Destiny or Coincidence?

Athira Patel

It was pin-drop silence in the room. Not because there is no one inside the house or everyone is sleeping, but because of the anticipation and reaction. 

This was the second time today where everyone was looking at me for the answer while I really don't know what to say or react. 

Well, it's not right because I know that I wanted to shout out loud to ease my stress but I cannot do that. So instead I choose to keep quiet and look down. 

Frankly, what would I even say to them if I wanted to? 

Thank God that you revealed my life secret? 

Or, even I feel the same way as you feel mom? 

Or, everything happens for a reason? 

Or, even I can understand your situation? 

No. If I am being honest with myself then I am feeling none of the above. But instead, I wanted to shout at them for making me stand in this horrible situation where they made me realize that the mom I loved all my life was not my mother but just the one who raised me. 

No. I don't want to be an understanding, perfect, adjustable princess for once. I want to be the girl who can show her emotions out because I don't know for how long I would be able to handle it. It's a ticking time bomb and it's just a matter of time that I would explode. 

If they won't make it fast and explain everything then I don't know how I am going to react. I am really trying my best to control my emotions here but they are making it hard again. 

I even know that it's wrong to think like that, I know that I can't blame them for all that has happened, but it was easy to do it. God… Why did it come to this way? After a long time, I felt like I could breathe normally after my mother's death because of Abhi and now you have to take that away too. 

Shh… Control Athi, control. I took a deep breath to stop my whirlwind of emotions and concentrate on them. 

I glanced at them without showing any emotions on my face and asked "Is there anything else that I need to know?" looking in between my birth mother and dad. 

I can see the hopeful look falling down from Aunty's face due to my words and leaned back into Abhi's arms for support. It nearly shattered my heart, so I looked away from her in the direction of my dad. 

I really want to know the reason from my dad's side. I don't know why but I felt like I was judging the book by knowing half of it, so it's important for me to know his side of the story. 

He looked at me with regretting eyes that I wanted to go near to him and hug him but stayed rooted on my spot instead. 

"Guess, it is my turn to explain everything now," he said by nodding his head with guilt in his eyes.

"I always wanted to hide this truth from you but I think destiny played its role after all," he said chuckling with dry humor by looking down like a lost child making me squirm in my position with guilt for treating him this way. Then he glanced at aunty before he started saying.

"I am sorry Hema, I really am sorry for keeping this as a secret from both of you," he said getting up and coming towards Aunty with guilt-ridden eyes and looking at me with regret that it internally broke me apart seeing him like that. He took a deep breath by closing his eyes for a moment and opened them with a determined look on his face. 

"When we got the news about Athira being alive from the police station, we directly came to your room to share this happy news with you but you were not there." He said, indicating to the past where I was still an infant. This made aunty snap her head up in dad's direction with shock reflecting in her face. Dad gave a small sad smile and continued to explain again. 

"We thought that you were in the washroom or outside the house or went to a nearby park or mall to ease your pain, so we checked every place we thought you would go but didn't find you," Dad said shaking his head in upset but it was directed to aunty which made aunty squirm in her seat with unease and anxiety. 

"It was only when the sun was coming down we realized that you left us without informing," Dad stated with a look of hurt on his face that aunty gave a small sniff by closing her eyes.  

"We tried calling to your mother's house, your house, to Girish and even yashwanth's house hoping that you would be there. But all the numbers were not reachable. It was so confusing at first, but the next day it all made sense when we got your email saying that you wanted to be left alone because of the guilt and can't show your face to us." He said looking at her with somewhat anger and disappointment and continued " we tried Hema, we tried a lot that for days we didn't have a proper sleep. We have tried every possible way to reach you but left with empty hands. We tried a lot…. We tried…" dad dragged with a look of sadness and tiredness in his eyes. It made aunty well up in tears for her mistake. He looked at her with anger and continued.

"It was so foolish of you to think that it was your fault because we never blamed you for anything that happened. We know that it was just an accident and not your fault. So I replied to your email saying that we found your daughter and she is safe with us. We even requested you to come back because a life was waiting for you. But even that mail got bounced back saying that the email id is not working." he explained with a disappointed look, making her gasp in shock and dad nodded his head with tears in his eyes. This made my breath hitch in emotion.

I never thought that there would be this much emotional past with my life and that I will be the center of it. I can't see my dad in tears but my treacherous heart is unable to see aunty in pain too. It is eating me alive while looking at her like that. 

"We got to know that when the accident took place and the car was rolling down your daughter fell away from the car into the bushes which made her secure from the crash. That was the reason no one found the body of your daughter because she was at least a half kilometer away from the accident and someone took her to the hospital immediately," he said looking into her eyes with tears that she sobbed covering her mouth in shock. I clenched my fists at my side to control my emotions which are everywhere at present. 

"It was only when the police received the report from the hospital about the missing baby, he contacted us for clarification but you were not there to check if she was your daughter or not, so Priya went and recognized her as your daughter," Dad said, glancing at me with love-filled in his eyes that my breath hitched looking at him. So I averted my eyes from him and glanced down to stop my tears that are threatening to fall out. He went near to aunty and took her hands in his for assurance while continuing his story.

"We tried contacting you for several days in the hope that you might return back. I even came to Bangalore looking after you but couldn't find you. I got to know that you vacated the house and transferred to god knows where. No one had any idea about where you went. Meanwhile, Priya was taking care of Athira when I was in search of you. It was the time when I called Mr.Dhillon to know if you said anything to him but found nothing. I realized that you really left us for good and wanted to be not found." He said, shaking his head with sadness while remembering those days that aunty was hiccupping from the cries. She started crying after listening to the explanation dad gave. It was like the truth was drowning her like the water was traveling from above her head. My hands itched to go and comfort her but instead, I stood in my place and looked away from her. 

I don't know that seeing her cry will make my heart crumble from inside like this. It's becoming very hard for me to control myself. All I wanted to do was hug her at this moment but all the complications and the weight of the truth are stopping me from doing it. It was all too much to take in at once.

This made Adi get up and bring some water to his mother but she refused to accept that he frowned looking at her with sadness. Slowly dad took it from his hands and placed it gently near to her mouth by making her cry again in emotion but drank the water making Adi sigh in relief. I know how he is feeling at present for his mom but still stayed silent for everyone in the room. 

Meanwhile, Abhi came to my side and silently urged me to take a seat on the sofa because of my exhaustion in the face. I am grateful that he is with me because I don't know if I would be able to face all of this without him beside me. He is my strength and my everything. For a moment I thought that we might be siblings. Even the thought of that broke my heart. He is my strength to face everything and I am glad that at least something good came out of this mess.

He wrapped his arms around my shoulder for the support that I gave a grateful smile by looking at him. I can see the love in his eyes which is always present for me no matter what. I was so lost in Abhi's eyes that I forgot everything around me until dad's voice brought me back to the present.

"I looked everywhere for you Hema. Everywhere…." he drawled with a whisper at the end of the sentence not being able to continue it any further by closing his eyes in frustration... 

But after a moment he took a deep breath and looked in her eyes with a determination of letting everything out.

"We waited for you while hours became days, days became months but still there was no sign of you. Meanwhile, Athi started becoming very close to our hearts with her innocent smile and laugh that it melted our hearts for good. She became our world very soon that we didn't even get the chance to turn back and see how it turned out. We made every effort to make her happy all the time. We did everything and she became a part of our life without knowing when or how We became so attached to her in a way that we couldn't even think about a life without her.'' Dad said looking at me with adoration and love in his eyes that tears started welling up in my eyes while listening to him. He smiled with a faraway look before continuing but this time it made my body chill due to fear because of the look on his face. I have only seen that look on his face when mom died and now after seeing that look again after many years is making it scary. I instantly knew that whatever he was going to say would be big enough to shatter everyone so I braced myself for the impact by holding my breath. 

"I think it was after six months you left, it was like every day but only the difference is that we were anxiously waiting for the results of the test we took because of Priya's force. She thought that there was something wrong in her body due to which she was not able to become pregnant. She wanted to find out so that she can take treatment for it. So because of her request, we took the test." Dad said closing his eyes forcefully that aunty gasped along with me, knowing very well where this is leading to. 

Oh my god… No way… I gasped closing my mouth in fear of crying out loud. Abhi pulled me tightly into his arms for support. Mom…. Taking a deep breath, dad confirmed our suspicions by explaining it further.

"We got to know that Priya cannot become a mother because she can't bear a child in her womb," Dad stated silently by closing his eyes in pain that I was crying into Abhi's arms knowing the truth of my mother. I never knew that my mother suffered this much. What a worthless child am I??

"Mohan…," Aunty said hugging my dad that he silently cried into her arms making me even more devastated than before. How can one be so happy even after knowing that they cannot become a mother? I have never seen my mom look upset or sad because of it. 

"We cried all day because of it, Hema. We cried all day long." dad said looking into her eyes with emotion and continued after glancing at me for a moment. "But the moment Athi cried, we literally forgot our pain and went after her like the lost puppies," he said chuckling a little by shaking his head like he was unable to believe even until now about it. It was like he was all over at that moment again.

It made me somewhat relieved that I was the reason for their smiles at that time and not the other way around.

"You know that was the day Athi rolled to the other side by herself. It made Priya so happy that she squealed in happiness and made all the special dishes to celebrate. It was like she totally forgot about her own pregnancy issues. So I too didn't bring that topic and continued with her on that day" he explained looking at the ground at the end of the sentence with a smile.

"That was the moment I realized that Athi was sent to us by god. She was like a life savior at that moment. Priya forgot about her pain and dedicated all herself to this small one making me think about adopting her for the first time" he said looking at me with love-filled eyes that tears started pouring from my face because of all the things they suffered. 

Why couldn't God be fair for those who always believe in him? Why can't he give happiness to them who always thought that he existed in this universe? It is always unfair to see that the good ones always suffer a lot than bad ones. 

"I discussed what I thought about Athira's adoption with Priya. At first, she was against the idea of hurting you but then she too thought of it deeply. We didn't want to hurt you in any way Hema, so even after thinking about the adoption, we waited for another six months in hopes of you returning to us. But none of that happened" dad said looking at aunty with regret-filled eyes but still there was love for me. This made me realize one more thing today that it all happened because of fate and they were the puppets in it. Nothing was done wantedly. Everything that happened on that day was accidental and it made their life upside and down all at once.

"I agree that at that point of time I really hoped for you to not come back because I cannot leave Athira even if you come back. She was our life and everything. We couldn't live happily again if we lost her. She made her space within our hearts which cannot be taken away that easily." Dad explained with a pained filled voice that it tugged my heart in return. I realized one more thing that they might not be my own parents but they loved me as their own flesh. I never felt like an outsider even for a second in my life and that's all because of their love and affection. If they want, they could have been chosen to leave me at some orphanage but instead, they adopted me and raised me with love. They truly are my parents even if they didn't give birth to me. 

"We really didn't make that decision in emotion Hema, we thought about it a lot and then after continuous thinking, we came to a conclusion and adopted her officially as our daughter after her first birthday," Dad explained looking into her eyes with guilt and regret that she shook her head in denial and hugged him in return.

This made dad relax into her arms and cried his heart out while uttering sorry repeatedly. 

"She became our life Hema. She was the only one who took away our pain and replaced it with happiness. So we became attached to her. She was like the rays of the sun in our life. She made us the parents which we thought that we could never become." Dad explained his side of the story about why he kept it a secret from everyone and even from me. He was afraid to lose me.

"So yes I became selfish and hid all our memories of friendship from her. Even the adoption papers too." He stated, glancing in my direction for a second before looking away from me and continuing. "I never said anything about our friendship with her. It was only when she was joining this company, she got to know about our gang but nothing else." He said with a regretful voice that I looked at him with sorrow and pain. It was becoming too heavy to grasp it.

"She became even more important in my life after Priya died. So I did everything I could to see her happy. Hell, I was only living for her now. Because there was no one left for me to call my family except for her." He said with a sob while looking at me with tears that I immediately got up and ran towards him. 

He too got up from his seat and reached me halfway by taking me in his arms that I held him tightly with all my being and started crying with him. 

He might not be my own father but he was the one who raised me to a woman, he was the one who taught me everything and took care of me when I was low or unhappy. He was the one there for me when I was struggling to get up from the fall. He supported me and guided me through every decision I made. He was the one to spoil me with his love and gifts. He was the one who made me feel beautiful for the first time and said not to care if anyone said otherwise. He was my king and I am his princess no matter what. He is my dad and always will be. 

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Hello everyone,

Here is your awaiting chapter. I hope that you like it. Do let me know your thoughts and opinions on this chapter. Will be waiting for your responses.

I am sorry for updating it lately. I was busy with my personal life and my health was not that good. So I was unable to write it sooner.

Don't forget to vote comment and share it if you like.

Will update the next chapter as soon as possible. Till then see you...

Love...

Sprinkle...