Chapter 23
Tying Some Loose Strings
Paying no heed to her surroundings, she entered the apartment gates as she walked straight ahead. With her face expressionless and eyes bloodshot, she climbed the stairs. Oblivious to the peculiar glances shot towards her, she chimed the door bell continuously until the door opened.
"Geet . . . What the hell--" Pinky gasped as she observed Geet's state . . . her clothes unkempt . . . her hair ruffled . . . her eyes bloodshot . . . Geet was a mess.
"What in the god's name---
Geet threw her arms around Pinky as she cried hysterically.
*****
Maan paced across the room, restlessly. His grandmother had told him, before getting Geet back in his life, he needed to know everything about his family. And so she had asked him to wait in his room while she got some things which he needed to see.
*****
"Geet please tell me what happened" Pinky urged. Geet had been crying for past fifteen minutes.
"I hate him" Geet pulled out as she hissed. "I hate him' hate him just hate him. I hate him so very much" She cried as she shook her head.
"God damn it" She fell to her knees. "How could he?"
"Geet'
Then she heard her baby doll shriek. "Meha" she whispered as she wiped her tears and sprang on her feet. Geet had t be strong, not for her own self but for her baby and so she would be.
*****
"Its half burned" Maan said, looking at the paper his grandmother had given him a few moments ago.
"It was a page of your mother's dairy. " Savitri Khurana replied, rather calmly "Pammi, your mother's younger sister, Kiran brought her home when their parents disowned her for she was pregnant and she wouldn't disclose the father's name. I do not know what she told Kiran, but your mother loved her a lot. She adopted Dev."
"Dev is not my brother" Maan cut in impatiently.
"Maan hear me out first silently."
"BUT'
"Please Maan, just let me complete first" Savitri urged.
*****
Geet lay cuddled up in the spread as she hugged her daughter, silently promising to always be there for her. Now that she was free off the shackles which held her back, now that she was free of the nagging questions which had for the past two years racked her nerves, now that she no longer wished for answers, now that she did not want to know why Maan had left her . . . she had decided to chuck him out of her life and her heart. He was from this day onwards, no one to her.
*****
"Pammi started living with us. Years went by . . . Annie was born . . . our family seemed complete . . . we were one big happy family. Then when you were fourteen, we sent you and Dev to London. Annie wanted to stay with her brothers. Kiran reasoned with your father to bring you and dev back but he refused. So I and Annie moved to London so she could stay near her brothers.
"Then I got a call from Kiran, saying she needed to talk with me urgently. She refused to tell me over phone. She asked me to come back but she also told me not to bring you children along. The day i came to Delhi, i was expecting her to come a the airport but Kiran did not show up. I took a cab to the Mansion and when i came here . . ." She said. "I saw something burn in the kitchen. Torn pages were on fire, and the one I gave you is one of them. Maan . . ." She stopped as she closed her eyes and breathed "Read it"
"Dear Dairy,
Today I realise that I have been living a false life for the past sixteen years. Strange as it is, I never saw through the lines. My husband was engaged in liaisons over these years, and I knew nothing of it. How could I have been so foolish and so blind and so in love? My sister, she broke my trust, she cheated me. Dev, my adopted son . . . Viraat fathered him. What did I do so wrong? Why did he cheat on me? Did I not love him eno'
The page was burned beyond that.
Maan looked up to meet the tearful gaze of his grandmother as he spoke, "Is this true"
"After I read this, I tried searching for Kiran but she was nowhere near the house. Later in the night, the police called to inform that her half incinerated body had been found near the temple."
"She killed herself" Maan's eyes widened in horror as he thought of his mother. He remembered the last time she had called him, and now he knew why she had told him . . .
"Maan... there is something I have to tell you... Beta, never, ever disrespect anyone... especially someone who loves you. A woman can take anything but not a blow at her trust and dignity by the man she loves"
"Nothing, just wanted to tell you... Promise me Maan you would respect the one who loves you... you wouldn't ever break her heart..."
His mother had wished for him to not become like his father. His mother had tried to tell him, in few words, what a girl's dignity meant. God! Was he any better than his father? His father broke his mother's heart . . . and he broke Geet's. But this was not about him.
"You, Dev and Annie were away in London. And I could not tell you the truth. I lied. I did not let you come here under the pretext that Annie was too young and she should be kept away from the mourning atmosphere in the house."
"I couldn't even see her for the last time" Maan mumbled.
"I am sorry Maan but . . . I . . . I was not strong enough to lie to you on your face"
*****
"Geet open the goddamn door" Pinky yelled, banging at the door.
"Geet . . . OPEN THE BLASTED DOOR"
*****
"Things happened and . . . I disowned your father. But I don't know how and why unexpectedly dev showed up . . . Dev was innocent. Like Kiran I loved him too. I couldn't tell him anything . . . I lied your father was out of station."
*****
Pinky called Arjun as she dictated to him how Geet had come home all wrecked and that now she wouldn't open her room's door. Arjun after asking pinky to calm down headed towards the pent house.
*****
"Then there was a car accident. Your father died on the spot. Pammi was crucial . . . I brought her home out of humanity. Then when she was fine, I asked her to leave but Dev was also here. He questioned my actions. I feared his reaction if he knew the truth. I let Pammi stay . . . I did it for Dev . . . It was a huge mistake. After that I don't know what happened but Dev refused to go back to London. And now I realise the blunder I did by letting Pammi stay close to him. He just drifted apart from us . . . from all of us."
"I should have told you the truth but I did not want the relation between Dev and you to be affected. I am sorry"
"Dadi ma it wasn't your fault." Maan stated "You did what you felt was right for your grandchildren."
*****
"Geet please open the door . . ." Arjun urged while pinky fidgeted with her fingers.
"What the hell is this entire ruckus" Geet thundered as she opened the door. She stood with her bro raised, her hair was dripping wet and she looked like . . . she looked fresh.
"Are you alright?" Arjun asked with concern laced in his tone.
"Absolutely" she replied with conviction.
"But" Pinky started but stopped as Geet cut in "But what . . . look at me, I am absolutely good' just fine"
*****
There were things he needed to know . . . things which ruined his mother. And at the moment he was on his way to the police station for he wanted to know if Dev knew the truth.
*****
"Guys, I am sleepy and so I am going to bed . . . If you want you may stand outside my room all night but dare you disturb my sleep" Geet smiled as she shut her room, leaving behind a confused pinky.
"You said she was crying' Arjun eyed Pinky accusingly.
"Don't look at me like . . ." Pinky replied "She was crying but she is no longer crying."
"I see" Arjun remarked.
*****
"After mom's death, and when Dadi did not let us come back to Delhi, I had got a call from Choti ma. She'd said that Dadi blamed her for mamma's death but she told me she had no idea why. She told me that I was not to tell you anything and that she would soon call me to Delhi and I was to come alone, without you. Then after a few days, she summoned for me to fly back to Delhi. I lied to you that I was going for a camping trip. I came back home and Dad and Choti ma was not in the mansion. Dadi ma was shocked to find me home but unlike I had suspected she did not ask me the reason why I was home. I asked her about Dad and she told me he and choti ma were out of station. Then like you know . . . the accident . . . and Dadi ma brought choti ma back home. But later on as Choti ma's health improved, Dadi asked her to leave. I was baffled. I asked Dadi what the matter was. But told me nothing, instead she called choti ma back. I stayed back in Delhi for choti ma asked me to. She told me if I left her, Dadi ma would chuck her out. She's like my mother, she loved me, and I couldn't have her leave us so I did as she asked."
"Are you sure this is all you know" Maan exclaimed, coldly.
"Is there anything else to know?"
"Do not lie to me Dev"
*****
"Tell the truth" the inspected barked as he punched dev on the face.
"I am telling the truth. I did not know I am Choti ma's son" Dev choked.
The inspected looked at Maan for a moment and the next second he hit Dev again.
*****
Maan watched as Dev withered in pain. As an elder brother, somewhere deep inside, he could feel a part of him dying hearing his brother's yelps. But then again, Dev deserved what was happening. He may not have known of the truth about his parentage but that did not lessen his sins. He had ruined Meera, and so he deserved every bit of the torture Maan would subject on him. Dev would pay for what he did to Meera, he would pay gravely.
Dev spat blood, as a blow was hurled onto his face . . . he was now, soaked in his own blood head-to-toe.
*****
"I am sorry bro" Dev begged.
"Pour ice cold water on him" Maan ordered, while Dev's eyes widened in shock.
*****
Dev winced as ice cold water was poured over him, as per Maan's orders.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Boiling water" Maan looked at the officials who shuddered seeing the cold wrath in Maan's eyes.
"You doing this because I am your step brother . . . Like mother like son"
"SHUT UP" Maan roared.
"WHAT . . . your mother never loved me. All my childhood I kept thinking why you were always the favoured one. Why it was me who got all the scolding? Now I know why . . . it was because I was not her son."
"SHE LOVED YOU" Maan thundered "Don't you dare question her love. She scolded you for your better, for she did not want you to go on a wrong path."
"You would say that, after all you are HER son"
"Shut the hell up Dev or Lord save you" Maan bellowed.
"My mother was right when she said you cared nothing of me but I was the silly one. I was worried about you, I was in a way guilty I took away your love from you but I did just the right thing."
"You bas****" Maan breezed as he trashed Dev.
*****
As Maan drove through the lanes of Delhi, he couldn't help but silently shed tears . . . Tears of regret. He knew one thing for certain he could ruin anything which was left of him but he would make himself worth her . . . he would bring back happiness in her life.
*****
Precap: Meha crawled away from Pinky while she chased a beetle.
A car honked its horn as Meha suddenly came in front of it.
It happened in a matter of seconds. Running his way across the lane, he pulled Meha in his arms. His eyes widened in horror as he turned and saw the car just inches away from him. The car came to a sudden still, as the tyres squealed and . . .
Maan clutched Meha close into his chest as he wrapped his hands around her tightly and whipped out of the car's way just in time. His tendon snapped as he stumbled and fell onto the ground over his back.
Precap 2: "What the hell do you think you doing" She bellowed as she breezed inside the hospital ward.
Precap 3: "I beg of you please stop it"
Sorry for not including the Teaser but my father is sitting in my room and is he sees what i am doing in the lappy i am so dead . . . so this is it for today . . . Probably another live update tomorrow . . . anyway, loved reading all the comments . . . sorry I couldn't click the like button for some of them as my like button only works when it wants to . . . Bloody network problems . . .
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