Beyond the Beats

Chapter 63. Love and such

Me and my family were enjoying the snacks I had bought to celebrate my ass getting saved from eliminations, but I was suspicious about how my sister and mother were behaving.

Mom and Dhara Di were not looking at each other and were telling other family members to relay their messages to each other. When I had come home, I had instantly noticed the tension in the air, but since Dad was at home, I didn't want to stir up any trouble.

Srishti was also behaving weirdly and wasn't playing around like she usually did. I was afraid if my sister's ex-husband, Shailesh, had come over to my place in my absence.

When the dinner was over and we were done spreading out our mattresses, I put on our favourite comedy show on the TV, and when I saw that my father, niece, and sister had gotten busy watching the show, I went inside the kitchen to check on Mom.

As expected, she was busy sorting out vegetables for the next day's breakfast and lunch, and after seeing her aimlessly banging utensils and the poor vegetables, I confirmed that she and my sister did have a fight with each other.

"Mom, are you not going to tell me what happened?" I poked my mother.

"Nothing happened. Sleep early. Don't waste your time thinking about stuff that has not happened," Mom scolded.

"So something definitely happened, right?"

"Bhoomi..."

I held Mom's hands. "You and Di fought again? Was it because of Srishti? You can tell me; what's the use of me working so hard if my family is going to fight with each other?"

"You won't understand." Mom sighed.

"Really?" I retorted. "I didn't know you gave birth to a daughter without a brain. It must have been really difficult to raise me, right?"

Mom glared at me. "Don't make such stupid jokes. Your sister also taunted me like this only. She said I am controlling her. Tell me, Bhoomi, am I that bad of a mother? I am just worried about everyone. I don't want Srishti to get bullied, but why won't Dhara understand? I know I messed up her life, but why won't she understand that I am really sorry for what I did? No matter how much I try, I know your sister still thinks of me as her enemy."

"Will you explain the whole thing? I can't take sides without knowing anything," I said.

"Let's go on the terrace. A few clothes need to be fetched," Mom said.

I read between her lines and assisted her. We went upstairs after checking that others were fully engrossed in the comedy show. There were actually a few clothes hanging on the ropes, but we didn't collect them.

My small tin shed had been empty for a long time, so Mom and I crunched ourselves inside it when a lightening struck in the sky.

"I think Dhara is thinking about Ritvik a lot these days," Mom announced. "It is not good. She should realise what her reality is. If she acts like this, how will I control Srishti?"

"Control?" I asked. "Why do you want to control Srishti? Did she do something? And how are you so sure about what Dhara Di is thinking?"

"I found Ritvik's photo under her pillow. As you can already imagine, I scolded her about it, but I was surprised when she snatched that photo from my hands. I had to drop Srishti off to school, so I didn't bother Dhara about it, but when I went to Srishti's school to pick her up, I was informed by the teacher that Srishti's father had come and taken her with him."

I widened my eyes. "So Shailesh did come! How dare he? He didn't harm Srishti, right? Did he threaten you again? Was Dad at home that time?"

Mom raised her hand to shut me up. "Calm down. Fortunately, it wasn't Shailesh. Ritvik had picked up Srishti from her school, and that little troublemaker even told her teacher that Ritvik was her father. When I came home, I was shocked to see Dhara holding Ritvik's hand. The door was open when I came home, Bhoomi. What if someone had seen both of them like that? Srishti was also calling Ritvik 'Papa, Papa!' like a parrot.