zeal of his love

IT'S SHOWTIME

AUTHOR"S POV:

Riddhima stared at herself, she was drenched in red from top to bottom. Red, the favorite color of her husband which he had made sure to imprint in her memories a too many times. The first time when he ran his bloodied knuckles on her lips, painting them crimson with the liquid flowing out of his palm and his dilated pupils as the charcoal in his eyes gets darker if possible made her, that was too vivid a memory for her too forget.

Her husband, the thought of him leaving a sweet bitter taste in her mouth. The last week was Hell, that's it. No other word can describe the way she felt.

For the past week, she royally ignored Vansh. After she made him asleep and assured him that night that she is not going anywhere, she decided to put her plan into action. The past week she focused all her energy on Anupriya. Spying on her wasn't easy, that woman is surely a fox. Vanishing into thin air out of nowhere whenever Riddhima followed her inside the VR Mansion.

No wonder Vansh never caught a scent of whatever she has done in this house. For the past week she had sensed something, it was like Anupriya was always searching for something or maybe someone. Crazily going around, walking into secret doors, the first time when she did that, just vanished into nothing in front of Riddhima's very eyes, Riddhima didn't know what to do. It was so hard for her to realize the presence of a secret door leading to the opposite side of the Mansion.

Oh god, who knows how many such doors this Mansion has.

Riddhima was still unable to collect any proof against her. The entire family still thinks of her as the culprit of the burned painting case. But today everything will change. The plan she put into action did work and no doubt today Vansh himself would announce the culprit to the entire family. She made sure of it. And she got help from the last person she could think making her sigh in relief, smirking at the perfect plan they created. Today everything would end and everyone would stop making her look like a criminal.

Talking about the family, she had learned the way to handle them more or less. Answering back to Ishani and Chachi(Aunt) whenever they tried to mock her wasn't that difficult now. She even collected the courage and refused Dadi(Grand-mother-law) her request to join the dining table with the entire family. The frown that married her dadi's(Grandmother-in-law) face almost broke Riddhima's resolve. But she refused to back out. She needed to take a stand and so she did. She remembered the first time, right next day of that dreadful night,

FLASHBACK STARTS:

Dadi(grandmother) frowned as Riddhima walks towards the elevator sliding the food trolley. Riddhima didn't even spare one glance toward the dining table where everyone was having lunch except for Vansh and Sia, who was upstairs, in her room.

"Riddhima beta, kha ja rahi ho? Sab ke sath baithkar khao. Humary yaha family sath mai baithti hai khane ke waqt."

(Riddhima, my child. Where are you going? Please come and have Lunch with the whole family. A family should always eat together.)

Riddhima stopped dead. Her eyes were wide as an incredulous look married her features. She was barely able to contain the scoff that threatened to escape her lips at the mention of the word family from her grandmother-in-law. But at the same time, something also felt warm that she included her in the family. Despite all, Dadi(Grandmother-in-law) does call her family. Family is the word that has always been a foreign, out-of-reach emotion for her. Something that she always craved.

But for Riddhima real question was, is it enough? Not only as the eldest of the family, her grandmother-in-law failed to trust her but also never protected her from the manhandling at the hands of her granddaughter.