An SS on Ruhi's POV *Completed* - Page 4

"Please, I don't want you to be a part of this." She said to her father.

"But.."

"Please dad, try to understand, I want him to understand his fault in this, himself. Otherwise there is no other way in which I could convince him to re-think about how he wants to live life."

"You really want to do this? I know my son very well and he's gonna take lots of time to agree he's incorrect. It could take months, you really want to put yourself through this?"

"I'm not going to do anything; he's going to be the one who suffers. I've already strived to make him realize that I'm not going to talk to him no matter what happens...and if I just start being all friendly around him, he's just going to take twice as long from recovering."

"Wait, you're ignoring him? Why?"

She flicked him a seriously' face, he couldn't get it at first, but then his eyes and mouth widened in realization of his daughter's meanings.

"Ohh."

"He'll basically throw me out of the house if I start bothering him everyday telling him he's wrong and what not." She said chuckling at the thought of him literally throwing him out of his house.

"But, I don't know Ruhi, this is a very serious matter and you're really young to..."

"Don't you dare say this to mom, you promised me and you also keep boasting about how you've never broken a promise. I sure as hell can tell you that this is not the time to break that lifelong commitment."

"When did I say I actually make lifelong commitments."

"Dad." She whined pleading to him to not drag her mother in. Even though she knew he would never bring his Ruhi down by backing out from his promise, but there was always a sense of everything going to fall apart just by the wrong step. And the slip of her dad's tongue would be the first card to be removed from the tower. Inevitably everything would just topple over.

The thought for Adi wanting his sister beside him had perished, his mind was set on other things; some days after Ruhi coming to their home he noticed a sudden change in his mother's behaviour, obviously she was overjoyed that finally she came together with her daughter but he saw a difference in her feelings towards Ruhi. She didn't think of her as her daughter, but a guest, although she made her feel comfortable at her house she was also a little too friendly towards her. As if she were trying to get even with the bad things she did in the past, he thought "But she, she never did anything wrong, all she did was leave her husband but that wasn't something wrong. She just wanted to live her life." This continued for a few days and day by day, her possessive care towards Ruhi was just the fuel to the fire that was his thoughts.

One day, after returning home from college tired, he heard the soft giggles of his mother from the balcony, he crouched behind the sliding door behind her knowing that she would bolt back just at the sound of a foot step, he wanted to know the answers to her behaviour and this was the only way in which he would be at rest. There she stood, twirling strands of hair in her finger, sashaying through the tiny balcony space, he thought about the first thing that came into his mind, she used to do this same thing years back when she was with Ashok. He first started to doubt his own thoughts but when he heard more of the words spoken from her mouth, he started to fear her intentions. She was talking about abandoning her son, even though it wouldn't be actual abandoning considering he was an adult now but the thought that she would give up her son just for another man was frightening. He already went through so much in his childhood having to let go of his family; he shivered at the thought of what would happen to him if his thinking became reality.

He lay in his bed, his arm above his forehead; nothing could stay in his mind for long with the constant reminding of that day's events. He couldn't find a way out, even though he didn't confront his mother about her actions in the future he was sure that what he heard was the truth. Giving himself up for the thought that his own mother would get rid of him just for the satisfaction of herself, he stood with her through the daily stress she had to go through, the labeling of her as a cheat' towards her husband. And today she was ready to give up all those moments they shared just for more money. The first thing that came into his mind was to reason with her, to make her understand that what she was going to do was unacceptable, but, he could not handle it he had enough of his mother.

He didn't think twice when he bolted into his sister's room, but he was careful enough to not slam the door behind him. He didn't want to wake her up; she slept peacefully on the tiny bed in the middle of the even tinier room, he sighed as he realized that this peace on her face would be replaced with god knew what expression. He started to slightly shake her trying to be gentle, but he remembered the time when she slept through an entire cricket match in a stadium, she didn't wake up until her father gripped onto her shoulders and shook her vigorously. So, he did the same thing, she woke up with a pissed off mood, he couldn't blame her but now nothing could be more important than what he was about to tell her. She rubbed her eyes while she whined about the method he used to wake her up. He couldn't wait any longer; he spat out whatever he heard his mother say and stood up and clenched his fists in fright waiting for her reaction.

She first looked at him in sheer confusion as to what did he just say in those few seconds, she put all the words that she could remember together, she showed mixed feelings for the sentence she just made up. Inside she had a soft smile on her face that finally her brother tried to make sense of his mother's actions and actually asked his sister for advice to handle it; but she also felt a sort of fear, earlier she couldn't go to the court and object to her mother being given the custody because she feared that her brother would do what he threatened to do, but now she felt the fear for her Adi bhaiya, he was raised by his mother only throughout his entire life even though now he knew her truth he wouldn't be able to adjust with her and her family. He knew his mother was wrong, but didn't think his father was right.

But what he spoke next completely changed her thoughts, "Can we move out? I don't want to live here anymore."

He said it almost in a whisper, as if he didn't want her to know that he accepted he was foolish in his decisions, for being a bad role model. She couldn't get his words at first but looking at his feared self she understood what he wanted to say but could not bring it to his voice. He continued

"I now know what I did was wrong, the pain I caused you was beyond bounds I just want to..."

"Of course we can move out! I know about the whereabouts you went through as a child. But...do you seriously move in with dad? Because...I don't know if that's a good decision you're making and also..."

"What do you mean it's not the right decision?"

"Look, I know you've stayed with your mother for really long..."

"That's old stuff." He said as she realised what he said and how much did he mean in just that mere phrase, she took a deep breath in lifting herself up from her crouching back and met his gaze as they widely smiled at each other knowing very well they were on the same page.

She continued.

" The way I treated you was also wrong, I didn't take a second glance at you after moving in to this house. As for moving out, yes we can but for me the case has to be re-issued and we have to also..."

"Oh god, you can just go to the court say that you don't want to live with your mother and they'll re-issue it, that's the same thing you did last time and they only listened to your statement."

She looked at him startled, her eyes wide open, why was he so eager to move out? Then she chuckled at the thought of her impatient brother, his age-old habit of wanting to talk first, a no-nonsense person just like her father, a wide grin showed itself on her lips as she thought of the similarity of the two most important men in her life; even if they didn't live together.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Huh yeah, I can do that but it will take some time before the first inquiry and also we don't know if our family will forgive you after they come to know why did I change my decision, because dad already knows and earlier he was constantly worried about me, after they know they might take us both back in but they won't treat us the same."

"Look, I know them, you know them they aren't such horrid people who won't forgive any person even after they've realized their mistake, they will definitely take us back in, trust me."

"Yeah you remember what happened the last time I trusted you right?" she said teasingly

The atmosphere was once again light, even though the window doors used to be open all day and fast winds would jolt in through the gap, the ambiance of the room was nothing but calm before, the petite room of hers was overflowing with innumerable imaginary tears, and she seemed to drown in them every time she set foot in the space.

The next day

It was a Saturday, she felt as if there was one instance of contentment occurring after another; she finally came into terms with her brother last night and today she would be able to see the glee in her father's face after she informed him of the conversation the two had. He was indeed enlightened at the fact that his son understood his faults and looked forward towards a new beginning. He immediately called his lawyer after the meeting with his daughter and arranged for the custody case to be renewed.

Shagun was now aware of the plans of her daughter and son, but she paid no heed to them, in fact she was actually relieved that they were going themselves, that she didn't have to have a 'talk' with them about how she would want to live her own life and telling them to so the same. But deep within her she sensed a pain to let go of them, not in giving up her children, but giving up her children to him. She felt possessive of everything her ex owned, but little did she know that keeping a bird in a cage is just going to make it more desperate to see the world and one fine day it would seize the opportunity to escape.