Pocket Full of Lies

47- Puzzle Pieces

Rehaan's POV

Am I even your son? Or was this an act too?

"Rehaan, what's wrong?" Muskaan questioned worriedly, putting down her spoon.

I shook my head to snap out of the confusing memory.

"Don't shake it too harshly. You might end up worsening your headache." She almost shouted, as she stood up to come by my side.

"I am fine," I told her, before she could start massaging my head. "It's not hurting."

"Are you sure? You looked like you were in pain," she asked unsurely.

"For a second, yes. But now I am okay. Another memory hit me." I informed her.

She still looked concerned but went back to her seat nonetheless.

"What in the world is happening?" She muttered to herself, before saying, "you didn't get any memory for such a long time. But now you have been getting them back to back."

"It's a good thing, right?" I raised my eyebrows at her behaviour. She jumped up in joy for the first two times.

Probably because she is nervous about her mother's memory in my mind.

Just as this thought crossed my mind, she confirmed it.

"Anyways, what was it? Did the memory give any clue? Anything more about my mother being suspicious?" She asked nervously, picking at the loose threads of her sleeves.

Her tense posture immediately relaxed as I shook my head in negative.

"I was asking my parents if I was really their son."

"Adopted?" She guessed, her eyes wide with shock.

"Not sure." I shrugged. "There wasn't any other memory attached to it."

"Incomplete clips of memories in a random order. Great, just great. Hope you are good at solving puzzles." She made an offhand comment as she focused back on her food.

I snorted at her comment, before resuming eating too.

Memories could wait. I had delicious food in front of me to devour first.

★★★★★

We were back to the study room and as promised I started picking up my slack. Organizing was a tedious task, but at least it wasn't scary like grocery shopping.

My mind went back remembering the way Muskaan tried to help me. It was fun, cute, and heartwarming. Something that made me fall for her even more. However, that sweet dream got broken too soon.

"Focus Rehaan. Focus," I said to myself, before I went down that train of hurt. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to organizing.

One good thing about picking up the mess was that while it was physically tiring, it was mentally relaxing. It stopped all the other thoughts from entering after a while as I got more involved in the current task. Something I couldn't even do while sleeping.

It would be fun to see Muskaan's reaction if I say that I was going to clean the house because I wanted to rest.

I chuckled to myself, before looking over at the said girl, who was furiously typing something in my laptop.

"Careful. You might break the keyboard." I joked, earning a snort from her.

"Careful or you will break your head," she countered back, gesturing towards the pile of files that I had placed on the shelf.

I rolled my eyes at her remark, but adjusted the files again, just in case her words came true.

That was the last talk we had, before we silently continued to do our work. I was about to declare that I was done working, when she suddenly announced,

"Congrats, you were your parents' son, only. Not adopted or anything." She turned around in her chair, looking happy with her find.

"Were you still stuck on that part?" I asked as if I didn't care, but moved towards her to see what she had found.

"You weren't?" She questioned back instead. "I mean that is a pretty serious matter."

"It is," I agreed. I was curious too. But somehow there weren't any feelings attached to that curiosity.

"It might sound rude. But adopted or real, I have no feelings for them."

"Probably because you turned your heart into stone seven years ago to survive. You might have buried your feelings back then and now with no memories, they aren't just making a comeback," Muskaan said, making excuses to me for me.

She was trying to be understanding of my nature when even I wasn't able to.

"Forget about it. I am sure you will get back those feelings sooner or later. Here, look at what I found," she said, excitedly, moving the laptop screen towards me.

"My birth certificate," I muttered, looking at the scan of the document.

"Yup." She popped the 'p', looking proud of herself.

"There are copies of your school certificates too. And your identification documents as well. I looked it up online too. You are still there. They didn't steal your identity," Muskaan said, with so much happiness brewing in her eyes that it almost seemed unreal. She was so happy for me while her own documents were burned to ashes.

How could someone be so selfless?

"But I don't understand one thing," she said, making me focus back on her. "Don't take it the wrong way..."

"Just spit it out," I said, knowing she would go into another round of rambles.

"The date of the documents. Your documents were regenerated long ago. It didn't take much time after the fire, for you to get back your documents. While mine...mine didn't even... At first I thought it was because I was a minor. But you were too. Then why?"

"It didn't work out easily even after turning eighteen. It took me so long to get them back. Only to lose them again." She wasn't speaking to me anymore. Too lost in her thoughts to figure out what was happening with her.

"I don't know why mine worked and yours didn't. Or why didn't I help you to get them back if I knew how? But one thing I am sure is that your documents have played a major role in both the incidents.

"They were burned back then and they are burned even now."

"You think...you think that the fire was lit to burn my documents," Muskaan stuttered, looking horrified, before shaking her hand to denial.

"Eh! You are going too far. If documents were the priority, they would have just burned the outhouse, not the whole mansion.

"Moreover, this time they did it without killing anyone. They could have done it back then too."

I hummed, "Fair point."

They might not have been the whole cause of the incident, but it was sure that her documents were surely a major part of this puzzle.