Ace of Hearts

2 - Lightning Sky

"Naitee! Can you come here?"

"Naitee!"

"Naitee!"

"Naitee! Are you there?"

Tusharika snapped out of her reverie to her worried colleague John shaking her shoulders harshly. She mumbled a quiet apology running her fingers through her free hair messing up the mahogany curls.

"Are you okay? You don't look fine. Take the day off. We can continue tomorrow." said John noticing the faint tear tracks along the corners of her eyes despite her attempts to cover it with a concealer.

"No. I am fine. What did you call me for? Did you find anything?" she diverted the topic.

"Yeah. Over there, a small part - " John's voice and inanimate gestures faded away as Tusharika's mind threw the conversation with her parents and grandmother that morning to the front making her relive it.

She nodded absentmindedly and uttered "I'll look into it" hoping that her statement fit the context.  The satisfied smile on her colleagues face answered that it did. Walking in the direction pointed by John, she sunk to her knees grabbing her fossil brush and running it along the collected bones.

Her hands worked mechanically allowing her mind to slip back to the earlier conversation....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tusha beta! You are and will always be our daughter. Relations are not always formed by blood." rang the voice of Tusharika's adopter mother through the speaker of her phone.

She glanced at her grandmother who sat across the table and frowned noticing a fresh batch of tears replacing the old ones. Nodding negatively at the lady, she steered her eyes back to her parents who were staring at her anxiously.

"Why did you keep this from me Maa? Papa? " she asked.

"We planned on revealing it to you during our next trip to New York. It was never our intention to hurt you dear. We were just... scared to lose you." Tusha's heart broke further at the hesitation in her father's tone.

"Lose me? Papa I would never abandon you. I thought you knew me better than that." hurt crossed her face.

"No beta! We know that but if you found your birth parents, you might want to stay and bond with them. While we respect that, we -" her mother sighed not wanting to accept the truth "we are scared that you'll drift apart."

Tusharika sighed not knowing what to speak. She glared at a random spot on the table thinking things through. She was curious about her birth parents and wanted to know if they abandoned her or were left with no choice but to give her up for her well being. Either way, she needed answers.

"Where did you find me?" she asked, her voice heavy with emotion.

Her parents exchanged glances and avoided her gaze. Upon further insistence from their daughter, they finally said,

"You were about two years old when we found you leaning on a fountain with a bunch of blue and white phlox flowers clasped in your hands. You were crying horribly. You were dressed in the finest of silks we ever saw, adorned with ornaments made of pure gold and diamonds."

Tusharika's scoff cut their further description of her. "What is the use of such affluence if they cannot take care of their child."

"Maybe you were kidnapped" offered her grandmother.

"And the kidnapper left me alone with jewellery worth few millions?" reasoned the twenty three year old.

"Let it be maa, papa, dadi. I am getting late for work. I'll talk to you later. Love you guys!" she sent a flying kiss to her parents.