Dead in the Water - AdiYa FF

Chapter 28

"You too weren't true to me, right?" Zoya asked Roshnaq in tears, "You fooled me all these years...I blindly followed your husband's words and stayed away from my Adi for 3 years. Adi sacrificed his self-respect innumerable times for a man who actually meant no one to me...he accepted all the insults just because he thought this man was my father. And you too didn't utter a word, right?"

"No Zoya..." Roshnaq cried, while Zoya clutched her by her shoulders and asked, "Fine...I suffered because I had no other choice...at least I will consider that as a punishment for having grown up in this house as his daughter. But why Adi? Why did he have to go through all this? At least for him you could have opened up right? Why were you silent all the while?"

Roshnaq looked down with closed eyes, clutching her hands together, as she let out her tears, while Zoya left her hold from Roshnaq and walked out, wiping her tears.

"Aditya chose to go through all this, Zoya!"

Zoya stopped hearing it, while she turned back and looked at Roshnaq with a stunned expression. Roshnaq looked up at her in tears, "Aditya knows everything about you...about your birth, adoption...everything!"

Zoya felt her hands go weak, while her bag slid down her hands, and thumped on the ground. She wondered if there are any more revelations left, as she had had enough of them opening up to her on a single day. She walked towards Roshnaq with a startled face, and stood opposite her.

Zoya shook her head in denial, as she uttered, "No..."

"Yes..." Roshnaq nodded her head, "He knows this truth since the time he married you. It was on his insistence, that I decided to never let you know this truth. If you don't believe my words, ask Aditya."

Aditya got up from the bed, and walked towards the table and placed the first-aid kit on it, while he had a worried look. What he feared about, the entire day, was exactly what happened. Zoya got to know the truth; in fact the truth within the truth too.

"You too hid everything from me, right?" Zoya asked in tears, looking at Aditya, while Aditya turned and looked at her with a distraught look.

"Not even a word you uttered all these years, right? How much I have insulted you, boasted about being the perfect woman in every sense? How many times have I forced you to compromise with my father, when you never wanted to do it? And yet you stayed tightlipped..." Zoya's voice broke, "...and kept me in the dark all these years, right?"

"Zoya..." Aditya heaved as he sat next to her in the bed, "It's not that I wanted to lie..."

"Even today, had this truth not come out, you would have still pretended as if you don't know anything. You would still have gone through every insults by that man...for me...right?" Zoya asked in tears, "Being so good is a good thing, Adi, but your goodness is too much, that I am starting to feel so low about myself."

Aditya wiped her tears and held her face, "No Zoya, it's not like that. When your Ammi said this truth to me some days after our marriage, it didn't even make a difference to me. I didn't love you looking at your parents, legacy or whatsoever. I loved a woman whose name was Zoya Siddiqui, and that woman was all that mattered to me; not her name, caste, creed, family or anything."

Zoya held his hands that were on her face and looked on with tears, while Aditya added, "And yes, I got a word from her that you will never get to know about this. Because, I know how much you enjoyed being a perfect daughter to a perfect father, perfect mother. But I knew what sort of a man Waseem Siddiqui was. I got to know that within a few days itself...but according to you he was the best father. And moreover, he never harmed you in any way...all his hatred was towards me. So, I didn't want to ruin the relationship you had with him, because of my issues."