A shrill cracking sound reverberated throughout the house, rudely cutting through the blissful silence of the beautiful sunny morning. I had been awake long and was trying my darndest to work out. I figured since I had to participate in it anyway, might as well get myself physically into shape for the Championship. Mentally, I doubted if I'd ever be normal about partnering with Rishabh.

It might have been my third yoga pose in which I was trying so hard to concentrate without being alarmed of anything going on downstairs. The house was small and you could practically hear my mother dicing vegetables in the kitchen. I was genuinely afraid of them hearing all the shenanigans that underwent in this house the previous night. But thankfully, they were all out as a light.

Most daughters expect their lovable fathers to wake them up with a pleasant 'good morning' or a 'the sun is not gonna wait for you, kiddo'. Lovable was an alien word to describe my father then. I usually got up to the sound of something breaking or some frivolous rebukes from downstairs.

The man had got no work lately. Just to leave home in the morning for the whole day and return back the evening that too just to snatch away our peace and quiet.

It felt almost alien to imagine a time when he used to be the ideal citizen everyone in the neighborhood looked up to. A well-payed job in a law firm, perhaps one of the most sought-after lawyer of the city, a loving husband , the best father and an ideal citizen who mended his ways as he went. All gone, poof! with the man's deterioration to savagery.

One case, all it took for him to unravel was one damn case in which he defended a notorious murderer. Six years of unimaginable pressure, gruelling hours inside the mind of a monster rendered him inhumane. Our house has been retaining wholly on my Mom's savings from when she used to work and my occasional meagre contributions for the past year and a half.

I came to know about this delightful little new alcohol problem of my father last month. It was not like I hadn't seen this coming from miles. This made me worry whether all the tutoring money I had been chipping in the house for the past months was being used by that abominable man for his drinks. I swore if he turned out to be the reason for which I couldn't bulk up my savings, I'd honestly stick his ass up in his bottle and throw him in the sea.

Sentimentally, I had then lost all the hopes of salvaging a happy family from the ruins. 

Right then, if the man, out of nowhere, came out completely changed, begging us for a second chance, I oathed that I wouldn't give it to him. Not even if my Mom pleaded with all her 'mature-immature' philosophies, that man deserved no sympathy.

That poor woman had to suffer so much living under the same roof with the beast! While I could have a few moments of relief in my Grandpapa's apartment, she still had to stay here, make up for all that was lost in her family. 

The unanimous decision of my mother and mine for me to stay out there for the school days and nights and return home during the weekends was so that I could get some space to study without any disruption.

My mother was, in the beginning, highly reluctant to let me go. She was a mother after all. But with the increasing chaos in the house, she could feel how this environment and her motherly instinct to have her close would do more bad than good for her daughter who was trying to break out of the shackles of suffering that this house had bestowed upon them both.

What safer place for her teenage daughter to move in other than their Grandparents' home? In this way, she wouldn't feel entirely cut out from her daughter's life and the daughter would have a personal space to work in.

Mom asked the lady next to Grandpapa's apartment to look after me. The lady had two kids whom she happily handed over to me to be tutored in return for a meagre sum of money. With the son, came his school friends and before I knew it, I had a substantial amount of money every month for my upkeep in the apartment with spare to help Mom in the main house. For two days a week, I was a home tutor and for the other three, a full-time troubled student and for the remaining two, a selfish daughter.

I was zoomed out of the rabbit hole by a ding indicating a new text message on my cellphone. Too engrossed in my yoga position to move and dismissing it to be a spam message, I turned to the very immediate thing on my thought-train,—Rishabh Singh Rathore.

His name itself had the capacity of enraging me but right then, I couldn't help but smile a little thinking about his antics the previous night.

My phone dinged again, and again and again and I slowly pulled out of my position to grab it. Weird and frustrating.

Upon opening the lockscreen, I was dumbfounded to find a chain of messages from a certain 'My Master'. I inhaled sharply upon realising that Rishabh might have saved his number by that name on my phone the other night. But why on the earth THAT name? Was he half-witted or something? Didn't he realise how sexual it sounded? I have had read my share of online trash romance novels to cringe at the connotation there.

From: My Master
Recieved 8:13

Bad morning, Bimbo. You up?

What was with the very fuckboy tone? That was anything but Rishabh.

From: My Master
Received 8:15

Still sleeping? Dixit, honestly, I thought you'd be up exercising now.

How did he know that? I looked around wildly to spot any camera bug he might have placed around my room. I was still sceptical about this dude's intentions.

From: My Master
Recieved 8:18

Bimbo, you need to get your ass up before I am forced to go down there again.

What did he think of himself, bossing me around like that? Was he my strict daddy or something?

The thought immediately made me scowl. What the hell was I thinking? The first round of order should be to change the name immediately. I couldn't take anymore of My Master.
My fingers typed away at the keyboard angrily.

To: The Bloodsucking Leech
Sent 8:21

What does it matter to you if I am awake? Go, mind your own business.

I sighed and placed the phone right on the floor near me before stretching and bending over my knees in a yoga pose. My phone dinged immediately afterwards.

Wow, that was quick. Was he waiting there with his phone in his hand?

From: The Bloodsucking Leech
Received 8:21

Awe, that hurts. You promised to stay by my side forever just last night. Were all those romantic words for naught?

I snorted loudly at his cringey words.

From: The Bloodsucking Leech
Received 8:22

Also, did you forget we were supposed to congregate at the school hall at 9 this morning? I stg Dixit, I will most definitely break into your house again and haul your ass down here if I have to.

Wow, and there I was concerned about him using the information of my house being a literal hell hole in situations like this for absolutely nothing. What a stand-up guy!

To: The Bloodsucking Leech
Sent 8:23

Don't worry about that. I'll be there. You do your job and go talk to Father about our tasks.

From: The Bloodsucking Leech
Received: 8:24

Didn't I tell you last night that Bossy Sanvi isn't really a good look on you? Also, it's fine if you'll be late but we have to go talk to Father together as a team. Do you want me to pick you up?

P.S.: Is your headache okay now?

I felt a warm sensation in my heart after reading the text. Rishabh Rathore was okay with me being late? Shouldn't he have been crazy disciplined when it came to things about the Championship? And he wanted to come pick me up? Did the sun rise from the west that day?

To: The Bloodsucking Leech
Sent 8:24

I am fine, Rathore. I am not disabled or anything. I can ride on my own to the school. I'll meet you there in half an hour. Hold onto your pants until then.

Sending so, I hurriedly stood up to go take a quick bath because no way in hell was I letting Rathore come down to this house ever again.

I checked my phone one last time after coming out in my towel.

From: The Bloodsucking Leech
Received: 8:35

Worried about my pants, Dixit? Don't worry, I'd happily let you take care of my pants when you come down here. ;)

I thudded down on my bed with a palm over my mouth, suppressing a demonic screech at the very smooth sexual innuendo from his part.

Wasn't I his first kiss, according to him? How did he get to be this smooth with his flirtation then? I cursed my mouth to be vigilant everytime it opened in front of him from then on.

This guy was entirely unpredictable pervert.

"Sanvi! Come for breakfast..." Mom opened the door knob of my room and was rendered puzzled to see me sitting shocked still on the bed with a beetroot face. I turned towards her and gave her a lopsided grin before throwing the phone amidst the pillow pile.

Needless to say, my mother was taken aback.

The previous night, I was entirely broken. Although I never showed her outwardly but she could tell that by my facial expressions. She knew her daughter sought peace and that same peace I used to get when I remained  away from this house.

My Mom couldn't just let her daughter suffer anymore. She seemed to have lost the count of time since we had been facing this daily torture which sometimes even led to us getting brutally hurt.

Anju, my mother, had always tried to keep me shielded from that monster after he had once beaten me brutally in her absence when she had to go visit a terribly ill friend at the hospital. Eversince that day, she had no qualms about me moving out of the house. I often found her wondering about what happened to her loving family. She and my father were childhood sweethearts,—neighbours since birth and eventually lovers when older.

When I was born, my father, Shekhar, was the happiest. He used to say that I was the best thing that had happened to him after Mom. He used to pamper me more than Mom. So when did everything start falling apart in the happiest family of the world?

My Mom had seen her loving husband turn into a monster and her chirpy and lively daughter turn into a stone day by day. I had lost the happiness of a lion's share of my childhood. Oh how could a mother bear this?

Initially, when my father came home one day and found my room empty, he beat her black and blue for letting the dog out of the leash. My resilient mother took all the brunt without a word but put her foot down on her decision of letting me stay out there in the apartment.

"Mumma... Are you okay?" I marched towards my mother and engulfed her in a bear hug, trying to soak in her pain and provide her with some of my warmth which I was gifted with by someone last night. I wouldn't lie, I was happy then despite my injuries.

My Mom was too shocked to even say a word. I was never a girl who clung onto my mother no matter how much I was emotionally drained or physically unfit. I had never noticed when the emotional gap widened between us amidst all the external chaos.

My mother whimpered, keeping it all bottled in as she usually did.

"Child, I am finer than the bright morning sun." She caressed my wet hair as I nuzzled deep into her chest, accumulating that heavenly feeling of being in a motherly warmth which I had been missing these days.

"I know Mom... I am your own blood. I know you try to be strong in front of me. I know that there lies a broken soul disguised under the strong facade that you put up every morning." (Sanvi's mother felt her eyes brimming with warm tears at her words. When did her little girl start growing up? She had missed so much of her child growing up. Sanvi appeared so mature today.)

"Mom, why won't you listen to me once? I say.. This time, you are not wrong.. You've never been wrong during all these things. Why do you have to bear the wrath of that man without any reason? Mom.. Please lets leave all these behind. Let's start afresh. Just you and me. I trust you still have it in you to wish for a new life. I know you wouldn't leave a stone unturned to give me a happy life. We don't need this man in our life anymore! He's as good as dead now." 

My mother wrenched me out of her grip and stared at me with indignation.

"How can you even expect me to leave that man who was once the reason for my life? I have been loving that man even before the time I had understood the meaning of love, Sanvi! I had promised him to lead my whole life with him no matter what the circumstances be! For God's sake Sanvi.. He's your father! How can you forget the fatherly love you got from him so easily? Especially when he's going through such a tough time...you know it all, don't you?" She choked up and turned to leave.

"That fatherly love is now an alien thing for that man! He knows nothing than giving us pain. Didn't we try enough to be accomodating? Isn't this enough, Mom?" I could feel the resentment burst out through my words as I turned her to look at my wrist and the injuries inflicted upon it by that man last night. She burst out sobbing while kissing my hand.

"I am sorry...I am so sorry, my child. I am sorry for being an incompetent mother. Punish me as you want. I don't deserve to be a mother!"

I was numb for those warm tears. Nothing moved me anymore.

"I can't.. Sanvi.. I can't... You just.. Just become capable enough and leave us.. Leave this dirty house behind! A whole new world filled with endless love and happiness is waiting for you out there...just... go..." She caught her mouth, sobbing, and ran outside, not being able to stop from breaking down.

"I can't create another world which doesn't have you in it, Mom."

I stood there defeated, looking at the retreating figure of my mother. If this was love, I didn't need love anymore.

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

TBC