A Broken Bond; Brothers

The night they won't forget...

Sahdev POV

I failed...

I stood in the middle of the palace corridor lost... hurt?... not quite sure how to feel. Nakul was right? J-jyesth... it was still almost impossible to believe for me even when all the proofs pointed at him...

I looked to my left outside the window, it was clear the sun would rise soon... I failed...

"Yuvraj was in his room almost all day Rajkumar... why?"

"No one touched the kheer Rajkumar, rajmata had it sent to you after Yuvraj said you didn't have any during dinner"

"Yuvraj Yudhisthira was in his room, Kumar."

Everyone! Everyone I asked had only one thing to say... that jyesth Never Left his chamber.

He. Never. Left. That. Goddamn. Room. So how?! Who?!

I felt numb... at this point even my tears had stopped all I could think was... why? I wasn't even sure how to feel. Why would jyesth?!

'...Kul! I made a promise I won't break that...' I think to myself and start making my way to nakuls room avoiding any guards.

I open the large wooden doors that lead into the familiar room. I can't see much the room is dark as the only light coming is from the window where the sun hasn't quite begun to rise.

"Nakul..."

"Dev!" I hear Nakul say from the far right corner of the room...

"What're you doing?" I say walking up to him.

I can now see him clearly; his eyes are puffy from crying as he sits on the floor leaning against the wall beside his dresser. He's holding two small red strings in his hands and also a painting... a painting Nakul and I both hold very dear...

"Nothing! Just... missed mom..." he says wiping his tears.

The painting of our mata Madri... we only had one, it was in nakuls room. I still remember the dumb argument we had deciding where it would go when we first came to the palace.

We'd come here whenever we felt particularly sad. It wasn't some grand large painting, it was a small yet beautiful painting of her. The colours slightly fading but her smile still shone through. The painting was about the size of our forearm. One of the most precious things we own...

"I miss her too... If she was here this wouldn't be happening," I say sitting down beside him.

"yeah... if she was here things would be different, but don't worry dev... Look! She's smiling at us! She knows her two boys have it covered... we're fighters just like she was," He says holding the painting up. And smiling sadly...

"You think she's happy right now?" I ask voice barely above a whisper.

"I think she's...disappointed knowing she trusted the wrong people to take care of us... she thought we'd have a family dev, she thought we'd be happy and safe. But in the end, we only had each other... the people she trusted to treat us like family! Take care of us! Betrayed us!"

"I don't think she's sad... I think she's proud. She's proud because we're still here... even after this, we're still here and we still got eachother..." I say smiling at him and grabbing his hand.

"I wish she was here...I want my mom dev, I want our mom back! I- I want her to be here! To yell at me and scold me for pranks a- and make us eat with her own hands... I- i want that dev! Everyone else gets to have it! Why not us?? Don't you see when badi ma feeds the three of them with so much love... that twinkle in her eye when they succeed... I want that dev! I want that for us! I want mom to tell me she's proud of me! I want her to have that smile when I succeed! I- I want her to get worried and fuss when you get hurt! I want mom dev... I want our mom" he says holding a sob...