Ch42 The Secret in the Soil
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The afternoon sun was sitting high in the sky, casting a warm, golden glow over the quiet courtyard of the Rathore mansion.
Rivanya and Dhara had already left for their temple date, while Vasudha and Nani maa were resting in their respective rooms.
Up on the sprawling terrace, Nanaji stood entirely alone, gripping the concrete railing as he stared out into the open sky.
His face was etched with a sharp, guarded expression, his mind locked in a deeply calculated train of thought.
Suddenly, the heavy sound of approaching footsteps broke the silence, followed by Sandeep's sharp, resounding voice from behind. "Papa, you can lie to the entire world, but you can never hide the truth from me."
Without turning around to face his son, Nanaji kept his eyes fixed on the horizon, his voice dropping into a flat, steady register. "What on earth do you mean by that, Sandeep? What lie are you talking about?"
Sandeep stepped closer, his jaw locking with determination. "The exact lie you just told Rivu. The lie that you don't even know the name or identity of her biological father."
Nanaji went completely rigid. The silence that followed was deafening, proving that he knew exactly how useless it was to maintain a facade in front of his son. He let out a long, heavily burdened breath.
Nanaji kept his back turned, his shoulders slumping under the weight of a secret he had guarded for over two decades. Realising he was completely cornered, he slowly turned around to face Sandeep, his eyes brimming with a profound, painful guilt.
"Don't bother hiding the truth from me anymore, Papa," Sandeep pressed on, his voice thick with emotion. "Just tell me why did you choose to hide her father's identity from Rivu today?"
Nanaji closed his eyes for a brief second, his voice cracking as he whispered the truth. "Because of the solemn vow I made to Katha... because of her final kasam."
Sandeep's eyes widened in complete confusion. "A vow? What kind of a vow, Papa?"
"Katha made me swear upon her very life that I would never, under any circumstance, reveal the name of her biological father to Rivanya," Nanaji confessed, a tear slipping down his weathered cheek.
"Katha never wanted Rivu to carry the suffocating burden of this reality. But later, when she realized that her own life was actively in grave danger, she penned that hidden letter for Rivanya. She left it behind as a ultimate safeguard,
ensuring that if anyone ever tried to exploit or manipulate Rivu under the guise of a false identity, the truth would finally surface to protect her."
Sandeep shook his head, thoroughly bewildered by the complex web of secrets.
"But Papa, if Katha wanted her to know the truth during danger, why didn't she just write the father's name directly in the letter?
Why did she explicitly instruct Rivanya to travel all the way to Indore to search Naresh Bedi's parents' home?"
Nanaji took a deep, stabilizing breath, his gaze turning serious.
"Because the physical proof and the keys to all of Rivanya's unanswered questions are secured inside that specific house in Indore. It is stored within Katha's private diary. If you remember her childhood,
you know Katha had a habit of logging the smallest details of her life into a personal journal. The moment she realized she was pregnant, she began writing a dedicated diary exclusively for her unborn daughter. That book contains the unvarnished truth, the entire history,
and the true identity of her father. But to earn that truth, Rivanya must walk this path and discover that diary on her own."
Sandeep ran a hand through his hair, his expression shifting into one of absolute frustration and fatherly despair.
"This entire ordeal is causing our poor child so much agonizing trauma, Papa. I don't know when my baby will finally be allowed to live a life of peace and happiness. And on top of all this chaos, she is living with a man like Rudraksh Vardhan! I am constantly paralyzed by the fear that that cold,
ruthless monster will end up brutally hurting my innocent, delicate child..."
Nanaji walked over slowly, placing a heavy, grounding hand on Sandeep's trembling shoulder. He looked at his son with a gaze full of ancient wisdom and acceptance.
"Beta, you must understand that Rivanya's current pain is the only vehicle that will carry her to the secrets of her past," Nanaji murmured softly, a bittersweet smile touching his lips.
"And as far as Rudraksh Vardhan is concerned... neither you, nor I, nor anyone else in this world can intervene anymore. The die has been cast. Rivu has fallen hopelessly and deeply in love with him. And when it comes to the matters of the heart, she carries the exact same untamed,
fierce blood as her mother. Rivanya belongs to a lineage that will willingly burn its own life to ashes for the sake of love, but she will never allow a single scratch to touch the man she has chosen. She will fight the entire world for Rudraksh, Sandeep... she will never let him go."
Sandeep's eyes filled with a fresh wave of panic, his chest heaving as the terrifying parallels between the past and present struck him.
"That is the exact nightmare that keeps me awake, Papa," he choked out, his voice laced with a raw, agonizing fear.
"The mere thought of history repeating itself, of Rivu meeting the same tragic fate as Didi... it freezes the blood in my veins. I don't know Rudraksh Vardhan personally, but I have heard enough to know the terrifying reputation he carries. My innocent, sweet Rivu deserved a gentle,
loving man someone who would cherish her like glass. Rudraksh Vardhan is entirely wrong for her."
Nanaji sighed deeply, his wrinkled hands tightening against the terrace railing as he looked up at the vast sky.
"You and I are nothing but mere pawns in this grand cosmic game, Sandeep," he murmured, his tone reflecting a heavy, spiritual acceptance.
"The ultimate player is Mahadev himself. If He has deliberately woven Rudraksh Vardhan into Rivanya's destiny, He must have done it with a profound purpose. And if I am being completely honest with you... I see a fierce, untamed devotion in Rivanya's eyes for that man.
If that exact madness ever takes over Rudraksh's senses, he won't just protect her he will burn this entire world to absolute ashes for her sake. I don't know why my heart whispers this truth, but I feel it deeply. The day Rudraksh falls in love,
his devotion will be nothing short of a double-edged sword for everyone who ever dared to cross their path."
Sandeep fell entirely silent, the heavy words echoing through the quiet afternoon air.
Deep down, beneath his protective fatherly instincts, he knew his father was right.
Rudraksh Vardhan was not an ordinary man; he was a force of nature.
If a man carrying that level of ruthless underworld power ever truly surrendered his heart to Rivanya, the magnitude of his love would be terrifying, beautiful, and absolutely unstoppable.
Today, the sprawling halls of the Vardhan mansion feel overwhelmingly hollow.
It is wrapped in the exact brand of suffocating silence that I have voluntarily locked myself into for an entire lifetime.
The heavy quiet lingers because the sharp chime of her anklets, the musical clinking of her bangles, and the uninhibited echo of her laughter are completely missing from the air.
Yes, because my Sugarplum is not home today, this silence feels less like a quiet house and more like a dark, bottomless well.
In just a few hours, the afternoon will bleed into twilight, and then the dark grip of the night will take over.
But deep down, I know Rivanya isn't returning to me tonight.
I stood completely alone on the bedroom balcony, lost in the labyrinth of these thoughts.
Shirtless against the cooling breeze of the fading day, I kept my eyes fixed on the endless blue horizon, watching it slowly dissolve into a bruised, fiery shade of orange.
It looked exactly like a bleeding canvas like one of my secret paintings.
Yes, I find a strange, quiet solace in painting.
It is a deeply private hobby, a hidden part of my soul that absolutely no one in this world knows about. Not even Vyom.
Exhaling a sharp breath, I turned around and stepped back into the bedroom.
The space was pitched in absolute, pitch-black darkness, mirroring the grim reality of my own existence.
My mind instantly replayed a trivial memory Rivanya absolutely despises the dark.
She is a girl who cannot close her eyes without keeping the lights fully switched on through the dead of night.
But today, because her vibrant light is missing from this house, my room has reverted to its original state a barren, forgotten wasteland.
I walked over and sank heavily onto the edge of the mattress, my chest tightening as a thousand volatile questions flooded my head.
They were the kind of burning interrogations for which neither I nor anyone else on this earth possessed a logical answer.
My entire life had become an intricately tangled mess of these dark uncertainties.
Sometimes, the questions grew so loud that my very existence felt like a flaw.
I would sit in the dark and wonder: Why am I even breathing?
What is the purpose of a monster like me being alive?
But lately, an entirely new whisper had started to echo from the deepest corners of my soul, answering that ancient question with a single name: Rivanya.
I don't fucking understand what is happening to my system.
I cannot survive a single, fleeting minute without her memory actively invading my thoughts.
What frustrates me the most is that the people operating closely around me are starting to read it right off my face.