Rape is the only crime where the victim becomes the accused.

~ Freda Adler

" Dr. Arnav, the patient of Room No.143, who had been operated by you and your team has regained her senses. Would you liked to meet her or would you want someone from your team to meet her?" A sister questioned him, bringing him out of his reverie of thoughts about Khushi's parents.

" I will be there in 2 minutes, sister. Thanks a lot for informing me." Arnav mentally asked himself to calm down so that his tone would not sound hurting to Khushi, who would already be in post-rape trauma.

He picked his phone and walked into the room of Khushi, where two eyes which lacked any kind of emotion greeted him while it made him the culprit and made him hate Khushi's parents even more. Their daughter was suffering so much and all they cared was about the society.

How narrow-minded and how cheap can people be!

Jerking away his thoughts aside, Arnav softened his gaze and asked with concern gripping from his tone,

" Khushi, how are you feeling now?"

It appeared that the eyes which seemed to have a wall behind them had their wall broken, as a gush of hot tears flowed out of her eyes but no words escaped her mouth.

Has she lost the ability to speak by any chance?

Concern was not an alien thing for Arnav Singh Raizada but the concern which would make him feel the pain when the scar, the wound was not his was definitely new for him. It was the first ignored sign of the unacknowledged feelings which his heart has developed for the person he started to care and respect.

" I--I w--ant to meet Mumma." The words extricated from the pain that choked her voice, to be coated with suffering, agony, affliction and every single feeling which was associated with darkness.

The world could see just the scars which damaged the beautiful skin of hers but Arnav could see the darkness which evaded her heart just from the few words she spoke.

To be honest and kill her more with truth or to lie and elevate her pain in the future when her doe like eyes, searching for her parents would just find empty space to increase the void in her already wrenched and wretched heart.

Her disconsolate heart would have to take more pain as a desire to express the bitter truth prevailed in his heart drowning in quandary. Unable to procrastinate it any further as her hollow and deep eyes searched for answers in his eyes, Arnav nimbly spoke,

" I am extremely sorry, Khushi. Your parents left."

An unwanted feeling of being unwanted developed in the distraught heart of the brave girl, who had the strength to fight the death but had lost the battle the minute the tormenting truth befell on her.

Her eyes were in the waves and tides of painfully hot and salty tears while muffled sobs escaped her trembling lips as color further drained from her face. As strong winds as those in deserts threatened to extinguish the hopes of living in her heart, after all every feeling of being alive in her got evaporated with the heat of her pain.

Her parents chose the society above her, as expected.

Ignoring the every weakness which pleaded her to not move and numbing, throbbing pain which shot throughout her, Khushi tried pulling out the various tubes injected into her, but Arnav was swift enough to hold her weak, trembling hand which were still trying to remove them from her veins, those veins in which the blood which her parents gave her ran.

Ignoring the turbulent raging storm of pessimistic emotions in her shaken mind, his touch didn't disgust her like she felt when that devil personified touched her. His compassionate eyes compelled her to trust him, more than she probably ever did in her 22 years of life.

" Don't you want to punish the person who dared to insult not just a woman but the entire humanity by outraging a woman's modesty and destroying her badly? Don't you want the society to see how strong you are? Don't you want to show all those parents, all those people who look down on you brave girls as victims, that you are not victims, you are the victors? Do you want to fail our efforts which put into to make you win in your difficult battle against death, just because some narrow-minded couple doesn't see the bravery which we doctors and many good people see? Please don't do this Khushi."

The deep eyes which were oceans of despair, anguish and turmoil perpetually searched for themselves in the chocolate eyes where concern, respect floated. Those dark eyes of hers suddenly got lit by a tiny ray of hope with the supportive remarks of Arnav, who seemed to transfer positivity to her through his soft and narrowed eyes.

For a girl who was neither scared of the society or nor had a desire to impress it, the taunts of the society would not matter. Physical wounds would go off, and with love the mental sorrows would cease but the pain inflicted by her parents, would always haunt her thoughts in the day and the dreams of night for sure.

The flashes of her parents got blurred as the words of the doctor or rather the person who gave her a rebirth through his words, reverberated in her eardrum, while motivation filled her heart. A desire to live, to prove her parents and many people like them wrong clouded her thoughts. A want to serve the people who were gods' favorites like her, sprouted in her bleeding heart.

" I will live." Her shaky tone and eyes which were raining down all the pain which her soul endured added an affect to her words like never before. The sorrow in her heart was so profound that Arnav could feel it in the air and everything around him. She withdrew her hand from his hold while Arnav moved back to make a decent distance so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable, while it just elevated his unvoiced respect in her blood-shot eyes.

" Thanks a lot, Khushi. From today you are my responsibility. You are going to live with me and my sister." Arnav solemnly declared while a shocked Khushi felt that he might take an advantage of her like that scumbag.

Seeing the swift change of her expressions from somewhat disoriented to confused to shocked and somewhat frightened, Arnav spoke to ease out her fears,

" I am aware of your fears, Khushi. Hence I have called my sister here so that you can meet her before you take any decision. If you are uncomfortable with me staying with you both, you both can stay in my farmhouse."

Respect from both the sides, deep concern strengthening the bond from one-side and admiration from one-side binding the bond tighter. Will this bond be able to bring Khushi out of her pain-filled dark world?

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