Dare to Hope | Heir & Heiress #2 | ✓

2.52 Shadows of Past

Posted: July 28th, 2020

Randeep

2.52 Shadows of Past

          Jhanvi informs walking up to me from behind, "She'll only talk to you."

My mother sits on the other side of this door, but I have no interest in hearing the lies she has prepared for me. "I have nothing to do with her."

Just minutes after she had stopped that guy from doing anything ill-towards Jhanvi, the royal guard had surrounded the rebels, forcing them to give up their arms. Aarush had them rounded up in one corner while moving her to a different room, undoubtedly having questions for her. We hadn't heard from Eva yet and have no idea where they all are.

"Randeep, I asked you before too to talk to her, but you didn't..."

I scoff, interrupting her spiel, "Good thing I didn't."

She takes my elbow and forces me to face her. "Okay, cut the attitude and just go listen to what she has to say. This may sound heartless, but it's not about your hurt emotions right now. Why are you even hurt? Hadn't you already decided before all of this that your parents were somehow involved? Now that it's confirmed, how about you help out? We need to know where Shyam has Aarav, Annie and Arshiya and she might know something! You don't even have to talk to her if you don't want to, but you do have to listen."

Well. When she puts it like that. I don't want it on my conscious that I could have done something to bring them back, and I didn't because of my parental issues.

So, without a word to her, I walk through the door where Aarush is waiting along with my mother. She tries to reach me, looking so hopeful, but I hold up my hand stopping her from moving into my personal space and touching me. "Start talking."

That hope in her eyes dies rather quickly. Holding back on whatever emotions she may be capable of, she steps back. Her voice returns to speak formally, and I bite back my spite - she has always been good at compartmentalizing. Playing a long game. Putting up a pretense and never letting anyone know just what goes on underneath the surface.

"At first, I felt it was all harmless. Just an elite group that we had joined to mark our royalty and preserve it. Then, by the time we realize it's real, we're in too deep over our heads. If at the time we had known what we were getting ourselves into, I swear to you, we would've never stepped foot there."

I didn't much care of knowing where her regrets where. Right now, it mattered for very little. I want her to get to the point. "When did you realize what the group was doing?"

Still, she remains stubborn in her wish of wanting to give all the gory, unnecessarily details - as if it could redeem her in my graces when she wasn't high up there to begin with. "At first, it was all just the thrill of secret meetings, parties with other royal leaders who had slipped their way into politics, and such. Your father thought it would be a good way for him to establish himself in the field and for your grandfather to take him seriously. Change his mind that he was ready to be in the family business. But then that one day, just a few days before the... tragedy, I was visiting the palace where I saw Charu. Normally, I would have ignored it, but she looked frantic. Scared, almost. And everyone knew that Aarush was still at camp and wasn't due back for another day or two. So, I thought something must be wrong for her to be visiting the palace when she'd known Aarush wasn't there. I took her outside to the gardens, had her sit, and calmed her down before getting her to tell me. She was reluctant at first. Careful. In retrospect, I get it considering what she was about to tell me. I knew what would happen if anyone else found out. So, I took her to the hospital to see a gynecologist I trusted. He had been my doctor when I was pregnant with you, and when bhabhi sa was pregnant with Aarush and Barkha. I made arrangements to get her blood tested secretly. After the appointment, I even got this IT guy to erase the footage. I thought everything was fine."