The tension in the room was palpable, a heavy silence hanging over everyone as they tried to process what they had just learned. Vishakha's face was a storm of emotions—anger, hurt, betrayal—each one more intense than the last.

Her mind whirled with memories, echoes of her own past, of the pain she had endured, and the fear of history repeating itself gripped her like a vice. She couldn’t let her daughter suffer the way she had.

In a sudden, uncontrollable burst of rage, Vishakha strode forward, grabbing Nandini by the arm and pulling her away from Manik. Before anyone could react, she raised her hand and slapped Nandini hard across the face. The sound of the slap echoed through the room, followed by a shocked gasp from everyone present.

Nandini stumbled back, more from shock than the force of the blow, her hand instinctively going to her stinging cheek. Manik immediately stepped forward, his arms around Nandini as if to shield her from further harm.

His eyes were wide, a mix of disbelief and protective fury. His gaze darted around the room, realizing for the first time that they were not alone. The others were standing there, watching the scene unfold, their expressions mirroring the shock and confusion that filled the air.

Nandini blinked, her mind struggling to catch up with what had just happened. Vishakha had never hit her before, not once in her life, and the shock of it left her momentarily speechless. Her mother’s face, twisted in anger and pain, was something she had never seen before, and it sent a jolt of fear through her.

Vishakha’s voice trembled with a mix of rage and anguish as she spoke, her words coming out in a rush. “How could you, Nandini? How could you hide something like this from me? After everything, after all these years, this is how you repay me? By lying to me, by keeping secrets?”

Nandini opened her mouth to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. Vishakha’s anger was like a physical force, pushing her back, overwhelming her. She had never seen her mother like this, and it frightened her.

“I thought you were different,” Vishakha continued, her voice breaking. “I thought I had raised you better than this. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you have any idea what this means?”

“Mumma, please…” Nandini finally managed to whisper, her voice trembling. She reached out, trying to touch Vishakha, to somehow convey her remorse and fear, but Vishakha pulled back, not ready to be comforted, too consumed by her own emotions.

“How long, Nandini?” Vishakha demanded, her voice rising with each word. “How long has this been going on?”

Nandini hesitated, her eyes flickering to Manik for a brief moment before looking down at the floor. The truth felt heavy on her tongue, almost too heavy to speak, but she knew she had no choice.

“Six and a half years,” she said quietly, her voice barely audible.

The room fell into a stunned silence. Everyone was frozen in place, their minds struggling to comprehend the weight of those words. Six and a half years. The reality of it sank in, layer by layer, and with it came a flood of emotions—shock, betrayal, hurt, and for some, a deep sense of sadness.

Vishakha’s eyes widened, the full impact of what Nandini had said hitting her like a freight train. Six and a half years her daughter had been hiding this from her, lying to her, keeping this monumental secret. Tears welled up in her eyes, not just from the anger, but from the overwhelming sense of betrayal.

“Six and a half years,” she repeated, her voice cracking. “You’ve been lying to me for that long?”

Nandini couldn’t meet her mother’s eyes. She felt ashamed, guilty, but also a deep sense of fear for what was to come. “Mumma, I’m sorry…” she began, but Vishakha cut her off, her anger still burning hot.

“Sorry?” Vishakha’s voice was sharp, almost incredulous. “Sorry doesn’t even begin to cover it, Nandini. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? How could you keep this from me? How could you let it go on for so long?”

Neyonika and Raj exchanged a troubled glance, their own shock mixing with a growing concern for Manik and Nandini. Neyonika stepped forward, her voice soft but firm. “Vishakha, please, let’s talk about this calmly.”

But Vishakha was beyond reason, her emotions too raw, too intense. “Calmly? How can I be calm when my daughter has been deceiving me for years?” She turned her gaze to Manik, her eyes narrowing with a mix of accusation and pain. “And you… you were part of this. You knew what this would do to us, to our families, and yet you kept it going. How could you?”

Manik’s jaw tightened, but he held his ground. “I love Nandini,” he said simply, his voice steady despite the storm around him. “I’ve always loved her. We never meant to hurt anyone, but we couldn’t pretend we didn’t care for each other.”

“Love?” Vishakha spat out the word like it was poison. “You think love justifies lying and hiding and deceiving everyone around you? Love doesn’t work like that, Manik. Relationships don’t work like that.”

Nandini’s heart broke hearing the venom in her mother’s words. She knew Vishakha was hurting, but it still hurt to see her mother’s disapproval, to feel the weight of her anger.

“Mumma, please, just listen…” Nandini tried again, but Vishakha wouldn’t hear it.

“No, Nandini,” Vishakha interrupted, her voice firm, almost final. “I don’t want to hear it. You’ve already made your choices. You’ve already decided what’s more important to you. And clearly, it wasn’t your family.”

Mukti, Cabir, Alya, Dhruv, and Abhimanyu were standing off to the side, their shock slowly giving way to a deep sense of sadness. They felt betrayed, hurt that their friend had kept something so significant from them for so long.

Cabir was the first to speak, his voice tinged with disbelief. “Six and a half years, Manik? You didn’t think to tell us? We’re your friends… we’re supposed to be your family.”

Alya nodded, her eyes filled with hurt. “We would have understood… we would have supported you.”

Manik turned to them, his expression one of regret. “I know, and I’m sorry. I didn’t want to drag you all into it, not until I was sure… not until we were ready. But that doesn’t excuse keeping it from you. I’m sorry.”

Neyonika stepped forward, trying to mediate, trying to bring some calm to the storm. “Let’s not rush to conclusions. There’s clearly a lot we need to discuss, but yelling and accusations won’t solve anything.”

But the room was too charged with emotion for rational conversation. Vishakha was too hurt to think clearly, and the others were still reeling from the revelation. The shockwaves of what had just happened were still rippling through the room, and it was clear that nothing would be resolved quickly or easily.

Mahir and Bela exchanged worried glances, both of them knowing Vishakha well enough to understand that this wasn’t going to be a simple matter to resolve. Mahir sighed, rubbing his face as he tried to think of how to approach this.

Navya stood to the side, her mind racing as she tried to reconcile the fact that the mysterious boyfriend Nandini had been talking about was Manik. It all made sense now, but the shock of it was still settling in. She wanted to support Nandini but also understood the situation's gravity.

She was at a loss for words. She knew that Nandini was in love, but she had never imagined it would be with someone so close to all of them. She watched the scene unfold, feeling a mix of concern for Nandini and frustration at how things had spiraled out of control.

As the silence stretched on, heavy and suffocating, Nandini looked around at the faces of the people she cared about most. Her heart ached knowing she had hurt them, knowing she had kept something so important from them. But she also knew that she couldn’t turn back now. She couldn’t pretend that her love for Manik didn’t exist, that it wasn’t real.

Manik squeezed her hand, a silent reassurance that they were in this together. He knew the road ahead was going to be difficult, but he was ready to fight for their love, for their future.

But at that moment, with Vishakha’s anger still simmering and everyone else grappling with their own emotions, the future felt uncertain, the path ahead filled with obstacles they weren’t sure how to overcome.

Mahir and Raj, sensing the need to bring some order to the chaotic emotions filling the room, stepped forward. Mahir looked at Vishakha, his expression firm.

“Let’s settle down and talk this through,” he said, his voice calm but authoritative. Vishakha opened her mouth to argue, but Bela gently held her arm, a silent plea for patience.

Mahir added, more sternly this time, “No interruptions, please. We need to hear them out.”

Reluctantly, Vishakha nodded, though her eyes still burned with unresolved anger and hurt. Nandini and Manik sat down together on the edge of the bed, a united front despite the tension around them.

Raj, standing nearby, took a deep breath before speaking. “Why did you feel the need to hide this from us? What was so difficult that you couldn’t trust your families?”

Manik exchanged a glance with Nandini, silently encouraging her before he began. “After I moved from India to London for college, we started a long-distance relationship. It wasn’t easy, but we wanted to make sure what we had was real before bringing it to everyone. We needed time to figure things out on our own. In the beginning, it was just about balancing everything—our studies, the distance, and the pressures we were under. We didn’t want to rush into anything.”

He paused, and Nandini picked up the thread. “We kept it hidden initially just to understand how things would work between us. We didn’t want to announce something we weren’t sure about. But when our relationship turned one year old, we were confident, and that’s when we decided to build this house—Paradise Point. It was supposed to be our safe haven, a place where we could be together without any worries.”

Manik nodded, continuing the story. “After two years, we were ready to tell you all. I was planning to come back to India, and we had decided to first talk to Nandini’s family. But something came up at work, and I had to delay my trip.”

He stopped, his expression clouding with the memory, and Nandini took a deep breath before she spoke, her voice soft but steady. “One evening, I was with Mumma and the rest of the family, and Mumma suddenly asked me to promise that I would marry the person she chose for me. It was out of nowhere. I was stunned, and that’s when I realized she didn’t believe in love, or maybe she just didn’t believe in it for me. I was devastated. It felt like my entire world had just crumbled.”

Nandini’s voice wavered as she continued, the memory of that day still raw. “I left the house and came here, to our home, because I didn’t know where else to go. It was past midnight in London, but I called Manik. I was crying, I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t hesitate; he came back to India immediately.”

Manik took over, his voice low but filled with determination. “When I got here, we talked about everything. We were both scared—scared of losing each other, scared of what our families would say, scared of breaking the promise Nandini had made. So we decided to keep it hidden a little longer, to buy ourselves some time.”

Raj listened intently, his expression hard to read. “And how long were you planning to keep this a secret?” he asked, his tone measured but with an edge of disappointment.

Manik sighed, running a hand through his hair. “We weren’t going to hide it much longer. We had planned to disclose everything tonight, after the party. We knew it was time, and we didn’t want to wait any longer.”

Nandini looked up, her eyes pleading for understanding. “This wasn’t Manik’s fault. He never wanted to hide anything from his family, from all of you. It was because of me. I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone, and he agreed to keep it quiet because he knew how much I was struggling.”

Vishakha, who had been silent until now, was holding back her emotions with visible effort. Her fists were clenched at her sides, and her eyes were filled with a mix of hurt, anger, and something that looked like fear. She was processing everything, the words swirling in her mind, trying to reconcile the daughter she knew with the one sitting before her, confessing to years of deception.

The room was heavy with tension, the silence thick as everyone absorbed what they had just heard. The revelations were overwhelming, and it was clear that this was just the beginning of a long, difficult conversation. The air was charged with unspoken emotions, and it was clear that the road ahead was fraught with challenges and hard truths that would need to be faced head-on.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hope u all like the chapter.....

Few words for Manik....

Few words for Nandini....

What were your favourite moments???

Thank u 🙂🙂

Love,
Kiara ❤️❤️