~Author's POV~
"Did I teach you to sneak into people's home uninvited, Mr Rishabh Rathore? Did you make a milkshake out of all the manners and etiquettes that we have instilled in you and just throw it out the window?"
"AH, AH, AH! MOTHER, mother, mom, I am sorry, I am sorry. This will never happen again. I am so sorry." Rishabh kept on squealing until he felt his mother's tug on his left ear loosen a little.
Well, an ear was not something he could afford to sacrifice for Sanvi Dixit.
"She saved my life, Mother! I was doing something stupid by sneaking in but she didn't expose me or anything. We discussed our issues and I simply left. No one was troubled, I swear. "
"Unbelievable! Rishabh Rathore. I swear I'll put you in house arrest if I get a single complaint from Sanvi or her family against you."
Rishabh scoffed internally at the idea of Sanvi's negligent family even trying to defend her in anything.
If only his mother knew how Sanvi was being treated at her own home!
"Regardless, now that you guys are working together, bring her home sometime. I haven't seen her since that day the adorable little girl so very maturely declined to take the new box of crayons despite badly wanting to. I am truly intrigued to see how well she has grown up into a young lady."
He nodded absentmindedly at his mother's proposal as his thoughts drifted to the prospect of Sanvi growing up to be a young lady.
Yeah, she had indeed grown to be a...ahem... beautiful girl?
Her natural vigour and goofy style, her clumsiness and her equally fiery attitude, those big beautiful eyes and her curvy tall frame that stood at the perfect kissable height from his shoulder.
He felt warmth engulf his nerves and no sooner had he begun daydreaming about her that he realised he was still sitting in front of his mother, imagining Sanvi's enticing figure so shamelessly.
He slapped his cheeks as his mother stared at him in confusion.
The remaining night, Rishabh stood on his balcony which was lit up with moonlight. Soft breeze played with his hair as he gently caressed her name engraved on the cover of that small diary.
He didn't know what made him do that. He didn't know what made him feel so attracted towards her. He didn't know why he was getting so attached to her.
He was helpless because all he felt was this inextricable desire of being close to her all the time.
Rishabh woke up the next morning feeling extremely tired and all the more sad about everything that had transpired the previous night.
He believed he had nothing to be moping over but the weight of Sanvi's diary floating over his head could bury him into the concrete as he did his morning duties.
While sitting on the bed in his towel, he found himself turning the pages of her diary for the hundredth time.
*Dated-14th November
~I never imagined that a day would come when I have to pour out my thoughts in a paper.
What was my fault?
Everything just spiralled into chaos before I could get a grasp of my position in this world.
I just shifted today.
The apartment is as it was when Grandmommy left it. I don't want to bother them anymore. It's a good thing they aren't alive to see how their daughter and granddaughter are being treated by the man they once trusted so much.
Got this pocket diary while cleaning. It is presumably one from Grandpapa's collection.
That old man had tried so hard to coax me into journaling until the very day he died.
Now that they're not here, I have a company in disguise of this diary along with my books. The house smells like Grandmommy's paint brushes and Grandpapa's samosas.
If only you guys didn't leave me alone in this mess!~
Rishabh smiled sadly at the admirable penmanship of a sixteen-year old Sanvi, feeling pity for the poor girl who had to carry this burden alone at such a young age,-the overwhelming weight in his heart multiplying as he turned the pages.*
*Dated-22nd December
~ I really liked the soup my neighbouring aunty so affectionately had made for me. I've been sick with the flu for the last two days and the concoction truly made me feel better.
I am planning on taking her daughter in to tutor alongwith the son that has been coming to study for the past month. I could earn a few more bucks in the process and it might please Aunty just as well.
As the holidays near us, I feel this apprehension building inside me at the idea of returning to that god awful house.
I REALLY don't want to go back at that house. My life seems to stop the moment I come across that man. I can't think, I can't eat, I can't study. My brain can barely function normally.
I'll spiral into the profuse insanity that I detest now.
I still go to visit Mom in the weekends and the days when she is alone and that man is nowhere to be seen. The least I could do is help her out a bit with the chores but without crossing paths with that man.
It has been a few months since I've moved partially. Mom's feeling a bit low due to my decision but I just cannot risk my studies due to those problems.
There's perhaps no child as selfish as me. But I had to separate myself from that toxic environment. I have to stay focused on my path.
Leaving Mom there, all alone to bear the tyranny...I don't know how I can be so heartless. But I don't want to think about it. I'll just fall into depression and I can't afford that.
I just need to prove that man that Mom was never wrong. It was him that shattered our happy family. A few more years till I get Mom out of his crutches for good. All I do is repeat that to console myself.~
Rishabh inhaled sharply before turning the page. He somehow wanted to scream at the dead pages, assuring Sanvi that she wasn't selfish and that her decision was indeed right. But he felt entirely helpless.
The pages spoke of nothing but her mental turmoil for pages on end. She wasn't only suffering physically when she had to return to her house but she had been struggling mentally for all the abuse that imprinted on her consciousness and that too in complete isolation.
His blood boiled at the fact that the abuse was continuing till date. She was still alone...and so brave.*
*Dated-30th January
~I had the unfortunate opportunity of coming face to face with that monster of a man today when I went home to spend the winter break after the exams.
He spoke to me after two long months for the first time and the very first term of endearment that came out of his mouth for his precious child was 'ingrate'.
He rebuked me for not being there for my parents, calling me everything from an 'ungrateful bastard' to a 'money-sucking leech'.
Only I know how challenging it was for me to sit for my boards while he was wrecking havoc in the room below me.
I can't look at a body of water without recoiling with fear.
I can't ever have a normal childhood because of that man.~
Rishabh felt his heart churn. Sanvi was an ace swimmer of St. Louis. She even had trophies lined up as a testament to that. Rishabh had to admit, he definitely was a little envious of that skill of hers.
But now she was scared of water? What could have possibly happened to make her stop swimming, he wondered.
Needless to say, it had everything to do with that man.
She was going through so much?
How come she had managed kept her grief veiled with such perfection from the outer world for so long?
He tucked at the page which had the date of the day before scribbled on the top.*
*Dated-26th May
~Here comes that time of the week again. I was fortunate enough not to get his glimpse during the last few week holidays. Summer vacations are nearing and the championship too.
I am confident enough for my selection!
But the fact that keeps irking me is that I have to spend my summer holidays there.
It is financially straining as it is to manage this apartment and my food expenses. It makes sense to spend the leisure days there when I am in no urgent need to work or study.
Thus, I plan on continuing to teach the neighbour's kids and maybe take on another job in order to make up for the money that would be spent in the last session of the year.
More importantly, I had promised Mum to visit.
And moreover, these days I don't feel anything is going good with me.
I have been having these unusual kind of thoughts randomly running through my mind. I am trying to ignore him as much as possible but his thoughts leave.
Anyways, I am here packing my belongings for the long vacation back to that loathsome place. I just pray that he won't be there till my stay. Wishful thinking but a girl can hope. And also a bit of my prayer for my selection in the team.~
Just by reading those few pages, Rishabh seemed to have grown a strong dislike towards that man, despite never meeting him.
She must have been a prey of a dysfunctional family, he thought.
The girl was going through so much yet she never let anyone get a slight hint of her wrecked life. She had to live alone in that apartment just to keep away fron her own father?
How heartless would that father be who doesn't care for his own daughter?
When he first read the diary the previous night, Rishabh felt within him, this uncontrollable urge to just run to Sanvi and apologize for his past mistakes. His sleep was overtaken by the guilt of misbehaving with such a suffering soul.
She was staying at her main house during that period and how terribly drained she must've been mentally. Had he known this fact, he would have never behaved with her like that.
He should have not behaved with her like that regardless, he concluded.
He called Dhruv that instant caring least about the time. His bright memory had somewhere retained that he had heard Dhruv mentioning something about Sanvi's house being near his own years before.
*********
To be continued.