Chapter 1

oh nakhrewaali

@oh_nakhrewaali

Chapter 1

Ram stared blankly at the DNA reports Brinda had pushed in his hands. He read the words on it repeatedly and couldn't believe that the reports were claiming that Pihu was his daughter. Then, the words started blurring, and he fell to the ground.

When he woke up, he was lying on the couch in his cabin. He sat upright and tried to gather his thoughts, but the first thing he thought of was the DNA report. He forced his brain to start collecting more information, but the argument in the next room stopped his brain from comprehending. He stood at the interconnecting door between his and Adity's cabin.

"Why would you do that? Are you insane?" Aditya yelled.

"I was trying to help Ram! Now he knows the truth." Brinda answered.

"And how does it help him? One look at the report, and he crashed to the ground!"

"It was the shock, Adi!"

There was no reply for two seconds, which meant Aditya was giving Brinda an "are-you-for-real" look.

"Jaan, we decided we wouldn't interfere in Ram's life, anymore. Not after you messed up five years ago!" He said, trying to calming down.

"And that guilt eats me alive, alright? Every time I look at Priya and Pihu, I realize I messed up. I want to fix it. I know it's not my place, but at least if Pihu gets her real father, that guilt will become less, and I can meet Priya's eyes."

"We don't even know if Ram will accept Pihu? And what about Pihu? For her, Ram is just a stranger, her family's friend whom she is helping. Baby, even I feel guilty, but we don't know how Ram will react."

"What does that mean?" Brinda snapped. Aditya didn't reply for a few seconds.

"In the last five years, Ram has become unpredictable. He has been always impulsive, but with his flings and self-depreciation, I don't trust him to make the right decision, at least on the personal front. But that doesn't mean that I want to control his decisions."

"He was grieving!"

"He grieved Vedika for almost fifteen years, yet he was Ram. Now he is just a shell, and the only time he feels alive is when he is around Pihu and Priya. So yeah, I don't know how he will react to the news. What if he goes guns blazing and asks Priya to give him Pihu's custody? We know how attached he is to the child, and knowing that she is his daughter, what if he can't handle the separation?"

"You think I am capable of separating a mother from her child?" Ram asked as he stepped into the room.

"Ram, that's not what I.."

"That's exactly what you meant, Adi. And I won't lie to you. Sometimes, I just wanted to tell Priya to go away but couldn't bear the thought of Pihu leaving, and this was before I knew the truth. Knowing the truth that desire has increased tenfolds. But I know that Pihu is the only reason that is keeping Priya alive at the moment. I don't know why I know this, but I just know. So yeah, I won't go guns blazing and separate Pihu from Priya." Ram said and looked at his friends, waiting for them to argue further, but Aditya nodded appreciatively.

The three friends spend the next few minutes in awkward silence.

"Why did Priya lie to you? Even if she did have a fling on the side and was confused, over the years, she might have known the truth, right, so why didn't she tell anyone?" Brinda asked, and Ram looked at her curiously.

"I mean, the only reason I did the test is that Pihu is your splitting image, and Priya must have figured it out in these five years, so why didn't she tell Sara? If she had, Sara would have told Vikrant, and Vikrant would have told us, wouldn't he?"

"Maybe she didn't tell her family to prevent us from finding out. Sandy was working for us, and Sara was dating her child's "potential child snatching father's" friend." Ram said and threw Aditya a dirty look, who rolled his eyes. Brinda shrugged as if to say, "yeah, that makes sense."

"What are you going to do?" Aditya asked.

"Find out the truth," Ram said and stood up, "I won't go after Pihu or Priya, but I want to know why Priya would keep Pihu deprived of a father's love. It now makes sense why Pihu doesn't call Krish her father. They know the truth. And maybe Priya didn't want to come back into our lives, but still, I want to know if there is more to this mess." He walked out of the cabin, picked up the report from his desk in the adjoining cabin, and walked the long corridor of his office.

______________________________

Seeing Sandy squirm in the chair opposite him made Ram's heart bleed. He loved the kid. She was resourceful and over the years, had grown into a fine woman, just like her sister before she cheated on him. But the lies in Sandy's eyes made him see red. Do all Soods lie this easily?

"Sandy, the question is simple. Is this the truth?" Aditya asked. The three were in Sandy's cabin and had dropped the report on her desk and watched the color drain off her face.

"Ram Jiju..." She stuttered, and Ram raised his eyebrows. In the five years, she had refrained from calling him Jiju. It took almost six months, but she settled on Sir, making it much easier for Ram to look at her and not think about Priya.

"Answer, damn it!" Brinda snapped. "Did you know that Pihu is Ram's daughter?" Brinda asked, and she nodded. Ram felt as if someone had punched him in the guts.

"We all knew. One look at Pihu's eyes and we were hounding Pri Di because she lied to all of us. She said that things were way too complicated, and if she convinced you that Pihu wasn't your child, you'd hate her and not take her away. That made it easier for me to hide the whole thing from you even though I saw you guys almost every day and saw you spiraling." She looked at Ram. Was he this easy to read? Had he done such a horrible job at hiding the pain he was feeling?

"That is such bullshit!" Brinda said, and Ram agreed, but he could see Sandy's point of view. They had cut off the other Soods anyway, and for the first six months, they had ostracized Sandy for being a Sood. Of course, she wouldn't trust Ram to not hurt Priya. 

"Sandy, does Vikrant know?" Aditya asked, and Ram looked at his friend in horror. Aditya was solemn as if he meant business. Sandy nodded, and Ram lost it. He wanted to cry. His best friend! The man he had trusted for almost half his life!

"When Pihu was four, Sara Di had gone to visit Pihu. I don't know how she convinced Vikrant Sir to join her or what transpired there, but she came back and told us that Vikrant had figured it out."

The three were horrified. Vikrant knew the truth for almost a year and had  hidden it from them. Was his loyalty to Sara more than his loyalty to them?

"Sandy, can you not tell anyone that we know the truth? The second Priya finds out that we know, she will take Pihu away. I just want the whole truth, and I promise you, I won't take Pihu away from her mother. She has lived without a father for five years. She can manage to do so for the rest of her life, but she needs Priya, and I understand that." Ram requested her softly. She nodded.

"What are we going to do?" Aditya asked the second they stepped out of Sandy's cabin.

"Throw Vikrant a party!" Brinda answered.

______________________________

Getting Vikrant hammered was easy. He had very little alcohol tolerance, almost like Priya, Ram remembered, and for the first time, any memory of Priya didn't sting. Yes, there were chances she slept with another man while being married to him, but now, those chances seemed way too less.

"That Pihu is one hell of a kid, isn't she? The perfect mixture of Priya and Krish." Brinda asked, nursing her second glass of vodka. Vikrant couldn't lie when drunk; alcohol was his truth serum.

"You guys are blind, and idiots!" Vikrant mumbled.

"What?" Aditya egged him on.

"Man, you guys are stupid. That kid has blue eyes. Do you know someone else with blue eyes? Someone, I don't know, in this room, maybe. And you all bullied me in college and called me dumb!" Vikrant laughed and almost fell off his chair.

"Yes, we are idiots! But why didn't you tell us?" Aditya asked. Vikrant was the most cunning of the four men, only second to Brinda. Ram may have his way with people, but Vikrant had his way with words. That's why the four men made a great team. Ram was the face of the company, Aditya was resourceful, Kunal was the brain of the company, and Vikrant was the smooth talker. He never spoke out of line, but seeing him trash talk them was enough to know that he had lost his last ounce of consciousness.

"Because Priya told us to keep quiet. We thought it would be better if Ram didn't know that his sister's murderer was his mother's child. But hey, you took your wife's betrayal more strongly than your sister's death. Some loyalty, huh? Anyway, turns out, she didn't even kill him. What a mess, isn't it?" He asked. Before the other three could deal with the shock, he was asleep.

"What the f-"

______________________________

"What else is she hiding from us?" Brinda asked, rubbing her head. She was getting a headache and wanted to drink six more glasses and never wake up. But Aditya was focused on his friend. Five years of pain, and for what? Nothing. Ram spent five years hating everyone and hating himself for loving his sister's killer, but that was not even the truth.

"Now I believe she wasn't even with Krish!"

"No, she wasn't," Ram spoke. "I know it sounds stupid, but I messed up. It is Priya. Her moral compass points north, always. She couldn't have cheated. She could never do anything wrong."

"Except lie," Brinda muttered, and Aditya shushed her.

"But why?" Aditya asked. A fairly stupid and obvious question, but everything around them was being stupid and obvious from day 1, and they had closed their eyes.

"I don't care. I just know that Shivi wasn't killed by Priya, nor did she betray me. Isn't that enough?" Ram asked.

"No Ram, Shivi needs justice. Plus, what if whoever Priya lied to protect, uses that truth to manipulate her from going away? Priya has been alone for five years, you have been alone for five years. This is your chance for a happy ending, and you can finally have it, with all cards in the open." Aditya answered. Ram didn't agree, but it made sense.

______________________________

"Priya, can I ask you something?" Ram asked as he put away his wet towel. Priya nodded as she braided Pihu's hair.

"Why didn't you remarry?" Priya looked at him in surprise and then looked at Pihu, who seemed to have been interested in the question.

"Pihu, can you give us a minute?" She asked her kid, knowing the questions that were brewing in the child's head.

"But Miss Sood..."

"Please, love." She said, and Pihu stomped off.

"Where did this come from, Mr. Kapoor? We had established that we won't ask or care about each other's personal lives!" She snapped, but it was a weak defense, and Ram could see through it.

"I find it odd that you would deprive your kid of a father's love. You, of all people, would know how important it is to have a complete family, even if the father is a murderer." Ram replied calmly.

"That's none of your business," She turned to leave, but Ram walked closer to her, blocking her. He started walking closer to her till her back hit the wall, and she looked at him, her eyes wide open.

"Answer me, and I want the truth Priya. You never lied, so how did you spin out so many lies? About Shivi? About Pihu? About you and Krish?" He asked her, looking into her eyes.

"What does that even mean?" Priya tried, but Ram scoffed.

"You didn't kill Shivi. Shivi was like your child. You would die before hurting her."

"It was an accident!"

"Yes, but not because of you. You are protecting someone or hiding them. Who is it? Akki? Sara? It's not Sandy because she would have told us the truth, just like she told us Pihu's truth. She told me that I am Pihu's father."

The jig was up. Ram had placed one card on the table, ready to gamble away his sanity. Priya looked at him in horror.

"Why did she do that?" She muttered. The pain of betrayal in her eyes was worth watching. He loved her, with his soul, but that pain was a soothing palm on the grieving brother and betrayed husband's wounds.

"Brinda did a DNA test. She thought Pihu and I were too similar. Curious woman, that one," Ram shrugged.

"I had my reasons," Priya pushed him away.

"And I want to know them. If you had told me who killed Shivi, then you wouldn't have had to worry about me taking away our kid, so don't use that defense with me!" 

"I killed Shivi!"

"How do you live with yourself? Do you hate Akki and me so much? Have you ever met your so-called brother? He is dead inside, Priya. Each day, he curses himself for trusting the woman, who he thinks murdered his wife Every time I see him at those parties, he is like a shadow of a man, his smile doesn't reach his eyes, and he drinks like there is no tomorrow. Do you know why he won all those best actor awards in these five years? Because he pretends to be alive. You don't care about anyone! Not me, not Akki, and not about Shivi! You made your family lie to me! That Meera Sood, who prided in raising four honest kids, is nothing but a liar in my eyes anymore. You are nothing but selfish!"

"I am selfish?" Priya glared at him.

"Yes!"

"No, Mr. Kapoor, you are selfish! You are nothing but a selfish, spineless man who can't trust his wife. Why did you believe I could kill Shivi if you knew that I loved her like my child? Why did you just trust me when I said that I cheated on you? Didn't you trust me to stay true to my vows? Or was all that just a facade, and beneath it all was just an insecure man!"

"I am not insecure!" 

"I have never seen a more disgusting man, Mr. Kapoor, than my father, and you come close to that. I know you hate being compared to him, but it's the truth. The second I walk away, you treat people horribly, you stop believing in your principles, you call your ex-wife back in your life just to win back a deal because that's how petty you are!"

Ram opened his mouth to defend himself but realized that Priya was trying to avoid the conversation and take it in a whole new direction.

"At least I am not petty enough to protect a killer. Who can kill an innocent woman and then let another woman take the blame but a psychopath? It must be running in your blood, isn't it?"

"Ishaan is not a pyschopath! It was an accident!" Priya yelled and fell to the ground. After a second, she realized what she said and looked up at Ram.

"I am sorry.." She whispered. She was tired of lying and pretending. She just needed to go to her daughter and hug her and cry.

"He was a child, I had to protect him." Priya continued, but Ram stepped away and walked out of the room. 

Ram stepped out to the balcony, wanting some fresh air, but it started raining, and for the first time in five years, allowed himself to get wet in the rain. It was as if the rain was washing away his pain and hate. The rain was washing away all the dirt that had polluted him, Priya, and their innocent kid. 

He heard a sneeze and looked to his right. Pihu stood next to him, enjoying the rain. He smiled, with tears in his eyes, and hugged her. 

He didn't know what the future held. But he needed this. He needed his child. He just felt as if someone had taken off a load from his shoulder, and now he could love his kid without any guilt or hate.