Tum Kaafi Ho ✓

t w e n t y e i g h t. mistakes and crimes

t w e n t y e i g h t. mistakes and crimes

Dear Pranati,

Why did you leave so easily? Why didn't you throw a fit? Why didn't you slap the shit outta me? Why didn't you demand for my answer? Why didn't you stay a little longer?

Why did you come in my life if you had to leave? Where am I to go without you? What am I to do without you?

Come back, please.

Yours,
Reyansh

_

"She looks like an angel when she's sleeping."

"Only when she's sleeping."

Reyansh and Pranati shared a soft smile as the former tucked the girl in their bed. Jugnu was soundly asleep the moment Reyansh held her. It was a sign of how tiring and good the day was.

"You should rest too, you guys have to attend the pre-wedding rituals right?" Reyansh undid Jugnu's hair knots, softly running his fingers through her hair whilst Pranati watched him closely.

Was Reyansh putting on a show? Was he pretending to be a father to Jugnu? Was he doing all this for the deal?

But then, Reyansh never lied to her. Not in the past either. He was always the man of his word. When they dated, Reyansh's promises were all true and he never put on a facade for anyone.

So this cannot be an act. It just wasn't. Especially with the way his eyes held tears of the yesteryears. The mention of his mother was a trigger for him and it was the first time he acknowledged his late mother in front of her.

All Pranati knew about his mother was that she died in a car accident when Reyansh was 8. And that Reyansh watched his mother die because he was in that accident too.

Survivors guilt had been eating him up all the years which he hid behind his cold personality. The star player of the college has traumatising nightmares and panic attacks during the day.

She knew all of that. She knew how much it must have hurt for him to mention his mother. She also knew how his eyes kept wanting to meet hers, to ask for mercy, to beg for forgiveness.

If there was anything Pranati couldn't do was trust anyone anymore. She couldn't bring herself to trust her heart with anyone now that she had built walls of steel around it. It had been eight years of hardships and nightmares for her to make a living for her daughter.

How is she to let go of the past after everything they've been through?

"Night." She said, avoiding his gaze and eyeing her daughter. "Thank you, for today..."

Reyansh got off the bed, "Jugnu is my daughter and sure, I haven't been a great dad all this while but I'd like to try..." Reyansh voiced his request, carefully. "I won't be exerting any rights nor would I extend this beyond the two weeks that remain, but please, just for the remaining days... Can I be present for her?"

Pranati was tongue tied at the request. She was determined to take Jugnu with her and she didn't want Reyansh's fatherly instincts to cloud her judgment.

He was still the boy who left her and washed his hands from the responsibility when she told him.

"You're asking a lot from me." Pranati gulped, a straight face to counter Reyansh's absurd request. "Jugnu's parental rights are non-negotiable. She's my kid and my kid alone. I'm sorry, but it's unfair of you to ask me to consider when you willingly gave her up eight years back."