We'd finished moving two days later. I hadn't let out a single word about my turmoil to my dad. He'd asked me once as to what had made me freeze out completely in the midst of conversations, and I'd just replied that it was due to stress from work. He'd just nodded understandingly, and had asked me to take things slow.

It was as if my soul was simply glued together by two opposites; the part of me that felt guilty for suspecting my father, and the part of me that felt no remorse for it, were equally dominant over each other. I walked along the sidewalk of the street that now housed my new home, taking in the ample shade provided by the vast canopy of trees that let a few streaks of sunshine pass through them. In a way, just like these little streaks of sunshine through the sky of trees, there were still fortunate events happening in my life from time to time. This house, for example. There was no away a house in an area like this could be rented for the deal I'd got. It was time to throw away bitterness and sadness, and give way to better things.

I stopped by a supermarket for I suddenly craved myself some chocolate. It reminded me of the day when I'd been handed candies by my friend's boyfriend, who, hadn't spoken much, later then.

It was like the devil's summon when I saw him in front of me, checking out the ingredients of a ready-mix, and he looked at me too, startled, probably mirroring my own reaction.

"You are doing well, I hope?" He inquired, in a voice more kinder than I'd have wanted.

"Yes. I was just walking around, getting to know the neighbourhood." I said, feeling a little uneasy by his sudden question.

"Nice." He said, and made the smallest of a smile.

It was at that moment that my father decided to call me. 'I am in a supermarket here, dad. It's called Big Shoppe. It's quite near our house. Oh, you're coming too?' I said on the phone, and cut the call after the necessary sentences were spoken.

"My dad's coming in a few minutes. I'd really like it if you met him." I said to Arjun.

"Uhh.. Sorry, I've got some errands to do. Maybe some other time?" He declined immediately.

"Cos I think he'd want to personally meet the person who'd gotten us a good deal on the rent." I said, feeling quite brave. It'd been on my mind ever since I'd found out that he'd lived in the neighbourhood, and it wasn't quite hard to deduce.

It was a technique that my boss followed, a real life click-bait, putting up the facts right into their face so the person on the opposite side would be unnerved.

But he didn't hinge a bit as I hoped, nor did he try to deny it. He didn't even provide a small attempt of an excuse for it.

"No problem. I don't think you should trouble your father with such trivial things." He said, and with that, he turned back and went way. I didn't see him after the end of the aisle. 'Don't trouble your father with such trivial things' sounded, the way he'd spoken, more of a threat than polite conversation, and I felt myself shiver, for it was clear that he didn't want my father to know.

I dialled Shruthi, and she answered in a few rings. "Hey, girl." She said, in a cheerful voice.

"Hey, was Arjun was the one who suggested the house?" I asked her.

"Yes, I'd asked him, and luckily he was able to find one, right away. Amazing isn't he?" She said proudly. Creepy also, I wanted to add, but I didn't.

"Yep, he also helped me get a good bargain. Do you know anything about that?"

"I don't know about things like that, Anu. He has a lot of connections and is a pretty successful guy. So it's possible he's helped you out. But who cares about that? You got a once in a lifetime offer, right?" She said, with the voice of a proud girlfriend, 'oh look, how helpful my guy is'.

"Hmm. Yes. Thank you." I said.There were two inferences that I got from the conversation:

He was creepy. And he was onto something.

(or)

 He just being a helpful person and helping out his girlfriend's best friend.

"Why are you staring into space like that?" I heard the voice of my father, from beside me, scaring me a little.

"Nothing, dad. You're quite early." I said, cutting off the call with my friend. My father just shrugged, and proceeded to look at stuff displayed at the aisles. While I was losing my mind like crazy, my father was behaving like he always had. That made me mad even more. Wasn't a father supposed to know when his daughter was disturbed? Mine didn't even bother to check with me. Perhaps the death of my mother caused a void between us, or perhaps we'd had that void since forever. In any case, an invisible shield was present between us, which made us blind to each other's emotions.

It was then I realised, at that exact moment, he didn't ask me questions. Anything, ever. He didn't ask me how I was doing. He didn't ask about my work project, he didn't ask me about the new house. He did what he had to, and spoke occasionally. He was always a silent man, and I'd thought that he was sinking in his own river of depression. But sometimes, daughters could use a mentally strong father, so I wouldn't have any such horrible thoughts and deal with it alone.

I was engrossed in thoughts even in the office, and I failed to notice a sharp layer of plywood tearing off my cubicle, and hurt my hand. It had to be bandaged, and by the looks of it, the scar was going to be present for a long time. It ached a lot, every time I moved my hand or typed on the computer. Good luck wasn't favouring me nowadays.

I kept pressing the bandage to ease the pain as I walked towards a nearby cafe to have a cup of coffee. It took me by surprise when I saw Arjun sitting, supping from a mug, and acknowledged me with a small nod. I was officially creeped out.

"I work nearby, you know." He said, as though he could hear the voice in my head.

"That's what I thought. Your sightings are more often nowadays." I managed, and gave what I hoped was a wry smile.

He looked towards my hand, and his eyes widened. He ran towards me and took my hands in his and observed it, quite delicately.

"Did you, cut yourself?"

"Huh?" I asked, stupefied.

"Did you cut yourself?" He repeated. I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. The fact that he'd assume I'd cut made me have mixed emotions inside me. Was I really such a person? I didn't know anymore.

"I didn't cut myself. I just hurt myself in the office. Please don't think otherwise. I am quite well, physically and mentally." I broke out in long string of assurance, though it may have been for myself as well.

"Anu, you know, you have people to talk to. Right?" He said, which annoyed me a little, for I felt I was totally transparent.

"Yes."

"And believe me when I say I understand your pain too." He said.

What the hell?! I'd clearly said I hadn't cut, so why was he being so patronising?

"What pain?" I asked him..

"The pain of losing one's mother."

I let out a huff of breath in surprise. It was all was doing nowadays since I'd met this person. He was mysterious and closeted. Not to mention creepy.

But there are times when words escape your lips involuntarily, because you are programmed like that, even though you don't actually want to."Sorry to hear about that. When did that happen?"My lips spoke.

"Two months ago."

"I am very sorry."

No sooner had I said that, I realised the possibilities of the sentence he'd spoke. Shruthi hadn't said anything about him losing his mother. Like, she'd never spoken about his parents at all. If his mother had died just two months ago, I'd have known it. Unless he didn't say a word about it to Shruthi herself. Now what kind of a boyfriend didn't tell his girlfriend that that his mother died?

The ones who didn't care, either about the girlfriend or the mother. Or both? So if he was speaking the truth, why did he reveal it to me? Of all the people?

Was I the target or the accomplice?

"What the hell are you saying?" I said, my cowardliness gone, and feeling brave for the first time in a while.

"The truth." He blurted.

"Just who are you? And why would you keep secrets from your girlfriend? What do you want? I swear, that if you ever dare to think about hurting my friend, I won't let you go easily." I said. In fact, I had a good mind to call the police, and complain about a creep that was lurking.

"You're wrong. It's my own secret. Everyone has secrets." He said.

"Then why say them to me?" I said.

"Cos we are similar."

"No. We aren't."

"Yes."

"How?" I asked him.

"Say, you saw your dad's photograph with a woman. All it had to take was, 'dad, who's this?' But why didn't you? Was it because, deep inside, you were quite scared about the possibilities yourself?"

I felt like I'd been slapped. It was the damnest truth that could ever be spoken. I couldn't imagine the possibilities of getting proved right. The fact that I didn't really hold my father in a favourable light, in some part of my mind. Of everything I could know, he'd could have had an affair, that perfect loving husband.

I stormed away from the cafe after that, my body shaking with anger and vulnerability. How did he know that? How could he have just said it, out of the blue and it turn out to be right? Or was he deliberate, and had been waiting for a chance to say it?

Shakily, I dialled Shruthi. "Your boyfriend is an absolute creep. Just break up with him."

"Huh? Why?" She said.

"Because I said so."

"Just because you don't like him, doesn't mean he's all that." She said, and it made me irritated even more. Now I really understood the relatives of those murderers and child molesters. 'I never knew' they'd say on TV. It wasn't like you didn't know, bitch. You just refused to see it.

"Fine. Just don't come crying to me when he's murdered you." I said, and disconnected the call. I couldn't believe she'd believe him over me. What happened to all those years of friendship? Was there anyone just for me, in this wide world?

I heard a huff, and turned to see it was Arjun. He'd chased after me.

"I didn't mean to scare you, Anu. Maybe my approach to the topic was miscalculated. You got to believe me, here. I am a here-"

Miscalculated? It was like one of those new age movies where the protagonist dreams up an entire world and thinks its true, only to realise they've been fooled, and they were actually in a coma. I muttered a 'no thanks' and ran as fast I could, took a taxi to go home twice as fast.

My dad opened the door, newspaper in his hand. And at that moment, I couldn't care less about his affair, or affairs, his mistresses, lovers anything.

I just wanted a father. Him.

"There's a guy who's been troubling me, dad." I said.

"Really? Who?"

"His name's Arjun." I said.

His eyes widened for a fraction of second before he covered it with an angry expression. That,   he'd get angry by a name of a person rather than the action they'd committed was weird.

"How does he look like? Who is he?"

I wanted to laugh, it was blatantly obvious he was hoping it to be someone he knew. A real father would ask what had happened, and if I was doing okay. But how he looked like? No one except my father.

"As a matter of fact, I have his picture." I said. Deliberately, I showed him the picture of my office' HR guy, who was also named Arjun. My father scrutinised it for a while and gave the phone back to me with a little breath of relief.
"He keeps texting about us getting together , but I scolded him today." I said.

My father nodded. "You've got to be careful and brave, child." He said, and went back to his newspaper.

Thank you very much Dad. I was going to be careful and brave. I was not going to be made a fool of, now that I knew; just like Arjun said, everyone had their own secrets. My father had his own secrets, probably more than Arjun and I. Probably, it involved us three.