Judaaiyaan

2

"You're back home," her father addressed her presence as she entered the house.

"Yes, I'm trying to catch up on what I lost at college and see if I can manage to not fail the subjects," Mishti answered quietly. Most of the subjects she studied in Kolkata were arts-related, all of them requiring her to blossom her creativity. It was going to be a long journey to get used to the many objective subjects Pragati took. She had no idea of what financial maths was but she was going to do her best to keep up her sister's impressive grades.

"That's nice of you," he nodded quietly.

"I also met Ritwik," she added with uncertainty. She felt like she was a slut, betraying her sister but the main objective of her pretending to be Pragati was to marry Ritwik Noon, so she would have to get used to it sooner rather than later. She still loved Ruhaan. She didn't believe she had broken up with him and left her mother and friends to help her father save his business. It felt surreal and bizarre but above all, just plain weird.

She couldn't find her place in the house, at college, or with Pragati's acquaintances as she soon learned her sister had no friends. She felt like she didn't belong there, in the spotlight, attending events she once dreamed of being a part of - but that now felt foreign. Of course, those things shouldn't be familiar to her but she thought she would enjoy it more. She didn't. She missed everything about Kolkata and she missed her mother above all. Nandini would make it much easier for Mishti but her mother still didn't approve of her decision to help her father.

"How did it go?" Kunal asked alert all of a sudden. For the past four days, he had been looking at the girl in front of him, who looked exactly like his daughter but who still wasn't Pragati at all. It wasn't because he knew Mishti was taking Pragati's place. They could look the same but their personalities couldn't be more different. Mishti reminded him of Mauli... and that was a hard thought to have. Mauli wasn't blood-related to the girls in any way and Pragati was the only one who had had contact with his late wife. Briefly, the six years Mauli had been around left her mark on Pragati's life. His daughter, even at such a tender age, changed a lot since she lost her mother but not in a good way. He used to see more of Mauli in Pragati but the hint of her mother's personality had vanished as Mauli died. But Mishti, who had never been in contact with Mauli, reminded him of his wife in more than one way. Maybe he was going crazy but even the way she moved around reminded him of Mauli. The calm with which she talked, the sweetness in her eyes, the kindness that was so inherent to the only woman he loved in his life was present in his estranged daughter. He learned that very soon as the first of Mishti's concerns when she moved into the house was to comfort him about Pragati. She didn't ask any questions about their agreement, she didn't present any conditions, and she didn't complain or seem to resent him for all the years he ignored her existence. No, the first thing Mishti Khanna did was to try to be there for him.

"Hi," she said shyly as she entered the house after the driver brought her from the airport.

"Let's go to the study," Kunal simply answered as he led the way, not before asking one of the house staff to take Mishti's small baggage upstairs. She didn't have much with her as she knew she was supposed to wear Pragati's clothes, shoes, perfume, and everything else she possibly could do to make people believe she was indeed Pragati.

Once they entered the room, he closed the door behind her and moved to the desk across the large room.

"Thank you for coming," he addressed, not knowing exactly what to say. Should he apologize for never being around? Should he say that he planned to keep both of the girls but Mauli didn't want to completely steal motherhood from Nandini? Should he talk about their nonexistent relationship at all?