TOP UP

Reading History

Sign out

Get the APP

Heal Me Anyway

Chapter 5 Rules For A Quiet House

Word Count: 1376 | Released on: 31/10/2026

had kept it for six years. He nev

p, he turned the conversation to the price of rice. When the neighbours dropped hints, he looked at t

g, the rule was

said, dropping a sack onto the scale. "Tw

or thirty years and still spoke as if the shop were his classroom, tapped the counter with o

m. Counti

the curtain. "Is he all right

is f

hink they are being kind. "About the clinic. They say it may close. It is a shame, really. My wi

dred and eighty," Shubh

aying, it is

and hard. "Everyone in this town gave her a chance. If it close

t. A fly buzzed against the tube light, over and ove

other word. When he lifted the sack onto his shoulder, he paused at the d

he wa

was hot. He did not know what to do with his hands, so he began rear

g that sat in his mouth like a coin. And every time, he felt exactly o

zzed against

unty's son about the c

ham:

t don't be surprised

m: It'

true. How do yo

l of them. Then he put the phone away, bec

a round, careful man who counted his change twice. He had not meant to say anything. He and Appa ha

s ago, Kabir. Thirty days. Af

paper. He did not ask which

expected to, he had felt something dropped and broken inside his chest. So that same afternoon, when Mrs. Pillai'

had

lling out, plaits flying, school bag swinging off one arm.

at was suddenly a different voice altog

heet of damp paper at him. It showed three crooked figures under a large o

he holdin

a cl

like a c

e a cow." She tugged his sleeve.

ingers. It was the only thing in the whole shop he never did badly. Meera used to do it every m

he paper-

ngers

a second he could hear nothing but the fly, still going at

id you h

a boat with a tiny crease in the stern. "You keep it under your pillow and you think I don't see. There are numbers and letters on

Why don't we

of her hand more roughly than he me

n't br

pped her chin. "Listen to me. Never take it

prom

. "But I think she's nic

o inside and wash your hands.

her painting still crumpled in her fist. He st

rom a chemistry notebook, at sixteen, with a lopsided smile and a voice that said it floats, I

ever forgive

t pocket of his shirt. He was still standing there when he heard a

dull, scraping noise, and

the curtain and pus

almirah that Shubham had never once seen him open stood wide before him. On his knee lay a bank passbook, blue an

to the photograph. "I cannot keep doi

d tightened o

one? Wha

the front, in faded blue letters, was

Cooperative Bank. Loan

Chapter End

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open

Heal Me Anyway

Vicky_writes Others

“In the small town of Brindle Cove, everyone once trusted Dr. Nalini Mensah. Then Shubham Rao's mother, Meera, died while giving birth under her care. Shubham was seventeen. He had no one else to blame, so he blamed the doctor. He shouted at her in the street, told the whole town she had failed his mother, and even took the case to the police. Dr. Nalini was cleared, but patients stopped coming, and the clinic that fed her family nearly closed. Her daughter Aya, now twenty-two, learned to live quietly. She works long hours at the clinic and the town pharmacy, never tells anyone how bad things are, and never asks for help. Years ago, she tried once to calm Shubham down and tell him that anger wouldn't bring his mother back. He sent her away. Since the town was now sneering at her too, she decided it wasn't her job to care about a boy who was hurting her family, and she stopped trying. Shubham, now twenty-three, runs his family's shop with his silent, grieving father. He has noticed that Aya no longer looks at him, and the silence bothers him more than her pleading ever did. Slowly he starts to wonder if he was wrong, but his pride won't let him say it. When he finally tries to talk to her, she cuts him off: "Do you want to call me the daughter of a bad doctor, or the daughter of the one who killed your mother? I'm not interested." Then life pushes them together. Shubham's father falls ill and the town clinic is the only place nearby, and Aya is the one who has to help. Through small, awkward moments, they start to see each other clearly. He sees the girl who has been carrying her family alone. She sees a boy who never got to finish grieving. Anger turns into curiosity, then care, then love. But Dr. Nalini will not allow it. She is hiding something about the night Meera died, and she knows the truth will break Shubham all over again. When Aya finds her mother's private notes, the secret comes out: Meera had been warned to go to the city hospital, and she refused, because she wanted her baby born in the town she loved. Dr. Nalini stayed silent for years to protect Meera's husband and son from that pain. Shubham is shattered, and in his first instinct he pulls away from Aya again. This time, though, he has learned what pride costs. He clears Dr. Nalini's name in front of the whole town, and it is Aya who has to decide whether love can start from a place this broken.”