In Her Eyes

Chapter 11 - Hurt

Pari rushed home that evening. She wished that the time with Dev would never end, but she had to face reality.
Pari knew exactly what would await her at home. Her husband Kabir. Five years ago she married a man she thought she loved. Pari had met Kabir in a cafe and immediately they became friends. Eventually it turned into more, so they decided to tie the knot. All was going perfect in their life until the day Kabir picked up drinking. Everything went downhill afterwards. Kabir would spend his evenings with drinking and that made him impossible. He would easily get mad and abusive. Every time he picked out little reasons to get aggressive with Pari. And she knew her being late would just give him another reason. Pari was too afraid to fight against it, Kabir was just stronger than her. She thought seeking out for help would declare her as crazy, so she lived with it and did not tell it to another soul. Every day she would tell herself it would change and he would stop, but no it got worse with each day passing.

She took a deep breath before opening the door to their apartment. Just as she expected Kabir was waiting at the door for her. All angry and drunk. She slowly went inside and closed the door behind her.
"Where were you?" He yelled angrily at her.
Pari was scared. If he would only know where and with whom she was it would not end well. Kabir would jump to conclusions and it would only end bad for Pari. Her heart beat fast. She tried to remain calm.
"I- i was out, the meeting went longer than expected.." Pari stuttered.
"Bullshit! Where were you?!" He yelled even louder. He went closer to her and grabbed her by her wrist and dragged her to the living room. Pari panicked. She had never seen him so angry before.
"Let go of me!" She said in pain.
He held her even harder, causing another bruise.
"You better tell the truth!! I hope you were not out with someone!" Kabir hissed.
Pari's heart and mind were racing.

Pari could not understand. Why was he accusing her of something she would never be capable of doing. She blamed the drinking. That could be the only reason.
"Let go of me Kabir you're hurting me." She whined. She tried to break free from his embrace, without any luck.
This was not the person she had met and insisted on marrying. This person in front of her turned into a monster.
"I'll do as I please!" He drunkenly blurted.
"I know you are lying and you know how much I despise lying!"
"I am not lying! Believe me!" She said at verge of tears.

"Fine then, if you don't want to tell me the truth, you'll get the consequences!"
Kabir practically threw her against the wall causing her to fall down. Her whole body hurt. She could not do anything against this abuse, he was more powerful. With her weak body, he would only hurt her more if she would try and protect herself.
"You won't be late ever again understood?!" Kabir screamed at her.
All she could do was nod out of fear.

When he left for the kitchen Pari broke down in tears. The pain in her heart was stronger than the pain from her bruises. Every damn day Kabir would do this to her, but never was he this angry before. All the drinking must have caught up to him. She pulled her legs closer to her and rested her head on her knees. Pari cried like a waterfall. When did her life turn into this living hell? She knew she could not get too close to Dev. Maybe the distance he felt was better for the sake of both of them.
Pari just did not know what to do anymore.