Tears immediately formed in her eyes as she took it in her arms and caressed it with her fingers. These white roses are my symbol of respect for you! His words rang in her mind as a silent tear escaped her eye.
"I still thought it was inappropriate...
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Shraddha Kapoor, kind of girl that women loved to hate. She was an adult but so young that she still had the exuberance of youth. She had that movie star look, not overly tall and willowy, but more like an action star.
Her body definition was perfect and she walked with the confidence of a decade older. She wasn't just flawless in her bone structure, her skin was like silk over glass and she radiated an intelligent beauty.
She had a kind of understated beauty, perhaps it was because she was so disarmingly unaware of her prettiness. Her brown skin was completely flawless.
Like other girls, she never used face masks and other expensive products, not because she couldn't afford it but because that really wasn't her m.o.
She was all about simplicity, making things easy, helping those around her to relax and be happy with what they have. Perhaps, that is why her skin glowed so much. It was her inner beauty that lit her eyes and softened her features.
When she laughed and smiled you couldn't help but laugh along too, even if it was just on the inside. To be in her company was to feel that you too were someone, that you had been warmed in summer rays regardless of the season.
She was perfect in her own way, regardless of belonging to a poor family she never complained. She tried to enjoy life to the fullest no matter what the circumstances were but as they say time doesn't always stay the same.
Her mother was a widow. Shraddha's father died few years back. He had leukemia and due to lack of money he couldn't get the treatment and unfortunately died.
After a few months of his father's death, her mother started working as a helper in a small school, due to illetracy she couldn't get a good job.
But she never stopped Shraddha's education. After few years, it was clear to her mother that she couldn't raise her alone and she needed support so she married again to a middle-class man.
Her step father's behavior towards her was never fatherly. He didn't give a fuck about her. And her mother didn't seem to notice that because she wasn't home most of the time because of her job.
Shraddha thought that her mother marrying someone would made their lives better but it was totally opposite. Her step father was a cruel person who didn't care about anyone but himself.
The only thing that was going good in her life was her education. She was in her last year of MBA when one night her mother died due to nervous break-down.
That day brought a huge turn in her life. She was now left alone. She had nobody, except of course her step father. He made her drop-out of the university because he couldn't afford her fees which led her to give private exams.
And now she was waiting for her results. Her whole future depended on those results. It could be her ticket out of this house and away from this life. She just wanted to get a good job and get settled far away from this hell.
"Wake-up! I'm hungry!" her father barged into her room, well step-father. She immediately sat up, yawning, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.
"Why are you still on bed? Didn't you hear? Go make me some breakfast!" he shouted at her. She simply nodded as she got up from the bed.
She went to the kitchen and turned the stove on, in order to make some tea. She boiled some eggs and served him the breakfast with some bread.
"All these years and you still don't know how to make good tea. Didn't you learn anything from your mother?" he yelled making her take a step backward.
"I don't think anything is wrong with this tea!" she replied and his head shot up towards her direction.
"Don't you dare speak to me like that!" he told her before continuing his breakfast. She opened her mouth to say something when her phone chimed up with notification.
"Oh God!" she gasped, happily. Tears started forming in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes remained glued to the phone screen.
"What are you smiling about?" her father asked as he spread the jam over the bread with the help of the knife.
"I got third position in my MBA finals!" she told with a big smile, he looked at her for a split second and then continued eating his piece of bread.
"Aren't you gonna say something?" she asked, a frown appeared on her forehead upon seeing his rude behavior.
"What am I suppose to say? Congratulations? I'm proud of you? What's the use of your MBA degree, huh? Go get a good job and then talk to me." he said licking the jam off his fingers.
"Oh, I will get a good job. You'll see." she told him before running into her room. She locked the door behind her before sitting on the floor against the bedroom door with tears in her eyes.
"I did it, ma. I did it. I made your dream come true." she cried holding a picture of her mother in her mobile phone.
"I miss you, ma. I can't wait to get out of this hell!" she kissed the picture on the phone before putting her mobile phone in the back pocket of her jeans.
Little did she knew that there was another hell outside waiting for her.
