"I'll take care of everything... take care of my needs... Come closer."
These words indistinctly fell on Nehali's ears. Her eyes struggled to open, but tiredness dominated her body, drifting back to sleep.
Several minutes passed, and finally, sleepiness washed away from her eyes. Her hand reached to grab her cellphone. Even when her eyes were not fully recovered from sleep, she still mindlessly began to surf her social media handles.
"Be gentle. It's hurting me."
Nehali's eyes pulled open, and all the lingering sleepiness vanished like smoke. She got up from her bed and stormed towards the hall room.
"Mom!" she screamed at the top of her lungs when she shot a glance at the sofa. The scene of her mother engaged in a hot and heavy situation with the landlord sent a chill down her spine. "What are you doing?!
The first word was enough to snap them out. The landlord sprang up from his place; terror constricted his heart.
"Who told you to come here!?" Reema snapped at her daughter.
"Just shut your trap!" Nehali felt an urge to hit her mother. Yes, the fact that the financial crisis was making her mother do such a heinous thing, chilled her bone. A surge of anger blew her top. She shot daggers at the landlord. "Get out of this house, or I'll call the cops."
Fear washed over his face; he was probably one of those guys who wanted to unethical stuff but also scared to get caught. But then it dawned on him; he was the owner of the house, and Reema was complying with his desires.
"Your mom is a whore!" he spat these ungracious words.
Not even a moment passed, and Nehali charged at the man to give him a tight slap. Reema's face registered hurt, she thought the man was into her, but she sprang up to intervene.
Nehali grabbed the collar of the landlord, who felt more intimidated, but Reema managed to pull her daughter toward her, and both fell on the sofa. "Please, go!" she pleaded the landlord.
Smoothing his collar, the landlord stormed out. He murmured swears and banged the door close before rushing out.
Tears rolled down Nehali's eyes, her mother's fingers reached to wipe them, but Nehali slapped her fingers away from her. "Don't touch me," she said in between her sobs. "I couldn't believe you'd get down to this shit."
A moment of silence washed over the entire room; tears welled up in Reema's eyes. Her hands reached to get hold of her daughter.
"What else can we do?" Her voice dripped with pain and helplessness. "More than half of your salary is spent on Milo's and your education fees. We can't live a better life with the remaining money."
"Isn't it enough that we are surviving?" Nehali sprang up in rage. She didn't want to continue talking because it was going to make her deep blue.
She parted her lips to threaten Reema but felt the presence of someone. It was Milo who was innocently watching her big sister and mother fight, clutching her favorite teddy bear near her heart.
"Babygirl, why did you wake up?" Nehali felt all seething anger melted off. She walked up to her and picked her seven-year-old sister and straddled her on the hip.
"Your were yelling at Mommy, it woke me up." Both sisters disappeared in the second bedroom.
"I'm sorry, let's sleep."
Nehali tapped on the back of her little sister till she went back to sleep. The clouds of sadness wafted through her mind, and she felt helplessness would eat her up alive. Tears never stopped rolling down. She almost felt like running away and put an end to her miserable life, but she couldn't give up. She can't do it, right?
YOU ARE READING
The Krishna Love (Wattpad India Awards Winner)
Spiritual"Let's explore the world, man. First, we should go to the Himalayas," Ravi said as he was searching best spiritual places of India on his cell phone. "We're not going anywhere," Sid said sharply, his eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Isn't that what you...
