Chapter 66: chapter 66

CONTENT WARNING: The following part contains content related to domestic abuse and violence. MADHAVI watch in relief as Vinod gets out of my house and goes off in his car with his too-sweet mother. I heard a very good part of his conversation with Sruthi. That bastard knew that I was listening and deliberately baited Sruthi who had no idea that I was eavesdropping. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on their conversation. Okay, so maybe I did want to know what they were discussing. “I know he killed his father but I don’t think it was random or because he has bloodlust. If my observations are correct then I am sure, Madhav must have been abused by his father. He might have killed his father in self-defence or it could have been an accident where he didn’t even mean to kill his father.”I lock the front door and activate the security settings for the night. Sruthi is standing in the middle of the hall with a livid expression on her face. I agree it was childish of me to play the bone-crushing handshake with the future Prime Minister of our country but that idiot was asking for it with arrogance and smugness. “Madhav, explain what just happened?” asks Sruthi putting both her hands on her hip and huffing out a breath. “How much of the conversation did you eavesdrop?”I walk toward her thinking back to her conversation with Vinod. Her words keep echoing in my mind. She has no idea how much it means to me to watch her defend me in front of him. I didn’t expect it from her. She stands rooted to the spot with angry eyes when I close the steps between us. Am I crazy to find her cute even when she is angry?There is barely any step between us. I give her a solid ten seconds to back away like she used to do in the past. But, she stands where she is and tilts her head to look up at me. Her eyes meet mine and she gasps. I don’t know what expression I am wearing in them but I know I am desperate. Too desperate to tell this woman my feelings. Desperate for her love. For her warmth. For the light she has in her. She stood up for me even after knowing what I was capable of. She took my side though she didn’t know what happened in my past. I wrap my hands around her delicate body and pull her closer to me. A sense of calmness settles in me as I inhale her lavender smell. She makes me feel grounded. She goes still in my arms and says in an uncertain voice, “Madhav?”My answer is a desperate plea, “Two minutes, Sruthi. Let me hold you like this for two minutes.  Please.”“Okay,” she says wrapping her hands around my torso. She puts her head on my chest and closes her eyes. I wish we could stay like this. I want to tell her my feelings. I want to come clean about everything. But I also heard her say that she has no feelings for me. I don't want to burden her with mine. For some reason, having her in my arms like erases all the doubts and fear I had in me. I am ready. I am ready to tell her about my past. I am not afraid of her judgment because something tells me that she won't judge me like other people did. “It was not an act of self-defence or accident, Sruthi,” I confess the words weighing in my mind.“Hmmm? What?” she asks looking up at me. Her eyes have a soft look in them that compels me to tell her everything.“I killed my father in cold blood,” I answer. I wait for her to push me away in repulsion but she only tightens her hold on me. That gives me hope and I continue, “Your observations were correct. My father abused me and my mother in my childhood. He was obsessed with my mother. They had a love marriage. He loved her very much.”“Then why did he abuse you and your mother?”“Because he was jealous of me,” I reply. “He couldn't tolerate my mother being affectionate with me. He felt that I was taking too much of my mother's attention and time. He hated me because with every fibre of his being.  He would beat me up when my mom's wasn't at home and warn me to stay away from her. He couldn't tolerate my mother being sweet with me or showing affection to me. Like I said, he was obsessed with her. He didn't want her to give her love to anyone else. Not even to his own son.“It took my mother a few years to realize what was happening between me and my father. She tried to reason with him but his thick head couldn't understand. She kept defending me and he become so pissed with her that he started beating and abusing her. It went on for days, Sruthi.”“Why didn't your mother leave him then?” “She tried to but he wouldn't let her. The feelings he had for her were very toxic. He threatened to do suicide if my mother tried to leave with me. I couldn't grasp what was happening at that age but I understood enough to know that my father was abusing us. My mother hoped one day he would accept me but no such day came and he found new ways to torment us. He saw me as his foe and he knew how much it disturbed me to see my mother suffer.  So, he started to torture her more. He would put her through all sorts of torture. She endured it all telling me that one day he would come to his senses and accept us. “The problem was I didn't want his acceptance or anything from him. I knew he was a lost cause and I wished my mother would see it too but she still loved him and made excuses for his behaviour.  I wanted to file a domestic abuse complaint on him but my mother pleaded not to. Only for her sake, I was enduring it all.  “Then one day, I returned home from school to find my mother lying in the middle of the living room with blood covering her body. That was not the first time she was beaten to a pulp but I knew something terrible had happened to her when as soon as I saw her. She was a lifeless body and her pulse was faint. I tried waking her up but she didn't open her eyes.“I banged on my father's room door and when he opened, I yelled at him, ‘What did you do to her?’“He took one look at her body and then shrugged with no regrets, ‘She was pregnant and I asked her to abort the child but she said no, so I did it for her.’‘But aren't you the one who made her pregnant?’‘Of course, but I can't have her show love and affection to another person. It is already enough that you have her in your spell.’ ”“With a shake of my head at his behaviour, I went and dialled an ambulance. I told them the address but before I could fully finish the conversation, my father grabbed the phone from my hand and pushed me down. I hit the wooden drawer as my father threw away the phone.”“ ‘What the hell are you doing?’ my father thundered at me.‘Calling an ambulance for her,’ I answered wiping the blood from my left brow.‘Why would you do that?’‘Can't you see? She is hurt and must be taken to the hospital.’“My father laughed at me, Sruthi. It was a laugh of a man who had gone completely insane. His eyes had no regret as he said, ‘She won't die. She deserved the beating for her disobedience and raking your side always.’“ ‘Why do you hate me so much?’ I asked as frustration welled up in me.‘Why? Because you took her away from me. She promised to love me and only me till the end of her breath but she betrayed that promise when she gave birth to you. I never wanted you in the first place. If I had had it my way, you wouldn't be born in the first place. Now, she is betraying me again by wanting to give birth to another child.’“Something changed in his eyes and he walked to where my mother was lying. With a strong force he kicked my mother on her stomach. His eyes gleamed with hate and disgust. Something changed in me. I had enough of his abuse and torment. I knew in that exact moment what I had to do to be free of his clutch.“I was consumed by anger and rage. I saw red everywhere. I grabbed the first thing that I could get hold of and attacked him. He wasn't expecting that from me. At the age of fifteen, I just had my growth sport and was strong enough to fight him. Besides, he was drunk and wobbled. Consumed by fury and hatred for him, I stabbed him to death. Fifteen times. Each stab wound for each year of the hardship I and my mother had to face because of him.”❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥