Chapter Forty Five

Sarita was surprised to find her mother standing in the hallway when she walked into the house three hours later than she usually arrived. She'd had this feeling that the incident would cause her to lose the little freedom her father had given her - going out with friends, watching the football and basketball games... having a boyfriend (though she didn't plan on letting him know about that) - so she'd gone out with Vikrant to the beach.

She didn't like the expression on her mother's face. It was a mixture of fear, disbelief and then resignation. She opened her mouth to ask her mother what the matter was but her father's appearance behind Priya made her clamp her mouth shut.

"It's six pm." Jevan Madhav spoke up. "Three hours later than the usual time your school closes."

"I... I was with Kaly." She muttered.

"Doing what? Why didn't you call to say you'd be late?"

"I ran out of call credits."

"I see." Her father nodded. "And it didn't occur to you to use Kaly's phone to call? Do