I Am Guilty

16. Expectations

"Do you think Bansi knows?" She asked hopefully.

Samrat rubbed face. He could not see both the girls in pain.
"Bansi is already troubled. That girl is too young to know and see all this. I just can't make myself look at her without a chord twisting in my heart. She is just a kid and see, what all she is suffering."

Veena took a deep breath and nodded lightly.

Samrat looked at her.
"Give me some time. I will talk to Bansi. She is very fragile at the moment. I don't want to push her to do something that she might want to forget. But I will really talk to her. And in the mean time, you too, try to think rationally and see what can do to make the situation better."

Veena nodded again. She knew she could do nothing more than that.

Samrat knocked on the door to Bansi's room. He pushed opened the door and walked in to find her lying on the bed wide awake.

"Bansi! Hey, how are you now?"

She did not grace him an answer.
He came closer and gently pulled her up in sitting position. She did not protest and he sat behind her, making her lean on his chest. He wrapped his one arm around her torso and gently pushed away the hair from her face with the other. He then kissed her temple and pulled her a little more closer.
It was sometime that they both sat in silence in the same position. He gently rocked their bodies in a rhythm and swayed her like a child.

"You know, I hate to see you like this. You are not smiling and the entire house is drowned in melancholy. Talk to me, Bansi." He whispered in a smooth soothing voice.

She gently turned around and pushed herself in his warm chest.
He held her tighter and stroked his fingers in her soft locks.

"Did Daddy hit him before?" She whispered so low that he would not have been able to hear her if he was not so close.

Samrat did not reply and kept on threading his fingers through her hair.
She gently hit her dainty fists on his chest to nudge him to answer.

Samrat kissed her hairline.
"You are too young to think about all this. And honestly, I don't know what exactly happened at dacade ago."

She looked at him with accusing glares.
"You are lying."

He hummed.
"May be. But not all things are worth knowing. And it's not my place to tell you anything. If Arjun ever decides to talk about it, he should be the right person to address this."

She pulled away from him and looked at him in eyes.
"Bhai, do you think, Arjun Bhai really did all that? And why did he do that to Veena Dii?"

Samrat shook his head in denial.
"I really don't know, Bansi. We need to make him talk. Can you ask him to come back? We can ask him everything and he will have to answer."

Bansi blinked at him. The expression on her face turned from sad to stone cold.
She could recall the painful whimper of her brother and that had haunted her sane mind.

"Do you even know what you are saying? I have seen the way people treat him. I will never tell him to come back."

Samrat was expecting that.
"I know, Love. But don't you think Veena needs her answers?"

"I am not telling him to come back. He is better off without us." She snapped.

"And what about Veena? She is caught in the whirlwind without any fault. Don't be adamant, Bansi. I know you are upset. But we cant drag this matter for long." Samrat tried to explain her.

Bansi sighed in frustration and looked away.
A part in her knew that Veena was not at fault and a part in her wanted to protect Arjun too. But the fact was, Arjun was not reachable.