Chapter 33 — He Reveals Childhood

Aryan thought for a few minutes before he proposed to tell her his life story. He had not known much about Sanaya before because he had not been interested. Now it seemed she hid a lot beneath her happy, warm layers.

It was also quite visible that she was reluctant to reveal. However, Aryan couldn't possibly help her if she didn't let him know what exactly was wrong. Also, something was definitely wrong.

He was not hiding anything, particular. Just that in life, he had not let people in. Thus, most people did not know about the childhood he had led or the insecurities he had.

Sanyukta knew. He had told her himself. Then he had regretted it. Now? Not so much. He had thought about it later and realised that if Sanyukta would've accepted him, she would have, regardless of what she thought about his past. It wasn't like Randhir had a clean history, or he and Sanyukta had never had tussled in theirs.

The shivering, stammering form of Sanaya made him think if she would tell him what had happened when he shared his. If she knew, there would be no harm befalling. Sanaya usually talked a lot, but she was loyal — he knew that.

'That was the problem, wasn't it?' He thought bitterly. 'She talked non-stop on the other days, and today she wasn't speaking at all.'

When she nodded, he knew it was his queue to start.

"You sure?" He asked again, just cross-checking.

She nodded.

"I'm what people call a bastard. I mean the literal meaning of the term." Sanaya looked up at him, surprised.

'Expected.' He thought.

"I didn't know who my father was until I was sixteen. My mother never told me much," He twitched, "I was sent to boarding school when I was five... maybe six. Mom didn't really give a damn. Who knows? She wasn't expecting a child from a man she was just having an affair with."

He was speaking when something surprising happened. Sanaya leaned in closer to press herself on his side, and her head rested at the crook of his shoulder. He didn't mind; the night was cold.

"She was a working lady; my father was an acquaintance. Both were in heat, and they caught up in an affair, a long one. When mom got around to know she was pregnant, they had broken off, and he had gotten married. The reason they had separated."

Aryan went silent for some while; Sanaya didn't move. He suspected she had fallen asleep, but when he looked down, she had not. She was just looking at his black shirt, lost in her own thoughts. He wasn't used to talking this much. Usually, it was the other way round. Sanaya kept speaking, and he was the silent listener. That day was definitely different.

"There?"

She softly hummed in reply.

"She went to the doctor, thinking of getting aborted, but well, her pregnancy was complicated and had life risk in abortion. So here I am. I'm sure she still regrets it. She wasn't planning on kids."

It felt very little when he talked about his mother. The last time he had seen her? He had even forgotten that.

"So she had me, and she worked. I was mostly alone. There was a nanny I vaguely remember. Mom only came at night, fed me dinner, got me to sleep. On rare nights she came with a man. It was okay, I guess. She never got married or had any child after me."

"Was it...lonely?" She whispered. Her first words in a long while.

"I don't know." He answered honestly, "I wasn't a social child. Kept to myself. When she left me in the hostel, the seniors surprising didn't bully me. Made me work once in a while, but it wasn't harsh. I did have a friend with whom I lost contact later when he shifted. Mom came to visit once a month initially. Then it reduced, and we only met when I went home during holidays."

"You lived here?" She asked, looking up.

"Delhi."

"Here?"

"I came here during college. I mean in Mumbai. Have been here ever since. When someone asked me about my father, I told everyone he passed away before my birth. I had no picture of my father. He didn't even know I existed. Mom told me he expired in childhood. When I was fourteen, I realised something was wrong, so one holiday I asked her. She didn't really take any precautions and broke the truth. Tossed it to me. I was shocked. Obviously."

She hummed again.

"At sixteen, I had the urge to know my father. At least know who he was. So when I went back home that summer, I pried my mom's stuff. It wasn't that hard; she was barely ever home. My surname belongs to my mother, by the way. Father's name was Aakash Talwar."

"Punjabi." There was a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Maybe. What's your parent's name?" He questioned.

Sanaya started shivering again, and it was not due to the cold. So he pulled her closer. It seemed intimate, but there was no other choice to calm her down.

"S-S-Samaksh Jha and Keeya Jha."

"Hmm, okay. I was already into tech stuff by then and earning through this-that. I found out an old picture of the man, with my mom, as well. Found him out and stalked him. Turned out he was a happy man with a happy family. Had a wife, two daughters and a son."

"Never met?"

"I did." Aryan sighed, "Though I didn't give a damn when I was 21, I finally got the courage of five years of stalking to call him up and tell him to meet me. Surprisingly, he came. I never mentioned to him I was his son, though. He just knows that I'm my mother's son, not that he was the sperm who created me. I basically told him it was work-related, and I found out about his history with my mother. He didn't deny it. But the way he talked about his family, I didn't want to let him know."

"...."

"It's hard to grow up without both parents. Mom was mostly not there. My father has an impression that Aryan exists, but he doesn't know he has another son."

Suddenly, Sanaya sobbed.

"You don't have to cry for me." He hushed. She shook her head and gave him a hug by the side, taking him by surprise.

"Sanaya, it's okay."

She just kept sobbing. Aryan wondered how her eyes were yet supplying tears when she had been doing it for hours.

Her comforter moved away from a little because of her movement, and he looked at the bruises.

"Sanaya, who did those?" He asked, caressing her hair as she cried.

He wasn't good with people crying or even people showing emotion in front of him. But he knew somewhere Sanaya had made a place in his life no matter how annoying she was sometimes.

Right now, more than ever, she was vulnerable.

"Dad... Dad did." She mumbled in between.

"Will you tell me what happened, now?" He coaxed out the softest voice he could manage.

She looked up at him with tear laden eyes, "Okay."

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Thoughts about the chapter?

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Love,
Dee.