Forgotten Fires

Chapter 8

Aarini

I felt my heart race as I tried to make sense of everything Meera aunty had just told me. "So, what about Mom ?" I asked, my voice trembling with a mix of confusion and disbelief. "Who was I talking to all these years? Who was with me, if it wasn’t Reyan?"

Meera aunty’s expression grew darker, and her eyes flickered toward my mom, as though she wasn’t sure how much more to say. "It was Ayaan," she finally said, her voice heavy with the weight of the truth. "It was Ayaan you’ve been talking to."

I felt my world tilt, my mind struggling to wrap around what Meera aunty had just revealed. "Ayaan?" I whispered, my voice barely audible. "But... but how could you—" I turned to face my mom, desperate for answers. "Mom... you knew?"

There was a long pause before mom slowly nodded, her eyes filled with regret. "Yes, Aarini. I knew," she said, her voice cracking. "But I didn’t think you were ready to hear it. After Reyan shifted to Mumbai, you... you were in such a deep depression. You were so young, and I didn’t want to add to your pain. If I told you everything, I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to bear it."

My mind raced, but I couldn’t find the words. "How could you do this to me?" I choked out, the disbelief in my voice turning to hurt. "You let me believe it was Reyan, and all this time it was Ayaan... How could you, Mom? How could you let me live this lie?"

Mom’s face crumpled with guilt, and she stepped closer, reaching out as if to comfort me. "I’m sorry, Aarini. I truly am. But I thought... I thought with time, when you started to get to know Ayaan, you’d start seeing him differently. I thought maybe, eventually, you’d forget Reyan. I never wanted to keep this from you forever. I thought it would be easier... for all of us."

I took a step back, my head spinning. "Easier?" I echoed, my voice rising with emotion. "You thought it would be easier to just... erase Reyan and replace him with Ayaan?" The words tasted bitter on my tongue. "But isn’t that... isn’t that cheating?"

Mom’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t say anything. She just looked down, her hands trembling at her sides.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. "And what about Kavya?" I asked, the shock in my voice growing. "You didn’t tell me that Reyan was dating her? Why? Why didn’t you tell me about her, about what was really happening in his life?"

Meera aunty stepped forward, her face full of sorrow. "No one knew, Aarini. After Reyan’s accident, he started distancing himself from all of us. He went off on his own, moved to his own place most of the time. We didn’t know what was happening in his life, not even about Kavya. All we knew was that after the accident, Reyan... wasn’t the same. And slowly, he started to push us all away."

The weight of everything crashed down on me. "So... all this time, everything was a lie? Ayaan wasn’t Reyan? And you knew everything, but kept it from me?" I was shaking now, my mind in chaos as I tried to process the betrayal. "And Reyan... he doesn’t even remember about everything we shared. He doesn’t even remember *his love.*"

Mom’s voice cracked. "I’m sorry, Aarini. I thought I was protecting you, but I see now that I only made things worse. I was wrong."

"Mom, you can go now. I don’t want to talk to you," I said, my voice trembling, a tear slipping down my cheek.

"But Aarini—" she started to say, but I cut her off.