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"Indra, where are you?" Dad asked me as I attended his call.

"Just going out for some fresh air. Why dad? Do you need something?"

"Yes. I forgot a file in the bedroom and it's urgently needed for a meeting now. So can you please go home and send it to me? I tried calling your mom but she is not attending my calls. So please hurry up."

"Sure, dad. Just wait for a while. I will go there and send it with the driver."

Saying this, I ended the call and grabbing my car keys, I locked my apartment, and took the elevator.

After reaching the parking lot, I got into my car and left for my parent's house after giving life to the engine. Soon I reached there and parking the car aside, I went inside.

I looked around for the presence of my mom but I couldn't find her.

"Where is my mom?" I asked the house help in our house.

"She said that she is going to Yuktha mam's house!" I nodded at her slowly in acknowledgment.

"Did she take the driver along with her?" To my relief, she said 'yes, and I let out a relieved sigh, thinking about how I was escaped from running her errands.

After that, I went to my parent's room to search for the file that dad had asked for. As soon as I saw it on the bedside table, I took it and was about to exit but I halted on the way when my eyes fell on some sort of photograph which was on the floor.

Thinking that my mom or dad must have dropped it accidentally, I bent down to pick it up with a thought to keep it away. But as soon as I saw the persons in the photo, I frowned in confusion, seeing my mom with the other two persons.

One of them seemed somewhat familiar to me as if I had seen him somewhere but I couldn't remember where and when I saw him.

The three seemed to have shared an extraordinary relationship as it was clearly reflecting in their eyes and the smiles and joy on their faces were implying that they seemed to be so close..so close as if they were...

As soon as this thought came to my mind,  a fleet of recognition flashed through my eyes as I remembered where I saw him, precisely his photo and I immediately clenched my fists after recalling that I had seen the photo of the same person hanging in the living room of Yuktha's mom's house when I visited her house after dropping her last time.

If I was not wrong, he must be the father of Yuktha as I could see some resemblances of him in her and as for why he was in the same pic as my mom, explains only one thing. He must be that brother of my mom who she would always rant on continuously for hours, so proudly.

That explains why mom was making frequent visits to Yuktha's house. I just thought since she was feeling so lonely, staying all day in the house alone, she was going there to seek some company from Yuktha's mom.

But never in my dreams, I had imagined this would be the reason. So my mom got to know about her family.

'Is Yuktha aware of my mom's relationship with her family? She must be yet she chose to play dumb! The question is, is she aware of my mom's identity from the start itself, or did she get to know recently? Whatever, it doesn't change the fact that she hid everything!'

Fisting that pic in my hand, I marched out of their room angrily while holding the file that my dad asked for. After asking the driver to hand it over to my dad, I went to my car.

After getting on it, I tried calling my mom several times but she wasn't attending any. Having no choice, I called her driver and he informed me that mom along with Yuktha and her mom, rushed to the hospital.

Ending the call, I started driving there furiously as my mind still thinking about all the possible scenarios. After reaching there, I parked the car right in front of the hospital itself and stormed inside.

On my way, I asked about the whereabouts of Dr.Yuktha and got to know that she was in the emergency ward.

I was about to reach that ward when I saw her coming out of a room with a bright smile on her face and I looked around for the traces of my mom but she was nowhere to be seen. I could only see yuktha's mom and another lady who seemed to be the same age as my mom.

As I was inching forward, I got a clear glimpse of that lady and recognized her as the other one in the picture that was in my hand.

'So my guess is absolutely right!'

With this thought, I glared at yuktha whose face was still carrying the same smile on her face but it soon got wiped off when she noticed me and my angry stature.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw her coming on my way hurriedly after telling her mom something.

Seeing her tensed posture, I got to know all my guesses were correct and I immediately released a mirthless laugh.

As soon as she approached me, I immediately dragged her to a secluded spot and confronted her.

When she was still acting so clueless, I shoved the photo that I was carrying with me in her hands. Looking at it, she gave me a bewildered look and tried to explain herself but I was in no mood to pay heed to her words because I was fed up with that so-called family already.

So after informing her to tell my mom to come down within minutes and left from there, unable to hold these heavy emotions.

Sitting in my car, while waiting for my mom, I stared ahead blankly as my mind drifted to her previous question.

"So it was easy for you to accuse me and think bad of me just because I belonged to that family..right?"

She asked me this question while looking directly into my eyes. I could see the pain, hurt, and accusation in those beautiful orbs amidst the pool of glistening tears.

I couldn't tell her the answer then, right in front of her face but when I thought of it now, what she had asked me was so true.

I was thinking of all these things about her just because she belonged to that family, the family I hate with all my might.

I banged my fists on the steering wheel frustratedly and rested my head as I recalled the incident which had sprouted seed of hatred in my heart

Flashback:

"Please, I beg you. She is fighting between life and death. She is still hanging on to that little bit of hope. Please, she really wants to see her father once."

I saw my father pleading with a man who seemed to be the same as him, right in front of my eyes by folding his hands as I stood beside him silently, not understanding anything.

Then I saw that man ruthlessly pushing my father to the ground and I hurriedly kneeled on the floor beside my dad as he was sobbing, still folding his hands in front of his face.

"Please ask him to meet her once. Just once. After that, I promise we will never appear in front of you all."

That man just smiled wryly at my dad and folded his hands over his chest.

"She humiliated me by eloping from the marriage just to marry a pathetic man like you? Great! Just great! See, had she married me, she wouldn't have to be put herself in such a situation na. I pity her." He sighed as if he was sympathizing with us.

" but what's done is done and there is never a place for regrets. So Listen carefully now, never step into this place again. I warn you."

"Also tell her to give up on her hopes. Her father, I mean my father-in-law, stopped considering her as his daughter long ago. He didn't even want to look at you guys. That's why he sent me on his behalf to convey this message."

" 'Her life and death, is no longer, my concern.' these are his exact words. So show yourself out before I throw you guys out."

Having no choice, my dad lifted himself and turned around to leave with a defeated face while holding my hand.

"Hey, wait a minute." That man again stopped us.

As we both turned around, I saw him throwing some money in the air at our faces as my dad looked at him with a humiliated face.

"I know you came here for this only." Saying this, he went inside as my dad just stood rooted to the ground while glancing at the money on the floor.

My eyes kept on following that man till he went inside. Then I saw him greeting an old man who was coming on his way and telling him something while gesturing his hands towards us.

After glancing at us with a frown, I saw that old man smiling at him and patting his shoulder proudly.

Witnessing everything, though I was unaware of the happenings of this world, my innocent heart clearly understood one thing.

My dad loved my mom to the extent that he could even bear to beg others for her sake and happiness whereas the so-called family of hers wouldn't even bat an eye even when she was fighting her death.

End of the flashback

As a kid, I didn't understand why mom always cries in her bedroom when she thought no one was around her.

As a kid, witnessing the kids of my age, telling the tales of their vacation to their maternal grandparent's house, I truly longed to meet them.

But though I was unaware of all the things, I still understood that asking about them would make my mom sad. So I never questioned her anything about them.

I didn't know why couldn't my mom meet them like others. I didn't even know what was happening at all.

But the moment where my dad took me to their house, to fulfill my mom's wish, all my longing for them vanished into thin air.

The excitement to meet them, the love I always felt for them even when I didn't know anything about them, and enthusiasm to share my friends about the tales here, everything..everything turned into hatred at that moment. I respect I had for them turned into the loathing.

The humiliated state of my dad still haunts me even in my sleep. At that moment, I wanted to see their end for shaming my father but I was hardly 11 years old at that time, so I was so incapable of even saying anything.

My dad, whom I always looked up to as a hero was kneeling on the ground for the sake of his love. At that moment, I didn't see a businessman or the heir to his family's fortune instead all I saw him as was, a husband who was so desperate to fulfill his wife's wishes.

I witnessed the pure love and the viciousness of humans at the same time.  Seeing their cold behavior and snarky remarks, I molded myself into a stone-hearted person and vowed myself to make them pay back a hundred times for what they had put my family into. 

Fortunately, my mom recovered from that accident but the moment she got into her senses, the first thing I remembered her asking was about her father.

At that time, I saw the helplessness of my dad, struggling so hard to not break in front of her and to not let her know about the happenings there. He even made me promise to not open my mouth about anything that happened there.

As the days passed by, unable to answer her never-ending questions, he ordered her sternly to not bring their topic into this house again. So talking about them soon became a forbidden topic in our house.

Though I could see the longing in her eyes, she no longer asked for them anymore, and even at the mere mention of their name, my whole would body shook with rage.

So after knowing that Yuktha belonged to that family, I couldn't bring myself to believe her even when my heart was saying another thing.

'If only you didn't belong to that family, if only...'

As I was in my thoughts, I saw my mom getting into the car silently and without saying anything, I kept mum and drove away from there.

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