Silent Downfall

Chapter Thirty

"Ma had very little to say about Mamma's departure. Or perhaps she had too much to say, but all she said was that Mamma promised she would come back. For Mayank. For me. We believed her."

Aanvik shrugged. "If you ever wish to wound a heart, stab it hard and make it bleed at once. But if you want to make sure that it's shattered into countless pieces, at first give it hope."

"Were you mad at her?" Waseef asked.

"I was beginning to worry that you weren't listening," said Aanvik as he smiled a little. "Um, mad? I'll get to that part soon. Let me tell you what made her leave in the first place."

He carried on. "Ma told me about it after I was considerably older. Mayank's dad was a jerk, though that's clearly an understatement. The divorce was inevitable. You would certainly expect the mother to get custody of the child in this case, given how young Mayank was back then. Well, let's just say that his dad knew some influential crapholes who could bend stuff in his favor and that Mamma was naive enough to trust him with the lion's share of her money at the dawn of their marriage. I know Mamma wouldn't have left Mayank behind if she could help it. Mayank's dad compelled her to leave the place. Without him.

"Mamma was sad and detached for a long time, but at least she was there. Her total absence was difficult to bear for both of us, especially Mayank. My mom loved him a lot, but... she just couldn't take her place. She tried her best; I won't deny that. It's just that Mamma was something else.

"Mayank used to be sad most of the time. No matter how much I tried to cheer him up, it did not work. He talked less, ate less. He did not play at all for a long, long time. Mamma never even called, and his dad was the one to be thanked for that."

A moment of silence followed. "Alright, I'd admit there was one more person to be blamed. I hate to mention it, Waseef, but I feel I must. You would perhaps mistake my mom for a monster if I told you this, but if I don't, you will mistake Mamma for something worse. So, I'd just let you know the truth."

"Go ahead."

"Mamma did try to get to us."

"Then?"

"My mom cut off all contact with her. She feared that Mamma would take me away. Mayank's dad did have a role in brewing the fear in her, but then again, she was the one who chose to be afraid. Well, perhaps it was not her fault after all. It was indeed terrible, and Ma was not really proud of what she was doing. It was her remorse that at last made her confess everything to me about a decade later. Otherwise, I would perhaps never have known that Mamma was my biological mother. I'll tell you something that's almost funny. Mayank still doesn't know that I am his twin."

"Why don't you tell him?"

"Oh, you'll figure it out," replied Aanvik. "Before that, let's pick up where we left off. Mayank kept on growing sadder. He nevertheless let his hope live. Day after day, he would wait for Mamma. He believed she would come back for him. I did, too. It was Mamma after all. She had to keep her promise.

"At times, Mayank would stand by the window and stare at the road for hours. Sometimes he would sit in front of the gate all day. A number of times he woke up from his sleep late at night and ran out of the house, thinking Mamma had come back. Every time, he was dragged back home by the security guard. He used to scream and resist, only to be silenced by his vexed dad through savage means. Yet he kept on hoping.

"Whenever Mayank's dad brought a lady home, which he quite often did, Mayank eagerly checked her out, hoping that the lady would turn out to be Mamma. Of course, he was disappointed every single time. I asked my mom several times about the ladies Mayank kept talking about. She would just wrinkle her nose in reply and call his dad a disgusting man.

"One of those ladies used to show up more often than the others. About a year later, she entered the house as Mayank's stepmother. Both of us wondered if she would be like Mamma. Well, we did not have to keep wondering for too long. She was nothing like the monstrous stepmothers in fairy tales. She tolerated Mayank, but nothing more was to be expected from her. She quite often reminded him that she was not his real mother."

Aanvik sighed. "Don't do this to Kitty's son, Waseef. It sucks."

"I am sure I don't look like the sort of person who would do that."

"That you don't, boy. Just saying. The kid will have a good dad; I've no doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt."

"Thanks, Aanvik."

Aanvik acknowledged his gratitude with a quick nod before carrying on with his story. "The months turned to years. Mayank's desperation was less apparent in his actions, but as an intimate friend, I knew that the storm in him was more intense than ever. He kept on growing skeptical about her promise, and his hope and yearning soon turned into rage."

"Poor thing, Mayank," he continued. "Hope gave him something to cling to. With that almost gone..."

"I understand."

"He eventually began to loathe almost everything that reminded him of Mamma, except cricket, which he fortunately continued to play. He nevertheless let his contempt burn one particular team. I'll let you guess which."

"He has never been fond of us."

"Not since his pre-teen years, at least. You don't blame him, do you?"

Waseef responded with a quick shake of his head.

"I thank you for that. It's not that your boys were at fault. It's just that he somewhat associated them with Mamma and—"

"It's alright, Aanvik. I get it."

"Then we will skip a little and jump straight to when we were about fifteen or sixteen. We played on the U-16 team. If you remember, we two had already met by then."

Waseef could not resist a faint smile. "I do remember."

"Well, soon after the series, a few shocking events took place. The first thing is that my mom's remorse at last took over her, and she could no longer hold the secret inside. One night she filled me in on everything."

"Don't ask me how I reacted to it," added Aanvik. "I don't know that myself. Mamma had always been Mamma to me. I don't know if the fact that she was my biological mother made any difference. The same was the case with Mayank. I have always regarded him as my brother. One thing did shock me though—the revelation that Mamma tried to contact us but couldn't do so because of my mom.

"The next big thing happened several weeks later. I returned home from practice and discovered a guest in the living room, sitting close to my mom. I'll admit, I couldn't figure out who it was. Ma came to the rescue."

"Was it your mamma?"

"Yes. She was still in the country."