Happily ever after....

Part 3: Old ties, New bonds

A/N: Thank you all for taking the time out to read and vote on the previous part! Appreciate your time.

Previously:

Sona swallowed, looking down to compose herself and then asked outright, "You do not live in Ishwari Nivas anymore?"

"No", the answer was delivered in the same calm voice but the brutal honesty and the finality in the tone spoke volumes. Sona looked up at Dev, the surprise and the query, both very evident in her eyes.

"No", Dev's direct answer took Sona by surprise- both the answer itself and the fact that he had admitted it to her with such brutal honesty. Taking in the unasked question in her eyes, Dev went on after a moment, "Not since I came to know that Maa had taken my signature on the prenup papers without my knowledge. I tried but I could not forgive her for it", there was pain in his voice, hidden well, but she did know him well enough to sense it. And it was the lingering pain that remained years after the deed had been done, that finally convinced Sona of what Dev had begged her to believe back at the farmhouse that day- that he had NOT signed the prenup. The realization felt like an unexpected dunking in ice cold water.

He went on, "And I did not want Maa to lose the company and support of Mamaji especially when I had no idea how I could ever reinstate the relationship I had with her earlier...But I couldn't live under the same roof with Vicky after I came to know that he had forged my signatures on those eviction papers, that he had had your family thrown out onto the streets. It was the easy solution for me to remove myself from the equation there.", his voice was soft, his eyes distant, clearly not seeing her but lost in time.

Sona saw none of it. The second shock came too quickly after the first- Dev's signatures had been forged on the eviction papers. He had not been responsible for her family being thrown out on to the road that nightmarish evening. Her mind unhelpfully took her back to her confrontation with him at the farmhouse again. He had told her that he did not know anything about the eviction either. Again she had chosen not to believe. Sona just sat there, frozen with shock- the two key factors that had caused them to leave each other that night were both lies. For 7 years she and her family had lived believing those lies, blaming Dev for the acts that had turned their lives upside down, acts that he was not responsible for. The silence stretched between them, both of them lost in memories of the evening that had torn them asunder.

Minutes passed and Sona finally spoke, "You....... Don't you see auntyji anymore, don't you go home?"

Dev's answer came after a pause, carefully worded, "I am still Ishwari's son. I will be, until I die. I have not abandoned her, if that is what you are asking, Doctor Bose. I have not walked away from her", he said and she wondered if that was directed at her, "I am still trying to forget and move on from what she did. Haven't managed to, so far, but still trying", he finished.

It did not answer her question directly but he had made it quite plain that his mother had fallen off the lofty pedestal that he used to have her on.

Sona desperately wanted to shake him by the shoulders and demand from him why he had not called her after that horrible night at the farmhouse and convinced her that he had not signed the prenup or the eviction notice. Why had he given up so easily??

And a small voice from within told her that he had done all of it that day at the farmhouse and she had still walked away. An overwhelming sense of grief suddenly engulfed Sona- she had lost the most beautiful bond in her life that night and the irony was that she had lost it because she had believed something that was not even true. As tears threatened to spill out, she excused herself from the table and made her way to the restroom as quickly as she could without attracting undue attention.