"What happened kiddo?" She said, taking the seat beside Akka's and facing me.
"Um.." I tried but was again interrupted.
"Dad made her cry again Naana." I widened my eyes and looked at my twin as if he had grown a second head. When did he come here? He came into the room, touched everybody's feet and then sat beside Chee who wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
"Sometimes I really want to kill your Dad." Naana gritted out.
"Dad!" This time it was Mumma, she walked in and took me from Akka's lap. Sitting on the couche beside Aahar and pulled me to sit beside her, after greeting everybody off course.
"Dad isn't wrong and you quite, I am talking to my niece. What happened Aahara?" Akka asked looking straight at me, I lowered my head and bit my lip, to stop myself from crying.
"Bhai how about you leave my child alone." Mumma snapped and Akka scoffed at that.
~ Bhai means brother in Hindi.
"Says the one who left a two month old child in Ma's hands. Sure, I do need to learn things from you." And I couldn't help but let the tears escape. Nobody noticed.
"You also know that I didn't do it willingly." Mumma said, her voice showed how hurt she was.
"Oh really?" This time it was a new voice, one that I hated. It's the witch!
"Yes, Nehal." Mumma voice was filled with venom this time.
"Nehal? I am older than you! Call me Bhabhi." She said and I did the mistake of looking up, the woman was looking directly at me. She was here and Mammu wasn't? That's strange.
Witch was my second Mammi, but I preferred to call her witch in my head. She would have being a beautiful woman had it not been for her personality. The woman was good looking with sharp features but her toung was even sharper.
~Bhabhi is the hindi for our brother's wife.
"My! My! Is the brat crying?" I flinched at her words, an unpleasant memory surfacing.
"How dare you!" Mumma stood up and so did Aana.
"Nehal that's enough!" But the witch only laughed at Aana's words.
"What!? Don't try to play nice. You all are annoyed by her too. Even the brat knows! Don't you Aahara?" She said with a vicious smile. I wanted to deny but I already knew the truth. So, I just got up ready to leave when Aahar spoke.
"Mammi that's rich coming from you. After everything your lovely daughter has done." At his words, Mammi's face drained of all its colour.
"Excuse me?" She tried to appear brave but failed miserably.
"Don't make me say it. Everybody in this room knows, how bad I can get? Don't you Ma-mmi?" Aahar said and stood up, pulling me in for a hug, hiding my face in his chest. He said Mammi as if taunting the woman, what he was talking about I had no idea of but after being my parents child, I seriously didn't wanna know.
"You are lucky. You are married to my Mammu otherwise believe me, I would have probably killed your daughter for what she did to my Baby Sis. I hate it when she cries." He said and kissed my forehead at the end.
"Besides, I don't want you to fill trash in my niece's head. Aahara doesn't annoy anybody in the slightest, although I can't say the same about your lovely daughter." Akka suddenly stood up and picked me up from Aahar's embrace, like a baby. Then he carried me out of the room, I buried my face in his shoulder so I didn't realise where he was taking me.
"Baby you know Nehal is lieing, right?" I shook my head, then I felt a cold breeze on my back and Akka's fingers held my chin lifting my head, we were on the terrace.
"Baby what happened?" He asked and I shook my head, wiping my tears.
"Don't say nothing. Why would my little girl cry such big fat tears if it was nothing?" He talked to me like I was a three year old. Naana snitched.
"None of you talked to me, no one called. Its obvious, I am annoying that's why you all didn't even reach out for me." I said and glared at him.
"Believe me Baby. It wasn't easy, I am so sorry." Akka apologised to me and my eyes widened.
"Its okay." I whispered and he chuckled.
"I don't deserve you." He said and shook his head while I huffed.
"Akka?" I asked and he hummed.
"I seriously don't annoy you all? Or do I?" I asked.
"Don't listen to the witch Babygirl." I looked at the terrace entrance and saw Arin Bhaiya, Akka's second son. We share a mutual hatred for the witch.
"Arin. She is your Aunt." Akka said but Bhaiya just rolled his eyes. He took me from and gave me a big kiss on the cheek, while I giggled.
"Don't roll your eyes at me young man!" Akka said but Bhaiya ignored him as he was busy making me giggle. Soon a warm smiled tucked on Akka's face too, when he saw our exchange.
"Come Dad has to talk about something." Akka said and we followed, well Bhaiya followed with me in his arms.
We went into the living room and I saw everybody there, but one face made me particularly happy. I tugged on Arin Bhaiya's shirt and he put me down, so I ran into the man's arm who was busy talking to Chee. I collided with Ishir Bhiaya so hard that he fell on the couch behind him, laughing he pulled me in his lap.
"Someone's playing favourites." I heard Chee mutter but I ignored him. Though the smirk Ishir Bhiaya had was hard to miss, he pulled me close and bumped our noses.
"How's my chipmunk?" He asked and I shugged, he raised a bow at that and I giggled.
"No hello to me?" I heard my Mammu's voice. I turned around and saw him smiling at me, as he was sitting next to Dad. I got up and went upto him, hugging him tight. Mammu was like Chief, in a way. Goofy, loving and caring. Also he was, as everybody else in the family, really good looking.
"Alright everybody settle down!" Naana said suddenly and everyone immediately sat down, everyone was present here. Like everybody! All the seats were full, couches, chairs and some tables even. Where will I sit?!
"Princess come here." Dada said suddenly and I was about to go to him, but stopped even before moving a step at another voice.
"No need to bother old man. Cupcake can sit with me." Amara di said.
"Alright. Don't fight let Aahara decide." Thanks Chee. I glared at him and he just shugged innocently. All of a sudden, everyone was looking at me, Naani why does this always happens to me?!
"Um.." I went to Naana and he pulled me his lap, smiling softly.
"Heartbreaking but not unexpected." Aana said and I smiled at her cheekily.
"Well Dad why did you call all of us?" Akka asked.
"To discuss Diya's will." Naana said. Naani's will? Then why was I required? Aren't they a adult's discussion topic.
"The lawyer has been waiting, let me call him so we can begin." Naana said and soon enough a man dressed in a black suit with a white shirt walked in. He was maybe in his early fifties.
"Mr. Singh. I am Rakesh Jann, Mrs. Singh's lawyer." The man greeted Naana and everybody else, and settled himself on a chair that a househelp brought for him. What happened during my time? Sometimes the urge to bang my head is so strong.
Yet I decided to ignore the matter, the meeting seemed important.
"So, Mrs. Singh made this will two years back. She wanted to keep it a secret hence, nobody except me, her witnesses and she herself knew about it.
The reason I have approached you just now rather than immediately after her death is because, she wanted the will to be revealed only after her death certificate has been signed, and as you all know that the process was delayed hence the delay in this meeting.
Mrs. Singh wanted the will to be given to Mr. Veer Singh privately, which I have already passed on but she left one more document in my possession, a letter which has to be read by her youngest granddaughter, Aahara Singh. In the presence of all of you." The lawyer said and my breath hitched. Naana's hold tightened around me, supporting me telling me that he's with me.
"That's rubbish. I want to read the letter myself." Witch protested but one look from Naana made her quite, the lawyer ignored her as if he already knew this was gonna happen.
The lawyer, Mr. Jaan opened his brief case and pulled out the letter, then got up and gave it to me. With shaking hands, I opened it and unfolded the paper after taking a deep breath.
"Hey Baby.
I am sorry. So sorry.To you and everyone else.
If you are reading this, it means I am not there anymore, but believe me I am always with all of you. I always thought of seeing Aakar as a grown man, Rishi as the Dad that he so desperately wanted to be, my fierce Sanvi as the Boss Lady she always was even as a kid, Sia as the business woman she is and lastly my youngest Darsh as the player I knew he would grow up to be.All of that happened, even more happened. I met my grandchildren, I never knew I would raise my hands to bless so many kids, never knew I would see my husband grow old infront of my eyes yet be as handsome as ever. I want all of you to know, that your Wife, Ma, Daddi and Nanni is proud of all of you.
You all gave me far more than I think I deserve, but please don't stop your lives because of me. I know how some of you will react to my death, and I don't want that. I want my kids to always smile, laugh and enjoy life. Move on, take care of yourselves, eachother and my Love for me.
Always reach out to others, stand by eachother and forgive eachother. Remember it, I don't want to see my upbringing going to waste.
I don't even know what more I should say, but I do know that you all will understand that sometimes some feelings should be left unspoken, words complicate things, and that is why I always conveyed my love to all of you but I left it to be comphrended on its own. I love you all but I didn't explain it then, nor will I explain it now.
Please stay safe and one last thing, No matter how far wrong you have gone, you can always turn around." I didn't even know how my voice didn't break even once, but I managed to read the whole letter, with tears streaming down my face. I looked up and everyone was crying except for Dad, I turned around and my Naana was crying.
Hey Everyone!!!!! 👋👋👋👋
A very very very very very very very very very very very happy Navaratri!!!!!!!
Have a great time!!!
And thank you so much for waiting!!