~Sanvi's POV~
"Sanvi! Come for breakfast..." Mom opened the door knob of my room and was rendered puzzled to see me sitting shocked still on the bed with a beetroot face.
I turned towards her and gave her a lopsided smile before throwing the phone amidst the pillow pile.
Needless to say, my mother was taken aback.
"Who got you smiling like that?" She smiled back at me in surprise. I shrugged.
"Someone very irritating..." She beamed up with an inquisitive look.
"Well, who is it?" My mother was eager to know the reason of her daughter's unusual smile.
The previous night, I was entirely broken.
Although I never showed her outwardly but she could tell that by my facial expressions. She knew her daughter sought peace and that same peace I used to get when I remained away from this house.
My Mom couldn't just let her daughter suffer anymore. She seemed to have lost the count of time since we had been facing this daily torture which sometimes even led to us getting brutally hurt.
Anju, my mother, had always tried to keep me shielded from that monster after he had once beaten me brutally in her absence when she had to go visit a terribly ill friend at the hospital. Eversince that day, she had no qualms about me moving out of the house.
I often found her wondering about what happened to her loving family. She and my father were childhood sweethearts,—neighbours since birth and eventually lovers when older.
When I was born, my father, Shekhar, was the happiest. He used to say that I was the best thing that had happened to him after Mom. He used to pamper me more than Mom. So when did everything start falling apart in the happiest family of the world?
My Mom had seen her loving husband turn into a monster and her chirpy and lively daughter turn into a stone day by day. I had lost the happiness of a lion's share of my childhood.
Oh how could a mother bear this?
Initially, when my father came home one day and found my room empty, he beat her black and blue for letting the dog out of the leash. My resilient mother took all the brunt without a word but put her foot down on her decision of letting me stay out there in the apartment.
"Mumma... Are you okay?" I marched towards my mother and engulfed her in a bear hug, trying to soak in her pain and provide her with some of my warmth which I was gifted with by someone last night. I wouldn't lie, I was happy then despite my injuries.
My Mom was too shocked to even say a word. I was never a girl who clung onto my mother no matter how much I was emotionally drained or physically unfit. I had never noticed when the emotional gap widened between us amidst all the external chaos.
My mother whimpered, keeping it all bottled in as she usually did.
"Child, I am finer than the bright morning sun." She caressed my wet hair as I nuzzled deep into her chest, accumulating that heavenly feeling of being in a motherly warmth which I had been missing these days.
"I know Mom... I am your own blood. I know you try to be strong in front of me. I know that there lies a broken soul disguised under the strong facade that you put up every morning."
(Sanvi's mother felt her eyes brimming with warm tears at her words. When did her little girl start growing up? She had missed so much of her child growing up. Sanvi appeared so mature today.)
"Mom, why won't you listen to me once? I say.. This time, you are not wrong.. You've never been wrong during all these things. Why do you have to bear the wrath of that man without any reason? Mom.. Please lets leave all these behind. Let's start afresh. Just you and me. I trust you still have it in you to wish for a new life. I know you wouldn't leave a stone unturned to give me a happy life. We don't need this man in our life anymore! He's as good as dead now."
My mother wrenched me out of her grip and stared at me with indignation.
"How can you even expect me to leave that man who was once the reason for my life? I have been loving that man even before the time I had understood the meaning of love, Sanvi! I had promised him to lead my whole life with him no matter what the circumstances be!" I scoffed indignantly as she widened her eyes.
"For God's sake Sanvi.. He's your father! How can you forget the fatherly love you got from him so easily? Especially when he's going through such a tough time...you know it all, don't you?" She choked up and turned to leave.
"That fatherly love is now an alien thing for that man! He knows nothing than giving us pain. Didn't we try enough to be accomodating? Isn't this enough, Mom?" I could feel the resentment burst out through my words as I turned her to look at my wrist and the injuries inflicted upon it by that man last night. She burst out sobbing while kissing my hand.
"I am sorry...I am so sorry, my child. I am sorry for being an incompetent mother. Punish me as you want. I don't deserve to be a mother!"
I was numb for those warm tears. Nothing moved me anymore.
"I can't.. Sanvi.. I can't... You just.. Just become capable enough and leave us.. Leave this dirty house behind! A whole new world filled with endless love and happiness is waiting for you out there...just... go..." She caught her mouth, sobbing, and ran outside, not being able to stop from breaking down.
"I can't create another world which doesn't have you in it, Mom."
I stood there defeated, looking at the retreating figure of my mother. If this was love, I didn't need love anymore.
What a great way to begin the day! I also had to tackle Rathore back in school. I had already given up on the day.
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To Be Continued.