When Sunita saw the postman come up the walkway, she had no premonition that her safe, contented little world was about to collapse at her feet. Despite the bleak February skies, the dark- haired young woman's spirits were sunny that fateful morning. Humming a carefree tune, Sunita dried her hands on the kitchen towel and went to get the day's mail. The voluptuous beauty felt only mild curiosity when she saw the envelope addressed to Mrs. Sunita. Probably just some ad, she thought, placing the rest of the mail on top of the television set.
It wasn't until she tore open the envelope, and its contents spilled out, that a horrified gasp escaped her throat. Sunita's hand flew to her mouth and her face flushed crimson. Her heart hammered like that of a captive bird as she clutched the letter with trembling hands.
DO YOU WANT YOUR HUSBAND TO SEE THESE? the scrawled message read. THINK ABOUT IT, SWEET SUNITA. BECAUSE YOU'LL SOON BE HEARING FROM ME AGAIN!
A strangled sob tore from her throat as she bent to retrieve the photographs that had fallen to the floor. Pictures Sunita had hoped, desperately, that she would never see again, that she had tried to shove into some dark and distant corner of her mind. Still, there had always been that nagging fear that someday, they would turn up again to threaten her happiness. As Sunita lifted the lurid photos, her hands trembled, for she knew that that dreaded someday had arrived! The sordid past she had tried to escape had finally caught up with her, threatening to rob her of all that she held so dear. Her beloved husband Vishal and their precious daughter Jaya.
Vishal loved Sunita, trusted her, held her on a pedestal. "Meree pyaree Sunita," he often whispered as he held her close. "Tumhare jaise patni milke mujhe bahut kushee hai!"
Every time Vishal uttered those words, Sunita felt a wave of guilt ripple through her, for she was not as sweet and innocent as her husband imagined. And the tall, shapely brunette whispered a silent prayer that her past would remain buried. She feared that Vishal would be hopelessly disillusioned if he ever learned the ugly truth, that the wife he held in such high esteem had posed for pornographic photos before they were married! Sunita had agonized countless times over the possibility of Vishal's discovery of her sordid past, wondering what would happen if that fearful day should ever arrive. And she always came up with the same frightening answer.
"He'll divorce me," she whispered to the empty room, her hand clutching her constricted throat. "And take my darling Jaya away from me, declare me an unfit mother!" The mere thought of that occurring made Sunita's lips tremble and her green eyes fill with tears. She loved her husband and daughter with all her heart. They were Sunita's whole world now. They had completely filled the emptiness that had settled after her mother's death five years before. Sunita had not really begun to live until she met Vishal. The four years of their marriage, despite its problems, had been the happiest Sunita had ever known. And little Jaya was the precious living product of their love. The twenty-three-year-old felt her heart wrench with pain as she clutched the anonymous letter in her shaking hand, for she could not bear to lose either one of them.
Who could have sent the letter? she wondered, her mouth dry as she stared at the lewd poses she had participated in before she met Vishal. Who had finally unveiled the ugly truth about her, unearthed the dark secret that Sunita had tried, all these years, to keep hidden? That she had needed money so desperately during the final months of her mother's lengthy illness, that she had reluctantly agreed to perform lewd sex acts in front of a camera.
Sunita had not wanted to resort to pornographic modeling, but she had no other choice. Her modest secretarial salary just would not stretch to cover the skyrocketing bills resulting from her mother's illness. When she had tried out for fashion modeling, tall and curvaceous Sunita was told that she was not at all suitable for modeling clothes, for her eye-catching figure was far too voluptuous.
Not long afterward, Sunita saw the newspaper advertisement for a photographer's model. MUST BE ATTRACTIVE AND HAVE GOOD FIGURE, the ad stated. Sunita answered the ad eagerly. When she heard how well the job paid, her spirits soared. Especially when the photographer assured her that she was perfect for the type of modeling he needed. The new medicine that the doctor had prescribed for her mother's pain was so expensive that Sunita worried about how she was going to manage to have it refilled. There were no other relatives to turn to for financial assistance, and her mother was solely dependent on Sunita. Landing this lucrative modeling job was the perfect answer to her financial problems.