Her Broken Dream [√]

Chapter 19 :" Kindness"

         
       
 Shaurav  Thakur was a man who believed in principles. Being right and always choosing to fight for justice. And he never could understand how is son turned out different, when he was young Rishi had always been shy around other owing to his stuttering that hindered him from making friends , Shaurav and his wife Pavithra did everything they can do to help their son . 

                     
Yet he closed himself off over the years until they couldn't reach him, he had no friends and no social life that Shaurav had always been worried about him. They even sent him to counseling over the years but nothing helped their son out from his silence and they terribly missed their little boy who had always a smile on his way .

                        
Until he met Gauri, Shaurav regrets ever taking him to attend his boss's birthday party but Shaurav admired Adharsh and hoped his son would make friends . Gauri had been kind towards her son, even when he barely said a word back. She talked with him politely maybe that was the start of his obsession, but all Shaurav saw was that his son was willing to try and talk with someone else .

                
Over the years his stuttering disappeared but he rarely tried to talk more than few words, so when he came home and talked about Gauri all day, he knew his son was infatuated with her and as his father all he noticed were the positive effect Gauri was having on him and failed to see that it was crossing the line of her privacy.

               
One day he casually joked with Adharsh, his boss about being in-laws soon and it should have been a huge clue when his boss denied anything like that happening

         
" My daughter has already made her choice  Shaurav, it is like a package deal with them. It is just a matter of time before she marries the man of her dream and I am just relieved that Arnav was a good man even if I want to make it hard for him when he comes back from Army for leaving my daughter in the first place " Adharsh had told him one night that confused him.

                   
Obviously, it made Shaurav worry for his son so much that he broached the topic who has claimed that Gauri was single and she has broken up with Arnav. He thought maybe Adharsh liked Arnav that he didn't want to believe the end of his daughter relationship, it never crossed Shaurav mind that maybe it was his son who had been living in a make-believe world until everything came crashing down

             
Shaurav remembers getting the call from Adharsh and driving to meet him in the club , he knew his son was staying over with his friends that night , a fact that surprised him so much that he had friends and that he was staying away from home . He didn't question much about them either.

                             
He still remembers everything about the night, the years haven't made a single memory disappear no matter how much he wants to forget seeing his son dead or his son has a monster. He still can't decide which image hurt him more.

                       
Over the years he protected his wife from the truth, let her hate Gauri then struggle  with the same knowledge that kept him sleepless until he saw his grandson . The first thing he noticed had been the fact Rahul didn't say a word at all ,it was made his police instinct kick in as he wondered if he could be his grandson .

                    
At first he assumed Rahul had struggled with stuttering as well , so he was beginning to see him as his grandson until he noticed Gauri talking with him through sign language that when he realized Rahul couldn't talk . 

                
And it was his temptation to see Rahul that made him lose his wife , because the day he broke down and told the truth was the last day she ever spoke to him . She closed herself off from him and he began to worry about her ,the doctors told him she was in shock and will became normal soon enough but so far it hadn't been happening as he hoped and he began to fear that he was losing her as well .