Life's Second Chances

Twenty-Six

Dignified and confident he poses with a serious pout on his lips. In a dark blue suit, he appears as the pristine CEO donning a crisp emerald green tie around his neck. His hair trimmed on the sides and styled with gel on top shines a rich black and much shorter than when I last saw him. Pinked tinged and healthy his lips are luscious and succulent looking. I can't help but admire how tanned to perfection his skin looks and the way his muscles still flex in a suit.

"I was hoping to tell you when we were alone, Anu. I'm sorry," Shre grips my hand, squeezing it tightly.

"It doesn't matter anyway. He's dead to me,"

Light scraping and clanking of cutlery against the porcelain plates fill the thickly awkward air around the dinner table. After not seeing my family for more than six months I expected a different reaction to my return home. My parents, especially my dad, are quietly brooding across the table. Their pent-up anger against me for shutting them out for all these months boils to the surface through their sarcastic underlying comments.

Nikhil hasn't said a word to me and outright refuses to even look at me. He is extremely curt not only to me but to everyone tonight and I know it's just him unleashing. I rather face his wrath than to get the cold shoulder. Nima occasionally smiles at me, sympathy and pity gleaming over her eyes. She and Aryan are the only ones that seem to be happy that I'm home.

"How is the move coming along?" maa finally asks after taking a surprisingly large sip of her wine.

"Fine. Everything is on schedule," my own voice sounds so foreign to me. I don't mean to sound so uncaring but it just comes out that way nowadays.

"Quite the sudden change of heart. From completely abandoning your family to waltzing right back into our lives. I'm glad to see you still care about us," deliberately, her eyes drill through me, beating me down with her hot anger and hurt.

"I didn't abandon you guys,"

"We have barely heard from you in six months, Anuksha," low, her voice cracks with a soft quiver. "You shack up yourself across the goddamn world and completely forget you have a family who loves you. If that's not abandonment then I don't know what is," her jaws tense from the grinding of her teeth. Red veins swell in her eyes pulling against her green irises from suppressing the tears pooling at the brims.

"Yes, mom I willingly left my perfectly happy life to be alone and miserable,"

"No...you left us for him,"

Laughing dryly, I shake my head leaning it back to look up at the ceiling. "If you only knew," meeting her incredulous stare, my face falls pulling my lips into a tight frown.

"It's no coincidence that you come back now, after all, he's back too," mockingly her lips twist in a snarling smirk.

"You would think that, wouldn't you? If out of caring for your daughter, hell out of human decency you asked me how my life has been the past six months instead of making assumptions and jumping the gun you would know the actual truth,"

"Oh, believe me, I know the truth,"

"And believe me if you did, you would realize how hard coming home was for me," pushing away my plate, the chair slides back hitting the wall as I stand up from my seat. "If anyone else has anything else to say about me please don't hesitate,"

Scoffing, maa looks down at her lap shaking her head. "Go, go on back to him. You can disappear another year with Sidharth again like some...,"

"Maa," Aryan grips her wrist glaring at her.