Wrecked - An After-Divorce Romance✨

Chapter Twenty Three

          "So what was that I walked on this morning?"

         "Nothing happened."

    His aunt snorted, calling out his bluff.

             "It doesn't matter, all that Khushi does is overcomplicate my life."

            "Hmm... Why does it seem like you're trying to convince not me but yourself?"

           "Nats..." He rolled his eyes.

     "Okay okay..." She said surrendering. "I brought this." She placed a rectangular book on the table.

           "It's your parents' wedding album."

           Nats stood up and came beside him. He took the book and flipped through the pages. The first few pages were portraits and family photos of his mother.

      It hit him right in the chest when he noticed how young his mother looked. She was 20 when his parents married but none of them looked happy.

      He flipped through the couple's potrait where his mother's and father's face were hidden.

      He came across a wide family photo and he pointed to a woman in glasses and a bob, "Is that you?!" He laughed and Nats slapped his shoulder.

     "Excuse me?! I think I look hot. It was all haute couture those days..."  She rambled on.

      Dhruv then looked at his mother who was staring straight at the camera with a dejected look on her face. To her right stood his father who indeed looked much young. But his head was turned to his right, and to his right stood Nats who looked at the camera smiling.

         Something clicked in his mind, his father had never looked at his mother that way in all his life.

      He flipped the pages and photo after photo, his father's eyes had found her. He knew that look.

   It was the look of a man in love.

         "...and ofcourse it was such a tumultuous time in India back then..."
 
          His aunt stopped talking when she noticed that he was quiet,

"Dhruv, baba, what's wrong?" She placed her hand on his shoulder.

      "Oh my God." He said. He remembered his father's words yesterday. He had admitted to loving someone else. He could never guess that it would be Nats.

       "It was you. He loved you." He stood up from his chair and Nats looked at him with guilt etched all over her face.

       "Did you love him back?!" He asked his composure slipping.

         "It was so long back....."

***

         Khushi sat on the table and stared at the eviction notice for her lab. Because the funding fell through, now she had no money for her lab rent.

       She slapped her face as she remembered how she was actually okay with letting him kiss her. She was ready to kiss him back. What was wrong with her?

    "Stupid...stupid...." She knocked on her head. Reluctantly she pulled out her phone and called the only person in this whole wide world who didn't think of her as a villian.

       He picked up after afee rings, "Khushi?!" His voice was etched with surprise.

         "Jiju..."

       "How are you kiddo?"
  
       "I'm good... actually I'm not fine, jiju. I need some money. Before you say anything, I know I'm coming off as such a narcissist by asking you for money out of blue."