Not A Simple Engineer Boy! | ✓

128 • first love | one

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Scrollstck- Suganthi Lakshminarayanan

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Not a warning, just a piece of information: The chapter has a lot of Marathi conversation; I have explained it in the dialogue itself or it is added in the expression details of the character. You don't need to translate to read :)

I like to keep the conversation real, and this chapter required Marathi to have all the characters' emotions in place.

"Aai... Baba!" Xavier's eyes widened as he saw his Aai and Baba standing behind his cabin door, his Aai's beautiful face holding the loving smile that always made him happy.

Sonali and Mukesh Agnihotri might not have given him birth, but they were his guardian angels. They had raised him as their son—along with their two daughters, Akanksha and Samiksha—fostering him with all the love and care that his mother had asked them for in a promise before her death. No, they had nurtured him unconditionally—anything more than his Amma could have asked them to do for him.

He pushed his chair back and rushed to them. Opening the door, he questioned, "What are you doing here?" He motioned for them to enter and closed the door behind him.

"Aapla mulga visarla aapalyala... So, here we are, to remind him that we are still alive," Sonali Aai turned around, mocking Xavier, that their son had forgotten about them. "Look at you, being restless as if we are ghosts!"

"Nahi ga Aai, as nahi aahe... You know it's nothing like that... I..."

"Sona, you started with your taunts already? Were you nagging me to meet him for years for this?" Mukesh Baba shook his head. "Scolding a grown man is not the right thing."

"Grown man? Who?" His Aai did a fake search, moving her head from left to right, ignoring Xavier's hulking frame. "Mukesh, kuthe aahes to samujhtdaar mulga? Where is this grown man you are talking about?"

Xavier bent down and touched both their feet. "Mala aashirwaad ghya... Would my angry Aai forgive her naughty son and bless him?"

Mukesh Baba grinned and patted his head to bless him.

"Now, now, we have to travel all the way to Chennai to give you blessings, huh?" Aai retorted, slightly pulling his left ear to admonish him. "It seems like the multimillionaire standing in front of me is too busy to care for his parents."

"Naahi as naahi... I..." Xavier sighed. "Aai, you already know why I don't visit Tirora... He--"

"They aren't there," his Aai cut through his hesitant speech and held his face. Looking into his eyes, she continued, "He's no more..."

He is... Dead... Joseph Anthony is dead.

Xavier stared at her face, his eyes silently asking for the truth. Again, "Achan... He...?"

Baba held his shoulder. "Your stepmother left last month for Kerala; there was no one left for her to be there." He sighed. "Poor lady, she had suffered enough; at least now she can live peacefully."

Aai spat, "Why are you being so empathetic for her? She deserves no mercy!" She glared at her husband as she ground her teeth. "That woman... She... She stood silently when that madman had..."

Mukesh held Sonali's hand and pressed it. "Now, we don't need to talk about it here," he looked at Xavier's face and tried to silence his wife. "Poore aata, tyach office aahe..."

"I don't want to talk about it anywhere, anytime," she added. "You were the one who brought up that vile woman."

Mukesh frowned. "Sona, your love for our children blinds the reality for you. I can't be as judgmental as you."

Sonali scowled and shut her mouth.

Xavier didn't know how to react. The lone person he had despised his whole life was dead—the man responsible for his birth and all those dreadful nightmares was no longer walking on this earth.

Shouldn't he have felt happy? But he was tense. He wasn't anywhere near being content. His heart, for so long, had held onto such a strong feeling for that monster that even his absence initiated a disturbance in his mind.

I should have met him once while he was helplessly lying on his deathbed—to let him know that now I am everything I dreamt of being; what Amma had dreamt for me. I should have looked into his eyes while spitting the facts about how he is—

"Udya tu free aahe ka?" Mukesh cut through his thoughts, asking if he was available the next day. "We are planning to stay tonight at Samiksha's place, we haven't informed her yet. It's going to be a surprise for her birthday week. Jawai had called us last week," he chuckled.

"I heard there's some festival here tomorrow in Tamil Nadu, so you better take leave and stay at home," his Aai bossed him around, then added, "Can we come to your home?" She didn't leave a chance to mock him.

"You don't need to ask, Aai." He smiled, the smile that didn't reach his eyes. It wasn't his Aai's orders but the death of someone pestering his mind. "Hey, tumach ghar aahe... Your son's home is yours only, right? And I'll be more than happy to have you both."

Both of them chatted with Xavier while his mind constantly struggled not to think about his dead father.

Dead—it sounded unreal.

Do tell me what you feel about this and the upcoming chapters, always open to positive criticism.