Gone

25.

"That's so sweet," he turned to me. "Look how much you are loved. I am kinda jealous of you."

My jaw dropped when I saw the 'two' people who risked their lives and came here for my rescue.

"You're lucky to get such a loving mom and boyfriend," the masked man pouted under the mask.

"Y-Ye Jun?", my hands started shivering. "I-If you are h-here then...."

"Who is he?", the masked guy laughed. "That's what you are going to ask, right?"

"Leave us!", my mom tried to free herself meanwhile Ye Jun was bleeding. He easily get hurt and bleeds randomly which worries me.

But that's not the point. If my mom came here for me and Ye Jun is hurt then...who is this guy?

"Take out your mask," I commanded.

"Why in a hurry baby girl?", he smirked. "Your wrist must be hurting. Let me untie it."

He came to me and slowly started unchaining my limbs. I don't know what is going in his mind.

I got up and rushed to Ye Jun to provide him some support. I saw my mom and she was standing still at her position while eyes stuck at a distance. I followed her gaze and she was glaring my dad. Why is she acting shocked when she is behind all this drama?

"A-Anand?", she said in a low voice, still can't get over the shock.

Slowly my dad was regaining his mind. He looked up at us with eyes half closed.

"Bitch?", his eyes held embers. "WHAT ARE YOU BOTH DOING HERE?"

That masked man signalled something to one of his gang members. The gangster went closer and hardly hit my dad.

A tear drop rolled down my cheeks and I swallowed the air.

"Don't worry. It's common for this mad man. This is what he gets for misbehaving with women," the leader said casually and rested his head on the chair.

"Why you did this--", my eyes held the whole ocean till now. I have named it 'Dhriti ocean'.

"He deserves it," my mom said in a cold tone.

"Are you out of your mind?", I shouted at her. "I know you both are divorced but still he was your husband! And my dad! How can you--"

"He is no one to us," she said in a monotonous voice like a ghost.

"Guess it's time that I tell you the truth," she said.

"This story is gonna be long I suppose so let me take a small nap," the masked guy yawned. "You all can continue."

"You were seven when he abandoned us," she started and gave us cold shoulders. "He attempted filicide."

Everyone stayed quiet. Gangsters were aside, the masked guy was taking his nap, mom stood still like a dead person and Ye Jun was in my arms half dead.

"T-This is not true, right?", I asked in an eerie tone. "We don't celebrate April Fool in winter."

"Listen Dhriti," she turned to me sharply. "I've kept it under covers all this time just because you have a weak heart and I knew that you won't be able to accept it. But it's the truth. He tried filicide. He wanted to kill you."

I looked at my dad and his face hung down. Nothing goes as planned in this world.

"You remember I told you about his company? After you were born, he still thinks that we brought bad luck and are the reason for this failure," she continued. "We were forced to marry each other. He was never a good person. Dating scandals were nothing new for him. He used to come home drunk and I don't know what he used to do on his business trips."

Trust is like a paper. When it crumbles, it will never be perfect again. And I have trusted him almost my whole life, but what I got back? I am going crazy. Maybe because being normal is too boring for my life.

"But he--"

"I know you have a lot of misunderstandings. I am sorry for not clearing your doubts at the beginning itself. I did this to keep you away from any mental stress but...."

"All this time, I thought you to be a--"

"Whore?", she laughed.

I nodded in guilt. "Why don't you punish me now? Please hit me. I am not a good kid. I never respected you. Please punish me, your silence is hurting me more."

"If I treated you that way you treated me, you would hate me," she smiled a patted my back. "I know it's still hard for you to understand and accept things this way but it's the truth."

"I am sorry mom. I really am," I bursted out crying and she held me in his embrace.

She showed a warm smile which is a universal language of kindness.

"Hey please don't cry sweetie, it's ok. I never hated you for your behaviour," she pulled back and pointed towards my dad. "Don't be fooled with that angelic smile. You don't know what's going inside that devil mind."

I don't think people understand how stressful it is to explain what's going inside your head when you don't even understand it yourself.

Why was I born? Am I nothing more than a mistake? Why do I exist? Why am I not dead yet? What is the purpose of my existence?

"We all have regrets but we can't undo the things we have already done," my mom patted my back. "Don't feel sorry. No matter how much angry we are, we always end up forgiving the people we love. I just want you to be happy even if that happiness no longer includes me."

We sometimes think that we want to disappear but all we really want is to be found.

"It's alright to cry now. Sometimes you just have to die a little inside in order to be reborn and rise again as a stronger and wiser version of you," Ye Jun interrupted. "Forget what hurt you but never forget what it taught you."

I smiled, "can I kiss your cheeks mom?"

"Do you need permission for that?", she hugged me tightly and I kissed her cheeks.

I've never felt this happy before. Is this how we feel when we are close to our mothers? I feel safer in her arms more than I feel in a temple. You can lie to anyone about your situation but there is always one person who catches you immediately whenever you hide something. I call that person 'mom'.

Life is a sculpture that you can cast as you make mistakes and learn from them. Happiness is not something you can achieve. You can still be happy in the process of achieving something. And I achieved myself today. All this time I was cursing my mom for my 'missing dad' but when I think, I wasn't actually willing to find him so desperately. Maybe I used him to diss my mom because of hormonal mood swings. Life is more beautiful knowing that we have taken loan from death. Even light is treasured in darkness.

I know my mom is smiling right now and I genuinely want that smile to last forever but I know she got hurt because of what all I used to say earlier. The words we say make bruises that never fade away.

You know someone really loves you when they don't hate you for breaking their heart.

"I want to go home," I said weakly as I have already used all of my energy and now I want food!

"And I want to go to the moon. It ain't happening sweetheart. Time to accept that," the masked man yawned and stretched his arms.