Prithvi... [Vol 5]

Chapter 119

Panic-stricken, Nandini rushed into the living room to find Janki sitting on the sofa with a faintly worried expression.

"Aunty, grandpa's coming here? Now?" she asked in disbelief, approaching the older woman.

Janki gave a nod. "He wanted to give us a surprise but he misplaced my address. So he had to call me up. I think he will be here within an hour."

"If he sees me like this, he will be upset," Nandini said distraughtly.

"That is an understatement," Janki said dryly. "He will probably try to curse this town into oblivion."

Nandini knelt before her and caught a wrinkled hand. "Please don't tell him anything about what happened," she said, frightened.

Overcoming her surprise, Janki stroked Nandini's head comfortingly. "Don't worry. I will handle it. We will stick to the story that you tripped down the stairs, and I will tell everyone else in the house that they should not speak of anything related to you once your grandfather arrives. Now go to your room and try to compose yourself. And listen, your grandfather did not want me to tell you about his arrival. So, do act surprised on seeing him...and leave everything else to me."

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Nandini tapped out a little talcum powder from the bottle she had borrowed from Janki and applied it as liberally as she could on her face without looking like a hideous ghost. Then she applied kajal in her eyes and placed a small black bindi between her brows

She was trying to decide what else she could do to improve her terrible appearance when a dreadful realisation made her spirits sink deeper.

She had given her silver chain to the battered woman in the destitute home. And she hadn't been wearing these bangles and anklets when she'd left Shamli. Her grandfather was unlikely to recall these details...but what if he did? And even if he did not recall any of it, her mother definitely would.

She needed to have answers ready about the silver chain, but the anklets and bangles could be removed and hidden away.

With a heavy heart, Nandini started to remove the bangles.

However, despite her best efforts, they stayed put on her hands. They had fit her perfectly before but now their size seemed to have shrunk drastically.

The skin on her hands began to turn crimson and each attempt became more painful than the previous one.

Salty tears started to seep down her face, pushed out of her tired, burning eyes by emotions that she did not want to acknowledge.

Finally, using excessive force, Nandini managed to pull the bangles off her hands. She threw them on the bed fiercely, where they fell in a scattered pattern.

Crying openly now, she sat on the bed herself and angrily started to remove the anklets next.

It proved to be even harder.

The hooks had been fastened so securely that it appeared unlikely that she would ever be able to detach the anklets from her feet. The more she tried, the more they seemed determined to stay wrapped around her skin.

Whimpering with frustration, Nandini struggled stubbornly for long, then with an enraged strength, she wrenched open the hook of one and threw it on the floor. The other anklet followed suit

She stared at them through a sheen of angry tears.

After a few minutes, she walked to the shining silver threads and picked them up, then headed back to the bed and gathered up the bangles.