Dually Devoted ✓

Chapter 24

She was on her way to meet Sid, when her phone rang. It was Addison.

"Hi, Aad," she chirped, wanting to tell him the best news ever.

"Wow, looks like you're in a good mood! Does it have anything to do with your boyfriend?" He asked. She noticed his tone wasn't the usual happy one.

"Boyfriend?"

"You gave Sid our ring, harps! And you didn't even tell me!"

"What?"

"What do you mean what? Remember that day when I and Sid had a tennis match? And you took pictures of us in my mobile?"

"Ya! Did they come out well? I've haven't even seen them yet," she pouted. Addison had snatched his phone away, wanting Violet and her to join them for the next round. She had completely forgotten about it after that.

"They are all nice," he smiled, and then tried to act serious again. He had to get it out of her mouth. How dare she not tell him, when she had been the first to know about him and Violet?! "I was seeing those photos today, harps. Sid's wearing a ring necklace. It has our ring. You gave yours to him, didn't you?"

Arpita's confusion turned to sheer happiness. "Really?! He still has it? He wears it?"

Addison had wanted to stay angry at her, but he smiled anyways, "Harps! Why didn't you tell any of us that you guys are dating?! I've been speaking to him occasionally too, and that bastard didn't open his mouth either."

"Aad, language," she scolded, though she knew he calls literally every guy a bastard. He had had a colourful vocabulary since forever!

He rolled his eyes. "Will you answer me or not?"

She chuckled, "He is our Arnav, Aad. Sid, is Arnav. Mr. Tripathi told me."

"-A- What?"

"Mr Siddharth Tripathi, my boss. He is Arnav. Our Arnav," Arpita smiled.

"But how is that possible?!"

She laughed briefly at his loud confused voice, and went on to tell him what had happened, and that she hadn't still asked Mr. Tripathi anything after that.

"You gotta be kidding me?!" he yelled, having to mutter a 'sorry' to the person who was inside the cabin he was outside of. He wisely moved to an emptier place. "F***, harps, I can't believe this! Why didn't he tell us anything? That a*****e, he's a billionaire now?! Man, does he look different! This is so un-f***ing-believable..." he went on and on, and she, for once, tolerated his profane language.

A few seconds later, she laughed, "Goodness, Aad, I know how you feel right now, but calm down. You're at your workplace. And..." her smile saddened, "Sid lost his memory, he doesn't know." Aad gasped. "Uncle asked us not to tell him about it."

"And... you agreed?" He asked silently, shocked that she had.

She understood his grief, for she felt it too. "Addy," she comforted softly, "Listen to me completely, okay?"

"Whatever the reason, harps, you shouldn't have agreed. He's our Arnav, god dammit! He's supposed to know us, he's supposed to- recognize us," he said, his voice weakened with each word.

"Aad, I know you and Sid have gotten quite close in the span of these two weeks... That friendship didn't require him to know he's our Arnav, did it? He likes me and I like him. Even before I came to know he was our Arnav, he made me fall for him. That didn't take knowing his identity, did it?
I know you want him to recognize us, you want to tell him about our time together, I do too," her eyes moistened, "I want him to know I'm his Arpita! I want him to tell me he missed me too. I want to yell at him for leaving us, for making me wait- this long... but then, what would that give him, Aad?
He would come to know that the mother he wants to remember about doesn't even know of his existence, that she isn't even his mother!" She exclaimed in worry, remembering the time when he'd told her about it, and the pained expression he had on. "He'll come to know that the man he considers his father had lied to him the whole while. He'll lose his family, his current identity, every little thing he thinks he knows.
His world would turn upside down, Aad, and what does that old life have to offer him? The fact that he had no father who loved him like Mr. Tripathi does? The fact that except for both of us, he had no one to care for him? Or the fact that he hated his own name?" Addison remained silent, the truth in her words weighing heavy on him. "Addy, we may not get to call him Arnav; we may not get to tell him how much we missed him, but we'll get to see him smiling. We'll get to be there for him. Isn't that enough? Isn't that enough?" Her eyes glisten with unshed tears, as Addison kept his mouth shut.