A marriage for revenge

Chapter 6

Anu was perched beside her sister in the waiting room, silently letting tears fall down her eyes. The incident shook her so much that she never once let go of Anjali's hand. The depth of her sin kept gnawing at her insides. She made an internal promise of confessing the truth to everyone once Vinoth woke up and would apologize to him. She was ready to even fall on her knees and beg for their forgiveness but she needed to do it, no matter how bad it would make her look in everybody's eyes.

Although Vinoth and his family, including her sister would never forgive her, she decided to do the right thing. She also decided to accept her wrongdoings in front of the media and personally go talk to his fiance to make her understand that Vinoth did nothing of that sort she accused him of.

She also made a second promise about which she didn't think too much at that time because she was very optimistic that Vinoth would wake up.

Right at that moment, the door of the ER opened revealing a group of top-notch doctors in the country.

"Doctor.." Vikram rushed toward them in a single stride. "How's Vinoth?"

"He's fallen from the fifth floor. It's a miracle that he's still breathing.." The surgeon said once he exited the operation theatre. The grimace on his face told that he was aware of the reason the young man had tried to take his own life, "We need to wait for forty-eight hours to say anything. But let me warn you that even if your brother lives, he would never be able to move around, Mr. Sethupathi.."

Vinoth's mom let out a loud wail upon hearing the doctor's diagnosis. Vikram rounded his arm around her to calm her down but no matter what he did, nothing could stop her. She couldn't imagine her son rotting on a bed for the rest of his life. She blamed his star alignments for all the recent happenings in his life.

However, she still couldn't come to terms with the fact that her obedient son could do something so horrible to a girl and that too to the one who spent her entire childhood with him almost like a sibling. She felt something stirring in her heart at the simplest thought of it but she brushed it off thinking it was her motherly side that was refusing to accept his crimes.

Hours turned into days and days into weeks. It had been two weeks since the occurrence of the incident but Vinoth was making no recovery at all.

"We have done everything from our end, Mr. Sethupathi but it seems like your brother's given up the will to live.." That's what the doctors said when Vikram threatened to sue them if his brother did not wake up.

Anu let out a muffled cry when the words of the doctor stabbed at her heart. She cried more and more every day. Day by day, she stopped eating and sleeping and spent all of her days and nights in the hospital, waiting for Vinoth to wake up so that she could apologize to him. It was basically killing her to live with the self-reproach.

Anjali couldn't understand how her sister could feel sorry for the man who'd misbehaved with her but she totally understood her. Being the forgiving girl that Anu was, of course, she would forgive him and feel bad for his current condition but Anjali wasn't as saintly as her. She still held a grudge against him in her heart for causing harm to her baby sister.

"Don't cry, Anu. Maybe he deserves it for his crimes against you.." Anjali said to console her.

Anu had to bite her tongue from telling the truth to her sister. She couldn't tolerate anyone speaking ill about Vinoth when there was nothing his fault. He was innocent and he deserved none of this.

However, she feared that it was too late for confessions and apologies. She lost all hope that Vinoth would ever make it alive. If he wasn't going to live then it was time for her to fulfill her second promise, her promise to follow his path in death because there was no reason for her to live if he left.

Anyhow before taking such an adverse step she wanted to clear Vinoth of the accusations. Even if he didn't survive, he deserved to die as the gentleman that he is.

Wiping her tears, she silently slipped out of the hospital, luckily her sister did not notice her absence. On reaching the servant cottage, she quickly took out a paper and a pen and began to scribble down on it with tears trailing down non-stop.

Akka and Vikram anna,

Consider this letter as a confession to all my crimes. I wish I had the courage to stand in front of you and tell this to you but I am a coward who destroyed Vinoth's life with one single lie.

I am ashamed to admit to you that I lied to you all about him misbehaving with me. He did nothing as such. He's a gem of a man and I ruined him.

I lied because I love him, Akka. I have loved him my entire life and I couldn't imagine him being with another woman. I wanted to stop the wedding at any cost but I swear, I didn't expect that my actions would cause pain to so many people around me.

I am really sorry. When you get hold of this letter, I will be far gone. Do not try to find me.

Love you and take care

Anu.

Once finished she folded it neatly and she placed it on her bed. She took a last glance at the small piece of paper that was going to alter everybody's life but obviously she didn't know it at that moment.

She cried harder thinking that she would never be able to meet her sister again. Yes, she should have stayed back and accepted all the consequences of her mistake but considering her a coward, she didn't have the courage to face their wrath after making her confessions.

She was scared especially of her sister, of her reaction when she comes to know of the truth. She wholeheartedly prayed that Vikram should forgive Anjali for taking her side. Of course, he would do. After all, he loves her so much. He cannot live without her.

She quickly left the mansion and started walking towards the bus stop. It was around eight at night and the frequency of buses wasn't very often. After waiting for several minutes, she got into the only bus that came that way without even reading the destination board. It was a good thing that the bus was heading towards the outskirts of the city.

She was so busy crying that she missed noticing the two elderly women sitting two seats behind her and watching her carefully. They knew there was something wrong with the girl and she was in dire need of their assistance but they remained seated making no attempt to talk to her.

When Anu found the bus crossing a bridge, she insisted the driver make a stop. She got down in the middle of nowhere and started walking towards the railing of the bridge. She gulped when she looked down at the deep river that was flowing under the bridge but she slowly climbed on the railing.

Her legs began to tremble when she got on to the iron railing. The chill breeze wasn't helping her as they sent shivers all over her pale skin. She closed her eyes tightly to overcome her fears as if it would even help. Taking in a final long breath and mustering up all the courage, she leaned in but the expected fall never happened. All she felt was vice like grip on both her wrists. On instinct when she glanced around, she saw two religious nuns holding her in place.

And before she could react, she was hauled down to the ground with great force that she directly fell on her knees bruising them instantly.

"What are you doing, my child?" One of the nuns asked pulling her back to her feet.

"Why did you save me. Let me die.." Anu spoke with wobbly lips and thrashed around to get out of their holds. "I am a sinner and I am the reason someone is in death bed.."

"You are no more a sinner, the moment you realised your mistakes. So, go back and rectify them.." The elderly woman suggested.

Anu started sobbing the moment the words left her lips. "I can't go back.." She shook her head, "I can't face them after what I have done to them. They would hate me for a lifetime. I rather die.."

"Dying wouldn't wipe away your sins, young girl.." After taking a long pause as if thinking of another solution, the sister asked, "If you can't go back, would you like to come with us, surrender yourself to god and work on your redemption?"

To Anu she seemed like an angel in disguise, descended directly from heaven, who didn't want her to die yet. She didn't know the women yet she knew she can trust them completely. Not giving it a second thought and knowing they wouldn't let her die today, she nodded her head in answer to the question.

"Alright, come with us.." In all the madness, Anu did not notice that the bus was still waiting for her towards which the two women dragged her with them. She didn't recognize where life was taking her but she understood death was not the punishment to any crime. Her punishment will be on hold and she would have to go through it when the time was right until then she would serve god, and try to lessen the weight of her burden of guilt from her shoulder.

She didn't know when she fell asleep on the shoulder of the nun but when she woke up she saw it was morning and she was far away from her home in an unfamiliar city.

A/N:

Hey readers,

Sorry for the late update. It took me a while to pen down this chapter.

I hope you liked it. Please drop your comments.

Love

SwaRam