Damaged and Afraid

Chapter 12

 "Mom, what are you doing here?" Rohit asked, closing the door.

 "I told you. I came back from my Europe trip with my sisters." The woman answered.

 "No, Mom, I mean what are you doing here in my condo? And so early in the morning," Rohit repeated.

"Your father is out of town. I'm not staying in that huge house alone." The woman replied.

Rohit rolled his eyes.

"You're not going to deny your mother, are you?" The woman challenged.

 "No, I'm not. I was raised better than that." Rohit replied. "Stay as long as you want. Dad said he'd be back in a week and a half."

Rohit walked away from the woman, towards the kitchen. He stopped when he reached Sanjana.

 "Mom, this is my wife, Sanjana. Sanjana, this is my mom...Dad's second wife." Rohit's words stung. He gave this woman the respect of calling her his mother but it was obvious he didn't think of her as his mother.

Sanjana would have greeted the woman but the sheer expression of shock and disgust apparent on her face stopped Sanjana in her tracks.

 "What on earth did Sudhir do?" Rohit's Mom said.

She took a step closer to examine Sanjana.

"So traditional." She commented.

Rohit's brows furrowed but he didn't say anything.

"I regret not coming to your wedding. Maybe I could have talked some sense into Sudhir." The woman continued.

"I chose to marry Sanjana," Rohit said spitefully.

"My name is Gita, Sanjana. Nice to meet you." Gita held out her hand and Sanjana took it, briefly shaking it. She'd never greeted an elder like that before. It was so cold, so distant. Gita walked down the hallway towards the second bedroom.

Rohit sighed and turned to Sanjana.

"I'm sorry. She's a piece of work. She didn't come to our wedding because she was traipsing around Europe. She could have easily flown back...she just didn't want to. Sanjana, I'm going to apologize to you in advance. I don't know why but Mom has this need to always be around people. She hates being alone in a huge house, so she's going to stay here until my Dad comes back. She's difficult to get along with to say the least." Rohit explained.

Sanjana didn't say anything. She didn't mind spending time with her mother-in-law. She didn't even know she had a mother-in-law until this very day.

"I'm going to get ready for work," Rohit said, retreating back into his bedroom.

Sanjana was saddened by how much Rohit worked. He was hardly home, and when he was home he felt so tired, she felt too guilty to ask to spend more time together. She was told that Rohit worked a lot, but she didn't know she'd be so lonely. She was relieved that her mother-in-law was visiting so at least she'd have some company while Rohit was at the hospital.

"Sanjana!" Gita startled Sanjana as she entered the kitchen. "We should go grocery shopping. I know Rohit is always too busy to ever properly go grocery shopping. Can you cook?"

Sanjana slowly nodded, not sure whether or not her mother-in-law would be one of those mean mother-in-laws who took any and every opportunity to torture her daughter-in-law.

"Good. At least there's that." Gita commented. "We'll head out with Rohit."

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"You push the cart. I'll pick out the food." Gita commanded as soon as she and Sanjana entered the grocery store.