FLAMES: Of Revenge And Love

44. PICTURE

Author's POV

They reached Aradhya's apartment at noon. And she got to work soon after.
He joined her and both started to arrange her things in the boxes he had ordered.

It took them more than an hour to pack everything, no, not everything, the painting with the cover was still in the room.

Abhimanyu noticed her looking at it in a daze and walked to her.
" Is it hers? " He asked and she knew who he was asking about just like he knew what her answer would be.
" Hmm. "

" We can leave it if you want. " He said, not wanting to pressurise her into anything. If she wants the painting to be hidden then so be it.

" No, we'll take it. " Aradhya said shaking her head in a no.
" Okay. " He nodded.
" Just don't pack it, I'll carry it myself. " She said and he agreed, and moved to tape the boxes they had already packed.

Aradhya gently removed the cover from the painting, revealing a lady with the most beautiful eyes, amber, just like hers but her gaze held emotions that Aradhya could never comprehend until she met Abhimanyu.
The kindness, the love, the sparkle of her eyes, the details so exquisite that Aradhya had almost brought the painting to life.

There were wrinkles on her face, not too much but the tiredness was there, despite all the cheerfulness on her face, the effects of her age couldn't be hidden.

It was the only piece in the room that wasn't dark, there was no speck of darkness in it, on the contrary it was the brightest or the only bright piece she ever made.
It was like she had made it as a source of light for herself. And she had covered it so that it wouldn't be tainted by the darker pieces in the room.

Abhimanyu noticed her gazing into the painting, he was facing her and that meant that the painting wasn't visible to him.
He saw as Aradhya traced every inch of the portrait with her eyes. He walked to her and when finally his gaze landed on the portrait, his steps faltered, Aradhya failed to notice it, all her attention on the portrait.

Abhimanyu felt a familiarity from the face, like he had seen it somewhere, but he couldn't exactly remember where but what he was sure of was that she wasn't the mother of Ashutosh Sinha.

He had done his research on Ashutosh and that report included his parents too and Abhimanyu was sure that the lady in the portrait wasn't his mother.

But he also knew that she was his wife's grandmother.
This could only mean two things, either the lady in the painting is some distant relative to the Sinhas or she really is his wife's grandma and his love is not Ashutosh's daughter.

As absurd as it sounded, for him the latter option felt more plausible.
Because the uncanny similarity between his wife and her grandma was something he couldn't ignore. Their eyes matched to the bone, it's not that unrelated people can't have the same eye colours but the only person in the Sinha house with amber eyes was his wife and now her grandma.

Aradhya finally noticed his distracted gaze and shook him.
" What's wrong? " Aradhya asked him and he came back from his thoughts.
" Nothing, I was just seeing that you take after her. "

" Only my eyes. She used to say I'm just like my brother. But I never felt the same. " Aradhya said and Abhimanyu too realised that it was the truth, Archit and Aradhya had no sort of similarity, be it their appearance or personality.

" I'll order lunch. " Abhimanyu said, trying to distract her.
But she denied, " No. "

" What's wrong? "
" Let's eat when we get home. "
" We might get late love. "
" It's okay. I'm not hungry. "