the janmashtami update ya'll missed ✨

-• forgotten •-

We collectively forget to inform Yuvraaj about Dad's condition.

It's when Dad is discharged from the hospital and brought home that he says, quiet disheartened might I add that, "Yuvraaj didn't even call to check up on me."

Shell shocked, our eyes flicker to each other across the living room.

Noticing the tensed atmosphere, "He does know I was in the hospital, right?" Dad asks, thanking Ayush who helps him settle on the couch.

"Shit!" Vivaan swears under his breath and storms off upstairs, typing something hurriedly on his phone.

"I dropped a text in the chat group the moment I got a call from the hospital." Is my pathetic excuse.

"As if he'd ever check the WhatsApp group." Agastya murmurs.

That's true. Even the ghosts in this palace knows, the whole property might catch fire but Yuvraaj wouldn't know unless he sees the smoke entering his room. That's how aloof he stays from his family.

Maybe I should have tried harder.

When the hospital tried to contact him, he must have already boarded the flight. But it was our duty to keep trying to call him. It's not like he went trekking on Mount Everest that his phone wouldn't have service for days on. It's just slipped our minds.

"It's in the time of need that we lean on each other. That's what family is. How can you forget him?" Dad asks, sounding extremely hurt.

"Vivaan Bhai came and then it just didn't matter." Agastya defends.

"Yeah," Yuvaan agrees. "It's not like his input is more than monetary support. It's not our fault."

"Do you feel the same, Tara?" Dad looks at me, his eyes brimming with tears.

"I'll be in my room." Janet whispers, patting my shoulder before she walks away.

"It wasn't intentional, Dad." I say softly. "And you don't have to worry about it-"

"How can I not?" He gets up from the couch. "My six kids, collectively forgot about their elder brother, because they didn't realise his absence!"

"Dad, you're overreacting." Agastya scoffs.

"No, I'm not. I'm worried about the future." Dad sniffles. "I can't believe this. Two days. And none of you, none of you realised your elder brother's absence?"

"Well, what do you expect!?" Yuvaan snaps.

"I've told him-" Vivaan's gait slows down on the stairs. "What's wrong?"

"The moment he appeared," Yuvaan points at Vivaan, "We felt safe, we felt like we didn't need to be responsible yet, and that we can be ourselves as long as he's there to handle the important stuff. Sure, Yuvraaj Bhai did a lot. He does a lot. But there's something he never gave us, his presence." Yuvaan asserts. "You can't expect the world to understand you when you act so cold, so reclusive all the damn time."

My eyes snap to him in surprise. He still remembers that?

"If we don't remember him in the moments he was present, how are we going remember him in the moments he is absent?"

"Yuvaan, enough." Vivaan walks downstairs.

"You can't fix a lifetime of mistakes just because you've a timer on you right now."

"Yuvaan, bas, please." Vivaan begs.

Dad's chin trembles. He turns around and walks off to his room. I look between him and Vivaan. My brother nods at me to follow our father. I sigh softly, shaking my head at Yuvaan's insensitivity and rushing behind Dad.

There was no need to turn something so insignificant into a full blown melodramatic episode of confrontations over past mistakes. As if he's always there for us in times of need. It's easy to blame others. If he looked back in the past, heck if he even looked back to a day ago, he'd realise Arush had to drive twenty miles just because he wasn't answering his phone. He's same as Yuvraaj. You can't fault the eldest because he's the eldest.

I'm sure he was just a kid when Yuvraaj stepped up to handle the family business. He could have run away, chosen his passion over his family, but he didn't. It's because we have the assurity of having that financial and emotional security that we can rebel and openly choose our dreams. If he had done the same, we wouldn't be where we are right now. But only if Yuvaan understood the meaning of the word gratitude.

I follow Dad into his room and close the door behind me. He sits down on the couch and breaks down in heavy sobs. I click my tongue, occupying the space next to him and lending him my shoulder to lean on.

"I don't want you guys to forget him as you forgot me." He cries muffled against my fleecy sweatshirt.

My eyes tear up. "Dad, it's nothing like that-"

He shakes his head and pulls away, looking into my eyes. "I failed. Okay? And I know that. I prioritised my pain over my kids' and I'm paying for my sins. But that boy! He had to become me at the age of sixteen! He did everything. From performing his mother's last rites to handling the kids to looking after the business to studying alongside! He did everything!"

I nod.

"No, you don't understand." He grits out. "I can't stand my son getting abandoned by his own family. I can't stand my son becoming another me. Because I deserved it. He doesn't. He deserves love, he deserves to be acknowledged for everything he has sacrificed to provide for you guys!" He bursts out in tears. "He still- He still has that Juilliard acceptance letter. He was selected in the best music school. And he couldn't go. He...." He breathes shakily. "My son quietly read the letter, cried for hours in his room, and then locked that letter for the rest of his life in the drawer of his study room." He heaves, visibly, physically, he cries like his world is falling apart. "People say, this was his fate. And that he was born to become the great business tycoon. No, he was forced. He didn't choose this. He accepted this. He didn't give birth to those six boys. He didn't choose them. He accepted them. He didn't tell me to go and have a daughter with the woman I love. He didn't choose to have you. But he accepted you. And the only woman- the only woman he ever wanted, didn't stay, because he- he accepted me."

"What do you mean?" I frown.

"Sara left him because of me. Because I was a coward. Because even after years of repentance, I wasn't willing to face the horrors of what I had witnessed in the past." He sniffs, wiping the tears from his cheeks. "My son had a chance to have a family of his own, to fall for a woman he was beginning to grow fond of, to create his own world where he didn't have to carry the burdens of my mistakes. But he still, as always, chose his family over everything else. And Yuvaan says he shouldn't expect the world to understand him? He doesn't need the world to understand him. He needs you guys." Dad cups my cheek. "He won't say it, he won't say a word, but he'd break apart if he had heard that. It's not the five of you on one side and him on the other. No, it's you, all together, as a team."

I hold the back of his hand, nodding in response to his words.

"He has built this family, Tara. Promise me you'll hold it together." He murmurs. "These boys are surviving, teach them how to live, please."

I swallow.

"Please promise me, you'll never give up on them."

I blink. "Uh-"

"You won't, right?"

I shake my head.

"Promise?"

I sigh in defeat. "Promise."

Finally, he smiles. I gasp softly when he pulls me in for a bone crushing hug. "Thank you, you're my only hope." I feel a smile come up on my lips and hug him back. He pulls away to press a kiss on my forehead. I keep him company until it's time for his medication. Once I've done my job, I make him lie down on the bed and warn him to do nothing but rest. Closing the door of his room, I release the knob and pinch the bridge of my nose. I haven't had a good sleep since last few nights. Who am I kidding? I never have good sleep these days.

"Tara!" Startling, I turn my head to the right. Janet stands at her doorstep, beckoning me closer. I make my way towards her room. "What happened? Why is your shoulder wet?" She squints her eyes at the wet patch on my shoulder. "Wait, did he cry?"

"He was very upset that we forgot about Yuvraaj Bhai."

She shrugs, sitting down on the edge of her bed and motioning me towards the couch in front of her. I take a seat.

"Don't blame yourself. We reach out to the person we know is always available for us. It's not your fault."

"Yeah, I know. But he clearly didn't think it from that perspective. He made me promise to never give up on them. To keep the family together."

She snorts. "What are you? A glue stick."

"Janet."

"What? No, it's not your job to keep the family together. You don't have your life?"

"Janet, he's just a father looking out for his kids."

"I understand, Tara, but he shouldn't burden you like this. Imagine in the future, you guys are not this close, you'll be always guilty that you couldn't keep the promise you made to your father. Staying together is a mutual effort. It's not one person's responsibility." She explains. "I think, your father's being emotional, and you shouldn't take this to heart. Sure, do your best. But once you know you've done enough, back out. You can try much as you want to protect that fragile little house of cards you've made, but if there's no one to close the windows for you, the wind's gonna blow and it's all gonna come crashing down to the floor. It's inevitable."

I nod slowly, realising she wasn't saying anything wrong either.

"And I've a news for you," she smiles, stretching over the side of her bed for her phone on the nightstand. "See this," she turns the phone screen around.

"You were right." Janet says in relief.

"He was spotted hanging out and enjoying quality time with her," I say in a startling realisation.

She scoffs. "That's not important. He really broke up with her. For you."

"Bare minimum." I state. "Actually, not even bare minimum. That's what any decent guy would do."

"True," she smiles. "But now I can ship you both."

"What?"

"I even have a ship name! TarYa."

I grimace.

"It sounded better in my head." She justifies. "Anyway, what's the plan now?"

"You wanted me to forget about the unworthy men-"

"Okay, that was a different me." She holds up a finger. "And since when did you start taking my advice, Taranya? Like c'mon, if you were that sensible, your life wouldn't be such a mess." She snaps her fingers sassily.

My mouth falls agape. "You're such a two faced bitch."

"Excuse me! Don't call me that!"

"What? Bitch?"

"No, two faced."

"So I can call you bitch?" I raise a brow.

"Oh, you think you're smart huh?" She counters.

I chuckle, looking back down at the article. Ayush barges in, flinching both of us. He holds out a phone to me.

"Babe, knock?"

Ayush blushes deep red from his neck to the tip of his ears. "Sorry. This is for you. Excuse me." I'm sure he was thrown off by the casual babe she called him. I hold back a snicker, pressing the phone to my ear. Ayush immediately leaves.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

I sit straight alarmingly. The other phone in my hand clatters to the ground. Janet jolts too. "Shourya?" She whispers. I nod.

"Tara?" The deep voice captures my attention.

"Totally not reading the news of your break up!"

Janet slaps a hand on her forehead.

Shourya laughs. "You are."

"Yes, I am." I admit, closing my eyes in embarrassment. "Sorry, that was stupid. Ignore me." I say. Janet comes to sit next to me and leans over, openly eavesdropping on our conversation. I try to push her away but she doesn't budge. "What did you call me for?"

"Oh, yeah, I've managed to restore the contacts. I mean, my friend. He managed to restore the sim." He informs.

"That's good."

"Yeah, so, uhm, should we meet?"

"Like.... like us?" I glare at Janet to stop leaning on me so much. She holds up her weight on her hands, her ear pressed to the back of Ayush's phone.

"Yeah, inform the twins and Atharva and... And let's meet at your work place. If you're free."

"He didn't take my name." Janet whispers, offended.

I ignore her. "Oh, right, yeah. We should meet. Everyone should meet. Together."

"Yup."

"In an hour?"

"In an hour." He confirms.

"Alright, see you." I hang up and release a breath I didn't realise I was holding. Janet's hand slips from the edge and she tumbles between the couch and coffee table, her knees take the most hit. She sits straight with a hiss, rubbing the red skin tenderly.

"He's bad at getting hints."

"You've no idea how good he flirts." I get up with a smile. "And mind your business." I kick her aside and walk up to the door.

"Your business is my business, bitch."

I exit her room with a scoff. "Get ready, we're leaving in fifteen." I tell her and close the door. Upstairs at the third floor, I return the phone to Ayush and inform him the same, requesting him to pass on the news to his twin since I've to get ready as well and Arush isn't in his room right now.

As I choose a dress to put on, I give a call to Atharva.

"Yeah?"

"Shourya's friend managed to restore the contacts. Let's meet at my workplace in an hour."

"Sure, see you there." He hangs up.

I pick out a lilac purple belted wrap dress with v neck and lantern sleeves. Putting it on, I straighten the hem. Confused about what to do with my hair, I google a few hairstyles and choose to half tie them with a lacy bow. I decide to add a pearl pendant and a nude lipstick to finish the outfit. I look pretty.

Will he like this colour on me?

Then the smile slips.

"You're not going on a date. What is wrong with you!?" I chastise my reflection and wipe off the lipstick from my lips, instead applying lipbalm and storming out of the room. I storm back in realising I left my phone and haven't worn my purple pumps yet.

Slipping some cash into my purse, I sling it diagonally across my shoulder so it rests on my hip bones. Opening the door, I step out, cursing under my breath when I remember I didn't put on my perfume. I go back inside my room.

The twins are already waiting for me outside when I'm done. They look from their phones at the same time and a similar frown covers their similar faces.

"You're not going on a date." Ayush says.

"This is how I get ready everyday."

"No, you don't." Arush shakes his head.

"It's my recent style. I stole it from Pinterest." I kick a leg backward, lifting my shoulders and posing with my hands interlaced. "How is it?" I grin.

"Ugh, gross." Arush walks off.

Ayush eyes me in pity. "Stop that."

I clear my throat and stand straight.

"Don't ever do that if you don't want to die single." And he follows his twin.

"Was it that bad?" I ask myself. "I'm sure I looked cute." I nod, heading downstairs.

"Girl, you're slaying that colour." Janet whistles.

I giggle. "I know."

"But for the record, it's not a detective outfit."

"I'm trying to be a journalist."

"That's giving me mean girls vibe. And I'm sure they were far from being a journalist." Janet replies.

I stop at the middle of the staircase. "Janet, should I change?"

"Noooooo." She exaggerates the pronunciation.

"Then stop passing comments." I snort and resume walking. She pulls me to her side the moment I step on the floor.

"Shourya's going to squirm a lot in his seat today." She whispers in my ears.

I slap her arm, holding back a smile as we follow the twins out. The drive to my cafe lasts a good forty minutes. Janet doesn't stop teasing me throughout the journey. She has hyped me so much I'm actually looking forward to Shourya's reaction now.

The bell chimes when Ayush pushes open the door. I walk in timidly, aware of all the attention I pull from the customers. Vishakha waves at me from behind the counter, her eyes enlarging when they take in my appearance from head to toe. I blush a little. My gaze darts around before it finds Shourya seated in a secluded booth, working on something on his laptop.

"Hey, there," Arush calls out.

He lifts his head and nods at the boys with a small smile, glancing at us girls before he looks back down at the laptop.

My heart stops.

Then he pauses typing and his gaze finds me again.

And my heart picks up the pace.

"Hey," I whisper, settling down across from him. He appears star struck.

"Shourya, stop." Ayush commands.

He tears his eyes off me. "Sorry," he clears his throat and looks back at the screen.

Atharva appears a minute later. He doesn't move for a moment when he sees me. I don't know whether to be embarrassed that I definitely overdid it for a casual meet up or proud that I had men stopping in their tracks to ogle at me. Both, I guess.

Ayush breaks him from his stupor.

"I'm sorry, I should worn something different." I mumble. "I overdid it." I whisper. Gosh, admitting it is more embarrassing. I should have just stayed quiet.

"No, purple is your colour." Atharva says, looking at me fondly.

"Yeah, purple is also your colour." Shourya whispers.

"Also?"

"Alright, back to work." Arush claps his hands, breaking the dream like daze. We focus on him. "Shourya had sent me the list of contacts so I got in touch with a few of them and Rishi, one of Inayat's classmate is coming to meet us. Let's see if we get something from him."

"What about the others?"

"One is in Australia for his further studies and the other is in Delhi. Both of them are busy. We can talk to them through video calls but we can't arrange a physical meet up." He replies.

"Her Instagram profile seemed pretty lonely to me." Janet sips on her lemonade. "She was friendless."

"That's what makes it so hard for us to move forward." I mumble, playing with the tissues. I leave them hunched, Shourya fixes them straight again. I bite back a smile. "When's he coming? Your friend?" I regard Arush curiously.

"He'll be here in- " the door chimes. A boy of our age enters. "He's here. Rishi!" Arush calls out loud. The boy looks our way and smiles, waving at Arush as he walks up to us. The waiter provides us an extra chair for the table. He sits down.

"Hey! I was surprised to hear from you after two year- oh wow," his eyes land on Janet, and then they shift to me, "Perfect." He whispers.

"Dude!"

"Right, sorry," he blinks. "Sorry, your highness -"

"Taranya." I cut him off.

"Taranya, sorry." He smiles sheepishly. "Anyway, yeah, I didn't really expect to hear from you." He looks back at Arush.

"Something came up and we need your help."

"With what?"

"Inayat Rizwan."

He goes still.

"Do you know something?" I lean in.

"No, it just struck a chord." He mutters. "Honestly, I know nothing. For the years they fostered me, I kept a low profile and just studied my ass off to get out of there."

"We understand." I nod. "I just want to know if something felt off, you know before the day she jumped off the school terrace."

"It was exam period." He states. "Even if something was off, I didn't notice."

My shoulders sag.

"Did you ever talk to her? I mean, you two were in the same class, sponsored by the same orphanage." Shourya says, catching our attention.

"Nope, the last I talked to her was in ninth grade. A year before that. And not intentionally or something. We had this mandatory healthcare check-up thing going on and I remember she was the only one with the same blood group as mine."

Janet snorts. "O+ is not that rare."

"No, we were the only ones with O-." He says.

"But the original report....." Atharva trails.

Shourya's eyes meet mine. "Call him!" I quickly fish out my phone and dial Mr. Khan's number.

"What's wrong?" Rishi asks in confusion.

I hold up a hand for him to wait. Mr. Khan answers just as I was about to give up and try again.

"Yes?"

"What was her blood group?"

"O+"

"Are you sure?"

"I was awarded at national level for my dedication towards healthcare sector, Princess Taranya. I never make mistakes. What's wrong?"

"Maybe.... And I don't know if I'm right, but the body that was brought to you, perhaps wasn't Inayat's."

"You mean...."

"There's a chance she's still alive."

Oops, another twist. I love this book. Things are gonna get messy now. Just ten chapters more.

Hope you enjoyed the book. Don't forget to vote and comment. Makes my day.