Cupid never had a chance in their messy, parental-restricted love story
Karishma Jha, a twenty-one-year-old recent graduate with the world at her feet if only she chose to face it. Plagued with the worries of the future and yet healing from the scar...
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A muffled scream reached my ears as I explained the safety measures we planned to put in the building. I looked around the room trying to find the source when the sound of something shattering on the floor came from the other room.
"I will be back in a minute, gentlemen," I said hurriedly and muted the call, already out of my chair by the time I finished the sentence.
I rushed out of my room so fast that I slid on my socks-covered feet and caught the doorframe just in time to stop from face-planting on the floor. Casting a wary gaze around the room, I expected to find Karishma lying on the floor but she sat on the bed with her face pressed against her folded knees.
"What's wrong?" She raised her red and teary eyes to me and I immediately moved to lean against the post of her bed. Close enough to comfort her if she needed but not crowding her space.
Sniffling once she went to the point directly. "My mother has dementia."
My eyebrows hit my hairline. "Can't say I am either surprised or sorry."
I always thought that woman had a slew of mental illnesses, the only explanation for how she treated Karishma. Thank God at least one of them got diagnosed.
Her lips quirked up. "Figured this would happen to me. In movies and books, people with shitty parents usually get an apology at some point in their life, maybe a promise to do better going forward. But mine gets to forget every horrible word and deed she has ever done while they are imprinted into my memory, my personality."
I felt my eyebrows pulled into a frown as I folded my arms across my chest. She was more than how her mother treated her, she deserved better than her mother treated her. She should have known that by now.
"But it is not all bad. The days she doesn't remember me, the days she thinks I am a stranger, I am treated well. She's polite, kind and nice. She's the Maya Jha that the world got to see. No wonder no one believed me."
"I believed you."
"Anyways," she patted her thighs once, straightening her spine, "my father now wants me to move back with them."
"That's a horrible idea." My whole body physically recoiled at the thought of her going back there.
"I agree."
"What does your-" I gulped. "What are Abhay's thoughts on it?"
"I haven't talked to him about it, about moving there permanently. But I don't think he would be particularly fond of it, since his entire family lives in the Delhi."
I hated being the one to suggest this but it had to be said. "You should talk to him. Don't assume the worst just yet."
She gave me a small, hesitant nod.
"Also I am not telling you not to help out your parents. But do it on your terms. Don't just give up on your dreams and everything you have achieved without a fair fight. They can move to Delhi as well. In this way, you wouldn't have to leave the life you have built."
