NEHA
“What is wrong with you!” I shout at my parents. “Why did you not let me stop him!” I bare my teeth at Mom. She looks away, but doesn’t say anything.
Baba looked murderous. “Don’t tell me you married him, Neha. As if you weren’t already a disgrace to us!” he barked.
I scoffed. “A disgrace to you? If I didn’t marry your sister’s son, I become so dirty, I become such a humiliation that you end all forms of contact with me?” My voice was muffled by the rain, my clothes, my scarf, everything was drenched in water.
“What was so wrong about him? Why did you run away!” he roared. “Do you have any idea how ashamed I was in front of my sister? And do you know how much pain you gave Aarib?”
How much pain I gave him?
I’m laughing.
I’m crying.
I don’t know which one is worse, but I am
