Unwanted [COMPLETED]

Chapter 15

Mature and sensitive content ahead. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Third Person's POV

Manik paced inside his home office, his body shaking in anger as he recounted how Nandini slapped him earlier.

'How dare she slap me? How dare she?' Picking up the paperweight from the table, Manik threw it toward the mirror, shattering it into pieces.

He saw his reflection on those shattered pieces, his face angry and his eyes red.

Suddenly that face morphed to form a scene, and he could see him and Nandini in those pieces. Them arguing, and then her slapping him.

His anger rising, Manik stomped on those mirrors, breaking them into pieces. But no matter how much he shattered them, the scene continued playing. Each piece was now playing the same thing-Nandini slapping him.

"You will pay for this, Nandini. I will make you pay," Manik solemnly vowed.

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Slumped in front of the foot of the bed, Nandini drew her knees over her chest and rocked forward and backward, her whole body shaking in angst as she did so.

Manik's words still played in her mind.

"You are nothing but a murderer, Nandini Iyer."

"You are a murderer."

"A murderer."

Nandini covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes shut. She shook her head violently, trying to stop those words from reverberating in her mind.

"I am not a murderer. I am not. It was not my fault. Please. It was not my fault." She sobbed, saying those words, trying to reassure herself.

But she opened her eyes when she heard a voice.

"But you are a murderer, Nandini. You killed my son." It was her mother, looking at her with accusing eyes.

Nandini stood up from the floor and walked toward her mother.

"No, Maa. I didn't kill Vivek. How can you say that? You were there that night. You know what happened. How can you blame for that when we all know who the culprit is," Nandini tried to reason.

"Yes, you were not the one who directly killed my son. But you were the one who pushed him to his death. You could have stopped him. But you did not. You let him die." This time it was her father who shouted at her.

"Please, Papa. It is all false. I didn't do it. I had no idea Vivek would be killed. If I had known, I would have stopped him. I would never have let him walk out of the house that night," Nandini said but noticed her parents only shook their heads at her.

They did not believe her.

"You are our son's murderer, Nandini," They kept saying, even though she shook her head and begged them not to say it.

They kept repeating it, making it unbearable for her. She covered her ears again and squeezed her eyes shut. "STOP. STOP. STOP," she shouted, unable to take it anymore.

The voices suddenly stopped, and Nandini opened her eyes slowly. Her parents were no longer there, and she realized they were just the figment of her imagination.

Walking to the center table, she took a glass of water and drank it all. She felt feverish, her who body shaking with her guilt and angst.

Maybe her parents and Manik are right. Perhaps she is a murderer. She had not killed Vivek, but she certainly had pushed him to his death. If she had not told him about Rishabh that night, he would not have made that promise and walked out of the house that night.