The king's first wife

Truth

She couldn't sleep that night. Not after finding out that she was pregnant and had a mother of her own on the same day. Too many thoughts kept her mind occupied hence, after the women left her alone in a room, she slowly sat next to the window and just stared at the open sky.
It was funny how she always thought that Sohit's mother was her mother too. I mean, the thought had never even crossed her mind till that day that she could have been Sohit's sister if she were to be born through Shubhangi. The irony of the situation was that she still found it hard to believe...

" You didn't sleep yet?" Sohit's deeply worried voice was enough to cut the chain of her thoughts though and the moment she turned around, she found her husband walking straight towards her. He seemed tired but rather than going to sleep, he sat next to her with his hand grabbing onto hers.

" What happened?"
" I met someone... She called herself my mother. I mean... I have a mother," she looked back at the open sky with a hurt look over her face and he sighed softly. She was obviously in denial and it was pretty hard for him to watch. Be didn't want her to shed a single drop of tears from her eyes but there she was, tearing up once again. It wad as if she had turned into a crybaby now.
" Pari,"
" This is wrong. Ma is my mother. No one else," she looked back at him, completely ready to wail loudly at any moment now so, he quickly managed to pull her into a hug.
" Pari. It wasn't her fault. Ajji didn't let her near you,"
" You knew?" She pushed him away and stared at him in disbelief as she begged for an answer to reach her ears and he knew that she was hurt.
" I'm sorry, Pari," she looked away from him
" I thought there are no secrets between husband and wife. You don't love me so you don't even need to tell me anything," she was talking gibberish in anger and shock
" That is not true. You know that. I love you very much," worrifully, his hands moved ahead and settled onto her cheeks and he wiped her tears off with his thumbs while she just stared at him for the longest time. She knew that it was true. He'd do anything for her... So, she didn't know how to counterattack that declaration. In the end, she just hung her head and continued softly crying
" This is not fair," he knew that. He knew that the world was unfair on her because even if she was given all the pleasures of a royal life, she was also treated like dirt in the palace and not even let to meet her family. The negativity of what she had been through was much more than the positivity.

" I know. Pari, Ajji has done a lot unfair things... She got you married to me. She got Appa married once again even if he didn't want to get married. She kept you away from your family. I know that she has done many wrong things in her life," it was as if he was fueling her against his own grandmother because it did feel like that. Especially with the deadly expression she had over her face, he could easily know that she wanted to kill that old woman. She'd always wanted to kill her. Sometimes when she hit by a stick even before she was 12. Sometimes, when that old hag taunted her over some or the other thing. Sometimes, just because she was angry over something.

" But you can't kill her. She is still a person and you are not committing the sin of killing someone with your hands ever again. It was my mistake back then. I was too overconfident," softly, he held her small, milky white cottony hands and caressed them. Somehow, the sight of her dragging a dead man by his hair kept coming in front of both of their eyes over and over again. It was something both of them would really love to forget. Even if she had dirty hands full of blood once upon a time, she never wanted to do any of that ever again. It was scary... She'd had nightmares after that day...

" And you are carrying one more. Be careful and safe. When the times comes, I'll deal with Rani ma in my own way. Till then, I just want you to focus at your own safety. Ok?" One of his hands landed over her stomach in the end and the other still kept grabbing her hand lightly.

It was when he found her nodding her head and crying hard without wailing that he moved his head forward and joined their foreheads as he grabbed her cheek once again and let her cry for sometime.

" And I love you," this was maybe the first and last time that he was telling her that. As it is he found it hard to express himself but, this time, he found the need to tell her that. Somewhere, he knew that her knowing that would only make her feel better at least a little bit.

" I. I love you too," now that she thought about it, neither one of them had ever told the other one how they really felt. This was the first time both of them were confessing to each other and naturally, the confession was followed with a long, steamy kiss after which they decided to sleep. She was tired and he wasn't trying to harm his kid. He didn't know if he could do it or if it would hurt the kid. So, he just decided on having her sleep next to him on the really uncomfortable mattress that was kept in the room for them and although she continued with her bed hogging techniques, he didn't mind her hugging onto him strongly this once. Maybe coming out and letting free of all the titles and responsibilities was a good idea...