The Arrangement

Chapter Twenty-One: The Petal That Fell

"You told me you'd help me, but when I got to your place I couldn't find you there! I spent weeks on the street by your house, waiting until you came out, but you never did." Sanjana's cheeks were sunken in, dark shadows sat under her eye. Her hair was oily and thin. Vivaan was doing his best to comfort her as she sobbed, reminding her to think about her baby. 

I set down a full plate of steaming rice and lentil curry in front of her with a glass of water. Her crying ceased immediately as she reached for the food and dug in. I sat down across from her. "I can't tell you how sorry I am. After I helped you, Vivaan and I realized we needed to help ourselves as well. We had to get out of that place. I thought you would be fine. What happened?"

She swallowed a mouthful, sniffed, and spoke, "The friend I left with, she had me hide in her storage room. No one ever went in there. About two weeks later her dad found me. I had to run because he knew my father. My friend sent me to a relative in Noida after that, an elderly woman. My friend told her I was a cousin who needed a place to stay while I went to school there. It worked for a while. I'd spent my days outside pretending to be at school. But it got hard to hide my pregnancy. My morning sickness... it gets so bad. I couldn't hide it. She kicked me out after that. With whatever money I had left from my friend, I traveled to Mumbai on a bus. It took about a day to get here." Sanjana continued shoveling food in her mouth.

"How did you know we were here?" Vivaan asked.

This time, she didn't bother swallowing, and spoke through a mouthful. "Auntie."

"My mom?" Vivaan frowned. 

The young girl nodded, "Her and Uncle were going somewhere. They were getting in their car when Auntie spotted me. I froze, thinking it was over, then she just looked away and got in the car. I thought maybe she didn't recognize me until she sneaked out that night and gave me some food. I begged her not to tell anyone the first night. The next day when nothing happened, I figured she kept it to herself. The second night I told her I was looking for you guys."

"And?" I asked.

Sanjana stopped eating to look at me. "She never spoke a word to me. Just gave me food and went back inside for four nights no matter what I said. On the fifth night, she gave me a paper with an address on it. I was scared, but I decided to check it out anyway. That's when I saw you coming back here, Aditi."

When I had been coming home from the hospital. Vivaan and I looked at each other, both of us thinking the same thing. Jayanti had helped Sanjana instead of outing her to Darshan or Kunj. Why? 

"It's lucky she came at night," Vivaan murmured, still staring at me. "Kunj's men aren't watching us then."

Sanjana's eyes widened. "He has men watching you?"

"He suspects me of helping you," I told her. "He wants to-."

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" A new voice burst out. We all turned to the hallway, where Preeti stood half-hidden around the corner, watching us. She stepped out once we looked at her and pointed to Vivaan. "Your mother gave her our address, how do we know she didn't send her here so Kunj could find her?"

Vivaan looked between Sanjana and Preeti. "I know my mother. I don't think she would do that."

"You don't think?" Preeti raised her eyebrows. "That's not good enough."

I reached out to her, trying to comfort. "I know you're scared, but-."

"I'm terrified." Preeti slapped my hand away. "They beat Farhan until he was almost dead. What makes you think they can't do something worse? Especially since they know they can get away with it. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I moved in with you guys."