Unkept Promises

Never again

Avantika's POV

"Abhiram, I had went to the district court for collecting an order and met Pratik bhai there."

As soon as I had reached home, Abhiram had greeted Aaru and I at the door with a megawatt smile on his face and some really beautiful wildflowers which I knew he must have picked for us from a nearby meadow. The truthful pride and pure glee on his face when he gave us the flowers mirrored the expressions on Aaru's face and I too felt a smile making its way onto my face.

As much as I wanted to bask in the warmth of that moment, speaking with him about what Pratik bhai had told me was as important. We had given Aaru some fruit pieces and he was now sat in his room coloring some pictures while I decided to speak with Abhiram.

"Accha (oh), Pratik bhai? And what did he say? How's he?", although he had uttered a lot of words, I had sensed his changing demeanour, because the topic had shifted closer to Kinjal and presently his head was wrapped around pure rage for her. Rightly so.

"To be honest, he's not so well, but I need to tell you what he's spoken with me about.", I directly jumped onto the topic. As much as speaking about her was unpleasant, it was better to get it out of my system rather than beating about the bush.

"Its about Kinjal."

"Avi no, no, not at all, I do not want to hear even a single word about her.", he shook his head in clear reluctance and was about to get up, when I took ahold of his wrist.

"Sit down Abhiram. You do realize that my displeasure for hearing about her must be equivalent to yours or perhaps even a tad bit more, right? But this is important and you do need to listen to me.", I added in a stern tone.

My words sobered him a bit, at least they seemed to do so for he sat down hesitantly and muttering a small apology gestured me to continue.

I then narrated to him all of what Pratik bhai had told me, all of our discussion. His expressions fluctuated between an obvious shock, fury and agony. After I was done with speaking, he was sat still as though trying to process my words and the tale they bore.

Of course this would be too much for him to take in. His sister misbehaving, causing ruckus all her life, being difficult to deal with was a different thing, but knowing that she was a narcissist and at that, the one who despite of knowing the pain she causes to people around her, still chooses to be extremely manipulative - that thing does affect any sane person.

"But, I, could we, where did we go wrong?", he stuttered.

"As far as I know and on the basis of Pratik bhai's information, its not about your fault. This might be the result of inheritance, some genes, some psychological factors. I am not really sure Abhiram.", I shrugged.

"Did mummy and pappa ever discriminate amongst the two of you or anything in your home which might have affected her?"

"Na (no) Avi, mummy and pappa have given us the equal love, opportunities, affection, everything was equal for the two of us. In our home, there was no discrimination. Externally, yes, there were a few school mates, some neighbours, some relatives who would compare the two of us, but we often only encouraged and loved her."

"Then I don't know Abhiram. Perhaps the comments of those people would have affected her somewhere, I am not really sure, no one can actually be."

"I just, I just wish to have known about this a bit earlier when she would still have been in a malleable behavioural phase. F*ck, I don't know how to make this right Avi.", he was visibly distressed, but there was nothing really which anyone of us could do as of now.