Fitoor | ✓

33 | Taitees

A/N - This chapter should be interesting! It's in the perspective of a person you'll hate with a passion.

[P.S. special thanks to my babe AnneeSparrow for sprinting with me. I wouldn't have been able to upload the chapter otherwise.)

33 | Taitees

Everything she did, she did for her family. 

When she was fifteen, she was married off. The last of four girls of her parents, their final load had been lifted. When she was seventeen, she bore her first child. When she was nineteen, she bore her second. At twenty-two, she gave birth to the hardest child; at twenty-four she bore the last. 

And every day since, she made her life theirs.

Indira was first a neglected daughter; her only education being that she was to be a devoted wife when they found a husband for her and to be a sacrificing mother when her man bore children in her. 

And she did. 

Her whole life revolved around serving her husband, doing everything possible to give her children the best that they deserved and finally, doing the best to maintain the name of the family she was married into. 

Obviously, things had transformed for her. She wasn't a neglected daughter-in-law like she was a neglected daughter. She was married to a man so powerful, he owned the town they lived in. She was the woman who ruled them from behind the curtains. She was the woman who had given birth to the children who would one day inherit the property of crores.
So what wrong had she done to protect her son from a girl who would stain the name of their house and use him for his money? 

************

Everyone looked at Indira with contempt; glaring at her out of a bitter mixture of hatred and remorse. 

Indira only stared back at one – her husband who wouldn't speak a word, his silence bearing the loudness of a wild storm. The hurt of betrayal angered her more than the pain. She had protected his reputation. Saved the name of his family from crumbling into the dirt.
And then she looked at her son. She had almost died giving birth to this one. He was the naughtiest. The most stubborn of all. In a way, he took after her. They were both arrogant in their own ways; both dominated by their own egos. 

"Did you kill that girl?" Ranjan's voice hit her ears sharply. It was a warning tone. They had all asked her the same question multiple times while she stayed silent. But this was the first and last time Ranjan was asking her. There was a finality in his voice, this was not the voice of a husband. This was the voice of a person whom she had married, whom she had served and whose children she had bread, the man who she had never loved. The man, who had never loved her. A man, who had never thought of her as more than a means to get his heirs.
She was tired. Tired of Ranjan who didn't think of her more than a mere property he owned. Tired of her children who thought of her as nothing more than their enemy. But most of all, she was tired of devoting her life to them.

And so now, she didn't care if Ranjan was going to get angry and hit her behind closed doors. He could do what he wanted. 

"Of course she did. All she's cared about is her and her reputation." Lekh said. His words were drenched with bitterness, his eyes filled with hatred and his face filled with contempt for his mother. 

And that's when Indira snapped. 

"My reputation?" she shouted furiously, "Do you think your father would have accepted a girl from a lower caste as his daughter-in-law?" 

Lekh was dumbfounded. And before he could fathom how to react, Indira spoke again. 

"I did not kill that girl, but it's good to know that's what you think of the mother who spent her life taking care of your ungrateful lot. I paid her off. And you know what Lekh, she was happy to be paid. She was eager to be paid."

Her words jabbed Lekh in the heart. He was too consumed by shock to feel anything. Everyone was consumed by shock to react in any way. 

"What are you saying?" Ranjan finally asked, angrily. 

Indira looked at him with disgust, feeling sorry that she had to be born in a time where she was forced to make her life someone else's. 

"I am saying that I paid her to get out of Lekh's life. I paid her to leave this place forever and she didn't even flinch when accepting my deal. She wanted this. She wanted a bigger life. Even if you had married her Lekh, she wouldn't have been satisfied until she had taken all your money to live a life she had only thought of in her dreams. I asked her to break all contact with you if I gave her the money she wanted, and she did. And look, even her family wasn't important for her. I never asked her to break ties with her family. I even offered to provide more money so she would leave with them. But she wanted to go alone. 

She was a selfish girl. I knew it. You were too innocent to understand but I was not. I saw right through her. If she had really loved you, she would have never accepted my offer. Or she would have at least tried to contact you after leaving. But did she?" 

Lekh couldn't believe what he was hearing. He stared at Indira in bafflement. 

Indira stared back, challenging him to counter her.

She had nothing more to hide. She had done this protect her son who hated her. And now, she was old and tired. 

She didn't want to protect him anymore if he didn't want to be protected. 

Whatever she did, she did for her family. She did for her son. 

Whatever she did, they all turned her down.