Will We Unite?

Part 16 ~ Scheming

The Mehra's, Kohli's, Khanna's and Alia were all sitting in the combined living room of the MK mansion. Everyone's face lit up on seeing Abhi. Riya and Prachi run and hug their father, tears of ecstasy escaping their eyes. Abhi feels a strange connection with the two girls who he just met but he quickly moves out of their grip and asks, "who are you?"

Everyone looks at Abhi, wide-eyed. All of them thinking, why Abhi doesn't remember Prachi and Riya. He helped Prachi all the time, like a father would do even when he was clueless about their true relationship. He pampered Riya to a great extent and had loved her more than anything or anyone, during her childhood years. They would've never imagined that Abhi would forget his daughters, the two people whom he had loved the most with the exclusion of Pragya of course.

Prachi manages to recover from her shock first and she ask, her voice wavering... "don't..don't.. you remember us?"

Abhi looks at Prachi perplexed and says, "look, I think you must have me confused with someone else, I've never seen you in the 25 years I've lived."

Everyone gets shocked to learn that Abhi thinks his age is only 25 years. They glance towards each other and then see Pragya coming in. Prachi and Riya run towards Pragya.

"Mom, Dad's playing a prank with us right? He hasn't forgotten us has he?" Riya asks, her throat feeling sore.

Before Pragya can reply Abhi asks, "Fuggy, why is she calling you mom?"

"Wo... you remember my look alike, she's her daughter?" Pragya replies while keeping Riya as barrier between her and Abhi.

"Okay, meet me in our room and bring Dadi along with you." Abhi says and walks off to his room.

Everyone looks towards Pragya and Pragya knows that she's going to be attacked with questions soon, so she starts talking before anyone has the chance to ask her anything.

"Look, Prachi, Riya, I know your wondering why your dad can't remember you and thinks he's 25 years old. I think the rest of you are wondering the same thing. When your dad woke up after his accident, he started asking me about Dadi... his Dadi... who isn't...who isn't ..in this world.....any..anymore. The doctors had told me that he lost memory for the past 27 years, so he doesn't remember any of you. He doesn't even remember Kiara. The doctors advised us not to try and make him remember things as it could lead to him having a panic attack as the accident was traumatizing. So we can't tell him that you are his daughters and that he's actually 52 years old. The Kohli's will be here cause they're Purab's friends and only cause of that. Prachi you'll live here cause you are the daughter-in-law of the Kohli's and only for that reason. Riya and Shahana will live here as they are writers who are writing a biography on the the famous Rockstar Abhishek Prem Mehra, both of you were appointed by Purab. Aryan will live here as he's Ranbir's best friend and his parents are on a business trip so they left him here to be taken care of and that's the only reason he's here. Am I clear? " Pragya says sternly.

Everyone nods, secretly wishing they could reveal their true relations.

"Also since we don't want to raise any suspicions Prachi's Muh Dikhayi will happen tonight, we couldn't do it yesterday for obvious reasons so the reception will happen today itself. I want no objections." Pragya adds.

"Maa... Papa.... how can I?" Prachi says half of her sentence, trying her best to stop her tears.

Despite Prachi's incomplete sentence everyone present there, even Alia, could understand what Prachi was trying to say, for they all loved their parents, or someone like their parents more than any word could explain.