Chapter 1

"In this bright future, you can't forget your past. "

•••°°°•••°°°•••°°°•••°°°•••°°°•••°°°•••°°°••

𝙻𝚊𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚊'𝚜 𝙿𝚘𝚟.

"You are getting stubborn, Yash." I took out a pack of Lolipop and before i could offer it to the one and the half year old toddler, he snatched it from me. "Mom's gonna lock you in bathroom." I glared at him playfully.

"Lolii..." He just showed me his small white teeth and asked me to unwrap the lolipop. His big eyes giving me a warning for a mischief. I took it and unwrap it for him as he gave me the smile which can melt anyone's heart.

"Its Milky tim---LAVANYA!!" Trisha yelled my name as if i met an accident and widened her eyes as if she just saw me naked. It was neither of the situations.

"You're giving him a lolipop again? Do you know how crazy he is becoming about these lolipops? He doesn't want me as long as you are there, just because you give him his candy and i, his milk!!" I rolled my eyes at her dramatic ass and looked at Yash who was licking his candy without caring his mother scolding me.

He only wants the lolipop that i bring. He is a pure businessman.

"He will drink his milk, right Yash?" I asked him giving a devil smirk, knowing how much he hates the milk.

He looked at me with his big doe eyes before hopping down the sofa and running beneath the dining table. I turned to the glaring eyes, which i'm sure, wanted nothing but me dead. She glared me as she moved to her son and dragged him out. The boy looked at the verge of crying as trisha snatched the candy, and i moved inside the kitchen.

I could hear the cries and scoldings but i continued to gulp the water knowing it was just temprory. As the noises subsided, i moved back to the hall and saw the duo playing and laughing, with candy in Yash's mouth and the glass empty.

I sat beside them as they continued to play and checked the notifications from the school group. I did my masters in Psychology and now, worked as a part-time teacher in a school as a psychologist and run my personal sessions.

"Lavi?" Trisha whispered and i looked at her. Yash slept in her arms and she motioned me to tuck him in his room. I nodded and took the sleeping baby. He looked so calm and serene, contrast with his naughty personality.

I tucked him on his bed and secured him with pillows around and exit the room after kissing his forehead. Trisha looked at me, still sitting on sofa and beckoned me to join her. I did.

"So how is my babygirl?" I asked her and a soft smile graced her lips as she looked at her 4 month belly and ran a hand around it.

"She is superb." Trisha answered. "But she wanted her masi to settle down now. " Trisha gave me those eyes, which Yash inherited from her and used to convince me everytime.

"Not again, Trisha. You know how it is..." i sigh.

"Why not, lavi? You are 25 now, well settled and independent. Your dad wants to marry you off. Why are you not marrying?" She asked me with a glint of impatience.

"You know it!" I repeat myself and see her closing her eyes.

"You realise that you are letting them winning you?" She sounded disgusted at the word 'them'.

"Your dad has bought hell and heavens together to keep you safe from your relatives. He broke all his ties for you. And now he wants only one thing, to see you settle in a relationship."

"That's the reason, trisha. Dad broke all his ties for me. How can i leave him alone? You know, all were against me, hell they still are. They still mock my dad in public, that how he is nurturing a bad omen. Dad may not show it, but i know it affects him. It affects him to see his own brothers laughing at him. To see our relatives speaking those dirty and cheap names to me.

He no longer goes to any family function. He has isolated himself from his relatives and ...and has confined his world to me. How can i leave his world? I cannot leave him alone like my mom did years ago. I can't and i never will!" I yelled at last, feeling overwhelmed. Tears brimmed in my eyes but i dared them to flow.

I can never cry for my dad, for it will mean me sympathising him and insulting his efforts to keep me protected. I admire him. He is my family. My world.

"Its his last wish, you fool." I hissed from the slap that she hit in my arm. The tears betrayed me as i sobbed in pain. Not the one i felt in my body, but in my heart.

Last wish.

My dad had brain tumor. The last stage. All the assests that my father's brothers felt jealous of, remained unfruitful as no doctor can give him the longer life. He just has some more years, or months or maybe even days. It's his last wish to see me in the bridal lehanga and going to my in-laws with a smile on my face.

But how could i?

How could i leave my dad in his last moments? Won't i wish to cherish it forever?

Especially when i was the cause of his impending death?

Yes. I was the sole reason for his condition. They said it right. I was indeed a misfortune, a bad omen, a life-snatcher and what not. Before birth, i took my mom's life. Now my dad's in future.

"You are going in a wrong direction." I was welcomed in her hug and even after being in the same class as hers, i felt the love of comfort. She knew me in and out.

"Didn't doctor said it was because dad ignored his health and symptoms. Even after facing the severe pain, he just took those tablets and went back to nurture me? He neglected himself and became my mom and dad at the same time. " I argued and felt the rubs in my back.

"Its not your fault, lavi. You cannot change what's done. Just try to give him the happiness and fulfill his last wish. Its your duty. If not marriage, then atleast a relationship will do. He just wants you to be with someone and someone to be with you, before he meets his wife. You know he loves your mother so much right?

End his torments and see a guy for yourself. Just like you, he too does not wants to leave you alone." I shut my eyes as i could not find the words to deny her claims.

I buried myself more to her neck and cried in my fate. The fate which never gave me what i wanted. It took away all my happiness the day i saw those positive medical reports of my father. The day i saw his own eyes teary for the first time, just at the thought of me being alone in this world.

The door bell rang and i broke my hug, wiping the liquid off my face. Trisha too wiped hers own and was about to get up to open the doors as the bell rang for another time. I asked her to remain in her place as i opened the door.

A smiling face of my senior, Yatharth looked at me and i gave him space to enter in his own house. I closed the door behind me.

"You should not run the bell more than once. Yash might have woken up." Yatharth took Trisha in a hug and kissed her cheek, not giving attention to her scoldings.

Yash was a sleeping king. Everyone knew he could hardly be woken up by a mere door bell.

"Thankyou for taking care of my babies, Lavi." I nodded my head at him and he looked at his wife. His expressions changed to a frown as he looked at her puffy eyes. He turned to me, and i knew he could feel the air thick.

But he chose to remain silent about it and gave a forhead kiss to Trisha and she smiled in bliss. They were the depiction of love. In thier school age, they started dating each other just for fun, and fell in love in college. In the graduation ceremony of Trisha, he proposed to her and she immediately said yes and beated him for making her cry in her graduation day. Their parents were pre-informed about it and they had no issue with it.

So at the age of 22, she married him and at 23 she announced her first pregnancy and in the same year, they welcomed yash. Now they had another on way, which i want to be a girl. Infact all of us wants it.

"Daddaaa... lolliii" came yash's raspy sleepy voice as he rubbed his eyes in the cutest way.

Trisha glared at the innocent boy and Yatharth groaned, probably forgetting to bring the 'lolliii' again. He knew it meant a crying session of one hour by his son and a hand-cooked meal to satisfy his wife who will spend hours to distract the toddler.

I fell into a pit of laughter, grabbing the three pairs of eyes and Yash ran to me. He hugged me tightly, forgetting his candy and the other two breathed in relief.

"You are so good at nursing the babies, don't you think you should have one?" I choked on my food as i heard Yatharth and Trisha glared at him. "I mean, after marriage." I saw Trisha smiling contently at his correction.

"Be thankful that i spent my evening here and looked after your family while you were busy in some meeting with your clients. I don't waste my weekends so easily." I spat and he smirks.

"Oh we know its because your dad is out with his college friends for a get-together, that's why you're here." I huffed at the truth of his words.

"Not to forget, he literally pushed you out of his house because you were lecturing him what to eat and what not." I glare at my best-friend and she smirks like challenging me to defy her. I could not.

"Lolliii..chocolitt..toffeee and ..and jelly..and maggiii.." Yash beamed feeling left out and tried to smirk his parents' way but it came out as a big smile. He was cute. I chasted a kiss on his cheek and he giggled jumping in his seat.

"I have a friend. He is 27. You know him, Sukrit." I remembered this guy who always came in our class with yatharth. Yatharth sat beside Trisha, and sukrit beside me. He used to tell me how he is gonna fail and repeat the class. He will sit beside me and take classes from me.

"Are you mad? How can i marry him?" I yell and Yash copies me in his glibberish language.

"Then marry someone you love!!" Yatharth shrugged and i went back to my food.

"For that you should love someone right?" Trisha said sarcastically and my hands stilled for a moment.

That laugh. That smirk. Those brown eye__

No. We're over with it.

________________________________________