From Hostile, To Hospitable [COMPLETED ✔️]

Chapter 18- Will things change?

Lisa is stunned on learning that Anu was not born to Ramesh and Vanathi. 

Lisa: If Anu wasn't born to you,then...

Ramesh: I'll tell you. 

Ramesh narrates the backstory happened 18 years ago: 
Anu was the daughter of Subramanian and Narmadha. They lived in Coimbatore, from a middle class background. Narmadha died immediately after giving birth to her. Subramanian couldn't cope with his wife's death so he transferred to Chennai with the one day old Anu for work and relief. 
Before all these happened, there was a devil who didn't want him to stay alive. That devil was Naresh, the elder brother of Narmadha. 
About Naresh, he was indeed a male chauvinist because he had tortured his wife Preetha for not being able to conceive! He didn't understand Preetha's pain when she learnt that she can't give birth forever. When Narmadha was pregnant with Anu, Naresh had an ulterior motive of killing Preetha and snatching Anu from her parents for making her a slave. Neither of his two plans worked out.
One day, Narmadha was in a situation to either save her or the baby as she had pregnancy complications. She wanted to save her baby and asked Subramanian and Naresh to take good care of Anu. That was how she died. No one knew Naresh was waiting for this moment! 
Now coming to the point, Subramanian was in Chennai with the newborn Anu. Naresh secretly followed him after having lied to Preetha that he should go to Chennai for work. Naresh with the help of his friends trapped Subramanian in his new house and brutally murdered him, snatching Anu and went back to Coimbatore. Preetha finally learnt Naresh's motives and gave Anu to an orphanage without his knowledge to keep her safe. That orphanage was held by Vanathi's friend Yamuna. 
We were also in Coimbatore with the nine year old Sunita. Vanathi used to visit the orphanage thrice in a week. She entertained all children there. When the 4 day old Anu was introduced to Vanathi, she was feeling connected with her. They got attached so easily that whenever Vanathi left the orphanage, Anu started crying. Yamuna told the entire story of Anu's parents and their death to Vanathi. Vanathi couldn't control her tears.
That was the time we both decided to safeguard Anu by adopting her and give her a bright future. Naresh somehow came to know these things and killed Preetha. His next and main target was to trouble us because we were the obstacles of his intentions. 
When we brought Anu to our house, Sunita started to feel possessive. Her nature is like that. She wanted us to give more attention to her rather than Anu. But something triggered in Sunita's mind that she decided to never accept Anu in her life. She wanted to be the only daughter of us and believed that Vanathi gave birth to Anu. Then Naresh gathered info about our family and warned us not to tell Anu's truth to our daughter Sunita, else he would come back and snatch both the girls. I thought he was just joking, but his true face came to light when Sunita met with an accident due to him. We were afraid of him each and every day. But we didn't share about Naresh to Sunita and Anu. 

We lived normally and adjusted to Sunita's tantrums. All that we wanted is our children to live peacefully without any problem. 

Ramesh: That's how it all started...till now we didn't tell this truth to Sunita. 

Lisa's eyes are filled with tears after learning the backstory!

Lisa: I-I couldn't say anything! Your lives have been haunted by Anu's maternal uncle, and you didn't even tell anyone about it. Seriously Pa, no one can have a life full of negative circumstances and hurdles. But you and Ma took every step and sacrificed your happiness just to protect your children. I'm so proud of you! 

Vanathi: Anu faced lots of pain more than us. Her father was killed right in front of her when she was just 2 days! Imagine how it would be.