---

🎧"Kasoor" (Prateek Kuhad)

"Main chahta hoon tum mujhe phir se bulao,

Aur chhup jaoon main kahin..."

---

"Mumma... do I have a father?"

The room froze.

The spoon in my hand stopped halfway to my mouth. The laughter around the table faded so quickly it felt like someone had muted the world. Even the ceiling fan's hum... gone.

For everyone else, it was silence.

For me, it was an earthquake.

My chest tightened. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. It wasn't that I didn't know the answer. It was that I knew it all too well.

Maa looked down. Papa wiped his mouth slowly, giving me space to speak. Before I could, Aarav jumped in - always trying to protect me, protect Anaya.

"Of course, silly," he said with a quick laugh. "Everyone has a father."

But Anaya didn't laugh. Her little head tilted, her eyes sharp in the way only kids' eyes could be - so honest it hurt.

"Then where is he?" she whispered.

"Vihaan has mamu... Mumma, you have Nanu. My friends in school - everyone has one."

I could feel every gaze on me - my parents, my brother - waiting. They didn't know the answer either. No one did.

Just me.

My legs moved before my brain caught up. I got up, knelt beside her chair, and took her tiny hands in mine. Her fingers were warm, steady, while mine trembled.

"Yes, sweetheart," I said softly. My voice didn't sound like mine - careful, calm, trying not to break. "You do."

She blinked up at me, her face so serious it broke my heart. "Then... why doesn't he live with us?"

"He lives far away," I murmured, brushing her hair back behind her ear. "But you are loved. So much. By me. By everyone here."

Her lip trembled, but she didn't cry. She just looked at me, holding on to every word.

"Will I ever meet him?" she asked.

I swallowed hard. The truth felt heavy on my tongue. "Maybe," I whispered. "When the time is right."

She nodded - such a small nod, but it carried the weight of the whole world.

The table stayed quiet after that. But inside me, the silence was loud enough to drown everything else out.

---

Dinner ended quietly. No one said much. One by one, everyone retreated to their rooms.

I took Anaya with me, hoping routine would comfort her. But tonight, she didn't ask for her bedtime story. She just curled into me, silent. How could she? She'd just learned that the father she imagined might never be part of her life.

When she finally fell asleep, I sat by the window. The night was still, the moon hanging low and heavy. And just like that, memories I'd spent years locking away came rushing back - vivid, unrelenting.

The low thrum of music under my skin. The warmth of laughter I hadn't known I was capable of. The way his hand had found mine in the crowd - steady, grounding, almost protective.

And yet... no matter how much I tried, I couldn't recall his face clearly. Blurred edges, half-formed smiles. All I had were fragments - the depth of his voice, the dimple when he laughed, the faint curve of a tattoo brushing my fingers as I traced his skin.

What if I had stayed until morning?

What if I had tried harder to find him?

But how could I? All I knew was his first name.

And even if I had found him... would he have accepted Anaya? Or would that night have meant nothing more than a fleeting escape for him?

These questions have lived inside me for years - quiet, unanswered, relentless.

I slipped back into bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep felt impossibly far away.

---

Hours later, the ticking of the clock still echoed through the quiet house.

The floor was cold beneath my feet as I padded toward the kitchen.

Aarav stood at the counter, pouring coffee into a mug. He glanced up when he heard me, one brow lifting.

"Couldn't sleep?"

I shook my head, wordless, and slid onto the bar stool. My fingers fidgeted in my lap - a habit I thought I'd outgrown.

"Me neither," he muttered, pushing a mug toward me. "Too quiet after a question like that."

My throat tightened. "Yeah."

Silence settled between us, broken only by the soft hiss of steam curling up from the coffee.

Footsteps sounded behind me. Priya walked in, her hair loosely tied, silk gown wrapped around her.

"What happened?" she asked softly, concern in her voice as she sat beside me.

"You look like you're about to cry."

I stared at my hands. I'd spent years hiding this part of my life, building walls around it so carefully that even my family - the people who stood by me when the world turned away - had never asked.

They never questioned why I returned from London overnight. Why I abandoned my post-graduation plans. Why I showed up at their door with a suitcase and a secret. They never asked who Anaya's father was.

They just... loved me. Stood by me. Especially Aarav.

And maybe that's why they deserved the truth now.

"I don't know who Anaya's father is."

The words hung in the air - heavy, ugly, real.

Aarav blinked, disbelief flashing across his face. "What do you mean... you don't know?"

Priya's hand covered mine, warm and steady. "Aashi... start from the beginning."

My voice trembled. "It was my graduation night. In London. My friends took me to a party. I met someone... we talked. And then..." I swallowed hard.

"The next thing I remember, it was morning. I couldn't process what had happened. I panicked. I ran. Two months later, I found out I was pregnant. And... the rest, you know."

Aarav dragged a hand through his hair, pacing the small kitchen. "And you never told anyone? Never tried to find him?"

"I was scared," I whispered. "I tried - but I only knew his first name. There must be thousands of people with that name. And then... I was ashamed. So I convinced myself we didn't need him. If I built a life strong enough for her, she wouldn't need him."

The silence that followed was deafening. Priya's eyes softened with quiet understanding. Aarav's jaw clenched, frustration laced with hurt.

"You've been carrying this alone for six years?" Aarav's voice cracked despite the anger in it.

"I thought I was protecting her."

Priya's voice was gentle, almost a whisper. "Or were you protecting yourself?"

The question cut deeper than I expected. I looked away.

Aarav's frustration melted into guilt. He stepped closer, crouched to meet my eyes. "God, Aashi... you should've come to me."

He leaned forward, resting his forehead against mine - rare, quiet comfort. "You're not alone anymore. Not now. Not ever."

Priya draped a shawl around my shoulders, her silence warmer than words.

"I don't even know what to tell her when she asks again," I admitted, voice breaking. "What if she hates me someday... for this?"

Aarav shook his head firmly. "Hey. Listen to me. You gave her everything. She won't hate you for that. But maybe..." His voice softened. "Maybe it's time you stop hating yourself for it."

For the first time in years, I let myself cry. Not quietly. Not politely. But messy - shaking, shoulders curling inward as Priya held me and Aarav stood guard.

In the silence that followed, I realized something.

For the first time in a very long time, I didn't feel alone.

---

The house felt strange in the morning light - too still, like even the walls knew what had been spoken last night. My eyes burned, heavy and swollen, but my chest felt... lighter. Raw, but lighter.

For the first time in years, the secret wasn't mine alone.

I padded out of the bedroom quietly. Anaya was already awake, sitting cross-legged on the couch with her coloring book spread open on her lap. No chatter, no demands for cartoons - just the quiet scratch of a crayon on paper.

She didn't look up when I sat beside her.

Peeking over her shoulder, I saw what she was drawing - three figures. Herself. Me. And a third stick figure beside us, drawn faintly in pencil... no face.

She hesitated, then glanced at me. "Can I draw him like this?" Her voice was soft, uncertain. "Or... will I know his face one day?"

Something broke inside me - quiet, soundless.

I didn't answer. Instead, I pulled her into my arms and held her close. Her tiny frame melted into me, her crayon dropping soundlessly to the floor. I held her tighter than usual - almost desperate.

---

By the time we sat at the table, the house had begun moving again - spoons clinking against plates, the faint whistle of tea on the stove. But it wasn't the same.

Aarav and Priya sat on either side of me, their presence softer now - protective, but not suffocating.

Across the table, my father's gaze lingered longer than usual. Not accusing, not judgmental - just searching. My mother busied herself packing Anaya's lunchbox, fingers fussing over the edges of the foil as if perfect folds could hold the family together.

No one mentioned last night. No one needed to.

---

By noon, work pulled me back to reality.

The ER doors burst open as we wheeled the stretcher inside, chaos crashing into order - vitals shouted, orders barked, the metallic tang of antiseptic clinging to the air.

"Fifty-five-year-old female," the paramedic rattled off. "Collapse at home. Suspected aneurysm. Name's Kavita Gill."

Gill.

The name struck me like a jolt - sharp, unexpected. My step faltered for a heartbeat, the floor tilting beneath me.

Focus, Aashi. Patients first. Questions later.

I forced myself forward, slipping into the practiced calm that emergencies demanded.

We rounded the corner toward the emergency bay - and that's when I saw him.

A tall man stood with his back to me, shoulders rigid, posture tense. The way his weight shifted, fists clenching and unclenching - it was instinctively familiar.

Too familiar.

The crowd parted just enough for me to hear the nurse call out.

"Mr. Gill! This way, please!"

Mr. Gill.

The name echoed in my ears, drowning out everything else. My pulse stumbled. My hands went cold.

For the briefest moment, something inside me shifted - a memory I couldn't quite place. A posture. A weight in the air. Too familiar. Too dangerous.

Could it be-

Before I could move, the stretcher surged forward, cutting off my view.

---

So,

How was the chapter?

Did Aashi do the right thing by finally opening up to Aarav and Priya?

What do you think will happen when Aashi and Shubman finally face each other again?

Whose emotions did you feel most this chapter - Aashi's, Anaya's, or Aarav's?

With all my love.

-the_stellarflower