The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal Read Free Book Online Page A

looked red. And Priya’s tiny buttocks were probably even redder from the thorough beating they’d taken through the thin fabric of her pajamas.
    Rage began to fire up inside her. How dare he! How dare the old man strike a helpless child!
    The cook and her helper had both come out of the kitchen, their eyes wide with curiosity and fear. Sundari, Priya’s elderly nursemaid, stood in a corner, looking petrified.
    All Isha could do was hold Priya close and soothe her for a minute, all the while trying to keep her own mounting wrath in check. “Shh, baby . . . shh.” Then she turned to her father-in-law, who still looked livid. “I can’t believe you struck a child for something as minor as refusing to go to school.”

    THE
    FORBIDDEN
    DAUGHTER 37
    “Missing school is not a minor matter!”
    “Is this the way you dealt with Nikhil and Sheila if they did the same thing in their childhood?” Shaking with fury, Isha turned her gaze on her mother-in-law, who seemed to be taking it all in as if she were watching a scene in a movie. “How can you sit there and let Baba beat up your granddaughter? This is your son’s child, can’t you see?”
    “She seems to need more discipline than any other child I know,” said Ayee, looking nonchalant as she chewed on the last of her breakfast. “God knows you and Nikhil never tried to teach her to be a good girl. Someone has to.”
    The bitter truth struck Isha in that instant. These people de-spised her and her child. Now that Nikhil was gone, they resented them even more, especially because in their warped minds they were convinced that Isha’s unborn daughter was responsible for Nikhil’s death. They were hurting from losing their beloved son and needed someone to blame for their pain.
    Isha and the innocent babe in her womb were convenient scape-goats and therefore by association Priya was also to blame.
    Why hadn’t Isha seen that earlier? Maybe losing Nikhil had made her deaf and blind to everything else around her.
    But now her eyes were wide open to the truth.
    The elder Tilaks were misguided individuals and she and Priya had no place in their home. Things were never going to get better for them, either. Matter of fact, they were only going to get worse. How long was she going to sit around and watch her daughter getting abused?
    If Priya was subjected to this, how much was the new baby going to suffer, the one they’d labeled a bad omen and a curse?
    They probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill her in their smug, self-righteous way and justify it in some fashion.
    No wonder they condoned Karnik’s decadent practices.
    The urgent and potent need she felt to get out of that house didn’t really surprise Isha. It had been building up gradually over a period of several weeks.
    Right after being told about the results of the sonogram, Ayee 38 Shobhan Bantwal
    had started sharing little tidbits of gossip. “Did you know Mrs. Datar’s daughter had an abortion? Good thing, too, since it would have been a third girl.”
    When Nikhil and Isha had reacted with outrage, Baba had merely added his chauvinistic opinion. “When modern technology has made it possible to pick and choose the sex of one’s progeny, is it not stupidity to ignore it?”
    “It is stupidity to interfere with nature, Baba,” Nikhil had countered. “You and Ayee are religious, God-fearing Brahmins.
    How can you even think such things when you have a fancy pooja room and you pray twice a day and celebrate all the religious festivals with such devotion? In fact, I’m tempted to report that idiot Dr. Karnik to the police.”
    His father had sternly warned Nikhil against any such action.
    “Don’t get involved in Dr. Karnik’s affairs. He is a good person and a loyal customer, and he is only doing what his patients ask him to do.”
    “Even if it is highly illegal?” Nikhil had looked at his father in total disbelief. “Baba, do you know there is a law against even revealing the sex of an unborn child?