Love Happens

Chapter sixteen

Mumbai
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"What did you tell your father about me, Poonam?" Shraddha inquired because she knew she had something to do with why he was upset with her.

"I'm a child. What can I say to an adult that will interfere with the relationship he shares with his wife?"

"But you don't act or talk like a child. I'm forced to think you have something to do with this." Shraddha waved a sigh. "Whatever it is, I'm certain it's related to the files you tore earlier. But who informed him about them?"

"Shraddha, it's late. I'm going to sleep." She faked a yawn and stretched her arm openly. "I hope when I wake up tomorrow, you're gone. This is more than enough for my birthday. I ensured that only my mother could be my father's wife. No one else, not even you, can take her place." Her face stiffened while she exclaimed with full seriousness. She walked past Shraddha to return to her room.

"I'm not leaving." Shraddha mumbled to herself. She looked back at Anand's door once. "He's angry with me at the moment, but eventually he'll calm down. Tomorrow, I'll ask him the reason for his anger, but I'll never leave."

Inside the room, Anand was looking at Supriya's portrait. He reminisced about the beautiful memories they shared, and he smiled earnestly. His smile was short-lived until he remembered what Poonam told him on his way upstairs. It vanished in a snap, and his blood boiled with rage.

Flashback.
"Daddy!" Poonam ran towards her father and engulfed him in a hug. Anand was about to break their hug because he was still upset that she called Shraddha a disgrace when it was a heavy, prohibited word to address someone, but he stopped after she continued.

"I'm sorry. I promise never to repeat it. I've also apologized to Shraddha." she whispered.

Anand let go of the grudge and hugged her back.

"I also accepted Shraddha as my mother. Earlier, when I saw her replacing you and Mother's wedding picture in your office with your wedding picture with her, I asked her for the reason, and she said she was now your present and my mother was in the past. She said we can't dwell in the past forever and that we have to accept her as part of the family. I realized she was right. She was now present, although I was very hurt when she tore all of Mother's poems and diaries and threw them away. But again, she was right. She is now our mother. Only her poems, pictures, and diaries should be in your room."

Anand's brows raised. "Did she tear up the last memories I've been cherishing all these years about your mother?"

"Yes. She is now our present, and Mother is in the past. It hurt me deeply, but she's right." Poonam pulled away slowly and looked at her father's bulging eyes with an innocent face. She smiled. "I'm glad I stopped her from taking off the last portrait of Mom from the room. She wanted to remove it too. I begged her. Although at first she didn't want to agree, she did after I went on my knees and cried to her. She's our present now, isn't she?"

Anand cupped his daughter's face in his hands. He bore his angry gaze into her eyes and exclaimed with gritted teeth. "Only Supriya is our present. Shraddha isn't your mother, nor will she ever be. Your mother's pictures will be returned to my room. Never beg in front of her again. My daughter will never beg in front of a two-faced person. Shraddha deceived me by trying to act nice when I was around. I can't believe she still had such thoughts in her head. I told her nothing could ever go on between us. She still thought she and I could be a thing, but I'll prove her wrong. She shouldn't have touched Supriya's belongings because that was rubbing salt in my wound when I was conscious. She will leave the house this instant."

"Don't send her away." Poonam said. "She's not wrong. She's now our mother. She has the right to take over my mother's place in your life."

"That's impossible." Anand snarled. "No one can take your mother's place in my life." He turned and furiously bashed upstairs.
Flashback ends.

Remembering what Poonam said, he entered his office. He saw the picture of him and Shraddha on the wall. It didn't take him more than a second to rip it off the wall. By removing it, he also removed her existence from his life. He told himself to assume she didn't exist; after all, she doesn't.