Your fabricated lie

5 - Rumours

From the moment she stepped into the witness box, she could visualize the forest fire coming. Yet, there was nothing she could fight off. She thought it was time for the world to acknowledge that she is not an assailant rather a victim. By the time she reached home, news was everywhere.

She knew. She always knew things were gonna turn out this way but she didn't care about any of those things. Besides, had she let Devansh speak and accuse her, things would have gotten even more worse.

Not the defense attorney but an unrequited lover!
Beloved wife murdered over extramarital affair.
Love - Ain't a blessing but sin.... and the list went on. The same subject was explained in different ways with different headlines. In fact, as the time passed they were getting better - in a negative sense.

What did I do! She thought while binge watching those toxic channels. Her bad, a recording of the session was leaked and that trended all over the country.

"I never knew becoming famous was this easy!" She spoke to Gautham who was brewing coffee. The same scene was played over and over again. At this point Gautham got so sick of it that he snatched the remote and turned it off. "Stop watching them for God sake," he yelled, giving her the coffee.

While sipping coffee, her phone buzzed. She scoffed looking at the ID. "It would have been a surprise had I not gotten a call from this person," she showed it to Gautham.

He looked at it then looked at her. "What are you going to tell her?"

"For now this user is out of coverage area," she said, rejecting the call.

"You really should stop doing this, Anu. She is your mom! It has been 3 years since you contacted your parents and more than 6 years since you paid a visit. I think you should take this call," Gautham gave his opinion.

After taking a sip of coffee, "I would have answered the call had the situation was different, Gautham. She called me because of the news. Hadn't it been the news, I don't know when I am gonna get the call again".

She was done expressing her feelings and Gautham's phone buzzed. Anu assumed it to be her mother because that is how basically it was till date. "Dare not to answer that," he already got a warning from Anu before he checked the caller ID. When he finally looked, it was her mother's call. "Oops, I am going to answer it because you may be a bad daughter but I ain't a bad son-in-law," he said, picking up the call.

"To put it in another sense, she is a good mother-in-law but not a good... " she complained. Though she wanted to complete it, she couldn't. Anu was aware that he already answered it but still proceeded to say things which were a sign of hidden pain.

That fragile heart of her mother's got hurt when Anu accused that she ain't a good mother.

"Hello, Aunty," Gautham greeted in spite of the awkwardness Anu created. He heard a few sniffs from the other side. "Aunty?" he said.

"Words hurt more than hands do!..." she sniffed. After a minute of silence, "Just tell her not to commit crimes," Anu's mother ended the call.

As the phone was put on speaker, Anu heard it and yes, tears did roll in her eyes.

There were a lot of times where she wanted to be the daughter her mother wanted. She also wanted her mother's lap to be her home. She always wanted to turn up and tell her all those things her mother is unaware of. Sometimes... Anu just wanted to have a good, solid cry while hugging her but neither did her mother approach her nor did Anu dared to knock on the door.

A few relations just look out for a reason to survive. Theirs was one among them - considering that one reason to stick on in spite of all those 99 reasons to part away.

"Your mom doesn't deserve this".

"Neither do I..." she put a halt to tears before they rolled down. In the meantime, her son returned from school. He ran into her arms. Like any other kid, he also shared all his happenings in school and Anu heard all of them exactly the way her mother did to her, without complaining.

Gautham was part of the conversation for a while. Later he made his way to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Since three weeks being a chef has become his second profession.

Getting back to their routine Anu and Vikram were watching television. It did take a couple of weeks for her to get out of the trauma and if there is someone who was deeply affected by that, then it is the 10 year old kid.

When shuffling through channels, her son, Vikram got a glimpse of the outraging news. Though she changed it quickly, he understood it real quick as it was also the talk of his school.

"Mom..."

"No questions will be answered, Viku," Anu already read her son's unorganized thoughts.

"Did you really love him?" He still proceeded to ask.

Anu sighed heavily, continuing to change channels randomly. Vikram turned towards her and snatched the remote that she was holding not so tightly. She stared at him for a while wondering if she should lie or...

"Will you believe that news?" She asked setting his hair which was already perfectly combed. "I did love him and unfortunately or fortunately... he did not". Anu tried her best to sound as simple as possible so that her son won't misunderstand her.

"Do you still love him?" Her curious son asked. Before she even could decide whether to answer that or not, "Dare not to answer that," a voice echoed across the hall. A small smile escaped.

Holding Vikram's chin, she asked, "You tell me who do you like more? Is it Aditya or Gautham?" This time it wasn't just the voice but he himself squeezed in.

"Don't answer that, Vikram! - Why are you doing this? Such a toxic mother you are," Gautham whined.

"I will choose dad" Vikram answered when those two were busy fighting. "I love you, dad!" They had a moment.

Gautham hugged him, patting his back. Parenthood is probably one of the finest creations.

"But I still want Mom to stay with Aditya sir," Vikram added and he was slowly slipped out of that warm hug. "She's worth being loved, dad.  Let her be loved!"

Drop of wise words from Vikram at such a young age surprised Anu and Gautham. They both looked at each other in utter shock. Gautham said, "I am thrice your age and I don't think I will ever be mature enough to say that". He again returned to the kitchen with a boo-boo face.

After a peaceful while, Anu's phone beeped. She gave the notification panel a look and the second she realized it was Aditya, her eyes enlarged.

Brushing off the fine dust of cookies from her fingers, she checked the message he sent.

Sometimes... 'I am sorry' is all I could say, the text read. She thought about the reply for a while.

I don't mind the public talk but it's a bit disappointing that the world knew your love before I did, she texted back trying to be a bit sarcastic, funny and adorable at the same time.

Had you checked the printed diaries, you would have known it before, another text popped.

"Fu*k!" She said subtly. Anu was too occupied with things to the point where she forgot about the evidence she was carrying all along with her.

"Gautham, where's your laptop?" She asked.

She rushed to her room and went through her table in search of the bracelet. Finally when she found it, she rushed back to Gautham's room to use his laptop.

Turning on the laptop never felt this horrible to her. Maybe it's because she couldn't wait anymore to find out the truth.