Page 107 of Born in Sin

Crestwood

Virat clambered out of the auto, his muddy pants leaving streaks of dirt on the hospital’s white floors. He ran through the lobby, his eyes scanning the crowded reception for familiar faces and finding none.

“Excuse me.” He stopped in front of the reception desk. A bored staff member raised his eyebrows at him. “Celina Fernandez. Can you tell me where she is?”

The man ignored him, going back to whatever he was doing on the computer. Virat turned around, scanning the various boards desperately. His gaze snagged on the one saying Emergency. He ran, following the arrow down the hall and taking a right at the end.

A team of medical personnel pushed a stretcher past him, the urgency in their movements mimicking his. He saw the large double doors at the end of the corridor with the large red circles on the glass and the word EMERGENCY printed over the top.

He was almost to it when a security guard stopped him.

“Celina Fernandez,” Virat said desperately, trying to shove past him but the guard shoved back.

“Family?” the guard asked, looking and sounding just as bored as the man at the reception desk.

“No.” Another voice answered.

Virat looked past the guard and into the hate filled eyes of Maria Fernandez. “He is not family.” She practically spat the words out.

Maria stepped past the guard, wrapped a hand around Virat’s arm, her nails digging into his bicep as she dragged him away from the man.

“What do you want?” She let go of him with enough force to have him staggering into the wall.

“I want to see her.”

“No.”

“I need to see her.”

“No.”

“I need to know she’s okay.”

“She’s not!” She shouted the two words. All around people turned to look. Maria made an effort to compose herself and failed. “You stupid boy. I told her to stay away from you. I told her you were trouble. But did she listen? No? And look where we are today.” Tears filled her eyes. “Of course, she’s not okay. How could she be?”

“Please.” His voice broke on the word. “Please let me see her.”

“The boys are saying she invited them to the grove. They’re saying the whole thing was her idea.”

There was a buzzing in his ears that settled in his heart. “No,” he said quietly.

“They need a scapegoat.” Maria sounded defeated. “Who do you think it’s going to be? The sons of the richest and most powerful men in the country or the staff’s daughter?”

His heart started a dull thud, crashing against his ribs with a force that threatened to shatter them.

“Chandrashekhar won’t do it.”

“The Head of School will do exactly what he needs to do to keep his job, and it will include firing me and framing my daughter, the victim, as the instigator. What the hell have you done to her, Virat? What the hell did you do to my daughter?”

“I loved her,” he whispered, leaning down to rest his hands on his knees, struggling to get air into his lungs. “That’s all I did.”

“Well, your love has ruined her.” Maria looked down at him contempt lining the grief etched into her face. “If you ever come near her again, I will ruin you. I don’t care who your father is, or whose bastard you are. I will destroy you like you destroyed her.”

He watched her walk away, say something to the guard who glared at Virat over her shoulder, and then go into the Emergency ward. The doors swung shut behind her a second later.

Virat straightened slowly and walked away from the ward, even as his heart broke with every step he took away from her. He made his way back to the campus, cold, night air slapping him in the face. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he stared unseeingly into the night.

The auto came to a stop at the main gate. He scrubbed his cheeks and paid the driver before stepping back on to the campus for the last time. It took him less than five minutes to reach Chandrashekhar’s office. The dim, yellow light from his table lamp seeped out from the bottom of the door.

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