Shadows of Kasauli Ch12

Arjun unbarred the oak door.

Standing on the porch was Mr. Khanna. He looked ten years older than he had when Vanya last saw him at dinner. His umbrella was dripping, and his eyes were hollow. 

"Papa," Vanya whispered, stepping forward, the oversized wool sweater hanging off her shoulders.
The old man’s eyes flickered to the sweater, then to Arjun, then to the bruise on Vanya’s cheek. He winced, but he didn't ask about it. To acknowledge the bruise was to acknowledge the monster he had sold his daughter to.

"Vanya, beta... come home," he rasped. He didn't enter the house. He stood on the threshold.

"I can't, Papa. You know why I left. Look at me," she said, pointing to her face.

"I know," he said, his voice breaking. "I know Sameer is a hard man. But he is a powerful man. This morning, he called the bank. He called the club. He reminded me of the 'loans' he provided for your sister’s wedding, for my heart surgery, for the library’s endowment."

Mr. Khanna reached out a trembling hand. "He told me that if you aren't back at the villa by noon, he will initiate recovery. They will take the house, Vanya. They will take everything. Your mother... she can't survive another move."

"He’s blackmailing us!" Vanya cried, her voice echoing in the empty hall.

"It’s not blackmail  Vanya. It’s just... how things are done here," her father replied with a defeated shrug. "He doesn't want you because he loves you. He wants you because losing you makes him look weak. Please. Save us. You can make it right. Just go back,  apologize, tell him Arjun forced you—"

"No." Arjun’s voice was low. He stepped up behind Vanya, his hand resting firmly on her shoulder. "She is not a currency for your debts, Mr. Khanna."

"You!" the old man snapped, his shame turning into anger. "You come back after a decade and set my house on fire! What can you offer her? A crumbling ruin? A life of scandal? You’ll be gone in a month to your film sets, and she will be left here with nothing!"

Vanya looked at her father, then back at the table filled with evidence of how the Khannas had been manipulated for seventy years. She saw the cycle—the same cycle of debt and fear that had trapped her grandfather was now trapping her.

"Papa," Vanya said, her voice turning stone-cold. "Sameer doesn't own us because he has money. He owns us because we have secrets. But Arjun and I... we found the truth. Sameer’s father stole from you. From us."

She picked up the 1952 deed. "I’m not coming back to be his prisoner. I’m coming back to tell him that if he touches a single brick of your house, I will burn his empire to the ground with this paper."

Mr. Khanna looked at the document, then at the fire in his daughter's eyes. He saw, for the first time, that the girl who loved books had become a woman who knew how to use them as weapons.