Bygones! A MishBir Story

Chapter 4: Strange Tides

"I knew it." said Shekhar.

Karishma looked towards Shekhar with shock as he said that. "What do you mean you knew it? You knew she was my daughter Shekhar? Shekhar..... Answer me". Karishma screamed by holding Shekhar by his shoulders.

"No, I didn't know she was your daughter." Karishma felt confused as Shekhar said that.

"But you just said you knew. And If you knew, why would you not tell me? What were you trying to do Shekhar?" Karishma blabbered out of confusion.

"Can you please relax and hear me out Karishma?" Shekhar tried interrupting Karishma but she couldn't relax.

"Relax!?? Shekhar! Are you seriously expecting me to relax? You are saying you knew she was my daughter. And you made sure we met this way! Without even telling me. Shekhar!! What is really wrong with you?" Anyone could tell that Karishma was freaking out. Shekhar stepped away, got her a glass of water. As she drank the water, Shekhar tried explaining again.

"I meant that I had a hunch. I wasn't sure. I had no idea who your daughter was, Karishma. All I knew about her was that her name was Mishti. And I met this young girl. She reminded me so much of you and Mishri. I know that topic makes you uncomfortable. When have we ever spoken about her, Karishma? It was an unsaid deal between us. So I never brought her up..." Shekhar paused for a second to look towards Karishma and continued.

"And there was no such plan. They invited us for dinner and I obliged like I would for anyone. I will not lie. My hunch did get stronger when I saw Mishti's reaction after she met you. But you seemed fine. So I thought I was probably wrong. But suddenly even you started acting as weird. And I was confused. When I said I knew it, I was just talking about my hunch." Shekhar cleared Karishma's confusion.

Karishma covered her mouth with her hands and closed her eyes. She couldn't understand the game her destiny was playing with her. She had left everything behind. She had decided to never look back to her past. And hence, she never kept any tabs on Mishti. She never visited Udaipur in the fear of coming across Mishti. But look at the irony. She still ended up meeting Mishti. Rajkot out of anywhere. Mishti's words echoed in her ears. "I am my parents' only mistake......Thank you for giving me closure."

Karishma closed her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. She was trying her level best to forget Mishti's words. But little did it help. As she closed her eyes, Mishti's image of eyes filled with tears appeared in front of her. She felt like Mishti was shooting daggers at Karishma through her tears. A great sob escaped her and she covered her face with shaking hands. Shekhar got scared seeing Karishma's condition and went to hold her. He hugged her and started rubbing her back just so that she would calm down.

"Those eyes Shekhar! I am not able to forget those eyes. Her words are piercing my heart Shekhar! Ahhhhh! My daughter!! Mishti is my daughter." cried Karishma.

"WHAT?" Screamed Mishri in shock. Shekhar and Karishma looked towards the door where Mishri was standing in shock. Mishri walked into the room all confused. She wasn't able to understand anything. All she knew was she heard her mom say that Mishti was her daughter. "What?" "How?" "Why?" "When?" Mishri had all sorts of questions but she wasn't able to form words. It wasn't making sense to her. She looked towards Shekhar and Karishma. Mishri always knew about Karishma's failed relationship but she had no idea that Karishma had a daughter from that. That she had a sister. Her elder sister. Mishri kept repeating it multiple times in order to wrap this piece of information around her but she was failing.

She looked towards Karishma and Shekhar again. They both realized that now there was no point in hiding anything from her. Shekhar held Mishri's hand and guided her towards the bed. He made her sit comfortably. He sat next to her and started telling her about Karishma's past. About Mishti and how she decided to leave her daughter back and started a new life.