Secrets Hidden In Time (Time #1)

43 | The Beginning Of Something Destructive

Hinduja stood tight-lipped. She didn't raise her gaze from the floor beneath.

And just like that, the last few ounces of hope in the mother's eyes evaporated into oblivion, forever. Her trembling hands slowly freed Hinduja's hand from their gentle hold and dropped down to the sides of her torso at the rate of knots.

Without uttering a word more, she took weak steps in the direction of the door. Her husband promptly made a move to support her.

"Mrs. Nath," Hinduja called. "Please don't—"

The middle-aged woman stopped on her trail and turned her head around. A feeble smile graced her moisture deprived cracked lips. She raised her hand to show her palm, signaling Hinduja to stop. "I got my answer." She then wiped the trail of tears trickling down the bridge of her thin nose with the end of her dupatta. "Don't worry."

Then she frailly turned around and started to walk out of the waiting room with her husband.

"I can't assure you if Bhavyaa will ever return alive." Hinduja announced. "But there is one thing I can definitely assure you about." She put a halt on her words, just as the Nath couple stopped on their path again, without turning around. "The last time I met you, I made a promise to you, and I am keen on keeping it."

"Please do." The middle-aged woman whispered back, resuming her movements along with her husband.

Hinduja, along with Rukmini and Praapti, wended their out of the waiting room too, their gazes fixed on the two weak frames slowly making their out of the main entranceway of the SIT headquarters.

"Never have I ever felt so helpless." Praapti remarked.

"Me neither." Rukmini added.

"She is brave." Hinduja whispered, her eyes distant.

"But she has already lost all her hope." Rukmini shot back.

Hinduja shook her head. "Her hope might be dead, but her courage is alive. You know why?"

Praapti was a mother herself, so she was able to discern the meaning behind her senior's words without any difficulty. The ASP on the other hand was single. Perhaps that caused her to seem a little clueless.

Hinduja breathed in. "Because it takes guts for a mother to continue breathing, despite being aware of the possibility that her child might not be breathing anymore. It takes immense courage for her to stay alive while awaiting the news of her child's impending death. The father is no different. Just that the mother is a little more open in expressing what she feels, the father, on the other hand, locks everything within himself."

"Exactly." Praapti accented with a nod. "Nine months. The nine months of prayers that result in the birth of a new hope. And then the hope starts growing." She paused, her eyes watery. "I am a mother to a fifteen-year-old too. God forbid, I would never want me and my child to ever go through what that mother and her child have gone through. In these last ten years, only those parents who have lost their growing hopes would know the value of survival with every passing second of their lives."

"She is brave, so she survived it." Hinduja whispered, tasting the agony enshrouding the words rolling off her tongue. "But on a personal level, I wouldn't have. I am not that brave."

Roughly two hours later, as she stepped inside the parking lot again to drive back home, she found the front left tire of her Scorpio punctured.

"Sorry, madam ji." A worker working close by approached her.

The roof of the parking space was diagnosed with a few cracks a week ago, so it was being repaired. A temporary shelter was being built for the purpose of parking, but till then, all the serving personnel working in the headquarter had to park their vehicles in the parking lot itself.