Chapter 28 #2
Mihit patted her hand, and said, ‘We understood that you can’t build your existence around your child, and someday, you have to let them go to live their life.
You build it around yourself, you become whole for yourself, and maybe find a partner who will lay every brick of the foundation with you.
If your bond is strong, it can survive any hurdles life throws at you. ’
‘Sweetheart, take it from my experience, love is enough if you’re with the right person. You don’t need a child to make your marriage complete.’
Siya gave her a distracted smile, her mind wandering to Abhay.
She closely looked at her life since he came back, and she easily saw how he’d been by her side through every obstacle.
He had loved her gently, silently, unwaveringly, without demanding she become someone different, more manageable for him.
She couldn’t imagine her life, facing an unpredictable future, and building a family without him. He was hers, and that was the only truth she could hold onto through good and bad days. And then, it hit her like lightning. She was deeply, stupidly, and entirely in love with Abhay.
The epiphany came tangled in guilt and grief and all the ways she had pushed him away, all the ways she’d kept her guard up, convinced it was self-preservation when it had really just been fear.
Siya asked, ‘Then why didn’t you answer when Dadi asked if you’d be okay without grandchildren?’
Neena sighed, and looked away. ‘Because her question triggered my anxiety. Despite handling it for years, there are bad days, and it was one of them.’
Now that she knew her tumultuous struggle, Siya could understand better. That’s why her coping mechanism against her grandmother had always been silence.
‘We may want grandkids, but not at the expense of our daughter-in-law. We’re not foolish enough to lose what we have by chasing the dreams of something that might be,’ Mihit declared with conviction. ‘We refuse to be that kind of parents to our kids.’
A thought buried in the recess of mind bubbled up. Siya hesitatingly asked, ‘When you talk about what makes one a good partner, do you speak from your experience or from the failure of another marriage?’
‘What do you mean?’
Siya picked up her bag from her lap. Her heart began to beat in a fast rhythm as she pulled out the photograph. Her fingers shook when she placed it on the table between them.
Neena immediately reached out and took it. ‘Where did you find this?’ she whispered, her wide gaze glued to it.
‘In one of my mother’s old boxes, tucked in between her diaries.’
‘I can’t believe she kept it,’ Neena whispered, looking at Mihit with misty eyes. He swallowed hard, still looking at the polaroid.
Their exchange confused Siya even more. ‘I didn’t know the three of you knew each other. You’ve never mentioned her.’
Something shifted beneath her soft exterior and Neena finally said, ‘Arohi and I were once… close. Did she ever tell you about me?’
Siya shook her head.
‘Neena and Arohi were neighbours and I lived down the street so we were childhood friends,’ Mihit answered when Neena couldn’t.
She cleared her throat, yet her voice came out broken.
‘This picture was taken the day we won the intercollegiate debate competition. We bunked the lectures after, headed off to Bandstand, and spent the whole day together. It’s one of my most cherished memories, because it was one of our last real days together before everything changed. ’
Siya felt her stomach tighten with dread. ‘What happened?’
Her faint smile vanished as she said, ‘Kartik happened.’
Her voice was barely audible when Siya asked, ‘What do you mean?’
Neena glanced down at the photograph again, gently tracing its worn edge and said, ‘Siya, it won’t be easy, but I think it's time you knew the truth about your father.’
She glanced between them, scared of what was about to come.
Neena sighed and began. ‘Roohi and I were inseparable since birth, and Mihit was our annoying third wheeling friend. Chandni Aunty had passed away due to haemorrhage during childbirth, and Jairaj Uncle was a loving father to Roohi but also an absent one. He was dedicated to continuing the legacy of his father by expanding Kashyap Luxe overseas and he was usually gone most of the year. She grew up mostly at my home, and we’d always be together, but I knew she felt lonely. And then…’
Mihit picked up where Neena trailed off.
‘During our college, Kartik came into our lives. He had a reputation for fake internship scams, selling exam papers, and getting involved in street fights. It was clear that he craved power, and would go to any lengths to claim it. So when Arohi got paired up with Kartik for a sociology project, we were worried.’
Neena scoffed, ‘Roohi was the kind of person who was maddeningly kind and trusting toward others, so I wanted to protect her. But she told me I was overreacting when I asked her to swap partners.’
‘Kartik is a thorough opportunist. Given all the time they spent filming the project, he became friends with her. He tricked her by telling her a sob story about his struggling family, about his sick mother, and how he worked night shifts to cover bills for his young cousins,’ said Mihit.
Her hand trembled as she handed the polaroid to Mihit, and she said, ‘He played his helplessness so well, even I almost bought it. But there were rumours floating around how Kartik was gloating among his friends about trapping a rich girl. We told her about it, and we were shocked when she said she could fix him and confessed they were dating.’
‘It started slowly. She began skipping on our decade-long weekend family dinners and cancelled our plans with last-minute excuses. Soon, we caught on that Kartik didn’t like her spending time with us. He was isolating her in such a sneaky way that she didn’t even realise it.’
‘We decided to confront him directly out of concern for her, but he twisted it into how we were trying to sabotage their relationship. He accused Mihit of wanting Arohi to be his, even though we were engaged by then, and we thought she’d set him straight.’
‘She came to me the next day to tell me that she didn’t wish to be a third wheel with us anymore.
She told me how she saw my true face, and accused me of being jealous of her.
I’d known Roohi since we were in diapers, but the woman who sat in front of me didn’t look like my friend anymore.
She was angry, spewing Kartik’s poisonous words, completely under his spell. ’
Her angry composure cracked enough for Siya to see the grieving friend underneath.
‘I lost my cool and we both said hurtful, bitter things to each other, and cut off ties. I was angry and hurt, and told myself it was her choice to leave us, but I thought she’d figure it out and come back. Oh god, I regret it more than anything, because things went to hell after that.’
‘Kartik finally had her all to himself with us out of the way, and then he twisted her trust into a trap for her. He’d been pushing her to get intimate for a while, questioning her commitment to him every time she said no.
He must have convinced her because a few months later, we heard from our parents that they’d eloped because Arohi was pregnant. ’
‘Within a day, your father dropped his original name and became Kartik Kashyap. He joined the company as CEO which was initially intended for Roohi. She’d been preparing with workshops and foreign gem certifications for years to become fit for the role, and your father stole it from her.
The tragedy was that she lost the child, and by then, she was already trapped in the marriage.
She vanished into his shadow, and he stepped into her world like he’d built it himself. ’
Siya flinched, and rage roared beneath her skin. ‘Why didn’t she leave him?’ Why didn’t she save herself?
‘I thought she was entirely under his mercy, until one night when Roohi finally called me. She told me she found out Kartik had an illegitimate son from an affair he'd had while she was pregnant with Kashvi. When she confronted him about it, he physically abused her and threatened to harm both of you to keep her silent. She was crying as she told me she won’t let her daughters suffer a life like that.’
Tears stung her eyes as Siya fisted her palm, digging her nails into the soft flesh. The pain shot up and suppressed the sob that was threatening to burst out of her.
‘I’d never heard her cry like that and told her to come over right away, but she said she’ll come the next day because she had to take care of everything. The next afternoon, she told me on the call how she had updated her will and sent it to her personal lawyer.’
‘Did she tell you what she changed in it?’
Neena shook her head. ‘We didn’t talk for long.
She was busy packing in a rush, so she could leave before Kartik came home.
She didn’t want him to find out about the change in the will until she served him with divorce papers so she told me to call our family lawyer home.
Roohi told me she was on her way, and disconnected the call.
That… that was the last time I heard from her because half an hour later, she passed away in that fatal crash. ’
Siya closed her eyes, and bowed her head. Her shoulder shook lightly as she cried silently. Her mother had finally taken a stand for herself, and never got the chance to see it through.
‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?’ Siya demanded through gritted teeth.
Neena stole her gaze, but couldn’t hide her shame.
‘Because I saw you as Kartik’s daughter.
Every time we were in the same room with Kartik, we’d hear him complain about how you’re a demanding, spoiled brat who abused her privileges.
And though we thought we’d never fall for his lies again, we fell into his trap and assumed you’d taken after him with no trace of Roohi in you. ’