MAM and her father looked at her in complete shock and for once her father was at a loss for words. Her mother began to weep and her father, reclaiming his confession, told her.
“I know you have been under a lot of stress with your husband and in-laws but I can’t believe they could go that far.”
“There are many things I haven’t told you because you hold onto traditional beliefs that a good wife doesn’t leave her husband or home. She waits and takes on the abuse and suffering, hoping for a change that does not always come. Is it better that you think father, that I am left in death? ”
He did not answer, the muscles on his face would ridicule, because the tradition he was taught to believe to be right would be wrong in today’s rapidly changing world.
“I’m sorry if I was wrong,” he apologized, “for the pain and suffering I caused you because I upheld the rules and laws of our tradition.”
“My in-laws,” he said, “have been reading the same pages. They disapprove of divorce because they don’t want their son to be blamed for it so they hatched a plan to poison me and make it look like suicide. ”
“O God!” exclaimed her mother with an angry shout.
Her father stood there, his face blank, not sure what to believe but he had strong faith in his daughter to know that she would not make wild accusations. It was amazing though, how he found out the truth.
The brave soul she was, Priya decided to return to her husband’s home and wait until the plan came into effect to reveal their evil intent to the world.
“You know the danger Priya,” her mother appealed, “You should just walk away.”
“No mother,” she said resolutely, “It must be done to send a clear message to too many women like me who have been suffering in silence.”
She left her anxious parents to keep her date with her friend from the childcare agency and explain in some detail the dilemma of the working single mother of not having anyone to care for her children.“You know without any official report that we cannot question anyone on grounds of suspicion alone.”
“I know, Sarah but let’s go get the child right, have a friendly conversation with the mother and maybe we can find something to justify a serious report.”
The family was home and Priya breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw the little girl next to the bird. The child looked at her and smiled and Priya, so happy to see that she was alive, wanted to embrace her but instead spoke to her in a friendly tone, “Hello, how are you?”
“I’m fine,” said the child, sweet and showing her a little bird, she had just got up from her nest.
“It’s so small and cute,” said Priya, gently touching the little bird.
Her mother had come to the door to see who the visitors were, a poor woman with tiredness and anxiety engraved on her face. Sarah talked to her about the welfare of her children and what support she needs for the family.
The woman didn’t answer for a long moment then started to weep.
“We can help you,” Priya said excitedly.
After she had calmed down, Sarah carefully asked, “Who looks after the children while you are at work?”
“I lil brotha helps a lot of wid de chirren, I have no one else.”
The little girl had come into the house and touched Priya’s hand, signaling that she wanted to say something and whispered, “It’s not nice to me. It’s bad but if I say, mum will be worried. I wish he was gone. ”
Priya looked at Sarah with deep relief, knowing now that they had a case to remove the child from the uncle’s care starting now.
The mother was assured that she would be assisted by a charitable organization with better comfort and care for the children and her brother would be barred from interacting with them.
Priya, promising the child to visit often, was grateful that she would now be safe, returned home, tired of the day’s proceedings, wondering if it was going to be tonight.
Dev was home, unsurprisingly, given his usual late hours, having a quiet conversation with his mother and aunt in the living room. Priya greeted them with a pleasant smile and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Dev came to the door and stood there looking at her for a while, then asked in a caring tone, “How was your day?”
“Good,” she replied, looking at him to see how well he was hiding the fraud.
He nodded and said, “I’ve got to go out a little, I’ll see you later.”
She formed a lump in her throat from the soreness in her heart and she bites her lip from crying. Dinner with the family was a show for her and she stayed in her room, working on a few business reports before making a cuppa and taking a leisure bath.
She recorded a hidden micro camera every second in the room and sat down on her bed, after her bath, she raised the cup to her lips but did not drink the tea.
The video recording showed her mother-in-law, entering the room and slipping the poison into her tea.
They would wait for it to take effect, she knew and by then, her husband would be coming home but too late, as planned.
A clever plan spoiled by divine intervention.
Priya sent a text to her parents, who had been sitting for hours in a parked vehicle, not far away, waiting for her message and at the sound of their voices at the door, got up to leave the room, canceling death invitation.
Her father used to say, “I’ve come home, my daughter.”
The shocked look in the faces of her in-laws as she exited the room and put the taproom on the middle table was a classic.
Priya looked at them not with hatred or contempt but with a smile that told her to win.
“It’s not my time, and it’s not your right to take my life. Tell me your son ‘Goodbye’. “
The video recording caught up for her in-laws to see and a small jar with the poison tea.
“Let me see how you and your son will live down this evil plan to kill me.”
She walked out, holding her mother and father’s hands, a feeling of deep peace filling her heart – a beautiful one, no longer pushed.