Hlo darlings

Apologies for being late as always. But I've an important note for you all, please don't ignore it.

A/N- Shivaay's age is changed. It's not 27 but 31. Reason, the past of the mystery man was related to Oberoi family you all know. So I couldn't show that Shivaay's grandfather died just five years ago. It would've made SOMETHING illogical (That something will be revealed below.)

So buckle your seat belts.

ENJOY READING 💕💕💕

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Not having parents or a family is painful. But more painful is when you have parents living somewhere in this world but not with you because you were abandoned, because they didn't want you.

She bore this pain of abandonment for years and years and today, all of a sudden this man appears in front of her, claiming his love for her and his dead wife. How cruel life could be? How shameless can someone be?

(A few minutes ago)

Anika was in the lawn of Oberoi Mansion, happily chatting with the flowers as if they could really hear her. It didn't matter to her if they answered back or not, they were swaying due to the light breeze was more than enough for her to continue.

Dadi and Janvi in an old family friend's family function. Gauri, in the boutique that belongs to the fashion house she works for. Om busy with his painting exhibition. Rudra busy in preparing for his exams, for once serious about his studies. Shivaay in his office to clear all the pending work that he couldn't do without visiting his office in the last two months.

And that left Anika, all alone
Not alone, but only with this canvas and the flowers to listen to her and no one to speak other than herself.

"I'm really scared, you know. That Bagadbilla would do what he's said. If he says I'm to be 'seen' he'll see me for sure. But why can't he just forget it? I can see it in his eyes that he's not forgotten. Or if he doesn't want to forget it, then why can't he get done with it already? Atleast it won't scare me and distract me. Now look at this empty canvas and these ruined ones on the ground. I'm not able to concentrate."

She huffed in annoyance at the lack of concentration, and the lack of the motivation Om or Shivaay could give her to paint. She just threw the paint brush in annoyance, her happy mood spoiled.

Lack of concentration it might be, but the faint sound of the paint brush hitting something soft and someone's movement behind her didn't go unnoticed by her.

She stood up from the high stool she was sitting on and turned around, only to be rooted to the ground. It couldn't be. Just no. After so many hard days in her life, she couldn't bear one more sorrow again.

Standing in front of her was the man she hated with every cell in her body. The reason behind her mother's suicide, the reason she and her Dadi suffered at the hands of her so called Chacha amd Chachi.

Her father.

The distant memory of her father, in a simple and formal shirt, pants, and a tie, was too clear in her mind. But the man in front of her was so different. Old he might have grown, but the expensive suit made him look more handsome.

She still remembers her own jealous glares towards the ladies who would lay their eyes on her papa, and she wouldn't hesitate in wounding her tiny arms round his neck to warn them to stay away.

She was rooted to the ground, not moving despite wanting to. Only when he raised his hand to caress her face that she backed away. The shock in her eyes turning into hatred was too vivid for anyone who was watching her. Her father was.

And so were the other members of the Oberoi family who had entered just now. Seeing him there, Shivaay could clearly predict what Anika might be thinking even if her back was facing him. Her hatred for her father that he had seen in her eyes was still very clear in his mind.

Anika was discarding the unwanted stuff from her own house so that it could be sold. The house had unpleasant memories that better be left behind. There were pleasant ones too but few in number that those could fit in a corner of her heart.

Shivaay, being the desperate lover boy just couldn't do anything but help her, or simply sit and stare at her. The dust he was allergic to, was inconsiderable.

"Shivaay, don't just sit there like a teddy bear. If you're here then atleast help me. Otherwise get out, don't distract me with your silly behaviour."

Admonished Anika, dodging away the flowers he was throwing towards her. This man sitting on the floor cross legged, was not Shivaay Singh Oberoi. And for once, HE WAS IRRITATING.

"Really? Okay, then."

In a jiffy she was pulled on his lap, his arms wound tightly around her.

"I'm sitting like a teddy bear, Han? So do what every girl does. Cuddle with the teddy."

"Not every girl likes cuddling a teddy bear. Aur vaise bhi, teddy bears toh kitne sweet looking, golu-molu se hote hain. Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Such a flat and hard teddy bear!"

Shivaay looked at her with his jaw dropped at her audacity to mess with him despite being in the circle of his arms and him being at an advantage.

"Really? Then this is a challenge to-be-Mrs. Anika Shivaay Singh Oberoi, that there would be a day when you would want this 'flat and hard teddy bear' to cuddle and sleep. I, Shivaay Singh Oberoi, take the oath to make you obsessed with me."

Anika shook her head at such stupidity and chose not to reply but a giggle escaped her lips.

"Okay. Now leave me." She said.

"For now." He replied.

After an hour or so the stuff was divided into her 'wanted' and 'not wanted stuff'. She sat in a corner, having water.

"Finally! Everything is done. Now I'm tension free that soemthing important would be left behind."

"What's in that wooden box, over there?"

Asked Shivaay, pointing towards a box kept on the top of a cupboard.

Anika's face paled as she looked at the box. She forgot about this box and now that she remembers, she doesn't know what to do with it. It was, in a way, the most important treasure she has from her childhood and at the same time, it was something she wants to forget forever.

Before she could answer him, Shivaay got up from the floor and picked the box up and opened it. Anika tried to snatch the box from his hold but he held it tighter.

"Atleast let me check what's in this."

He opened the box and smiled widely. It was full of a little girl's photographs and the way the little girl's brown orbs and chubby cheeks captivated him in a spell, this girl has to be his Sweebit.

He picked the photos up and started seeing them carefully. In almost every photograph, his Sweebit had her arms round a man's neck and the woman with them, probably the man's wife, was trying to separate the little Anika from him. The woman, was definitely a second Anika, or to say, Anika is the copy of the woman. She was undoubtedly, Anika's mother, and the man was her father.

"You used to be so so cute, Anika. Not that you're not cute now, but this childhood Anika is just too adorable."

"Hey, you loved your father more, right? See how you..."

"I didn't love him. I don't love that man. I don't even want to see his face ever in my life. I just hate him. Not only him, I hate that woman too. I hate both of them."

Shivaay looked up from the photographs to see Anika's angry face, with tears of agony running down her face as she shouted. Seeing her like that and hearing her words he couldn't believe she was his Anika. She never spoke such words for anyone, ever.

"Anika..."

"Shivaay, please.. I don't want to- talk a- about them."

"You have to. You have to tell me. I want to know the reason of these tears and this anger. I want to know everything that makes you sad. If these photos make you sad, I want to know why."

Shivaay asked as he kept the box away and held her tightly against his chest. Her sobs came out muffled against the front of his shirt as she tried to speak and he kept his patience intact while caressing her hair.

"They left me, Shivaay. T- they didn't want me or cared for me. One parent left me and my mother for- for an- another woman and the other parent, m- my mother left me a- alone by committing sui- suicide. Neither of them thought about me, how would I live without them. I h- hate them both. I just hate t- them both so m-much."

He heard Anika's voice, loud, and filled with the same hatred that he had seen that day in her house.

"Shivaay, why are you standing here like a statue? Do something. Anika is not ready to listen to anyone. She's just shouting the same thing from the time she has seen Rajveer uncle. She'll listen to you, talk to her."

Shivaay looked at Om and that was when he completely overcame the daze he was in. He was just surprised that a day ago Rajveer had denied to talk to Anika just yet, saying he had no courage to do so. And now he was here. But it had to happen someday, so why not today!

He stepped forward and held Anika by her shoulder from behind and that helped gaining her attention. She turned to him and grabbed his shirt sleeves in her fist to support herself.

"Shivaay s- see he's here. You remember I told you about him. He- he left me and mom for someone else and- and now he's here to spoil my happiness again. Tell him to leave, please. I don't want to see him."

She cried hugging him and he overlooked from her shoulder at Rajveer. For the first time in his life he felt someone could love Anika the way he does, or may be more than him.

"A- Anika beta..."

"Shivaay tell him t- to go."

Said Anika, not leaving his embrace lest she fell on the ground because she felt weak, physically or mentally, she didn't know but just weak.

"A- Anika you should listen to him, atleast."

Anika stopped sobbing, registering his words in her mind, and then came out of his hold, looking at him angrily.

"How can you say this, Shivaay? Atleast you understand my point."

"A- Anika, let m- me explain. Then if you'll say I'll even die for you, meri gudiya."

"Then go and die but..."

Anika found herself turned around by an angry Shivaay.

"Just shutup, Anika. Stop it, and listen to..."

"How dare you shout at her and treat my daughter that way!"

Rajveer pushed Shivaay away from Anika and looked at her wrist where Shivaay's hard grip had left a deep red mark.

"Are you okay? I'll put ointment on this, then you'll be alright."

Not being able to bear the happenings around her, Anika snatched her hand from Rajveer''s grip and ran towards the mansion, and locked herself in her room ignoring everyone shouting her name.

Anyone's pleasing didn't lead Anika to open the door and she sat on the floor leaning to the bed and facing the window overlooking the bright and clear blue of the open sky.

Outside the room, everyone trying their best to get Anika to open the door, Rajveer even sweared to go away from her life for ever but the door remained closed.

"Uncle please don't be disheartened. She- she's just shocked. Once she adapts to the situation she'll listen to you."

"I- I don't want to hurt her, Om beta. May be it's only good for her I stay away from her."

"No, uncle. The truth would come out one day or the other, and then she would be more unhappy, she'll regret hating you and she'll hurt herself more. You also know that she'll be the happiest person to know that her father never left her or betrayed her mother."

"Yes, Rajveer bhai sahab. We're so happy to see you all right and in front of us, then Anika is your daughter, think about her happiness when she'll realise she has a family in her father. How relieved she would be when she'll know that her parents never wanted to leave her."

Said Janvi, and Rajveer nodded, still crying and looking at the closed door. There was no sound he could hear from the other side but the tender heart of a father could hear that his daughter is in pain and is crying.

"Om sir, here are the keys to open this door, Shivaay sir said we have no other way to handle this situation. He says it would be better if Rajveer sir talked to Anika alone."

Khanna came running towards them and forwarded the keys as he said this. And Om, without another word, opened the door for Rajveer and then left from there to find Shivaay, who must be regretting that he shouted at his lifeline. That idiot of a man wouldn't blame the situation but himself and he has to handle him. Rudra followed him too, thinking the same thing.

The click followed by the opening of the door grabbed Anika's attention and she looked up to see Rajveer coming towards her, in slow steps. He took seat beside her on the floor and she averted her gaze from him.

"You're still the same. Locking herself up when angry."

"Helpless. Dejected. Disappointed are the words."

She replied, without looking at him, in a voice betraying the ache in her heart.

"Your hatred is justified. Any child would hate a parent who left his or her mother and them for someone else."

"Then why are you here, now? When I've coped up with my past and left it behind? When I want to live in my present and anticipate a better future."

"I'll give you all the answers that you want. But on a condition. You would let me speak. You won't interrupt."

She didn't reply. What if he was away from his daughter for so many years. But he knew her every habit, good or bad, very clearly. She was not the one to shout at the one she would ever be disappointed with. But she would simply ignore them, not awnswer them.

"You remember, I used to tell you that we should help others? We shouldn't tolerate if someone does something wrong to you or anyone else? I was just doing that. I was also trying to do what was right. I was also trying to stop something wrong happening to someone."

"Have you seen Prithviraj Singh Oberoi, Shivaay's Dada ji?"

He asked but continued without waiting for her reply.

"I was an employee in his company, but only for namesake. He had always treated me more like a son. Meera- your mom and and I, we both used to love him and Kalyani Ma like we loved our own parents."

"I can't say everything was going fine, because it was not. In Oberoi family there was nothing normal. Daily fights on Tej's part about property, Janvi's depression and then Shivaay, Omkara, Rudra and Priyanka were always being harassed, mentally."

"Prithvi uncle knew that Tej doesn't deserve to be given the position of a CEO of Oberoi Industries, he would ruin everything if he got the position. He wanted Shivaay to handle the business. But ofcourse, he was just fourteen that time. It wasn't possible. But he distributed the property and shares among his four grandchildren. Shivaay was declared to be the prospected CEO. It was declared that he would take the position as soon as he has completed his education. Until then, I was to help Prithvi uncle in the business. And if- if needed, to help Shivaay too."

"May be he had already anticipated what the future held for him. When Tej got to know about his will, he- he was enraged. His hopes had crashed and he didn't want to be outdone by his own son. Actually, he didn't want to be outdone by anyone. He k- killed Prithvi uncle."

A gasp left Anika's mouth despite knowing the truth already. Even if this same thing would be repeated thousand times, she would be as shocked everytime as she had been for the first time.

"You would be thinking I had the time to record the video but not to save uncle. (He chuckled) I wasn't there. I- I saw the whole thing in Prithvi uncles pen camara. The pen was in the pen holder kept on his table and it had a camera. Tej's face was recorded in it when he- he was killing uncle."

"When I was told about his death I had this uneasiness in me that I couldn't ignore. I had to clear my doubts and I was right. Tej didn't know about the pen cam. But unfortunately, he found me checking Prithvi uncle's cabin. As a precaution I had already sent the video to Meera."

"Now that I think of it, I think it was the biggest mistake I had ever committed in my life. Had I not involved Meeru in all of this, she would've been alive."

Anika looked at him, sensing the same tenderness in his voice that she used to hear when he would call her mother with that nickname 'Meeru', no matter how much it irritated her. Seeing the tears on his slightly wrinkled but still handsome face, she wanted to hug him and console him but wasn't she too late? Hadn't she hurted him too much to repent now?

"Tej sent his men to bring Meera to him. That bastard wanted to- But Meera hid herself from them as much as she could. She could save herself from those strangers but she didn't know that we had wolves in our own house. My own brother and sister-in-law betrayed us for money. Tej's men bribed them to tell about Meera but those greedy vultures wanted more money. They wanted to talk to their so called boss."

"They never met Tej, because he wanted to keep himself as hidden as possible but they talked to him. He had told them that he didn't want the matter to be disclosed in front of the world so it was better if the proves were destroyed forever. Neelam and Mahinder misinterpreted the whole thing and- and they killed Meera, and then proved it to be a suicide because I- I had left her for another woman."

"I didn't get to know about their betrayal and my- my Meeru's death until Shivaay told me two moths ago."

"But how-"

Anika interupted but he stopped her.

"I'm coming to what you want to know."

"Tej held me captivated but I knew he would kill me sooner or later. Fortunately I escaped the place he had kept me in and while running from there I- met with an accident. The road I was running on, it had a cliff on the other side and I was thrown down the cliff by the lorry that hit me."

"His goons had seen my accident as they were chasing me. I can't believe Tej was foolish enough to think I wouldn't have survived falling down from such height and that too after an accident."

Tears of regret sprang from her eyes and she clutched her knees in her arms, pressing them against her chest. Her father had to bear so much and all her life she hated him for something he had never done. He wanted to bring justice but he was wronged himself. She hated her mother all her life, for being so cowardly and leaving her all alone but she was betrayed.

"You- w- how did you- how did you survive?"

The simple question, but she talked to him. The mere question filled him with such happiness that he smiled widely. She didn't look at him with hatred in her eyes, atleast.

"I was saved by a group of foreign tourists. What I remember after that was I found myself in a hospital, and I knew nothing about myself but the initials engraved in my chest, 'A&M"

"Call it a stupid, filmy and too impossible kind of a coincidence that the doctor who helped me coming out of the trauma of the accident, named me Rajveer itself, which was actually my real name. It took me two years to convalescence. I had no memories from the past to keep me going, or no reason to live. My doctor helped me and with his help I started volunteering as an orphanage worker."

"But it's not easy for orphaned children to live. The so called donations were never enough to provide them a good future. That gave me a reason, to live."

"Long story short, I started a small business and memories were lost, but the experience given to me by Prithvi uncle was still engraved in my useless mind. The small business progressed and there was no going back. I never wanted fame or unnecessary attention, my life was complicated enough already. I didn't want to make acquaintances with those who were unnecessary while I didn't remember those who might have been important to me. The money I make can help the children to make a better life for themselves, that was more than the motivation I needed and I just kept working harder."

"And you named your empire A&M?"

She asked, her voice barely audible and hoarse with all the crying she had done and still doing.

"Yes. My mind was blank but heart was too clear about this. There was no chance I could've thought of some other name."

"My memories took more than 8 years to get back to me. I got to know about Meeru's suicide after I went missing. The fact that I was blamed for something I couldn't even think of doing was killing me. But I didn't want to loose anymore time in grieving but I wanted to search for Meeru, you, and Ma."

"I didn't want to appear infront of the world just yet lest Tej found about me. So I hired some personal investigators to find you all and tell about me. But what I found was the news about your d-death."

"Neelam and Harsh- they told them that you both died. They found their investigation about me and my wife and daughter suspicious, so they lied. They wanted to damp down any kind of suspicions raised about my family so that no one gets to know about their deeds."

"And I- I lost my everything once again but this time, the pain was unbearable. This time I had not lost my memories. These memories helped me live but those same memories hurt me too. The fact that  the most important people of my life were now a memory hurt me."

"I could come and meet Harsh and Neelam because they were also my family but I didn't. I just couldn't, that time I didn't know why. But no I know. They were never family."

"It was two months ago that Shivaay met me in a meeting. I was tracing his activities and I was really proud of that boy. He didn't only handle the business but excelled in the field, leaving everyone behind. I wanted to meet him once. And the project his company offered me was my chance."

"When he saw me there, he recognised me and the perfect businessman that he is, he didn't waste time in waiting for the meeting to end. He told everyone present there to excuse us both, without even thinking about the consequences of what others might think. And you know what the first thing he asked me?"

"How could you leave your daughter for someone else?"

Rajveer paused to look at Anika's face as she smiled faintly and he smiled, confused. He was confused that day, too.

"It was surprising, know? I mean, he knew me, he knew Meera but he had barely met you once or twice, that too when you were a little girl of four, or may be six. And in that one meeting too you had poured water on him that he avoided you always."

Anika chuckled. She doesn't remember but imagination itself was so funny.

"Anyway! I had no other way but to answer his questions. I didn't know if he would trust me or not. But he did. He told me everything. Knowing about Neelam and Harsh's betrayal was more than enough for me to know that they would've been the ones responsible for Meera's death in someway. And Shivaay inquired them and they spat the truth out. Although I still don't know why the boy had them captivated."

Anika's eyes widened for a second, realising that her father doesn't know how she met Shivaay and how would he react if he did? To top that off, Shivaay's mysterious actions. She never knew he could go to this extent to punish someone who wronged her.

"He wanted to kill Tej just the next moment he found but I stopped him. Trust me the boy is a hurricane when he is angry. I had to take three pills to control my BP that day."

"The same day we had decided to do all this drama. You know the rest."

Silence prevailed the room, but the birds kept twittering while returning to their nests as the sun set in the horizon. Rajveer waited mad waited for her to speak up something, anything. But she stayed silent.

And after the silence what he heard was the loud, painful wail escaping her mouth, as she let her hands fall on the floor as if she was lifeless.

He couldn't wait more for her to take a step towards him. He couldn't see his daughter crying anymore. The daughter who should've been pampered like a doll in her father's cocoon had to spend her life earning for a living, struggling to make ends meet.

He neared her curled body and pulled her to his chest and picked her hands to wound them around his neck, like she would always used to do in childhood. And he felt home.

His Meeru might not be there with him but she had left a part of herself behind. His daughter was his Meeru and he was happy that he atleast had his daughter with him. He let her cry as much as she wanted to, because these tears were going to be last she would shed. He won't let anything harm her, never ever.

The time he had lost couldn't be brought back. But it's okay. He had to take care that nothing would go wrong now. He had to take care of his chhoti si gudiya.

A new chapter of their life was going to open and he would make sure it's okay, it's beautiful.

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The longest chapter of this book and the most difficult one to.. phewww!

Hope you all liked it. Don't forget to give your views and please vote.

Love you all a lot💕💕💕