New Beginnings

11- Aunt's Past - Part I

A month has passed by, since the day I arrived at this town. Slowly and steadily, this town finally managed to make its place in my heart.

I was finally able to somewhat adjust to this town life. I still made a fool out of myself many a times but I was happy and comfortable now.

The technique of finding differences between Mom and Aunt worked like wonders. It took a little time but I was now able to look at her without getting a blast of emotions.

In this month, my bond with Aunt and Raghav grew tremendously. It wasn't that I didn't like Rishi or Uncle. It was just that these two were barely there because of football practices and restaurant respectively while Raghav and Aunt spent lot of time with me.

Despite all this, there was a constant nagging in my head. Except me, everyone knew about the past.

Something huge must have happened for my family to completely discard them. Even the neighbours here were shocked seeing me, like having a relative was a miracle for this family.

Few old ladies even informed me that they were the one's to help Aunt when the twins were born. Uncle and Aunt never got family support nor they were given parental advices. Without any help they had to parent not one but two kids.

For my family to hate them so much, there had to be a very serious reason. But what?

Living with them for a month, I knew for sure that Uncle and Aunt weren't bad people but I trusted my family too. They couldn't be villains.

Even though the questions kept swarming in my mind, I never dared to ask Aunt anything. How could I ask her when I wasn't even sure if I would completely believe her?

What if she said something bad about Mom or my grandparents? Nor would I be able to believe her version neither would I be able to live with her peacefully after that.

"TRISHA, what's wrong with you? Where's your attention?" Aunt voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"You could have seriously hurt yourself", she said while pointing at the knife in my hands.

I looked down to see that the knife I was using to cut tomatoes was dangerously close to my finger.

"Sorry", I muttered sheepishly.

She shook her head and worriedly asked, "What's going on, Trisha? This is the third time I have saw you lost in your thoughts. If something is going on, Please tell me".

"It's nothing Aunt. You are worrying for no reason", I lied chuckling, so that she wouldn't worry.

"Please Trisha. I have been noticing that you are worrying about something. At first, I didn't ask because I thought you won't be comfortable sharing your problems with me but now I am getting scared.

"What if I had come a little late? You would have cut your finger. I don't want mishaps like this to ever happen again. So please speak out. I will try my best to help you out", she said with a mixture of hope and worry.

"It's seriously nothing. Please don't worry", I said hoping she would leave the topic alone.

"Dear, bottling up your feelings would be hazardous to your health. Please share whatever is troubling you. Even if we can't find a solution to your problem, sharing it would lessen your burden", she spoke in a firm tone this time.

Not finding anyway out, I told her the truth.

"Your past is troubling me. I don't have a slightest clue about it and and...", I left the sentence in hanging due to the frustration.

"I want to know what had happened but at the same time I don't want to be in a dilemma about who was right and who was wrong. I don't want to hate you nor would I trust you if you say that my family is bad", I spoke out everything that was roaming in my mind.

"It's better to be in a dilemma after knowing the story rather than making countless assumptions about it. This would only frustrate you.

"It was a misunderstanding that had cost me my family. Come let's sit in the living room, I will tell you everything as all this is clearly troubling you", she said and moved towards the living room.

I followed after her with mixed feelings. There was relief as the mystery was finally going to be revealed but I was also feeling anxious.

We sat down on the couch and I waited for her to start, while promising myself to keep an open mind and to hear out the whole story without making assumptions.

Aunt let out a deep sigh and started,"How can I forget that day? Your mother, my Megha's pre-wedding functions were going on.
That day someone saw me in the arms of Megha's fiance.

"I had slipped and he had saved me from falling, but the relative who saw us misunderstood the situation and announced in front of both families that we betrayed Megha.

"Rajveer and I tried to explain everyone but—"

Interrupting her, I stood up in anger and asked incredulously,

"RAJVEER, as in your husband Rajveer?"

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