Ashlok SS: Love Only Once EPILOGUE pg. 108 4/5

Astha gripped the chair hard, controlling her temper which is about to explode at any time. She gave another piercing look at her grandfather, while he did the same thing. They had been fighting about this for couple of days, still both of them remained stubborn to agree with each other.

"This is the last time I'm going to tell you, I won't allow you. I want no more discussion over this issue. Do you understand?" her grandfather asked sternly.

"Don't you understand? It was the last wish of my mother, your daughter!" she shouted.

"I don't know why she made this stupid wish, especially to you"

"Because she knew you will never agree! Besides I'm doing this for mother, I've no heart to meet that worthless lecherous skirt chaser who unfortunately happened to be my father!"

"Once he'll find about you, he will claim to have you"

"It will be my wish not his, my hatred for him is enough to refuse him"

"Still, he has done enough by ruining my daughter, I won't let him ruin my granddaughter. End of conversation, the decision is still the same, you wouldn't go to your father." He said and went out of the study leaving her alone.

***

Astha leaned against the railing of her balcony, enjoying the scenery of sunset. She was still fuming with anger for her grandfather's stubbornness yet she couldn't blame him for his hatred towards her father. She herself hates him to the core for making her mother miserable. Her mother never cried in front of her, remained strong but she knew in solitude, she grieved for her father. She still remembers the day when her mother asked her last wish.

"Astha, will..you do me a favor?" her mother said weakly as she lay on her bed.

Astha took her hand in her own, she replied "I will do anything for you, Mother."

She smiled tenderly and replied "your father never knew of your existence, I was selfish in my part because I knew he will claim you once he got to know about you, I never told him when I left him."

"It was good that you left him and took me with you, I wouldn't want to live with a man who--"

"No, my child. He is your father and will remain your father, you are the fruit of our love."

"Love? What love? He never loved you, you are the one who always loved him, till now you love him. But he? He was unfaithful to you even after marriage. He never thought about your love when he was wenching for his pleasure. Sometimes, I wonder why you love him even though he was unfaithful to you."

"Because I love him even though he is a rakehell, once you will be in love, then you will understand. It's hard to accept but what can I do? My heart can't stop loving him, I can't control my feelings for him."

"I would never fall in love especially with a rake."

"Don't say like that. If love fell in your lap, don't be an idiot, and push it off, hold it tight, my dear before you regret. Besides they say, A rake makes a better husband only if a girl can catch his heart not eye but his heart. If they settle down, they do just that, remain faithful."

"They also say, once a rake, always a rake." She pointed out.

"who says so? If that is the case, then the heart hasn't been caught. If a man attracts you and overwhelm your heart, will you ignore him because he's a rake?"

"Yes!"

"Nonsense! they make a better husband"

"But the man you loved didn't"

"your father is an exception, didn't I told you, catch his heart not eye, whatever love we share, it was pleasurable, more than pleasure."

"Mother, why are we having this discussion?"

"Because I want you to tell your father about your existence. Tell him that you are his daughter!"

"NO! I will never meet him, never tell him that I ever existed. I will never forgive him for what he did to you!"

"I have forgiven him, why can't you?"

"you bore feelings for him, I don't!"

"Please, Astha, this will be my last wish, it is his right to know, let him feel the happiness of having a child of his own."

Astha wiped the tears from her eyes, she have to fulfill her mother's last wish, she will go to her father, even without her grandfather's permission.