Healing Him | ✓

25.

"Dadi, I need to talk to you. It's urgent." Kalyani followed him to the other end of the lobby. It was secluded. Annika's eyes followed them worriedly, Shivaay was tapping his phone on his other hand, something he did when he was nervous.

"Is everything okay? You look a bit tense." Shivaay asked, he had observed the interactions between the Trivedi couple and his grandmother. They looked forced, Shivaay felt bad when he saw that they weren't feeling comfortable enough to stay in the mansion their own daughter was living in. Well, even she wants to move out. He may have been oblivious but he was not blind to see the tension between the elders of both the family.

Kalyani didn't say anything.

He sat her on the chair and crouched down in front of her. Her hands reached to his head. And he laid his head on her lap. He spoke up,

"You know, dadi. I have never spoken about the school to any of you. I will give you a brief explanation now. I thought it was just small fights and taunts. I was used to it. Everyone had termed me something I was not. I know it now." Kalyani's hands stopped their movements. She was reminded of the scene when her grandson was called an omen right in front of her, in the hospital. The broken look on his face.

"I thought I was strong enough. But I guess I was not Dadi. I was not." She felt his tears as she hurriedly wiped them. The fresh tears soon replaced the dry ones. "I didn't know those very taunts were breaking me from inside. At that time I-" Shivaay stopped for a second, he raised his head from her lap. And Kalyani felt distraught to see tears shining in them.

"-I couldn't understand what was happening. But I had registered that I have done something wrong. That I don't deserve any empathy. I was surrounded by those dark clouds that I started planning. That once Om and Rudra were old enough, when I have fulfilled my responsibility over them, I would move away. I was fully intending to follow that plan of mine." Kalyani's eyes widened, she never really thought about what damages that had been done to his fragile soul. She had failed as a grandmother that too she is realising too late, as her grandson's words dawned upon her she felt her pride shattering.

"-I thought I don't deserve anything that I have. Even my life at some points." Her eyes widened when his words sunk in. "But, then Annika. M-my Ani. She came into my life." Shivaay's face was fond. Kalyani witnessed the fond smile on his face and she felt her heart breaking.

"She showed that sixteen year old Shivaay, who was so tired of the world even though his life has just begun. That Shivaay, she showed that to very me, that someone like me can get something precious as it was." His hands were shaking.

"Do you know what that precious thing was?" He asked.

Kalyani frowned, tears were streaming down freely now. She shook her head. And Shivaay just smiled.

"It was her friendship. Her trust. Her belief in me. Things that no one ever showed me." And that was a huge blow to her pride. Somewhere in her grief of losing both her sons, she forgot that Shivaay had both his parents and guardians snatched right in front of his eyes. He had witnessed both deaths. She never understood the trauma that a poor child had to go through and that child being her own grandson. And it broke her heart even more.

"Dadi, I am saying this with a lot of respect. I do not know, what history our families shared." Her eyes widened. He was talking about the Trivedis.

"They have put the past behind. Let us too." She opened her mouth but Shivaay shook his head.

"I apologise, dadi. I have never turned away from any word of yours. But I don't want to break your heart by disobeying you in any way. The reason why I am saying this is because, If you restrict me from her, I won't be able to follow that particular word." Though his voice was a bit shaky, his tone showed her that he meant every bit of it.