Adhura Alviida 2

dysfunctional

Aditya furrowed his eyebrows as he entered the house with his gaze steadfast on his daughter. His daughter, Aadhya, and him may have shared a home together for the last two years but they knew as much about each other as the sky knew about the Earth. Aadhya was his responsibility, his child...Zoya's child. When he found out about her five years after his separation with Zoya, it was ultimately a myriad of emotions for him. Guilt – for letting Zoya leave, for burdening her with suspicions of betraying him and succumbing to Rajveer's demands, next it was anger – at Zoya for never letting him know that he had a child. But who could he really blame besides himself? He had been the one to turn Zoya away, to ridicule her with his baseless accusations when all she intended to do was give him a life by agreeing to Rajveer's demands. But he was foolish. He allowed his ego to get the best of him and fell prey to Rajveer's plans separating him from his Zoya. After four years, four years of suffering without her, he came to know the truth as Rajveer died and his naani admitted their sins to him. It wasn't hard to find Zoya, but he just wasn't prepared to find her in this condition, comatose for the past four years. He would never quite forgive himself for that. Four years, he didn't try reaching out to her. A whole daughter had been born of his and he had never known. He was angry. Angry at Zoya, angry at his own brother for never letting him know, angry at the Siddiquis but mostly he was angry at himself. Taking care of Aadhya was the right thing to do, she was his daughter, she bore his last name and she was his blood. But that's all there was to their relationship. In the last two years, he had been unable to forge a relation with her. Some part of him wondered if he had made a mistake taking her away from his in-laws in Mussorie, she looked so happy the first day he saw her and he never saw that smile quite ever again. She was reluctant to even call him 'papa', he yearned to hear her address him as such but it never came. They never had a conversation that lasted more than five minutes and it usually included her asking him for something. She was a well-mannered child and was very prim and proper, much like his own Zoya. But he, himself, was unclear on how to approach their relationship. His father and him had a rather strained relationship and he wasn't ever exposed to having a decent fatherly figure, much less able to be one himself. He tried to have conversations with her, to understand her but to no avail...there was so much animosity in her eyes for him and he didn't know what to do. So, he stopped trying. He made peace with the fact that maybe their relation wasn't meant to be a loving one. He would provide for Aadhya as a father should till she needed him. Maybe they were destined to have a loving father-daughter relationship that fairytales portrayed. He grew up without a great father and he was still fine, maybe Aadhya would be the same.

He looked over at her as she walked over to the kitchen unaware of his presence. Even though she retained every facial feature of his, her eyes were her mother's. They would haunt him for the rest of his life and beyond. For never making things right between Zoya and him when he had the chance. 

Aadhya tied her hair back as she got ready to do her favorite thing: baking. Despite living in a big home, she constantly felt bored and never had much to do. She was too scared to ask for toys and dolls like other kids had so she learnt to make the best of what was available to her. One day while watching television, she came across the recipe channel and ardently took notes on how to cook and bake. Unbeknownst to Aditya, when the servants were home, she would plead her way into allowing them to let her cook. He never knew, but she had been cooking dinner at least twice a week for the past month, she realized what his favorite dishes were and would make them while he was engrossed in other work and would ask the servants to serve him it as if they made it. Aadhya's sugary sweet smile could coax even the hardest people into melting and how could their maids ever say no to her?

Though she was only six years old, she had developed the skillset of an adult because she was given no choice. She never wanted to be an inconvenience to her father so she began learning to do things by herself. At the tender age of six, she could cook and do her own laundry, as well as complete her schoolwork and clean her room.

She completed her mission today, a cake all on her own. Today was her seventh birthday, but her father had no idea. The topic of birthdays wasn't even discussed between them. She had once seen her dad become furious when his coworker tried to make him cut a cake last year and she realized that maybe that wasn't something he liked. She didn't want to do anything to upset him. Sure she didn't exactly love the idea of being taken away from her family and security blanket in Mussorie but she was finally excited to have a dad. Her ammi was unable to respond to her but at least her dad was well and able to speak with her, or at least so she thought. He didn't speak much to her and she thought maybe he would as time went on, but nothing ever changed. He kept his distance and so did she. She wanted to bridge the gap between them, but it felt as if they were never going to reach there. She felt hurt when she saw her friends with their dads often playing with them or picking them up from school. A governess came to pick her up every day while she would only see Aditya for a few minutes at night, if she was lucky. Besides the occasional good morning, they had no contact.

But today, she wanted to make one more attempt to change that. It was her birthday today and she was going to celebrate it with her papa. The word 'papa' itself felt so foreign on her tongue. She hadn't even mustered up enough courage to call him that yet. Maybe today would change that.

She stepped on the stool to grab frosting for her cake from the top cabinet, but before she could hold onto the top shelf, she felt her legs wobble as the stool lost balance and she fell on the floor with a loud thump.

"AADHYA!"

She got scared hearing her father's voice as he entered the kitchen and saw her laying on the floor.

"What were you doing?!" He yelled, grabbing her arm.

Aditya shook as he saw his daughter laying on the tiled kitchen floor with a bruised arm. His immediate reaction was concern for her, if anything happened to her, he wouldn't be able to live with that guilt as the guilt of Zoya's condition still lingered in his heart.

But to Aadhya, his concern was masked with intimidation. She feared his voice so loud. It made her tremble.

"I-I'm sorry..I didn't mean to." Her voice quivered as she looked at him, trying not to cry.

"Go to your room now!" He yelled.

Aadhya ran to her room as her tears fell down her plump cheeks, her dark curls moving side to side as she ran.

She quickly entered her room and looked out the window at the nightsky full of stars and a full moon as she cried uncontrollably.

"Please Bhagwanji. Please! Send ammi back to me! I want her back. I miss her." She cried as her hands clasped in prayer.

**

Zoya shook as her vision blurred around her. Everything barely came into focus. The doctors and nurses were now in the line of her vision. Breathing felt painful but she tried her best to continue taking breaths. The oxygen mask became foggy with her the heaviness of her breaths.

"My baby..." She faintly whispered as she tried her hardest to reach her hand out.

"Where...where is she?"

_________

MY POOR BABY AADHYA I WANNA GIVE HER A HUG :(

Also I hate putting 'vote and comment targets' but all I will say is it really motivates me to write :)