Within 10 minutes, everyone in the Handa household had been summoned to where Darjee was, with the exception of Tito.
Geet & Rajji were stood together, their eyes cast down, in front of Darjee. Uncle-ji was behind Darjee, looking extremely worried.
"Darjee, may I ask for Rajji to stand beside me?" said Tayyi-ji. "I know she had no hand in this."
"No, Maa." Rajji replied confidently. "I'll stay beside Geet di."
"Rajji, go & stand beside your mother. Now." Darjee ordered in a low yet menacing tone.
Geet nudged Rajji, encouraging her to obey. Rajji reluctantly stood beside her mother, hoping that her beloved sister would be spared.
"Someone told that Khurana boy about Mohinder's death. I know no one else in this house would ever go against me, and they would have no reason to. Which only leaves you."
Geet could feel the hot tears threatening to brim over her eyes.
Darjee took a step closer, his anger clearly evident on his face.
"Why did you tell him?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"D-D-Darjee, I-"
He took one stride forward and slapped Geet straight across her face. Rajji winced in pain, Uncle-ji stepped forward, wanting to stop the violence.
"How dare you go against me!" He took his stick & whipped Geet across her left arm. She stumbled backwords with the force & the pain, her tears streaming down her face now. "You disobedient piece of filth! I raised you after your parents passed away, and this is how you repay me?! I gave you a roof over your head, food to eat, when I could have easily left you by the roadside!"
He took his stick and whipped Geet across her right arm, who yelped in pain. "Darjee, please-" Uncle-ji attemped to intervene, but Darjee raised a hand, as if to silence him.
"I kept you in this house in the hope that you would obey me, you would be grateful for the favour I did for you! I knew all along you would be trouble! I should have left you to fend for yourself, maybe then you would have died and we'd all be spared!"
He gave Geet a disgusted look & pushed her away with such force that she stumbled backwards & continued stumbling until she bumped into someone.
Rajji tried to go after her but her mother had gripped her arm, warning her not to.
Geet looked up through her tears to see Maan, who had held her by the shoulders.
With every tear that fell from her eye, he could almost feel his own heart breaking into pieces.
Geet moved away from his grip, feeling humiliated & hurt. She looked away, then quickly escaped to her room, covering her mouth with her dupatta to control her crying.
Maan was shocked & disgusted by the way she was being treated by her so called family. He looked at the Handas, his now angry gaze rested on Darjee, who didn't appear to have the slighest sign of remorse or guilt at what he had just done.
Brij stormed towards Maan & stood directly in front of him.
"Turn back around & leave," he ordered.
Maan controlled the urge he had to beat Brij senseless & composed a mask of calmness on his face. "You seem to be forgetting that I'm in the process of buying land off you. It would be hard to leave when I need to negotiate things." "You said you'd come back in the morning. We're in the middle of a family matter, now leave, before I make you leave."
"Do what he says and leave, before you regret it. I'll meet you in the morning."
"I meant what I said," said Maan. "The land will go to its rightful owner, one way or another."
He left once again, slamming the door shut behind him.
There was only one image which kept flashing in his mind - the image of Geet, bruises covering her skin as she looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
His conscious was telling him he had to help her.
Maan walked around the house quietly so he wouldn't get caught, looking up at the windows, trying to decipher which one was her bedroom window.
His eyes came to a stop at a window which was half open. From the outside, he could see the back of a photo frame.
He went to his jeep, opened the compartment glove & pulled out a handkerchief and a bottle of anti-septic lotion, something which he always kept with him. He managed to stuff them into his pocket & walked back to the window.
Taking a complete risk, he started to climb up the wall, carefully positioning his feet in places so he wouldn't fall.
His hands reached the top of the window sill, & he pulled himself up.
He was in luck - it was Geet's room after all. She had her back to him as she appeared to be holding a photo, sniffling.
Not wanting to scare her, Maan tapped the window sill gently to get her attention. She didn't notice.
He tapped again, this time a little louder, but it was no use.
He cleared his thorat, a little too louder than he had intended, and Geet jumped up, startled. The photo had fluttered from her hands onto the floor.
"W-what are you doing here?" she asked him, her voice quaking. She remembered their unpleasant meeting before & hoped he hadn't returned to shout at her again.
Maan didn't even know himself what he was doing here. He had acted on a strange impulse, a sudden desire which had told him that he had to see her again.
"If someone sees you, they'll kill us both," Geet added.
Maan pulled himself through the window and with a gentle jump, landed in Geet's room. He pulled out the handkerchief & the bottle of lotion, and placed it on her desk. "It's so that you can clean your wounds," he explained.
He glanced around her simple room, then he saw the photo lying on the floor, face down. "I think something of yours is on the floor," he said.
Geet turned and picked up the photo, placing it back onto the bed. She saw Maan's curious gaze on the photo.
"It's a photo of my parents," she explained. "You must miss your father," Maan said, sympathising with her.
Geet nodded in response. "And my mother. If they were here today, Darjee would never have..." She trailed off, gently touching her cheek where Darjee had slapped her. The red mark was still evident.
"Your mother?" Maan asked in surprise.
"Yes. Both of my parents have passed away."
Maan looked at Geet with nothing but sadness in his eyes for her. He didn't know why, but he felt torn apart at finding out that both of Geet's parents had died.
Geet returned the look, seeing nothing but sadness there. She was confused as to how he had been so angry with her only a few hours ago, & now he stood here, feeling sorry for her.
He quickly turned & tore himself away from her gaze. He made his way to the window, preparing to haul himself back down, when he turned suddenly.
"I'll help you with the land."
"Ji?" Geet asked, confused.
"The land is yours. You're the rightful owner. I'll do everything I can to make sure you get what you deserve."
"But Darjee-"
"You can't live your life in fear of your Darjee. The way he treats you is completely unacceptable. You've found something that you can fight for. Your parents would want you to become your own person, not obey orders & live in the shadow of an elder."
Maan climbed his leg over and Geet watched as he began to make his way down. When she saw his hands disappear from the window sill, she rushed to the window.
She saw him holding onto the wall, attempting to jump down on the ground.
"Be careful," she said softly.
Maan looked up to see Geet looking back down at him. His dark brown eyes locked with her hazel eyes, and they stared into each other's gaze, trying to see into each other's soul.
Geet quickly broke away & moved away from the window. Maan focused himself on the task in hand & jumped back down, brushing his hands away on his jeans.
He allowed himself one quick look back at her window, to see if she was watching. She wasn't. He started walking back to his jeep.
Geet quickly peeked out from her window & saw Maan's retreating figure. She noticed the handkerchief & lotion he had left her, and sat down on her bed as she gently began applying it to her wounded areas.
When she had finished, she placed the lotion under her pillow, so Tayyi-ji wouldn't find out. She was about to place the handkerchief alongside it when she saw the engraved initials in one corner - MK.
She gently ran her fingers over his initials then placed the handkerchief along with the lotion back under her pillow.
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Precap:"You've caused your own self destruction." Apologies that I couldn't use the previous precap in this update, but it will be in the next update!
Amazing update Atleast maan witnessed wat they did to geet,,,urgggh hate dat darji Awww love how maan sneakily got lotion & hankerchief for geet to heal her wounds Cont soon Xx...
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