Love Happens

Chapter eight

Mumbai
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Anand's mother rang the bell at her daughter's home and waited for the door to open. It is done by her daughter. After she saw it was her mother that came, she wanted to close it back, but she put her hand in between, which prevented her.

"How can you ask Shraddha to inform Anand about you? Do you wish to become a divorcee when your husband loves you with his whole heart?

Anand's sister's face stiffened. She exclaimed with gritted teeth because she felt Shraddha betrayed her by informing her mother when she thought she could trust her. "Inform Shraddha never to visit again. And you too, please leave. My children are home. I don't want them to find out about you."

"My child," Anand's mother said, becoming teary-eyed as she hugged her daughter. "Riya!" she cried freely. "This house is heaven compared to what I had to endure in the past with your father. Not all glitter is gold. Just because I hid it so well doesn't mean I was happy."

"That's the difference between us, mother." she yanked herself away and exclaimed in a frosty voice. "You surrendered, but I won't."

"You have to. It is the fate of women. Just because he slaps you doesn't mean he doesn't love you. You're the mother of his children. He respects..."

"That word should stay far away when describing that man. When he doesn't respect you, who am I to be respected? And he loves me? I'm sorry, but I don't want to be loved if the way he loves is how love is. I wonder how father and you sleep peacefully every night when you know you have a daughter out there that has stopped sleeping for the past 12 years. I wonder." she exclaimed and shut the door in her mother's face.

"I can't help you even though I wish to. Forgive me for being a bad mother to you in this life, Riya. Please find it in your heart to forgive me." Anand's mother wept for a long time outside her daughter's home. She at last gathered her strength again and left.

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Shraddha waited for Anand to return. It was getting late without a sign of him. She wanted to inform him about what his sister told her. She has been restless ever since, and after Mother returned from her home, she didn't tell her what happened. She said she had a terrible headache and left for her room. She didn't even eat the food she asked me to cook for her.

I paced restlessly around the room. At last, the door was shoved open with Anand walking inside. I ran up to him while he suspiciously observed me.

"What behavior is this?" he exclaimed.

"I went to my sister's home earlier. Your sister's home and..."

"Is Riya alright?" he asked in a worried voice.

"She is, maybe; I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you see her?" he yelled.

"Riya asked me to inform you to take the police to her home tonight. She said she'd explain the reason to me after we'd taken them. Before your arrival, I informed Mother, and she went to her home to listen to her problem. But when Mother returned, she didn't tell me what was wrong with her. She went to her room and said she had a headache. I'm worried, Anand. What if Sister isn't good?"

He turned and stormed outside.

"Anandji!" I called out his name as I went after him. He left the house in anger. Before he could enter his car, I caught up with him.

"Please take me along." I begged him while panting heavily.

"I don't have time to oppose you. Let's go."

I smiled and flickered inside. He drove out. His 2022 Cullinan Rolls-Royce weaved in and out of Mumbai traffic. I was expecting we'd stop by the police station, but he took us directly to her home. Without properly turning off the car, he darted outside, leaving the engine still on. And as I didn't know how it was turned off, I followed him.

He banged on the door continuously with his fist.

"Who's this mad person with zero patience?" There was someone's voice behind the door. It was opened by a man. The man scanned Anand and me before he smiled.

"Anand!" he said.

"What did you do to my sister, Ranbir?" Anand squeezed his shirt's collar with the same anger I see in his eyes flaring for me.

"What did I do?" he chuckled nervously. "Riya is alright. She's inside the house. You can meet her if she agrees to see you. I will have no prob...." Before he finished talking, Anand pushed him to the side and badgered into the house. I went after him without sparing her husband a glance.

"Riya!" We called her name together. Our eyes met, and he passed me a brief smile that thawed my mind and inserted many stupid thoughts into my head.

"Go to her room and check on her. I'm waiting here. Inform her about me." I nodded my head and climbed the stairs. I searched room by room and, at the end, found hers. What I saw inside made me scream. I looked at her figure with horrified eyes.

"Sister!" I screamed again. I quickly shut the door and locked it before Anand came. I ran to her and helped her get up. Her face was bruised with a handprint.

"Shraddha, open the door, or I'll break it." Anand's impatient and worried tone reached.

"Sister, are you alright?"

"Open the door!" she voiced with a rigid voice. I went and opened it, and Anand came in.

"Riya?" he asked, vexed with concern as he reached us. They hugged each other while she began to cry.

"I don't want to stay here, brother. Take me anywhere, but not here."

Her tears influenced Shraddha's heart with sorrow, and she too began to cry without realizing it. Anand noticed her, but as his sister was his main concern at the moment, he didn't bother with her.

"We will go. We'll return home, and you'll never have to come here again. Why didn't you ever share that this was how you lived all these years?"

"Father won't welcome me into his home."

"It's not just his. It's ours. We have equal rights over it as he does. Shraddha," he said, fixating his gaze on a crying Shraddha who gave him her maximum attention.

"Tell the children we're leaving. We're going to wait downstairs."

"Okay." She nodded and left the room.

"Why didn't you tell me he slaps you?" Anand caressed the bruise on his sister's face. She flinched in pain and moaned. That ignited his anger, and he let her go. He stormed out of the room to go meet Ranbir, her husband. He found no one downstairs after searching everywhere.

"I will kill you even if it is the end of the world you went to hide in." The murderous thought crossed his mind. Shraddha came downstairs with Riya's three children. Two females and one male.

"Mother!" they called out to their mother out of fear because they didn't know who Anand or Shraddha were.

"Yes, my children." Riya answered with motherly affection and hugged all three of her children.

"Meet Uncle Anand and Aunt Shraddha." she said. The children peeked at Anand and Shraddha, who were smiling at them.

"Come here!" Shraddha opened her arms, and the little girl ran in and embraced her.

"What is your name, pretty girl?" She inquired.

Anand lapsed from the surroundings when his eyes met Shraddha as she was interacting with Riya's children. Although he knew it was an act on her part, it felt genuine. It felt like she cared for them. Her face was natural. Her beautiful smile was realistic. The love in her eyes was honest. She didn't even complain earlier when the kids didn't eat her breakfast. Rather, she was worried because they left without having breakfast. She was two-faced. Which face of hers was he to believe in? The innocent or the cheap?

"Anand!"

Riya's voice brought him back to reality. He took his eyes off Shraddha and looked at his sister.

"Let's go," he said.

"I'm scared of Father..."

"Don't be, sister. Mother is considerate. She'll talk to him." Shraddha replied.

Riya compelled her lips to smile briefly in response while wondering if her mother would really accept her back too.

They left the house and moved into Anand's car. He drove them back home, and all of them exited the car together.

"Where is this, Mom?" Riya's children gaped at the beautiful home they never went to.

"I don't know." Riya told them. She was scared to share with them that her parents live there because she didn't know if they'd welcome her back into the house.

"Your grandparents house. Your mother's first house. Your home too." Anand stroked his fingers into the boy's hair who asked the question. They went into the house.

"Don't take another step forward, Riya!" came their father's harsh words from the balcony upstairs. All of them looked up and saw their father, and beside him were Ranbir and their mother.

"I told you I wouldn't be welcomed." Riya whispered sadly to her brother.

"You scoundrel!" Anand shouted at the top of his lungs when he sighted Ranbir. His eyes were barraged, and one could see a volcanic eruption of fury exploding inside. He quickly ran upstairs and seized the opportunity to avenge his sister's tears. He threw punches in Ranbir's face despite his father trying to stand in between them.

"Stupid, bloody idiot!" Anand cursed.

Shraddha silently took the kids away from there. She carried them to the living room and asked them not to come out until their mother came. She left and returned to the hall.

"Anand!" The house echoed with the loud, thunderous scream of his father. Ranbir pressed his hand on his bleeding lips while staring at Anand with the same anger he had for him.

"Ranbir told us everything that happened. He slapped Riya because she made a mistake. What's the big issue there that you'll bring his wife home when you know it will have a negative impact on my image since the election is around the corner?" Father yelled.

"She's a human being. Human beings make mistakes. They don't become punching bags for people to relieve their pain. Also, Riya is my beloved sister. I will never allow anyone, including the people who gave her birth, to hurt her." Anand exclaimed.

"She'll not stay here, Anand."

"Father, I'm not seeking your opinion. You've already meddled a lot in my life. Those times are over. Sister will stay here, and she'll continue to stay here for as long as she wishes."

"What is the big deal in a slap that you're trying to ruin your sister's home due to it?"

"Not just a slap. Slaps. And slaps are sharp weapons that cut the rope binding two people together slowly." Riya said.

"Just be quiet! No one asked your opinion here." Anand's father shouted in response gazing at his daughter with disgust.

"Father," Shraddha intervened.