Starting Of An Ending

Promise

Ragini and Laksh both could not face Radhika who was standing in front of them. Never in their dreams they thought that Radhika would be the one to find out about Maha's adoption.

"Kaise maa?" Radhika asked as a tear rolled down her cheek. When she saw the birth certificate and her parents told about their dead child, Radhika actually thought that her parents had a miscarriage and her sister was borned after that. That way it made more sense but now she wished she could unheard whatever she heard the very instant.

"When we first had a daughter, she became the center of our world. And then one day, she just left us." Laksh said trying to compose himself. Even after all this years, there's still a pain in his chest whenever he talk or think about his first child who died.

"She died when she was a baby. Just one and a half months old. The doctor said she caught a viral fever and the treatment was not working for her." Ragini said as she remembered the most painful moment of her life.

"We wanted to do so many things with her. We wanted to record her first step. We wanted to do a scrap book of all the words that she uttered. But in the end, we didn't even get to hear her call us paa and maa." Laksh said as the tear that was threatening to spill finally rolled down his cheek.

"Then one day, we found a baby girl when  returning home from mandhir. She was crying and about 9 months  old. I went and lifted her and she quickly stopped crying. Your father carried her and she started giggling. It really felt like we were carrying our own daughter." Ragini said as she didn't care of the tears that were rolling down. At that moment, she did not care that her daughter is seeing her cry. She actually felt her heart getting lighter as she disclosed the truth.

Radhika wanted to feel angry. She very badly wanted to vent out her frustration after finding out that Maha wasn't her biological sister but for some reason she couldn't. Seeing her parents breaking down in front of her was so heart wrenching.

"But I swear Radhika, even if our first daughter did not die, we would have still adopted her." Ragini said as all her sobs started to turn harder.

Whereas in the other side of the house, in Swara and Sanskar's room was another truth out in the open.

When Maha heard her mumma and papa say that Radhika was their daughter, she did not know how to react. She wasn't sure if she should be happy that Swara and Sanskar actually have a child together because Radhika and Maha always talked about how they would treat Swara and Sanskar the same way, so that they won't feel like they do not have children. But never she would have imagined that her sister was their biological daughter.

"I wanted my child to grow with both the parents, and at that time Sanskar was in the train accident and I did what I thought was the best. In fact, it wasn't even supposed to be brought up. This matter was supposed to stay hidden. The last time we actually talked about this was when telling Sanskar. " Swara said as she studied Maha's face which was calm but shows that she's clearly upset because of her tear stained face.

Swara got more and more worried as Maha did not speak anything. She did not reply but only tears flowed as a sign of her listening.

"So papa, this is why you were asking questions that day in garden? It was not about Kavita aunty." Maha finally spoke as a realization dawned on her.

Maha couldn't be angry as she can't blame Swara and Sanskar for whatever happened. She can't blame her maa and paa for helping to raise Radhika. The fact that she is not her sister, hurts her.

"Maha, please, kuch tho bolo." Swara said pleadingly as she can't stand the silence given by her daughter.

And that was the end of the conversation, Maha just walked out without uttering anything. Silence was the only answer she gave. That was the same way the conversation ended in Laksh and Ragini's room as well.