Pocket Full of Lies

75- Family Drama

What the fuck was going on here?

My eyes kept darting between Grandma and Uncle nervously. I then glanced at Rehaan, who looked equally confused and panicked by the situation as I was.

There was a gun in the house. We could die any moment.

Sweat buds gathered on my forehead as I gulped, more scared by grandma than uncle, even though she was on my side...for now.

"Seriously?" Uncle scoffed, looking at Grandma. "Holding my own gun against me?" He asked, before mumbling, "When did she even take that out?"

His gun?

"Stay away from her or I won't hesitate to shoot," Grandma warned him.

"Do you even know how to shoot?" Uncle asked in an irritated voice. "Drop the gun before you end up shooting yourself," he said, while slowly moving closer.

"Stop right there. I am not kidding, I will really shoot," Grandma said fiercely. However, her trembling hand said otherwise.

"Do you really think I am going to hurt her? Do you think I can?" Uncle asked grandma, while pointing towards me.

"You had no qualms while trying to destroy her three years ago."

She knew. Grandma is aware of our past.

I looked at Rehaan with wide eyes, only to find him already looking at me. His eyes then moved towards the box of ladoos in his hands. He immediately dropped them as if they were on fire.

Grandma definitely wasn't a neighborhood aunty who came to give her blessings. I can't believe we didn't realize this sooner.

"I was furious and wanted her to disappear from the face of the earth," Uncle admitted, "but even then I have never tried to actually harm her."

"That's because she, herself disappeared before you could do anything," Grandma retorted.

"And you," she then turned towards Rehaan angrily, "if only you hadn't lied to my men that day, if only you had let us meet her, Muskaan wouldn't have lost her identity."

The other men who came, the ones that made Rehaan fire me...were sent by Grandma.

★★★★★

Rehaan's POV

The old lady and Uncle, the two culprits, we were trying to find, were both standing in our living room having a face off.

"She would have been loved and cherished in her early pregnancy days instead of being constantly on the edge that someone would turn up to hurt her," the lady continued, cursing me for trying to protect Muskaan from strangers. "Perhaps then, she wouldn't have developed such sickness."

"You are sick?" Uncle asked Muskaan.

"Don't be too happy about it, she isn't dying anytime soon," I answered instead, controlling my urge to punch him.

"Does this look like a happy face?" He questioned with a scoff, before turning towards Grandma, "She wasn't pregnant at that time. Heck, she wasn't even married then."

"Like it is totally impossible to get pregnant before marriage," the lady said sarcastically, causing Muskaan and I to cough.

She was damn forward for her age.

While that was surprising, what was more surprising was that her tone and attitude while fighting matched with Muskaan's style.

As if...as if I was seeing her future.

"There is no way she got pregnant within two days of her marriage. She was definitely pregnant while you went about destroying her home and identity."

Muskaan's uncle smirked suddenly, before saying, "If what you are saying is true, then I guess her kid wouldn't get a penny from the inheritance just like I didn't."

Inheritance?

My eyes narrowed at his words, as I tried to figure out what Muskaan's early pregnancy had anything to do with inheritance.

I tried to join the dots while moving my eyes from that lady, to Muskaan's uncle and then finally to Muskaan. It didn't take long for realization to dawn upon me.

No wonder she slightly resembled Muskaan's behaviour. Or should I say, Muskaan's behaviour resembled her's.

But before I could voice out my assumption to Muskaan, her uncle spoke again.

"Be careful Muskaan. Don't have high hopes on them. They will love and pamper you now, use your kid to the extreme capacity whenever they fall into trouble. And then...when all the problems disappear and everything is settled, they will kick him out like a useless, crumpled piece of paper."

"Her case is different. She is marrying the father of her child," grandma said immediately, before adding at the last minute. "And no one kicked you out of the house."

"Yeah yeah, not from the house but from the inheritance. A daughter who you hadn't met for years gets everything. But the son who took care of you, your business and even killed someone to protect your daughter, doesn't get a single penny." Muskaan's uncle scoffed.

"Uncle, what are you-" Muskaan stopped mid- sentence as she realized what I already had a few minutes ago.

"Grandma is really my grandmother," Muskaan whispered in shock, losing her balance a bit. Fortunately, I caught her, before she could fall.

I didn't know how Muskaan was going to deal with all this. I was there for her but this was a huge shock. Someone she called grandma out of respect turned out to be her actual grandma.

I kept holding onto her shoulders to support her, as her uncle moved to speak again.

"I loved your mother wholeheartedly, Muskaan. Although she was my half-sister, we never considered it as such. We were real siblings through and through. There had been no discrimination on our part, however the same couldn't be said for our parents," He said, looking at Muskaan with sympathy.

"They did it to me and they will do this to your child. This child is just going to be a puppet for this family. Well, unless you can prove that your pregnancy happened after marriage, this child will get nothing."

"So all this was for inheritance," Muskaan breathed out, looking utterly exhausted.

"I know it sounds ridiculous to you, but stand in my shoes and see.

"I didn't even want everything. I only wanted what I deserved to get. But to completely throw me and my family out, and provide you with every single thing they owned, this wasn't something I could digest." His face turned more and more red as he spoke. If he wasn't angry before, then he definitely was right now.

Before he could take a threatening step towards Muskaan, her grandma yelled out, "Stay away from my granddaughter. I gave you the same love as my daughter but you dare try to harm my family just for some money. You think destroying the actual heiress would make you an heir. You leech."

"That's on you and not on me. Why am I not an heir in the first place? I am his son as well, right. Then why do I have to fight with my niece for what is originally mine?"

"You know the child born out of wedlock doesn't get anything. It's the family tradition"

"Then you shouldn't have given me hopes in the first place," uncle yelled out, before grinding his teeth. "If I had known from before, I wouldn't have wasted my time growing your business. I would have done something for my own family. The least you can do is to pay me back for my time and efforts."

"That's the fate of a child born from an extramarital affair."

"That's on your husband and not me. I didn't ask to be born. Why the hell should I pay for his crime?"

The back and forth between them continued while Muskaan and I watched the family drama without popcorn.