She spent the whole night crying for him to come back. Reality had slapped her hard that evening. She had caught Harsh cheating on her at party. Her life was already a big mess and Harsh’s infidelity was eating her alive. Her trust was broken. She couldn’t even end her life knowing the fact that she had a little sister and an ailing mother to be taken care of. She wrote all her grievances in her notebook to ease her feelings. But nothing helped. She took out a blade from her drawer and started making cuts on her hands and palms. This physical agony helped her in distracting her from the mental agony she was going through. She slept late that night.

 Next morning she was in her office at her desk with a smile on her face. This is in many ways is an evidence that women are biologically stronger than men. “You have been called in by the boss, Shweta madam”, Shweta nodded as the peon went on his way. She was a wee bit nervous. She knew her boss was exploiting her, but she couldn’t complaint for the sake of her job. She went up to the cabin door. “MR.KAPOOR” was written on the name plate. She knocked. “Come in”, said a familiar and dirty voice. Mr. Kapoor gave her a wicked smile as she entered and flirted with her. He then let her go. Shweta was used to all this.

After her office time was over, she called Kshitij and asked him to join her at the café nearby. Kshitij was her only true friend with whom she was most comfortable with. He had recommended her to leave her job many a times, but she couldn’t. When they met at the café, he looked handsome as always and she told him what Harsh did to her. Kshitij was upset hearing this and wanted to confront Harsh, however Shweta stopped him; this irritated him further. He hated seeing Shweta in such agony and to top it she had now resorted to self abuse to ease her mental agony, this certainly wasn’t going the right way. Shweta’s refusals to take on the situation head on, irked Kshitij and he left, she let him go although it tugged at her already wounded heart.

 That fateful early morning when Shweta’s night shift was over, she walked towards her scooty. In the mirror she saw Mr. Kapoor grab her from behind. She screamed. Cried .But no one seemed to hear her agony. Or was it all preplanned? Mr. Kapoor brutally raped her, leaving her bleeding. Shweta was in a state of numbness. She couldn’t cry or scream. She wasn’t able to speak or think. In the state of shock she managed to get up, tried removing all the blood stains and went straight to her home. She was so weak that she couldn’t get out of her bed, but she knew she couldn’t keep quiet either. She had to FIGHT! She remembered about the secret parking camera in the parking lot. She dialed the control room’s number and by bribing them heavily she got the recording. It was a hard price to pay for getting herself justice. When Mr. Kapoor was sent behind the bars, she felt a sense of relief. She felt light.

Once she reached home, she went to the drawer removed the blade and cut her wrist for the one last time in her life. HER FUNERAL WAS ATTENDED BY ALL EXCEPT FOR KSHITIJ.

Kshitij was indeed her best friend and soulmate; he took financial care of Shweta’s family.

EPILOGUE:  

Shweta’s mother is no more in this world. Shweta’s sister completed her graduation and is now working in a reputed private company. Mr. Kapoor is still in the jail and has been found guilty for many other sexual harassment cases. Harsh left the country. He didn’t even deserve the very life he lived. And well Kshitij, he is still a bachelor.

Isn’t life and love strange, they get entwined at some point even without our knowledge and change the course of our life.