Her Broken Heart #ReadersChoiceAwards Completed M

Chapter 2:" StepMother"

1123
6
2

A Year Later.

Gauri hated weekends because it meant staying at her father's house. While her father mostly ignored her, Gauri's stepmother paid more attention to her, if only to make her feel sad all the time. Gauri would get scolded for everything in that house by her stepmother. If she talked a little, her stepmother would say Gauri was loud, and if she remained silent for a long time, she would say Gauri was disrespectful and so on.

When her father first brought her back to his home, she didn't know the move would be temporary, so she cried silently to herself thinking she would never see her mother again. But two days later her father drove her back to her mother's house.

Therein began the exhausting and traumatizing journey where Gauri was moved from one home to another every week. She didn't like going to her father's house because she always went hungry there. Her stepmother had once told her that she was fat and that she needed to eat less. From that day on, Gauri hated eating anything before her stepmother and spent sleepless nights because she was hungry.

About six months later, her stepmother gave birth to her little brother. Gauri loved the baby, but her stepmother never allowed Gauri to play with him. It would break her heart each time her stepmother stopped her from cuddling the baby, or even just smiling at him.

One day she sneaked inside her little brother's room to play with him, and when her stepmother found her, she dragged Gauri to her room and locked her inside, refusing to let her out for the entire day as a punishment.

Gauri wanted to tell her mother. She didn't want to go back to her father's house, but her mother refused to listen to anything she said about her father. So she suffered in silence.

Then last week, Gauri was left alone at home as her father took her stepmother and baby brother out to dinner. She was so scared to be alone in the big house that she hid under the bed the entire night and fell asleep in the same position.

So Gauri wasn't happy to be going back to her father's house again today. It wasn't the weekend, but her mother had to go out of town. So she had asked Gauri to stay with her father tonight. Gauri was dropped off at the gate as usual because her mother never went inside the house. But tonight she was scared because it was pitch dark. She immediately turned to ask her mother for help, but she had already driven away.

Gauri picked up her bag and walked inside the house. Surprisingly, the usually deserted house was filled with people. Gauri feared that she entered the wrong home as she stared at the strangers in confusion.

" What are you doing here? " her father's loud voice frightened her. He never spoke to her, but when he did, it would always be in a loud, scary tone.

" Stay in your room and don't spoil the day, " her stepmother spoke up in a hushed tone, and Gauri was thankful to escape from the room full of strangers.

When she went to her room, she heard her brother cry. She knew her stepmother would hate it, but she couldn't bear to see her brother cry throughout the night.

So Gauri went to her brother's room, and to her shock, she found him lying on the floor instead of in the crib as if he had fallen. Gauri picked him up and tried to soothe him. The baby clung to her and she found that she liked it, so she continued to hold him in her arms.

She must have lost track of time as she played and cooed with the baby. Soon she heard footsteps and she panicked. What if her stepmother locked her in the room again? So she quickly hid behind the curtains after placing her brother back in his crib, waiting for her to leave.

It wasn't her stepmother but rather her father who entered her brother's room. When she saw him pick up her little brother and play with him in a way he never had with her, Gauri's heart broke. She realized then that it wasn't that her father was incapable of speaking affectionately. It was just that he was incapable of being affectionate with her.

Thank you @LizzieBennett for Beta-Reading this chapter smiley27