The Dead Flower

chapter 21

Harish saw his mother sitting alone in the living room with a tired dull face.
'She must be worried about Haritha' he concluded even without asking her.

Harish walked past his mother even though he wanted to console her as he knew very well that if he talk to her the thing she going to say was 'just leave that girl alone' 'we don't need to take revenge on anybody'.

Harish went directly to his office room not wanting to face anybody in that house, he was hell tired and disturbed due to all the things that came up with that day. He lost his dream project which he thought as a milestone for his company for which he had to spend sleepless nights.

'who betrayed me?' he asked to himself. Someone has leaked the details of the project including the blueprint of it which he kept safely in the office locker.

He pressed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger wiping out the wetness, he felt suffocated with everything around him.

Harish stood from his chair and stepped towards his room. He wanted to stand under the shower and wash out the stress off him.

The flower vase lying on the floor irritated him when he entered his room. 'what is that girl doing?' he said when he didn't saw Vaishu inside the room. He walked to the washroom without looking for her as he was in no mood to start a fight with her to or to see her face.

Harish went to the dining area after taking a shower. Asking the servant lady to make a cup of coffee he sat on the couch supporting his head in his hands. He felt like his head was splitting into two half just like he was feeling for these two months.

As the pain increased he changed to someone else and wanted to hurt someone soo badly.

'Vaishnavi' he stood up gritting his teeth.

Harish went upstairs when the servant lady came with a cup of coffee.

"Vaishnavi...!" Harish stood inside his room with throbbing vein on his forehead and reddened eyes.

"Vaishnavi...! He shouted again. He went to the balcony and checked other rooms not getting any response from her.

His headache severed with every passing second not finding his prey.

Losing his patience he went inside Haritha's room. When he found Lekshmi there, standing near the window he walked towards her. Lekshmi didn't turn around even after feeling her son's presence behind her.

"Amma, where is she?" he shouted at her but Lekshmi stood like Harish was not present there.

"Amma, I'm asking you" he impatiently turned her around.

Lekshmi's eyes were swelled due to crying, even though he saw the tears in his mother's eyes it didn't make any change in the animal inside him.

"Where is she...!" he roared. Lekshmi stood there with wide opened eyes seeing her son. She felt like she doesn't know the person in front of her.

"Why are you asking for her?... to hurt her?...  I feel disgusted about you... Do you know what she did...? She tried to end her life because of you... you are not my Harish... you are not my son..." Lekshmi said grabbing his collar. She sat on the floor leaving his shirt mumbling 'you are not my Harish' repeatedly.

"Where did she go?" He asked his mother who was crying heavily sitting on the floor.

"I sent her with Eric... you won't see her again... She is safe now... he will protect her no matter what..." Lekshmi said wiping her tears with a fire in her eyes.

Harish went to his car not wasting a second. The animal inside him started to explode, he wanted to hurt Vaishu very badly. He started his car to go to Eric's apartment calculating Vaishu must be there.

Harish stopped his car in the midway when he felt like his heartbeat was increasing. His hands which were holding the steering wheel started to shiver, he sweated even when the ac was working.

With shivering hands, he took a small white bottle from his pant pocket and took a capsule from it. He gulped down the capsule hoping to reduce the anxiety attack. He leaned to his seat for a few minutes to ease his heart. When the pill started to work his heartbeat came back to normal state. Along with it his rage to destroy everything came back to him.

Starting the car he pressed the accelerator aiming at Eric's house..........................