The Unwanted Princess

part-26

"And I know at the end of day, you always will have my back."

It took exactly 15 minutes for Ansh to reach his sister, after her distress call. He didn't comment on her puffy eyes or the grumpy child in her arms as she silently took her seat beside him and he ordered his driver to collect her car and take it back  home.

Settling in the driver's seat, he started driving the car wordlessly for the better part of journey as Anya continued staring outside the window, eyes on the fleeting things and mind lost somewhere entirely else.

"Where to??" Ansh questioned her mildly

"Somewhere I can scream my heart out without all the unwanted questions" the off hand reply both surprised and frightened him a little but he did what she asked him to do, he took her to a place all for himself away from all the loud noises and screams of scandals. To a place where the sky and sea meets and converse daily. He took her to a place where no one can overhear their screams or words. 

Anya was surprised to find herself in an unknown place, in a part of the city. She never came before as she looked at Ansh with curiosity filled eyes, only to be ushered inside by her brother. Not stopping for even a single minute inside the house. They reached the back porch and settled down there silently. Eyes locked with the glistening sea and mind locked in memories.

"I thought you wanted to scream??" Ansh asked her after sometime breaking the silence surrounding them

"I thought so too" she replied with a watery laugh as she looked towards him with misty eyes

"what happened to you, doll" his eyes were full of love and concern for her as he questioned her while shifting a little more closer to her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"I don't know bro....I really don't...one moment I'm like nothing can unnerve me anymore and the next I'm crying over things that happened decades ago. On top of hazy memory of childhood where it hard to differentiate between dreams and reality. Everything just seems too much like I'm not really made for all this. You know sometimes I really feel like shouting at my past self to listen to Mrs Oberoi and dad, I feel I should have stayed away from her. I should have listened to them."

"And I wouldn't be alive if you listened to them. she won't have saved me that day if she didn't love you, Anya" Ansh told her with a small smile, supporting her past decisions when sometimes she herself doubts her choices.

"still you know I should have been a little wary after they asked me not to meet her for the hundred time but they didn't tell me why?? They never told me how badly she had hurt Mrs Oberoi and dad in past, they never told me how many times she tried to kill them in past and how gravely Mrs Oberoi was injured when she was carrying us because of her. I didn't know she wanted to harm us and here I'm being sad  and all because she is dead." Anya spoke up in a totally distressed tone

"What and how did you know all this??" Ansh questioned her back seriously shaken by her tone and discoveries.

"You know, I had years out of this city to search whatever curiosities rise in my head, their are news clippings and hundreds of unsolved cases lining up in the store rooms of police stations. You know reading those files, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to ask her so many question, the sweet lady I called aunt lana, the lady who told me stories and tickled me and laughed with me. did she really love me or all of that was really a facade??Did I really mean something to her or I was just another pawn in her game of revenge?? All her promises to always love me and protect me were they really true or were they just perfect lies?? I wanted to scream at her and let all those questions out. I wanted to know did I really change her for better or worse, I just really needed all those answers, I needed to know was her love really fake??" her tone was relentless and full of distress and Ansh didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better, to lessen her internal distress