Zoya Siddaqui and Aditya Hooda never knew that their destinies were entangled since forever, but one wretched night when they receive a call and find their respective spouses, Yash Arora and Pooja Hooda dead in Mussourie, but in each other's arms, t...
"Yes, he is my half brother, Paa's son", Aditya's confession made Zoya halt in her steps, she looked at him in daze. Hoodas always looked like a close knit family to her. Arjun and Aditya were as close as her and her Kohinoor, while Anjana was the fretty mother who loved her children a bit too much. That's how she had always seen it, because Aditya had never talked to her about his family's hidden secrets otherwise. She knew he and Harsh didn't get along before, but she had never known exactly why.
Aditya watching the array of questions passing Zoya's face, and prepared himself to answer the same. Maybe it was time to revisist those painful memories he had kept buried for a long time.
He patted the seat next to him, and Zoya quickly settled down beside him, offering him a small smile as she held his hand in hers, her gesture speaking more than she did. Aditya looked at her and gulped, but began taking a deep breath.
"I was eight when I first saw Maa and Paa fighting. They didn't know I was lurking there, and initially they did have the decency to fight behind those close doors. Then it started to worsen. Pooja was my neighbour, I used to run away to her house to escape those voices. Eventually Maa-in-law understood what was happening, she began to care for me in ways my mother was supposed to, but could not because she was either busy weeping or finding ways to convince Paa about her worthiness. And I, I think Zoya me feeling this worthlessness, it began to stem from there", Aditya whispered, introspecting as he began telling her the baggage of those haunted days he always kept hidden.
"Long story short, Paa did leave us for a while, and Maa grew hysteric. I was fourteen, and I knew Maa needed someone to hold her, but I also knew I had to protect Arjun from that heartbreak. So I convinced Maa and Arjun both and sent him to a boarding school. He doesn't know the details of Dad's affair even now, or about Maa and his ugly fights, and the violence-", his voice began to shake, and Zoya instinctively squeezed his left hand, her warmth and the softness with which she was looking at him, made it easy for him to breathe.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Dad came back home when I was eighteen. He had never left officially anyway. He paid our bills, met Arjun at his PTMs and came home once in a few months anyways, but kept his distance from me because I would grow angry at his sight. I did stop calling him Paa, and switched to Mr. Hooda for quite a long time. And I developed this insane hate for-", he was cut off by Zoya's chuckle.
"Cheaters. I know", she softly chuckled, drawing patterns on his hand, "You drove me mad with your rants about my 'Cheater Pati', remember?".
Aditya ducked his head, and laughed too, at the memory. At that time, it was such a bitter one, and now he was actually laughing about the same.
"I was so angry with the fact that Pooja cheated on me, that I didn't even look for a reason. And now it feels, maybe because she knew how I would react, she let go of her shot at happiness for so long", Aditya smiled, and Zoya did too.
It felt so good to him, talking about Pooja and not feeling that anger, that insane rage. He was remembering her like a fond memory, like she deserved to be remembered by him.
