Echoes Of Destiny | Multicouple ✓

26. FRAGMENTS OF DESTINY'S CROWSSROADS

Avya

"Mythila Abhinav Singhania," the words slipped out of my mouth subconsciously.

It was only when everyone's attention turned toward me that I felt a chill run down my spine.

I gulped, feeling the weight of the Singhanias' angry glares.

Holding my head, I swiped my tongue across my teeth, trying to find the right words. The pieces were starting to come together in my mind.

What Samaira had said, combined with the revelation that Mythila had a twin sister, Mira, made many things clearer yet more complicated.

The conversation that had unfolded till now, the back-and-forth between Tara Singhania, her son, and her grandsons, was so tense that it charged the atmosphere.

It was like watching one collision after another; every Singhania was a force to be reckoned with.

Now, all eyes were on me. Dadi turned her head, Abhinav looked pale, and Hridhaan just raised his eyebrows. Vrit, Samaira, Myra, and Arhaan were waiting to see what would happen next.

I wanted to tell them the truth—that the woman they were mourning was alive, not dead—but the words were stuck. I didn't have the guts nor the energy.

It felt so right yet so wrong.

The amount of pain this family carried, all because of that one incident twenty years ago, was staggering. She was a mother, a wife, a daughter-in-law—every single one of them was affected.

"I—" I started, but Hridhaan was in front of me, his barely restrained anger palpable.

"What did you just say?" Hridhaan's voice was low, dangerously calm, but his eyes were stormy, his grey-blue eyes piercing into mine.

The intensity of his gaze made me shiver; it was as if his eyes held the cold, brutal, deadly force of a north pole avalanche.

"Mythila Abhinav Singhania," I repeated, softly, this time looking directly at him and his father.

Hridhaan stilled.

"How do you know mother's name?" Vrit asked urgently, stepping towards me.

She had been my patient for the past two years and that I had known her even before  I met any of you, she was also the only person left in this world who I connected with on deeper level, that's how.

But the words remained stuck in my throat.

"Mom, has she ever heard of Mythila from you?" Abhinav asked Dadi before I could answer.

"No," Tara Singhania replied firmly.

"'Girl,' tell us right now, where did you hear that name?" Tara demanded.

That "girl" irked me, but I wet my lips to answer her question.

"Doctor Rawal,"  Hridhaan said, his deep voice almost making me flinch. "Answer. How do you know that name?"

The atmosphere in the room was colder than the north pole and hotter than the earth's core.

Everyone was looking at me with eager eyes.

Hridhaan with his intense stare, Vrit and Samaira were equally flabbergasted, Dadi looked on the verge of losing her patience, and Abhinav Singhania looked like a million emotions passed through his eyes. They were all waiting for my response.

This was it.

For a second, I wanted to be selfish and say nothing. I wanted to keep Mythila to myself.