Mending & Healing - Abhigya (Abhi-Pragya)

Visaal Pt. 2

AN: Apologies guys. For the delay and for any mistakes or inconsistencies the chapter might have. It's been a very difficult month. Covid complications hit my family and we've just been trying to get back on track. Please do point any mistakes if you see them. Also check out the AN at the end of the page. Happy reading. 

"I - I screwed up."

"Wh - what do you mean?" Pragya blinked, visibly confused and taken aback. He couldn't blame her. This conversation already wasn't going the way it should have. The absurdity of the moment wasn't lost on him. Here he was, meeting his wife after fourteen damn years and he couldn't even have a proper conversation with her. Couldn't hold her to his heart's content. Couldn't speak his heart out, like he so wanted too. There was so much left unsaid between them. So many layers and incrinate threads overlapping that needed to be sorted and untangled. Yet he was in no place, no position to even approach any of it. He let out a self-deprecating laugh that had no humor, just pain and guilt. He had to tell her the truth. Had to tell her how he'd failed because no matter how much he wanted to talk to her about them, the fact was that right now, Rhea was more important.

"I mean exactly that." He answered, finally managing to pull himself in to the present again. "I screwed up Pragya. I did exactly what you feared I would end up doing." He bent down his head, setting his eyes on the floor in defeat as he spoke the next words. "I - I couldn't be a good father to her. I was supposed to give her a good upbringing but I've just - just spoiled her." He breathed out, running his hand over his face. "And now... now she's on a path that will only lead her to destruction if she isn't stopped Pragya. If she isn't shown the right way but I can't do it. She's - she's just out of my hands Pragya." He confessed with great difficulty. "I just don't know what to do."

Even though Rhea had been on her best behaviour these past couple of months, he knew better than to assume she was out of the woods. No, this was just a temporary reprieve. Just like it always was with Aliya. As much as he hated comparing his daughter with his sister, he knew his little girl was following in Aliya's footsteps, somehow having imbued the worst of her. He never put much thought into the whole nature versus nurture debate. While he believed one makes of themselves what one wants, he also believed that what one was in their fabric didn't change. However, in his daughter's case, he'd seen how nurture or maybe lack of nurture had won over. Sooner or later something or the other would trigger her and she would return to her learned behaviour. He had to act before that happened. The damage control needed to start before she fell into something else again. 

"There is only one person I know who can do this Pragya." He continued, looking up at her with great effort. "You. She needs you Pragya. More than anyone, she needs her mother right now. You're the only one who can save her from herself Pragya. I can't think of anyone else who can." 

~

Whatever Pragya had been expecting to hear from him, it certainly wasn't this. She blinked, trying to take in his words and comprehend them. Their daughter. Spoiled. Destruction. Need you. The words were just coming at her like flashes on a billboard. She barely had the attention span to concentrate one when the other lit up. She started at him in plain disbelief. After all this time, he was here for their daughter. Because their daughter needed her. Because he thought only she could what? Fix her? Mend her ways? God, her mind was going to combust at this rate.

~

It wasn't easy for him to say any of this. Not at all easy for to admit how badly he'd screwed up and just as hard to admit he needed her when he didn't even know if she felt the same way about him. That momentary reunion at the construction site had come so suddenly that maybe that reaction he saw from her was just in the moment. Maybe that's why she never came back to try and find him. Why she made it so difficult for him to find her in return but he had to take the risk because it wasn't about them. It was about their daughter and Rhea took precedence over them and their issues right now. Still, a part of him almost couldn't believe he was actually at a point where he was having to plead his wife, the mother of his children, to help him save their daughter. The daughter he was responsible for upbringing the right way. The daughter he had failed in so many ways as he was just now realising. How? How had it come to this? This isn't how their lives were supposed to go? They were supposed to raise their children together. To love them, spoil them, discipline them together. Always have each other's back, act as a team with their kids while occasionally teaming up with them against each other. With great difficulty, he managed to pull him back to the present from the well heading into the deep end of his thoughts. Now wasn't the time to think about all of this. He had to focus. He knew how it appeared. Here he was years later, showing up out of the blue and asking her to fix the mess he himself had created. It wasn't fair to her. There was so much between them that needed to be resolved, so many things left unsaid, so many things that still needed to be sorted but he couldn't touch them now even if he wanted too because Rhea took precedence.