Threads of Silver (indefinite hold)

Vultures

"It is after all about finding hope in the hopeless"

Chaos had ensued the Sandhu house. It had all actually started an hour ago. With a screaming Dilraj, the youngest Sandhu, running around the house with the newspaper in his hand. 

"Tejo di famous hogayi! Tejo di ki photo newspaper main aayi hai!" 

He yelled has he ran around the house, grabbing everyones attention. Navraj was the first to get a hold of the small bullet train. Carefully, he pulled the newspaper from Dilraj's grip, peeling his fingers from the rolled up newspaper one by one. Once the news paper was pried away from Dilraj's hand Navraj surveyed it for himself. 

The youngest Sandhu was for a matter of fact absolutely right. His sister had indeed made front page news. Before he could register the headline the newspaper was snatched from his hand by Satti. 

"Zara main bhi tu dekhoon apni beti ko" 

And with that everyone huddled around her to get a peak of the article. However, as the words registered, smiles dropped and silence enveloped the house before an out cry of despair from Satti reverberated through the silence. 

"Tejo aur Virk sahab ke bete ka chakkar?" 

She held her head in her hand and sat on the floor. 

"Bas yahi dekhna rahe gaya tha, apni ghar ki beti ke affair ka news" Lovely said adding fuel to the fire. 

An annoyed Rupi snatched the newspaper from the now sobbing Satti and scanned through the entire article. Tejo wasn't like this, had it been Jasmine on the headlines he might have even believed it for a second, but Tejo? No. She was responsible, she was mature and she knew the implications of something like this. 

Moga is a small town. Here everyone knows the other. In that case such an announcement is followed by bad reputation very quickly. 

"Haye yeh kya hogaya" Satti cried out hitting her head with her palm.

"Chup karo!" Rupi roared, clearly irritated with his wife's drama. 

Breathing in he calmed down before continuing. 

"If this is true, Jasmine would know. Navraj, Jasmine aur Abhiraj ko bula ke la" 

It was mere seconds before Jasmine and Abhiraj stood before, the family heads bowed. They both knew pieces, but none of it explained the affair. The best choice was to keep silent and trust Tejo. Now, only her arrival could sort things out. 

That is when the door creaked open. And there stood Tejo. As soon as Tejo had stepped in, members of the family had swarmed her like bees. Hurling question after question.

"Yeh kya hai Tejo?" Satti asked shoving the newspaper in her face

"Haye haye tejo, chakkar chalaya bhi toh Virk sahaab ke bete ke saath?" Lovely added

"Tejo puttar kyu kiya aisa? Tu toh aisi nahi thi!"Harman chipped in 

An already overwhelmed Tejo was at a loss of words. She sent a silent prayer to babaji to help her through this storm of questions. 

The Virk house on the other hand was dealing with its own issues. A furious Gurpreet paced the length of her room waiting for Khushbeer to enter. The first thing Fateh had done after the meeting was rant to his mother as she applied oil to his hair. 

Fateh's rage had blown through the roof by that point. He was angry, frustrated, irritated, disappointed all at once. He had quickly been reduced to a toy in his fathers games. The reason Fateh had chosen boxing over politics were these petty games. Manipulation, word webs, tactics, strategies were not his cup of tea. 

Gurpreet at first couldn't believe that her husband would now use their son for his political career.

Minutes had passed with no sign of Khusbeer, yet Gurpreet's pacing had not stopped. He patience was wearing thing but she needed to talk to her husband and she needed to talk now. 

No sooner had Khushbeer set foot into the room, Gurpreet exploded

"What have you done? "

Khushbeer frowned at the tone of his wife 

"What do you mean?" 

Gurpreet took in a sharp breath. 

"28 years"

Khushbeer looked at his wife puzzled 

"28 years I have been the obedient wife. I have never questioned your decisions, I have always listened to you. I have never raised my voice. But I can't keep quiet. I won't keep quiet while you destroy my sons life"

"Gurpreet! Fateh is my son too, I am not destroying his life!" 

"He might be your son, but every time you had to choose between your family and political career you have chosen your career"

"Gurpreet! apne hadd mat laango!"

"Hadd toh aapne paar kardi. Mere bacche ki bali chadhane chale ho? kis ke liye? apni yeh shaan aur shaukat ke liye?"

"Chup kar jao Gurpreet, mera muh mat khulvao" 

"Arey aapko yaad nahi, toh main yaad dila deti hoon. Humara rishta aapke ya mere wajah se nahi bigda, uss media ke wajah se bigda tha. I am still your wife, but when was the last time you treated me like it? When was the last time at you asked me how my day was?"

Gurpreet let out a strangled sob

"You might have forgotten what the media did to us all those years back. I haven't. I am not going to let my Fateh and that poor girl go through the same thing we did."

Tears streamed down Gurpreet's face

"Vultures! They are vultures! Only a while back had they started a poll on the poor girls character. One slip up, one action in the grey and they will drag my kid through the mud."

Gurpreet yelled. She didn't remember the last time she had yelled at her husband like this. But all those years of locked up frustration were finally coming out. All those years of staying silent had taken a toll in her. 

"Do what you want to, but remember I will do whatever it takes to protect my child and that poor girl from those vultures, even if it means destroying your career.

And with that the door swung shut and Khushbeer was left to ponder over his wife's words.

***

Sorry for the late update...I got busy and then my laptop went for repairing and took longer than expected to come back!

Hope you enjoyed the update! Please do vote and comment!

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