you do this Ronny? What do you want from me? Theo told me everything. He is really hurt, and even more shocked. That kiss was meant to be a secret. It all happened by mistake. This is the hundredth time I am telling you this Ronny. But you still don't understand. I really like Theo. But thanks to you.. you have ruined it all. He is mad at me and is probably breaking up with me." Hope cries.

Ronny is extremely guilty for what she had done. All this while, after the conversation with Theo, she was only mad at him. But now, she is pitying him. She knows how much Theo had loved Hope and it was her jealousy and possessiveness about Hope that made her blurt out everything, though she didn't want to. Now the three of them are equally broken and Ronny thinks that she is to be blamed. But then, she is so much in love with Hope that she can't afford to lose her. Somewhere deep within she is happy to hear the announcement of Theo and Hope's break up. She thinks that she has been given another chance to make Hope realize what she feels. Maybe it's fate. That's what she thinks. Ronny finally says, trying to calm Hope down, "Hope..I didn't mean to..I am really sorry for what happened. But are you still going to fake it? Are you still going to lie that you like Theo and want to be with him? It's time now, Hope. You should listen to your heart once and accept whatever it has to say. You were never in love with Theo."