Arranged Marriage ✓

Chapter - Nineteen.

[ A N I T A ]

I lied. I lied to Nish. I lied to Darshu. I lied to everyone, like always. There was no emergency case. I only left from Nish’s place because I couldn’t see the two of them. So close, so happy. But, nobody knew if they were happy or not, right?

I looked at the window, in my room. Tears fell from my eyes, as I cried. I cried out loud, hugging my pillow.

It wasn’t easy. Neither is it easy. Nor it had ever been that easy. At least, not for me. Nope. Every time I shut my eyes, I’m reminded of that terrible night. I’m reminded of their faces, their evil laughs. What people said about me. I remember both Nishita and Darshan’s words.

I can never forget that night of 6th August, 2018.

When I took my phone from the table and I Shiv, Priyanka left from the restaurant, as Shiv payed the bill. “Shit, I forgot the keys of my car. I’ll be back”, Shiv said as he rushed to get the keys of his car. Priyanka received a call from someone and went to a corner to talk.

Suddenly, my eyes fell on a black microcar. I guessed, there were some guys constantly giving me looks. I went ahead and knocked on the glass. The glass came down and revealed Aarav, to me. “Aarav?!”, I exclaimed.

I hadn’t expected Aarav to be with such kind of people, in the first place. He opened the door of the car and pulled me. My phone fell on the ground and probably broke. I screamed. “What the hell do you think you are doing? Leave me! I said, leave me, Aarav”, I shouted. By then, the car hadn’t started and both Priyanka and Shiv were there.

They tried to reach for me. But, it had been too late. Aarav shut the door and drove off. He left Priyanka and Shiv far behind. In between, I didn’t stop screaming. Another guy covered my mouth. One guy tied my eyes, hands and legs.

All I remember from that night is — they took me to a place. They ran their hands all over my body. They abused me, physically. And when they were done, I was thrown out of their car to a place near some dustbin. My eyes were untied but my hands and legs weren’t. All I wore was — my torn inner clothes.

The next morning, the sun shone brightly. A heard the voices of few people. They were talking about me. Mostly, they were men but there were women too. All of a sudden, a woman who wore a burqa, covered me with few dupattas.

I was half unconscious. She took me to Hospital. There the doctors treated me. The authorities of the Hospital were kind enough to inform the police about me. And the police found out my parents. They were so ashamed that I had been raped by my own cousin brother, Aarav.

The did not lodge any complaint against him. And brought me home. When I asked them, they said it was about their last left reputation. At that time, my parents thought about their reputation and not mine.

Both Nishita and Darshan were helpless because, without parents’ support nothing could have happened. Darshan wasn’t in India. He was out of country, on a tour for concerts. And Nishita was with me all the time.

“You aren’t a victim. You are a warrior. A survivor.” — was what Nishita told me, all the time. She had supported me like a back in my hardest time.

And instead of repaying it to her, I’m ruining her and Darshan’s life. But, whatever that I am doing, isn’t ruining their lives. It’s going to make mine and Darshan’s life better. I don’t know about Nishita. But, I think she will be fine, too. With someone, someday.