"Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that."
― ,
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in itsown way."
― ,
Of late, he had a few moments that came unexpectedly in his life.
He has been on the receiving ends of a few surprises these past few days– months to be more precise. It would not be wrong of him to say the past few months have been nothing less of a rollercoaster ride for him. He moved back to his home Delhi, after a two-year stay in Mumbai, had new neighbors and got married to one of them all in the short span of six months.
The biggest surprise of it all was her coming to his life.
With her in the picture – his resolve, his decisions, even his resistances seem to be fading.
Ever since she came to live next door, his life began changing and he was too far-gone before he even realized it.
Their marriage was a deal, a contract of sorts for both of them – he would get the custody of his daughter and she would be a married woman with a child in the process.
Begrudgingly he had consented to the match for the sake of his Ruhi. He wanted his daughter' custody at any cost and if the cost was to be lifelong torment at the hands of a woman he could barely stand – he figured for his daughter it was still nothing. Ruhi is the reason he lives, for her he could even live with the woman he could not stand for a moment.
It had not occurred to him that the marriage with it would bring in with it a inexhaustible host of surprises. Yep life has been a never-ending surprise store for him since then.
It is the gift that keeps on giving to him.
She has become a constant source of his amusement and awe ever since as much as his annoyance. Though the amusement and awe far outweigh his annoyance these days.
His wife Ishita never ceases to amaze him.
However, with her arrival, some ugly facts came to light not just to him but his family and more importantly about his family.
A monster was unearthed as were some skeletons and some harsh truths in the process.
One rocked his world, while the other ended up disgusting him, but the most difficult of all was learning he wasn't the only one who suffered all this time, learning the failure of his marriage might have hit him worst, but it didn't spare those he loved as well.
He learned his wife was being harassed and was almost molested within the confines of their home by his own brother-in-law at that. He regrets even now, things had to come to this that his wife had to face something so horrifying as much as he finds himself guilty and ashamed of being unable to protect her when needed. It was once the shock had sunk in and he had faced himself in the mirror after she left with her mother that he realized he was unable to face himself for letting her down.
He was guilty of not proving her innocent.
The guilt gnawed away at his soul, and he chose to leave aside all societal pressures and the shackle of his family for the sake of the truth, for what was right.
In between these, he learned his ex had almost committed suicide due to her alleged depression. Though he knew her enough by now to know even before she revealed to him it was all a charade. One she intended to use to threaten him, only she underestimated how trivial she is to him now.
