THE LEGAL BIND

Chapter: 30 - Saarna's Secret.

Revika Shastri

After the Mehendi function, I was headed to my room to freshen up and head to bed. I was just living through the dreading moments of seeing Mr. Rajput with His fiancée, but he was no one to be blamed. I rejected him and now he was getting married. There was nothing I could do about it now. I wasn’t unhappy for him, it was great that he was marrying, I was just upset at myself for thinking I didn’t care. Now that he was with Lavanya, I realized that it did affect me, unclear of why, but it did.

Midway to my room I heard Saarna aunty call out to me. “Revika beta, aao na thodi der baatein karte hai, agar tum bahut thaki naa ho toh, it’s been a while we spent some time together.” I couldn’t deny her, I needed this more than she would think, I nodded and walked with her to her room. “Give me a moment, I need to wash up a little. Why don’t you take out Vardaan’s childhood album, we talked about seeing it together. It’s in my closet, last shelf, at the top. It’s kept next to some files. Tum nikalo me aati hu.” She said and I nodded.

I was looking for the album when a few papers fell out and I hurriedly bent to pick them up, but then I saw some papers that made me shook. They were ‘adoption papers’ of Mr. Rajput. How is that possible? The birth certificate that was along with the papers stated that the father was ‘Manish Singh Rajput’ but the mother’s name wasn’t of Saarna aunty’s. the mother’s name was ‘Mrunali’. I collected the papers quickly, but as I was putting them back, I heard aunty’s voice, “You have already read them, haven’t you?”

I turned and quickly said, “I am so sorry, they fell on accident and then as I was picking them up, I happened to read them. I am so sorry aunty.” I was guilty of intruding. “It’s okay, everyone except Vardaan knows the truth. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. Come have a seat, I will tell you why I am not his birth mother.” I sat down with her in her balcony and she began.

“When I married my ex – husband – Vardaan’s biological father – He was like a dream. He respected me, cared for me. But all of a sudden, he became distant. I couldn’t understand what went wrong. He came home late and talked less. I tried to know what was wrong, but he always pushed me away. A point came when he wouldn’t even look at me if not for getting physically involved with each other. I let it be though, I didn’t want to break my home. That’s what I was taught by my mother. One day, I found out I was pregnant. He had nothing to say, he left for a business trip the next day and I was left alone. I went through the first six months of my pregnancy alone. At the beginning of my third trimester, he came back home, but he wasn’t alone. He had a child with him.

He came up to our room and told me he had been cheating on me and that this was his and that woman’s child. she had died while giving birth and he couldn’t let his own son from the woman he loved be away from him. He asked me to forgive him and to accept the child as my own. I was too shocked and ran out the room, I fell down the stairs in a hurry and was rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, they couldn’t save my baby, we later found out it was a girl. I was devastated. Papa kept the baby boy, but threw Manish out. He removed him from the family business and his will. He completely disowned him. I was depressed for two months, but then papa pulled me out of that dark place.

He asked me to accept the child, not because he was Manish’s, but because we both needed each other. He needed a mother and I needed my child. I legally adopted him after I received therapy. It took me a while, but I healed. We love each other more than anything else in the world. He worships me and I feared that if I told him the truth, he would not accept me or I would lose him. Till today, I haven’t been able to gather the courage to tell him and I don’t think I ever will.”

By the time she finished, we were both in tears. I sprang up from my seat to hug her and we shared one as we cried. She was so strong to have accepted her husband’s illegitimate child. Most mothers wouldn’t be able to. She went through so much alone. She is truly outstanding. I pulled out from the hug and told her she was the strongest woman I have known.

“Thank you for saying that. I hope Vardaan never finds out. The truth will only cause him pain, it will take him back to the past that he hates. There is no point in him finding out. I would have told him the truth if there was a chance he could meet his birth mother, but there isn’t and I think its best if he remains unknown from the truth. He grew up without a father, I know he never said it, but he wanted what Ishani and Raunak had. He is so strong, but he was never able to heal the child that only craved the presence of his father. Although he hates his father, because he thinks that his father left me when I was pregnant with him and that he now stays with the woman he loves, he still wished that he had a normal family too.”

I nodded understanding her. We wiped our tears and decided it was too late and we needed to head to bed. I made sure she was okay before I left and then I headed to my room. I kept thinking about Mr. Rajput. He is so strong to become the person he is, with so much going on in his life. I know what it’s like to not have a father when you need them the most. I know the pain of a broken home. I admired him and Saarna aunty even more so now.
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A short but wrecking update!
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