I Was, I Am.

EPILOGUE-II

"Yes, Pritha?" she asked tenderly, her palm rubbing Pritha's head lovingly. If he'd had any doubts about the little girl, he was freed from all as he saw in her eyes, the motherly love with she looked at the girl.

Adrija has a daughter and she isn't married to Vedant Jaiswal anymore.

His mind swirled at all the information that had been thrown at him within a span of a few minutes.

"Who's he?" Pritha questioned innocently.

Adrija looked up at Mihir at that and gulped, offering, "He's my friend."

"Oh." She sighed thoughtfully, then asked again, "What's his name?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Okay." With that, she turned to Mihir with curiosity, "What's your name?"

He didn't know what to feel anymore.

The woman he'd loved with everything in him once upon a time, was standing before him years after she'd settled with someone else. As of today, she had a daughter; the most beautiful daughter at that; and had left her husband. Or did HE leave her?

Or maybe she never changed her surname.

His gaze dropped down at Pritha who looked at him adoringly, he wanted nothing but to scoop her into his arms.

She looked so much like Adrija, it was almost unreal.

"My name's Mihir." He smiled.

"I'm Pritha." She replied with a grin.

None of this made sense. She was at least four years old, if not more. And he was seeing Adrija after four years too. How could she have given birth to Pritha within the exact time span in which she married Vedant?

Unless, she were pregnant when they tied the knot.

But it was an arranged marriage. She didn't know Vedant until the engagement and that he was sure of.

"Ma, can I go play there?" Pritha asked, pointing at the kid's play zone across the shop.

"Okay. But don't go anywhere farther. I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"Thank you Ma!" she screamed and ran away with excitement.

That left the two of them with silence. Mihir glanced at her, just taking in the fact that she really was standing before him. She fidgeted with her purse at his gaze nervously and he tried to find the words with which to ask.

"How've you been?" she asked first, as she placed a stray chunk of her curly hair behind the curve of her ear.

"I've been okay." He paused, "And you?"

"Okay." She nodded softly.

"Did you..." she started awkwardly, her gaze everywhere but his eyes, "Did you-"

"-I'm not married."

Her eyes widened at him with surprise, shocked at how he knew what she was going to ask. "Why not?" she asked meekly.

Mihir chose not to answer.

"You and Vedant...."

She wet her lips, as she walked a little closer to him and with a voice barely a whisper replied, "He was uh...he was seeing someone else all along. I divorced him within a month of our marriage."

He didn't know what to say.

"He had had a girlfriend all along; a stable one at that." She explained. "His Father didn't approve because she didn't come from the same background."

Why did this story sound so familiar?

Of course! It was their story.

His hands found their way into the pocket of his trousers as he looked away. "And Pritha..."

Adrija's eyes shone with affection as she admitted with her voice low, "She's adopted."

What?

"But...but she...."

"...looks so much like me?"

He gulped, "Yeah."

"I...I guess that's just a lucky coincidence." She looked down, "It would suck to have people ask me a lot about her if not for our similar features."

He gulped.

Adrija looked so lonely. You'd think after all these years he'd be bereft of emotions for her. But he could still feel all the hurt she was putting up with. He knew it was probably not in his place to ask, and yet he ended up questioning,

"Why?"

To his surprise, she chuckled lightly, and Mihir watched her eyes twinkle at that. She didn't seem to notice, but it took all of his strength to look away from that smile. "Baba didn't approve of our decision; Vedant and mine. His family disagreed too. But we were pretty firm on our resolve. After the divorce, he settled down with Nisha. And I..." she paused for breath, "...I just didn't know where to go."

She'd chosen her family over him years ago, and any other guy would have probably been terribly furious about that; but his heart broke when he pictured her all by herself with nobody to call her own.

This entire thing sounded so, so unreal for Adrija's forever picture perfect life.

"It was a pretty lonely phase of my life. So I...I went to an orphanage and I saw her. She was just a few months old then. They were teen parents; her mother and father." She explained. "They gave her away because of family pressure. I held her in my arms and she looked at me with such love I just...I don't know...." She fumbled for words. "I mean...you get it right?"

He found himself nod softly.

"Yeah." She gave him a small smile, her gaze lingering at his eyes. "So I finished all the formalities and became her legal parent."

Mihir was left in awe with what just she shared as he seemed to remember bit by bit, just why he'd fallen in love with her to begin with. It was because of this nature of hers.

She took her own decisions, she made her own mistakes and took full responsibility of them with her head held high.

She left her husband when he didn't have the courage so that he wouldn't have to go through what she did; and decided to live her life alone with a baby girl that wasn't her own to begin with.

"Adrija...why didn't you ever try to contact me?"

She blinked with surprise. "How could I? After all that I'd done to you, I knew I deserved all thi-"

"-no. You didn't deserve to go through all this. Nobody deserves to go through this."

She offered him a sad smile at that; as she gazed at him intently, "Why didn't you settle down Mihir?"

He looked away again, not knowing how to answer her.

"What about the finances? Are you working somewhere?"

She nodded, obviously noting how swiftly he evaded her question again. "It's a pretty small firm for interior designing. Pays enough for the two of us."

He nodded in understanding.

His phone buzzed that instant, as he retrieved it to read the message. Mihir let out an ear to ear grin all at once.

"Um...all okay Mihir?"

He nooded enthusiastically. "Much better than okay."

She nodded with slight confusion, her brows knit together.

"Are you busy today?"

Her brows quirked up with surprise, as she shook her head lightly. "There's somewhere I want you to come with me."

"Um...."

"There's someone I want you to meet."