Repentance
Jia sat outside the metropolitan family court under the scorching sun. She wistfully remembered the wedding day, three years before celebrated with frolic and fun.
Congratulatory notes reverberated in the air. The bride's and groom's friends walked in, some single, some in pairs.
The relationship bonding two hearts was always expected to last till eternity. Somewhere down the lane, Jia felt that she was solely responsible for its failure, due to her absurdity.
"Do you know the boy well?" Questions were asked when the young girl had broached the subject of the wedding bell.
"He is a charming prince," she admired him. Her joy seemed to be overflowing to the brim.
"Are you sure he has no vices?" The mother's apprehensions were palpable. The daughter, behaved like she was infallible. Her sibling was not pleased with the boy's disposition. She was however in no mood to accept any accusation.
'Love is blind' they say. She learned it the hard way.
The first few weeks after the wedding was spent in bliss. Nothing even faintly looked amiss. But his true colours got revealed soon. She was in despair when she realised that marrying him was a curse and not a boon.
He squandered money on drinks and smoking. There wasn't a day in the house with peaceful waking. Mental and physical torture she endured. But as days passed her heart turned sour.
"Didn't we warn you earlier, but you turned a deaf ear," sniggered her brother. Tears flowed from the eyes of her father and mother.
"Patience is an ornament of a girl, adorn it and learn to endure," it was easier said than done. Only the girl knew life with him was no fun.
His atrocities kept augmenting but he had no remorse. Finally, she decided to seek peace in divorce.
"Divorce! What kind of a female are you,?" Sneered the mother-in-law. Her son's misdemeanors she never saw.
Words of accusations transposed as if they had fins. The juicy gossip passed into the faces of near kith and kin, sarcastic grins.
"What will the world say? People will laugh at us." The brother had words of reproach. She stood in solitude wondering whom to approach! She had no one to turn to for support. That is when Jia called and promised to be by her side at the court.
How could Jia be trusted after her treacherous deed?
"Believe me, my friend, I shall do everything possible to redeem you from this agony," Jia had sounded honest indeed.
'Let not his shortcomings be highlighted to your friend. I am sure marriage will change him for the better,' remembering those absurd words, Jia shuddered. It was in a moment of utter foolishness that she had concurred.
However, fighting all odds, and earning the wrath of her family members, today Jia had decided to stand by her friend and seek repentance. She had indeed made a terrible mistake by sweeping her brother's vices under the rug with resplendence.
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