Unedited.
I was sipping on to my coffee while listening to their banter with a smile on my face. Today, Sudha Aunty again visited my home and coincidentally my mom was home too.
Their conversation started from talking about casual things and it ended with the current topic of talking about their good old days.
"You know, I sulked at him for so long for not bringing me my treats. Blame my mood swings. He tried his best to pacify me but I didn't give in at all because, at that time, I really craved the famous poha of 'Sri Ram chats'. "Mom said with a dazed smile as if she was reliving all those happy moments again.
"Ohh really? I could imagine the poor plight of Pardhu!"
Sudha Aunty waved off with a laugh but stopped when she noticed our gazes on her because from what I had heard from my mom and grandpa, Pardhu was not the name that anyone could use for my dad. Only closed ones would call him with that name.
"What happened?" She asked us with a frown, still not realizing the thing she did as we shook our heads immediately at her after passing each other a glance.
"Okay! What did he do after that? Did he bring it at last or not?" She asked my mom as my mom's smile dimmed a little and she shook her head in denial.
"He never got a chance to do so. He got a call from someone and he seemed to be in a hurry. Though I was sulking, I still waved him goodbye. He kissed my protruding belly and promised me that he would bring it for sure on his way home but-" she took a deep breath and continued.
"But I never knew that would be the last moment between us. On the very day, he met with an accident and struggled between life and death in the hospital for nearly 1.5 months as he was completely comatose.
"I gave birth to yuktha, without him being beside me. You know what was so painful, the day yuktha was born was the same day where he left his last breath. He opened his eyes that day and smiled at his baby girl. He closed his eyes with a smile before muttering the word 'Yuktha'." She teared up while saying so as I nearly choked over my tears.
How could I forget the day, where I had lost my dad, though I was unaware of everything? How could I forget the taunts of some of my dad's side relatives about how I was a bad omen? How could I forget that I would always be reminded of that fact how much ever I wanted to run away from it?
"On which..date-" Sudha Aunty cleared her throat while wiping her tears and continued.
"Exactly, when did he meet with an accident?" She again asked after composing herself while fisting her hands.
"19th March!" Mom said.
"19th March?" She exclaimed while closing her mouth with her hand and I stayed silent as I understood something that had been bugging me for days.
While I was in my thoughts, my phone suddenly started ringing. I frowned when I saw the name of the caller Id.
"Radha Athayya? What happened? Is everything okay?"
I asked her hurriedly as I knew she wouldn't be calling me unless it was necessary. Since she dared to go against her husband's words and called me, it must be something important.
"What! When did this happen? This morning? And you are informing me about this now? Tell me the hospital name. I will rush over there immediately. Okay." I ended the call after I got to know the required details.
"Maa, it's bad. Grandpa had a minor heart stroke this morning. He was brought to our place and was admitted to our hospital itself. We have to go there now." Saying this, I went to my room to grab my bag as I saw my mom hurrying to her room.
When I came back, I saw Sudha Aunty sitting there like a rock as if she was in a trance.
"We have to leave now. I am sorry for not being able to entertain you properly," I told her while tapping my feet impatiently as I waited for my mom.
"Can I come with you both ?"
"You don't have to trouble yourself-"
"Please, I want to come. Don't ask me anything. Just take me there. I beg you."
"Arey, Aunty. Stop saying that. You can come with us." I assured her as I patted her shoulder in a consoling manner.
Once my mom came back with a worried expression on her face, we three started to the hospital while on the way, I called Daksha to inform the news and got to know that she was already informed about this and was looking into it personally.
As we reached the place, I guided them to the room where grandpa was admitted as Daksha already told me about that.
"How is his condition?" I asked Daksha once I saw her, ignoring everyone.
"He is fine now and resting inside. It's a minor attack but minds you, this is just a sign. You gotta be so careful around him. Don't agitate him as you see what it had landed him into."
Hearing her words, I shifted my attention to Radha Aunty who was crying with her face buried in her hands while sitting on the waiting chair in front of his room. She was obvious to our presence until she heard Daksha's voice.
"Yuktha?" Lifting her head, She let out while standing up.
"Athayya? What exactly had happened?" I asked her while placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It's your Lakshman uncle. He came to know about your dad's will and rushed to your grandpa to question him for hiding the actual details of the will till now. They eventually got into an argument and your uncle started saying some mean things that I couldn't say."
"Dad collapsed right in front of my eyes but I am so helpless. For the first time, I went against your uncle's words and rushed your grandpa to the hospital in our village but the doctors said that it would be best to rush him over to the city for advanced treatment. So I took him here and we could only make it here by this time. So I couldn't inform you." She said while wiping her eyes as her eyes started roaming around and landed on my mom.
My mom nodded at her lightly and Athayya turned her attention to the additional person in the corridor along with her and immediately her eyes got widen in shock.
"Sudha?" She exclaimed as she rushed forward to hug Sudha Aunty.
"Oh my God! Sudha? Is it true? Are you really in front of me? I can't believe it. How are you all along? How could you leave your home, leave us all alone? You could have just told me about your love matter and I would have helped you with what I could but you just left us without even leaving a note."
She complained but there was no accusation held in her tone. I stood there calmly, witnessing their conversation as I already guessed it coming but mom seemed so surprised at first and eventually composed herself.
"I am sorry. I am so sorry. I couldn't even tell this to anyone as I knew dad would cancel the marriage at the last minute for my sake but I was afraid of ruining his reputation. It was Pardhu who forced me to choose my happiness over my dad's reputation and he promised me that he would manage everything. Trust me, I am still living with the guilt for leaving everyone like that." She sounded so apologetic.
"When did you get married again? Where is your husband?" She asked Radha Athayya after noticing the Sindoor on her forehead and nuptial chain on her neck.
"I was asked to marry Lakshman in your place. Dad didn't force me but at that time, I don't know what to do except for agreeing into marrying him when one of dad's friends suggested the idea."
From what I knew, Radha Athayya was already got married to an army officer but he had to leave for the border the very next day of their marriage. After six months of not hearing anything from his side, they got to know that he was martyred in a war.
Hence she became a widow just into her six months of marriage. Later I only knew that she was married to Lakshman's Uncle but I wasn't aware of the whole happening.
"God! I am so sorry, Akka. Please forgive me."
"No. Don't be. It's a good thing that you had escaped from hell. Lakshman is not what he portrays himself to be. I am really glad that it's me who got married to him, instead of you." She said while loving at Sudha Aunty lovingly.
"How can you still smile at me and say those words when all I did was hurting you all?"
"That's because I love you and you would always be my first child." She said as they both hugged and cried in each other arms. Meanwhile, Daksha gestured me to go inside to have a look at my grandpa.
Nodding at her, I made my way into the room and instantly teared up after witnessing his weak stature in front of my eyes. Approaching him, I kneeled beside his bed, and holding his hand, I placed a soft kiss on the back of it.
Sensing the touch of someone, he squinted his eyes before opening them, and after noticing it was me, he passed me his usual smile despite how weak it came out of as.
"You promised me that you would take care of yourself. You are a liar." I accused him through my tears as he lifted his hand to caress my head.
"Ammu, I am fine now..right! So stop crying and these minor things can't do any damage to my strong body." He said in a proud tone as I wiped my tears and glared at him.
"I can see that but why can't you stay calm when uncle had agitated you?" I asked him in a helpless tone.
"I couldn't, not when he openly accused the honor of my daughters and my granddaughter. Hmph. If I see him again, I will definitely skin him alive." He said, getting frantic at the mention of uncle.
"Okay, okay! Leave it. We shouldn't talk about him anymore. You did a very good job. By the way, I have a surprise for you. Wait."
Saying this, I stood up and went outside his room with a smile. Reaching Sudha Aunty, I grabbed her hand and started dragging her along with me. Sensing my intention, she started protesting.
"Yuktha, please stop. I am so nervous."
Ignoring her pleas, I pushed her inside and closed the door with a victorious smile but it soon faded away when I noticed the looming figure of someone.
I gulped when I saw the angry frown marring his face. I excused myself from there on the pretext of going to a canteen and approached him slowly.
The moment I reached him, he immediately grabbed my hand and dragged me along with him to an isolated place.
"Was it fun?" He seethed as I met his gaze with a confusing frown.
"Fooling us? Was it fun?" He gritted his teeth while tightening his hold on me.
"Indra, What are you talking about? I can't understand you at all." I said while trying to wriggle out of his hold.
"You can't understand? I never knew that you would be this good at pretending. I really started believing that I didn't know you at all." He said as I looked at him with hurt clearly written all over my face.
"Indra, I don't know what exactly has happened but I can say that there might be some misunderstanding,"
I told him, masking away my hurt as he just scoffed at me before shoving a pic in my hand. It was a picture of Sudha Aunty, Radha Athayya, and Dad along with my grandpa. I was so dumbfounded to even say anything against it.
"He is your dad..right?and you belong to that so-called family of my mom!! Unbelievable! Well played, Ms. Yuktha, very well played!" He scoffed sarcastically and I looked at him with a frown, not understanding his spiteful words.
"Indra, I don't understand your behavior at all. Why are you talking like I have betrayed you? You should be happy..right! because our families are going to reunite! Believe me, even I didn't know about this thing till today."
"Happy? Happy for what? Had I known that you belonged to that family, I would have stopped my mom from stepping into your house at all. And talking about believing you. Why should I believe you when I didn't even know your true intentions?"
"Do you even know how ridiculous you are sounding right now? As you have said, you don't have to believe me but at the same time, remember, you don't have any right to blame me too, just based on your some baseless assumptions." I said while looking straight into his eyes and he shook his head while releasing a mirthless laugh.
"Do you still want to keep that innocent facade? You can but I, no longer interested in watching your act. So please stop pretending." He said monotonously.
"Indra, do you have anything against my family? Is that why you are behaving like this?" Hearing this, he faced me and opened his mouth to answer.
"Yes. What I have for your family is beyond hatred."
"Why? What's the reason? From what I have understood, after your mom's marriage, it's the first time she is meeting her family! So how come you hate us this much when you didn't even have a chance to meet my family till now." I asked him, getting frustrated at the situation.
"I don't have time to answer all your questions. Please do the honors of calling my mom and tell her I would wait for her in my car. She has exactly 10 mins to come down."
Saying this, he was about to turn around and walk away but I grabbed his hand, stopping him from doing so.
"So it was easy for you to accuse me and think bad of me just because I belonged to that family..right?"
I asked him with teary eyes but he just stood there like a stone-hearted person without answering anything.
"I am a fool to think that you know me too well to think of me as such a person," I muttered in a sad tone while loosening my hold on him and turned my back to him, to hide my tears from him.
"Even I thought I knew you too well but guess what! This is the first time I was proved wrong in my entire life." I heard his reply, followed by the series of the sounds of his footsteps, indicating his leave.
I fisted the pic in my hand and resisted the urge to let my tears down.
Hope everything in this chapter is not confusing.
If you still didn't understand anything or have any doubts regarding something, please don't hesitate to ping me or to ask me in the comments here.
From now, there will be two updates for a week as I will be damn busy from the coming week.
Hope you guys will understand this🖤
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Thanks for reading🖤