His Safe Haven

Chapter 28: A love, boundless and hopeless

Her eyes held so much affection, all of it, just for him. It carresed his heart in warmth while soothing his mind in a cool calmness.
Rudraneel held Dhara even closer to himself, until her face hid in the crook of his neck, and he continued.

"The result of that night was me..

Mrs. Chauhan thought that now her husband shall give this relationship a chance , and it did happen, atleast to her and the world's eyes.

After my birth, for the first 6 yrs of my life, I knew I had a strict but loving mother..that is, as long as I was the obedient son.. But that facade came crashing down one day..when I found out something I shouldn't have..

..At the age of 6, my father who rarely would've ever spoken or initiated any kind of contact with me suddenly came to pick me up from school one, saying he wanted me to meet someone, I knew it was odd but what could I do?

When ian school, I used to look at other children's parents coming to pick them up, showing affection to them, I craved for it too... And so I readily agreed.

A couple of hours drive later, we reached a bunglow. It was huge one, luxury evident in each corner..there I met a lady and a boy, probably my age...
Mr.Chauhan whom I never saw smiling or even looking at me with eyes of affection..smiled at them while with affection filled eyes..

Being the affection starved child I was, I wanted him to look at me like that too..and he did..that day he smiled at me too, while asking me to play with that boy.. I did as he said, thinking he would smile at me like that always from now on.

And he would, I was ecstatic those days.. From then on, he would frequently pick me up from school and take me to that lady's house and make me play with the boy, he would ask me how it was, if I liked them or not, but would always restrict me from telling about these visits to Mrs.Chauhan..

While I would feel uneasy about not saying anything to Mrs.Chauhan but the fear of loosing out on Mr.Chauhan's affection always stopped me from revealing anything..

Days passed like that..one day, when I went to that lady's house and was playing with the boy, we started having an argument and the boy called Mr.Chauhan his 'dad'.

At that point, I don't know what happened but an irritating anger surged within me, I asked him to take back what he said but it started an argument.

One thing led to another, the boy started taunting me, he said that, he heard his 'dad' saying how he hates my existence and that I was a mistake...It started a physical fight and I started punching him in my rage, though he was also reciprocating the hits equally.

Hearing commotion, the lady and Mr.Chauhan came there, and he saw me sitting on the boy's chest hitting him.

The lady jerkingly pushed me away from her son and soon a hard slap landed on my cheek, it was Mr.Chauhan.

Before I could even speak to give an explanation, came Mr.Chauhan's words ,"

Rudraneel's memories flashed infront of his eyes while he continued narrating to Dhara,

_Flashback_

"How dare you hit him?!"
"Huh! It was my fault in bringing a brat like you here!"

Then the lady's taunting voice booms in room,
"Uss aurat neh paida kiya hai isse! Aisa toh hoga hi!!"

Young Rudraneel's mind couldn't even process properly what they were saying!