When Aastha met Veer, she knew they had a connection.
However, the connection would be from two centuries ago, she never could have imagined.
A love story that remained unfulfilled, broken by evil, and destroyed to ashes - whose reference hide...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Raj and Jai's ears perked up. "Maa sa?"
Tears streamed down Gouri Devi's face as she held herself together. With a slow nod, she answered, "Yes. I gave birth to a daughter as well."
"Is... she alive?" Raj and Jai asked in unison.
Vaishali supported her mother as Gouri Devi began to crumble. She soothed her, offering comfort from the trauma. "Five years before I had you, I gave birth to a baby girl."
Jai swallowed the lump in his throat. "Bhauji said the baby didn't survive childbirth!"
Gouri Devi nodded. "My mother-in-law saved her. She announced she was dead, repeating what she did to save her own child. She sent the baby to the same orphanage."
Everyone was shocked as Gouri revealed. "My baby... Durga."
Drawing a sharp breath, Gouri Devi continued, "She was brought up in the same orphanage. She was adopted by a respected middle-class family in Roopgarh. She married an agricultural engineer, and they have a daughter..."
Gouri Devi held her breath. "Nupur Dixit."
A collective gasp followed by dead silence ensued. "Does she know?" Meethali asked, her voice trembling.
Vaishali answered for her mother, "Yes. Durga didi also knows. Maa sa visited their family when she was six years old and explained everything. So she grew up knowing her identity and the reason why she was given away for adoption."
"I can't believe my ancestors would do something so atrocious!" Raj said dejectedly.
"Every one of them? Did nobody question this nonsense? Nobody said anything?" Jai asked his mother. Gouri Devi shook her head. "As my mother-in-law told me, there may have been opposition here and there, but eventually, the men did what they thought was for the greater good. Also, the whole of Rudragarh's evil story was so believable that they assumed this could be true too. Most weren't even aware all of this stemmed from selfishness. They thought they were protecting the family. They thought the curse was real. That's how brainwashed they were," Gouri explained.
"How does Aastha fit into all of this?" Meethali asked, wiping away her tears.
"Aastha found my mother-in-law's diary and the letters she wrote to me in secret. It had everything, including the story of Vasundhara and the killings of the girls... this happened during the same summer when Aastha suffered the injury in Rudragarh," Gouri said.
"It was too much trauma for Aastha. First, the incident was probably an untreated concussion... Aastha had always been extremely obedient and cautious. If I had to guess what went through her mind, maybe guilt," Vaishali spoke. "One of the strongest emotions, guilt has a way of tormenting a person for years. Going to Rudragarh was definitely considered the wrong thing to do in her mind. Add to that she got hurt... She just couldn't comprehend it all. And then... she wandered into the underground chambers, probably seeking a familiar sense of comfort and escape from both pain and guilt."
