Chapter 7: The Final Break

After the doctor left, I turned to Ananya, desperation in my eyes. “Paise wapas de do—Papa ko abhi pay karna hai. Kuch ho gaya toh?”

She stepped back, eyes darting. “Paise… mere paas nahi hai.”

So I turned to her father. “Paise?”

He pursed his lips, almost bored. “Jaldi mein aaya, card nahi laya.”

“PayTM, Google Pay—kuch bhi chalega.” I held out my phone, hand shaking.

He frowned, not moving.

Silence grew heavier with each second.

He finally said, “Woh dahej ka paisa tha, ab humara hai. Chahiye toh IOU likh ke do.”

Her brother fetched a paper and pen from the nurse’s station, smirking as he handed them to me. “Interest bhi kuch zyada nahi—do percent hi sahi?”

My blood boiled. The very people whose greed put my father in the hospital now demanded interest to save his life.

I snatched the paper, crushed it in my fist, and threw it at his feet. My voice shook: “Bas! This is too much.”

If not for my mother’s choked cry—“Rohan, bas! Yeh log hamare laayak nahi hai!”—I might have lost all control.

As my mother’s words echoed in the hospital corridor, I knew—some wounds never heal, no matter how much you pay.