Ishq Kinara[Love Ashore] Complete

23. Fall

"Did they contact you again?"

"No, they didn't. Even last time I refused to meet them knowing what they'll demand out of me."

"That I know but why are you so worried about it now? It looks like something happened."

"I'm not afraid of them. Now that they can't get to me, they are sending my acquaintances to me who are trying to make me see sense. Sense, which means I should scold my daughter and tell her to take that post down which might I add is the only proof against what she went through."

She could hear her mother sniff.

"It's such a shame that we can't do anything for her. We can't go out and shout that our daughter is telling the truth. I know her. I know she can be outspoken and very obvious about the things and people she likes but she can never do anything like this. She can never lie about something this grave and she can never make us go through this agony. It's a shame literally."

"Right now, I think only us are believing what she's saying. No one else. That's the reason that the boy's family is also relaxed. They are contacting me just to silence Reeja so that the only proof that something happened, vanishes and they can live freely and without any tension. If only there could be more people on our side."

"But, Inayat... "

Kausar opened her mouth to say something and it seemed like her husband had gotten the idea of what it was even before she voiced it out.

"She isn't taking that post down!"

"You are acting stubborn just like her. And stop looking at me like this! Am I her enemy? Am I yours? I see her going through hell everyday when she's getting ready for university, when she comes back and then doesn't come out of her room for hours. I see her siblings knowing so much without fully knowing it and feeling sorry for her. Trying their best to respect her boundaries and give her time. They are just kids, Inayat! My kids! I can't see any of them in distress. Reeja is making her life more difficult by clinging to that post which no one's taking seriously. You've had people approach you. They're are just talking now but knowing their influence what if they harm you or Reeja? Then what? What you'll with this stubbornness of yours?"

Inayat sighed leaning into the sofa.

"I don't think of you as an enemy. Hell no. And it's not like I haven't thought on these lines as well."

"Then?"

There was urgency in Kausar's voice. She was a mother and they often do not respond well to seeing their kids in pain. Their first and foremost instinct is to lessen their misery and she was trying her best to do that and right now, the best she could think of was, Reeja taking a rest from whatever had happened and letting things slide for just a bit just to get her bearings.

"It's her truth. The only proof of what she went through. I can't let it become dust or fade away just because we are financially and in status way below than the family of that boy. It's not our decision to make but Reeja's, whether she wants to go further with how things are rolling or she wants to end it all here and start afresh. That'd be on her."

Kausar didn't contradict him. She had no fitting words to do so. On one hand they had the plight of their daughter and on the other hand the mess that was looming just on the surface if they didn't cooperate with the Akmal family.

Reeja didn't know how she'd reached her room. Maybe she was walking on air. But it felt like shards, piercing through her flesh like the memories of those dreaded fifteen minutes she ran for her life in the silent parking lot of university campus.

Was it really worth it? The little act of retaliation she'd done? No one seemed to find her story convincing. If they did, no one came out to tell her they do. Silent support wasn't helping her much. Nothing else was either.