TANGLED SOULS

From the ashes - 3

A mother bears a baby in her womb, a father bears him in his heart. Father and son are two sides of the same coin. They complement each other in a way that only fate can understand. Their bond is indestructible and, above all, irreplaceable.

Akshara realized this truth the hard way, when everything escaped her and the mess she created was already irrevocable. She lived in a delusion. She thought she could easily give a father to Abhir and build him a happy world, when in reality, all she did was to entangle his life in an unsolvable labyrinth.

Abhimanyu and Abhir were the heart and heartbeat of the same soul, the blood and flesh of the same body. There was an inexplicable connection between them, an invisible thread that drew them together, always. Despite the layers of lies, time and distance that separated them, their  bond was organic, pure and without doubt the strongest she had ever witnessed.

She's spent years to engrave in Abhir's mind that Abhinav was his superhero  father to who deserved all his love and care. She had told him time and time again about how Abhinav saved their lives during her labor and how they owed him their lifetime gratitude. She desperately needed her son to accept Abhinav as his father for the perfect world she created for him. And so, she sang Abhinav's greatness to Abhir, to make a place for him in his heart.

However, the fate had other plans from the beginning. While she had desperately engraved Abhinav as his father in his mind, she failed to engrave him in his heart.—Not that she ever could. After all, who was she to break a father and son's sacred bond? How could she even think in her wildest dreams that Abhinav can become Abhimanyu for Abhir? How could she even imagine that the real father can be so easily replaced by someone else?

And so, as she saw Abhimanyu and Abhir started bonding together without even knowing their relationship, she understood that Abhimanyu did something Abhinav couldn't do for Abhir in six years : He was Abhir's real father in all senses of the term.

Abhinav had Abhir's love, respect and gratitude for saving his mother and raising him. His mind believed Abhinav was his father because SHE insisted he was. But his heart accepted Abhi as his father. Abhimanyu won his heart as his father effortlessly, in a span of months. The idea of giving his father's place to another man shouldn't even cross the mind of a young child. But Abhir, without anyone forcing him, considered Abhi as his hero, confident, best friend and protector.

Abhimanyu was Abhir's father and Abhir was Abhimanyu's son. It was the truth of their lives. One truth she tried so hard to deny and change but failed.

The sin she had committed was irreparable. The injustice she had done to a father-son was irremediable, regardless of her reasons. If only the roles had been reversed and Abhimanyu had replaced her in her son's life, she would have died.

What could be more painful than grieving your living child? What could be more heartbreaking than watching your son calling someone else 'Papa', helplessly? What other anguish could there be than to be at your son's side without being able to be his father?

The excruciating, unbearable pain she'd inflicted on Abhimanyu was now tearing her apart as she endured a similar pain. She knew it wasn't even close to what he'd endured, but she swore she couldn't take it anymore: her son's silence.

Akshara smiled sadly at her fate as she watched Abhir install some CD in the multimedia unit. She stood at his bedroom door, observing him from afar, unable to close the distance between them and she wondered, how Abhi managed to live through it. Wouldn't he have felt hundred times worse when he saw Abhinav, Abhir and her as a family watching a film?

Did it felt like dying hundred deaths at once, Abhimanyu? This is why you left once for all?—She asked in her heart blinking back the wetness of her eyes.