Forgetting Billions | ✓

30 | Forgetting Photographs

THE WORST part of knowing that the people she risked everything for would turn against her at the drop of a hat was that they were itching to do so for the past seventeen years. Aishwarya and Varun had been waiting in the shadows for her to make a mistake, just to scream the oh so satisfying 'I told you so' in her face.

The last people she could tolerate such betrayal from was her parents, but it was just her luck that her loyalty had been in the hands of the biggest traitors in her life. They were her family. They were supposed to support her and love her, despite her flaws and errors.

Instead, they berated her and punished her for merely releasing her heart from the metal prison they had imposed upon it.

Jasmine first saw her parent's true colors during the funeral, when they turned to meet her eyes with a look of disdain written upon their faces and then refused to see her again for the rest of the day.

And Bianca sat there silently, letting everything unfold without a word because she was scared of losing the only family she had left.

If this had happened earlier, Jasmine might've started crying. She might've let her parents completely erase Shayan from her history as if he never existed in the first place. She might've even fallen to their feet, her fingers clasped together in prayer, and begged for them to forgive her.

Forgive her for falling in love.

That was bullshit.

She changed so much in one year, so much so that the old Jasmine disgusted her. The fact that she would let anyone in her life hurt her without a fight was so infuriating that she couldn't believe that she was ever that person.

So, the raven-haired beauty didn't shed a single tear. She didn't think about what was to come anymore because Karina deserved more than that. Karina deserved to be grieved in full by her family with no distractions.

That would never stop her parents.

Karina's funeral ended at six in the evening. The casket was slammed shut and driven to the grave lying beside Rahul's at six-thirty. Bianca thanked the guests for coming as she ushered them all to their cars, sending anxious looks in Jasmine's direction at seven. When the clock struck seven-fifteen, Varun turned on his heel, his face morphing into a raging tornado. His wife stood beside him, mirroring the wind that would aid in their destruction.

Jasmine crossed her arms over her chest, creating an invisible, ten feet tall divide between them. They stood off against each other, waiting for one of them to back down. Instead, Aditya and Bianca were the ones to inch backward, holding each other tight as they awaited the catastrophe that was inevitably coming their way.

"Don't you think it's about time you started to yell? We might as well get it over with." Jasmine shrugged, her voice sharp enough to cut through steel.

Varun lifted an eyebrow. "Never speak to me that way ever again." His demeanor was a quiet sort dangerous and his daughter contemplated running away for she had never heard him chastise her in anything meeker than a scream. She stood her ground despite her fears.

It was about time she defended herself.

"I will. I won't let you dictate my life anymore and that starts with me standing up for myself when I know that you are wrong," she replied, crossing her arms even tighter against her chest.

Aishwarya threw her hands up in the air, frustration etched in her hollow cheeks. "We do not dictate your life, Jasmine. All we have ever asked of you was to love an Indian man. Is that so hard? There are one billion in the world and the probabilities are in your favor. And still, you chose the last person we would accept."