CURSED....to be together! (COMPLETE)

Chapter 12 {Part 2}

She took one trophy in her hands and looked at me while I was still on the bed. "You know he won this trophy in STD 5, he came second in the whole class. He was so excited and came running to me and hugged me. The whole day he cried for having a party as he wanted to tell the entire universe that he came second." She placed the trophy again on the self and took another trophy in her hand. But now there were tears on her cheeks. She was going through so much pain because I guess she had kept it all in these years. "This, he got when he was in STD 8, he came first in the entire state. But you know what, we never even knew about it until the principle called us as they wanted us to give the award to him. He was always so excited for this little things, but then everything had changed. That was the first time I noticed that he was drifting apart from us. I tried Nandani, I tried a lot but he was gone to far." Mom was now sobbing hard.

"Mom please don't cry." I wiped her tears but a question raised in my mind so I though to ask her about it. "Mom if you trust me, then please will you answer one of my question?" She looked at me and nodded. "If you love him so much, then why do you guys stay in separate houses. I have seen how much he loves you all and I have also seen how lonely he is, then what happened?"

Mom smiled a little and she spoke. "Nandani I trust you more then anyone else. Manik told us that he wanted to be independent and stand on his own feet. So he wanted to move out but we knew what was in his mind. Actually he felt that we gave him more attention and less to Mukti. He feared that he was coming in between the family that had adopted him but he forgot that he was also a part of the family. We tried a lot to stop him but him being the stubborn soul, he left. We tried a lot for five years but he didn't come back. One day Raj faked a heart attack so he would come back. He came back and took away all the responsibilities but did not come back to live with us. Nobody knows that we faked it, not even Mukti. But at least he would come home to talk to Raj about the business." I could feel her pain and tears welled up in my eyes as well.

"Beta, I am telling you all this for a reason. When I saw you and Manik together, I found my hope back. He was behaving different around you. There were glimpse of my lost Manik. Then I figured out that it is you who can bring him back. Maybe you can clear all his doubts and insecurities. I want to hand you the responsibilities of bringing Manik back to his real house." She cupped my face as she said the last sentence.

There was complete silence for a few minutes as I took the time to absorb everything. I felt pressured to have such a big responsibility on my shoulder. Why did Mom think that I could bring him back? And what does she mean by he behaved differently around me? As my head was down Mom lifted with her palm so I could look into her eyes. There was pure love and care in her eyes. I could make out how much she must have yearned for her son. This was the only thing she was asking for, I considered her as my mother and how could I deny her. "Don't worry mom, I will try my best to bring him back. But I need your support in this. You have to be strong and promise me one thing, when ever you will be sad, you will talk to me first about it."

She smiled and nodded as happy tears rolled out of her eyes. She again took me for a hug.

"Listen Beta, today please come here for dinner." I smiled back and nodded for approval.

I called Manik and informed him that I can't come for work and going straight home. To my surprise he didn't argue and agreed at once. His behaviour seemed a little different but I told him about the dinner and hung up. Next I called the hotel and informed them as well. Harshad seemed annoyed at first but then he also agreed. I sat on my bed and thought about all Mom had said to me. Unknowingly tears started rolling from my eyes. My full focus was on how to start with this Mission-Get-Manik-Back. As an idea got in my head I called Mom and she liked my plan. As soon as I sat on my bed, sleep took over me. I guess all the crying and thinking and planning had got me drained  out, when my eyes automatically shut down.