Shades of his cruel love

Ever since Papa left our side, our lives have been turned completely upside down. No, not financially, but our family has shattered. People showed their real faces and we faced the real truth of people. When he was alive he always used to warn us about the gold hidden dark reality of people but as we all were together, we never cared about anything, I never cared about anything. Thinking all of that my gaze fell on my ring which was shining proudly in my finger making me smile. It was last year birthday gift by my bother Akaay, I never wanted this but he insisted and I couldn't say no to him. My brother always wanted a lavish, luxurious life and in his hunger for wealth, he completely forgot which path he had started walking down, leaving Maa and me behind. All he needed was power and money so that he could achieve all his dreams . It wasn't that he didn't want us in his life, it was simply that Maa refused to live on his corrupted money, money made through extortion, looting, kidnapping, money laundering, and illegal businesses like drugs, weapons, and alcohol. And I chose to stay by my maa's side. I picked up the framed photograph of our family, the one where I was hugging my papa, maa, and brother so tightly while all of them rested their lips against my head. All of sudden a loud cell phone ringing echoing in my room making me come out of past memories. Seeing Kiara's number on my cell phone I started smiling brightly but before I say hello to her she dropped the bomb on me. My heart stopped working and tears started flowing out of my eyes like water falls from the mountain. I could hear Kaira asking me to come hospital soon but none of her words were reaching to my eyes. The image of our father laying on the dead bed, people throwing flowers at him , my mother yelling for my father and I holding my father's shirt all were appearing in my front of my eyes like a heart wrenching movie. I couldn't move , I couldn't think anything , it just my blood frozen in my veins. I felt someone shaking me, frantic hands demanding answers. "What happened? Why are you crying?" The voice registered, yet my mind remained locked in a different time, anchored to that suffocating heat. My brother and I were standing close to our father's burning pyre, both of us paralyzed as we watched him finally embrace the fire, silently whispering his goodbye to us. "Naina.... Naina, say something, child! You are scaring me." My mother's heart wrenching plea finally shattered the memory, pulling me back to the present. I gasped, sucking in a jagged breath, and turned to look at her, my expression surely mirroring the terror I felt deep in my bones. Without a single word, I turned and sprinted toward my car. I didn't care that I didn't know how to drive. I scrambled into the driver's seat and floored it, the vehicle surging onto the road as hot, blinding tears blurred my vision. With each passing second, the sensation intensified it felt as if someone was physically tearing me apart, pouring molten lava directly onto my skin. It became a struggle to pull air into my lungs, my breath hitching and catching in my throat. I felt a crushing weight in my chest, a physical agony so profound that it made it impossible to process anything, leaving my entire world reduced to a smear of indistinct shapes and overwhelming pain. The car jolted to a violent stop in the middle of the silent road, the sudden impact throwing me forward. My head slammed against the steering wheel and a sharp, stinging warmth trickled down my temple a tiny cut, already bleeding. I didn't care. I stumbled out of the car, my fingers tangling deep into my hair as I gripped it with all my might as if trying to hold my fracturing mind together. I stared at the empty, desolate road, panic rising in my chest like a rising tide. Where was I? Where was I even going? I felt completely lost not just on this road but in my own life. I pressed both hands against my skull shaking my head violently trying to rattle the image of that burning pyre out of my brain. The pain was raw, a physical ache that clawed at my insides. My knees buckled and for a terrifying second I thought I was going to collapse right there on the unforgiving asphalt. But I couldn't break. Not now. I forced myself to swallow the suffocating scream building in my throat, locking my emotions behind a wall of sheer willpower. I refused to let myself crumble in the dirt. With shaking hands, I pulled myself back into the car, slammed it into gear, and sped toward home, the engine's roar the only thing drowning out the sound of my own shattered heart. I stumbled into my room and saw Muma lying motionless on the floor, a scream tearing from my throat as I gasped her name. I covered the distance between us in a few frantic steps and pulled her into my arms. I patted her cheeks, begging her to wake up but she remained unresponsive, only making me sob harder. "Muma... Muma, no! Please, no... please wake up... please, Muma!" No matter how I pleaded, there was no response making me grip her more tightly in my arms the way last time I gripped my papa in my arm. The terrifying fear of losing everything paralyzed my mind, my body started to freeze as my tears dripped onto her face. Holding her tightly against my chest I made a silent vow if anything happened to her, I would not survive it. "Mama, mama ...... mama please wake up." I keep pleading her when my gaze landed on my phone, and without wasting another second, I dialed Niel's number. "Hey, baby girl!" "Mama... *sob* Mama isn't *sob*opening her eyes. She... *sob* she isn't responding to me. *sob* She... I can't... I can't afford to lose her, I *sob* can't, Niel..." I couldn't finish my words as darkness clouded my vision. My last conscious thought was a desperate ultimatum to the universe: if God was taking my Muma, He had to take me with her as well.