AryLie : A DECADE AFTER - AryLie Vs AdiNi

AryLie Vs AdiNi - A Decade After

Aditya Kumar Tripathi stared on, stunned at the sight, with pangs of molten rage in him, threatening to bubble to the surface.

There sat His 9-Year Old Daughter, talking animatedly ..... with THAT GUY of all the large Billions of the Indian Population, who appeared genuinely regaled with His sweet innocent daughter's demeanor and non-stop chatter, while securely knotting the bright pink undone shoelaces on the fancy boots of His - Aditya's ! - Daughter, her little feet resting comfortably on His lap.

Aryan Singh Rathore had won over His - Aditya's - Daughter as well !

Ofcourse, He did everything with utmost perfection ! Being a Billionaire, Being a CEO, Being a Son, Being a Brother, Being a Mentor, Being a Friend, Being a fuckin' 50-50 Partner ..... and now, Being that Fun Uncle as well.

But what blazed the almost-cooled, yet ever present fuming embers of Aditya's rage was the happy and healthy looking, glowing woman in their midst, watching over the interaction between that guy and His Daughter with explicit fondness, Her pretty confident doe eyes donning a sheen of pure unadulterated happiness, a bright dazzling smile and occasional loud uninhibited laughter staying rent-free on her face, her chin still sporting that old tattoo of 3 dots.

Much to his reluctance to let the sight prick his eyes anymore, Aditya's keen journalistic traitor eyes took in every minute detail.

Aryan Singh Rathore donned a casual light blue denim jacket and jeans and a white T-Shirt underneath, twinning effortlessly with Imlie wearing a denim blue sleeveless jacket in the same shade over a white maternity frock that reached before her knees, her long hair in a ponytail.

Wait .......... What ? Maternity Frock ?

It was then that Aditya noticed that Imlie appeared a little more round than He remembered.

"She's 6 Months through. It is their First Child."

His Wife Malini's defeated voice pierced through His fit of rage, in a futile attempt to throw iced water on it.

A Decade Later, Aditya Kumar Tripathi still hated the confrontation with His past. After all, that past had became His present and His entire bleak future.

The deadweight of the harsh reality that He this one mistake would define His entire being, cemented in His Brain, and he reeled from not knowing what to feel.

He remembered the day 4 Years back in Mumbai, when He had made one final attempt to patch up with Imlie while He was on a One-Month International Collab between the Newspaper He worked for in Australia and 'THE REFLECTION', which was the Magazine under The Bhaskar Times that was Imlie's Initiative.

It had shocked Aditya that day how She had spurred His advances with a jarringly happy coolness that uncannily twinned with the uncaring smugness Aditya's Brain had associated Aryan Singh Rathore with. The bubbly, jovial yet spitfire nature that She had successfully reverted back to was somehow was more scalding than Aryan Singh Rathore's collected demeanor.

He had Not yet disclosed this to Malini.

"Aditya, I have accepted the fate that I can't win against Imlie. We're only here for your Work, and as a leisure trip for Aami. I can't wait for this to be over, or atleast, your work in Mumbai to be over, so that I need not run into these 2 Nuisances even by chance."

The Defeat, Denial and Disgust in Malini's Words repulsed Aditya.

Over the Decade, it suffocated Aditya to be even in the same room as Malini. The College Sweetheart in Her was long gone, and He could only see in Her the Woman who had unmanned Him.

Aditya hated himself for the crime that He had refused to voice up - the Crime in which He was a Survivor, owing to His baby that he had managed to form a bond with.

More than that, the day He remembered as the one in which Imlie was publicly humiliated and admonished in the Court for courageously standing by his side, for Being His Voice then.

Imlie had only accepted the foetus when He had declared that He would be willing to parent it. He himself was half-hearted, struggling to unsee the foetus as a painful reminder of the trauma that flashed in and as his nightmares. But the then 19 Year Old Imlie had wholeheartedly accepted the foetus - Only After She had seen that Aditya was willing to be a Father. After all, No Rape Survivor should be coerced into Parenthood.

Aditya Kumar Tripathi - Star Journalist, Voice of the layman, had failed to apply His Career Ethics to His own Life, which was nearing a midpoint.

Aditya felt nauseated from feeling the pungent stagnancy in His Life.

"Oh God .... This Aami. 🙄 She's leading them both here." Malini eye-rolled Her annoyance.

True to Her observation, Anamika piggy-backed to them on Aryan's shoulders, leading both Aryan and Imlie towards them.

Aditya schooled His expressions, assuming a cordial stance.

Aryan : "Mr. Tripathi. Long Time."

Aditya : "Likewise, Mr.Rathore. I see you've met my Aami."

Aryan : "Oh We're already Friends, right, Little Miss ? And I might be wrong, but wasn't She called Cheeni before ?"

Anamika nodded excitedly, with a full-blown smile.

Malini : "We changed her name when She started school. Anyway, Imlie, Mr.Rathore, Congratulations ! So you guys are going to be Parents !"

Imlie : "Yes ! 😃 Malini Didi, how's everybody there in Australia ?"

Aditya : "They're all doing well, Imlie. Nishant and Pallavi has Twins, Rupi remarried and has another daughter now along with Twinkle, and Dhruv's eldest child is now in College."

Aditya fumed inwardly at the perfect happy family picture that Aryan & Imlie made. Anamika on His Shoulders, Imlie clutching her swollen belly, Aryan being literally unable to tear his eyes away from her, one hand of his enveloping Imlie in a hug, all their faces glowing with happiness.

A Family that He would have had, had He listened to Imlie.

Malini : "Aami Beta, why are you bothering them like this ? Come here. We need to go back to the suite."

Aditya sickened at the saccharine sweet false voice of Malini. None of them, including His Mother, had really moved on from the blow to their Egos that was Aryan&Imlie. They just sort of learnt to live with it itching on their subconscious.

As Aryan handed over Aami to Him after a brief spell of goodbyes, Aditya watched Aryan&Imlie go hand-in-hand uncaring of the World around them, their white platform sneakers reflecting the happiness of its owners with a light spring in steps.

Aditya felt drained.

Although they had all joined forces and sheltered Aami, Aami was living a lie.

His Daughter was paying the price of a series of blunders he had made.

But over the years, Aryan&Imlie appeared so happy with each other, choosing each other over and over.

Aditya's heart screamed in protest as the decade-old, cold, hard fact that Imlie was Not His Person, slammed against Him with renewed vigour.

Anamika : "🤗😃They look like Hero-Heroine, isn't it Baaba ?"

And that sentence from His Daughter urged Aditya Kumar Tripathi to bare his heart to that Fact.

..... Though He was already a Decade Late.

THE END.

***************************