𝑰𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 ✎

[2]

This chapter is dedicated to Syswiftie  ❤️

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A loud thud on my window is the one to wake me up.

I sit upright on the bed groggily and rub my eyes, washing away the cobwebs of sleep. But just as easily as my post-sleep mind had blocked the events of this morning, it all comes flooding back in one fast stroke. My chest hurts with the pain of betrayal and my eyes well up again but I don't let a single tear shed this time. I am stronger than this dammit.

A recollection of Pitaji asking for my help to save his Kingdom's honour flashes in my head and my hands clench of their own accord. What has become of my life?

Suddenly the sound of the evening aarti from a local temple forces my attention to the window and I manage to catch the view of the sunset through it. It's after six, I conclude, a whole four hours since my parents broke the news I never saw coming to me. But before I can decide what my next step it going to be, a loud knock comes on my door.
"Yes?"

"It's me." Comes the answer from the other side. My heart leaps at the familiar voice and I don't waste a second in jumping down the bed to open my bedroom door. Aditi, my bestfriend since I was six, greets me with an impatient smile in the doorway. I hug her tightly and cling to her as if she were the almighty. But right now, she is the only real thing I have, the only one who hasn't lied to me or betrayed me, so in a way she is my almighty.

"Hey bhagwan! Calm down, Vaidehi. Stop clinging to me, we literally just met yesterday. Not to mention, we need to hurry, we are both getting late for the dance class. Guruji will kill us."

"Aditi!" I sob into her shoulder. She stiffens at that and pats my back in a comforting gesture.

"What happened?" She whispers.

I sob again before withdrawing myself from the embrace.
"It was all a lie. My father...he isn't even a trader."

Aditi's forehead creases and she looks at me like I am talking in gibberish. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it was all a lie. I am an..." I hesitate to say the word out loud, but to be ashamed of your own identity is being unfair to yourself so I take a deep breathe and say it, "I am an illegitimate child. My parents, they aren't who they said they were. My father is a King! A goddamn King! Can you believe it? And my mother, she is his mistress-"

"Wait!" She announces and sits on the floor, "Who told you this?"

I shake my head and drop onto the bed, closing my eyes, "It's true. They told me themselves."

"Oh." Yeah well that is the underreaction of the century. I just told her my whole life was a lie and the only thing she says is "oh", this is the kind of reaction I expect from someone who already knew about this not from- except what if she knew too.

I open my eyes with a start and just one look at her and I know. She knew the truth too. All this while she has been hiding the truth too.

"You knew." I deadpan. The plain tone of my voice could fool anyone but not Aditi. She knows me far too well.

And that's why she immediately scrambles to explain, "No, it's not like that. Everyone in the village knows. It's not a secret. The only person who didn't know about it was you and well your father is our King, so no one was going to go against his orders and tell you the truth even by mistake."

"I can't believe it." My heart drops and I stare at my bestfriend. Not a single person has been loyal to me and I know that now.

"How could you...."