As he and Maheer rounded the corner, Saad hadn't expected to bump into his father.

His father looked shocked to see them rushing inside. For a moment, their eyes met. His father looked tired. Saad hadn't realized just when the towering figure of his father had gotten shorter than him.

His father was getting old, wasn't he?

His strong back which used to carry Saad around the house was in constant pain now. His dark hair was now full of greys and whites.

For a minute, Saad and his father just stood there. Face to face. In complete silence. Both were taking in each other's appearances.

Twenty-seven year! Saad had twenty-seven years worth of memories with this man. From the first day of school to college graduation- his father was in every memory.

And all of it was a lie.

"Can I talk to you, son?' His father said after what felt like ages.

So now he wishes to talk?

"Maheer, why don't you go inside and talk to Murtasim?" Saad whispered to Maheer and signaled her to go inside.

Maheer looked awkwardly between the father and son. She looked like she had something to say. Instead, she just sighed and walked inside without arguing.

"What do you wish to say?" Saad's voice sounded rude even to him. His father looked startled. He wasn't expecting that surely.

Had he ever talked to his father in that manner?

"I..." His father trailed off in a low voice. He looked like a lost child. "I am sorry, Saad."

That was it. That was the only thing Saad wished to hear.

He could feel the dam of emotions inside him start to crack. His nose burned as he noticed his father's old shoulders shake.

He was crying.

"Your dad was young and stupid, Saadi," His father murmured through the tears. " Do you know that your mother had two consecutive miscarriages before she was able to carry her baby full term? But that blessing soon turned into a nightmare. The baby, a little girl, didn't even get to live a full hour after birth."

Saad's eyes stung with unshed tears. His hands were now around his father's shoulders. He hated seeing people cry. Especially people he loved.

"Your mother and I were just so tired, son. We just wanted a child. Yet all we got was backhanded comments and taunts veiled in sympathy. You don't even know the horrible things they would say to your mother, how much she would cry." His voice sounded distant as if remembering something he wished to forget. "Then she got sick. She wouldn't sleep properly, wouldn't eat, wouldn't even talk to anyone!"

"Your Maa's sister-in-law, on the other hand, had a healthy happy pregnancy, and that made things even worse. Your mother.......I thought I would lose her!"

"So we decided to adopt you." His father's voice broke a little as he continued to narrate his story. "We loved you. Your mother and I- we loved you so much. You were our child. We had the documents and everything."

"Our lives got better. Your mother was happy again. Smiling, laughing, talking - she was slowly healing. You were healing her, my child."

It all seemed normal until now. But Saad had a bad feeling. He felt like there was more to the story.

"Then why do you look so guilty, baba?"

His father's breath hitched. So there was something more.

"Almost a year later, we got a call from the orphanage. The people inside...." his father's voice trailed off, "They were looking for their lost child who might have ended up in the orphanage. They were calling the families of all the newborns that were adopted."

An uncomfortable quietness followed his statement. Saad sighed. He didn't like where this was going at all.

"Your mother was paranoid. She couldn't even bear the slightest thought of you leaving her. So I ignored the orphanage's calls. We thought if we ignore the calls, they would stop bothering us!"

"And then? Did they stop bothering you?" Saad wished that was the end of the story. But when were his wishes even granted?

"She came to our old house. Salma Begum. I remember the time clearly. Your grandmother and your maa's brother were visiting with his family."

"She was a young girl back then. Not more than twenty. She was going to all the addresses she could find from the orphanages." He looked at Saad with teary eyes. "She had a sleeping Murtasim in her arms. He looked exactly like you. I realized what was going on. But your mother......"

"But Maa, what?" Saad could predict what had happened but still wanted to hear it from his father.

"Your maa refused to show you. She was hysteric. She had clutched onto you with all her strength and refused to let you go!"

Oh, Maa!

"Your uncle, he was the one who came up with the idea. Instead of showing you, we just showed your cousin to the lady waiting outside. We thought if we refused to show anyone, she would suspect something and come back again."

As his father narrated the last part of the story, Saad leaned against the corridor wall and closed his eyes. He tried to untangle the jumbled mess inside his head.

"Trust me, Saad, we love you more than anything. We were just scared that we might lose you. I reasoned with myself that Salma begum had Murtasim but your mother had no one."

And yet she kept on looking for Saad.

"We didn't think she would keep looking for you! We tried to give you whatever we could manage. I hadn't realized how little our everything would look in front of all the things that you were born into."

Saad didn't wish to hear anymore.

His mother had loved him, Saad knew that but she had also snatched him off from the hands of a young girl who would have a constant reminder of him in his twin brother.

In their own pursuit of happiness, they had subjected a family to a lifetime of grief. And happiness built on someone's sorrow was like a castle of sand, its pillars always gave up as soon as the water hit.

It was a mess.

Saad didn't know which one of these women he should feel pity for. The young mother who was going around in that huge city looking for her lost child or the grieving mother who didn't wish to lose another child.

Saad didn't get to think much about it as a loud shout reached his ears.

"A twin, seriously? Do you take me for a fool, Murtasim?"

Oh, he completely forgot about that!

He almost sprinted towards the sitting room. What he saw there surprised him. Well, the word "surprise" would be an underestimate.

The girl in red, Ziddi, was shaking poor Murtasim by his suit's collar while Anwar tried to pull her away.

Her eyes were bloodshot as she refused to let go of him. Everyone else in the room was looking at the spectacle in utter shock while Murtasim looked like he was trying to best to explain the whole thing. And by the looks of it, the girl wasn't buying any of it.

Maheer looked panicked as she tried to get closer to the furious girl. "Please, It's not a lie!" Maheer's voice sounded nervous.

"Shut up, I wasn't asking you. I am asking him!" The girl sounded like she was on the verge of a breakdown. She was gritting her teeth to hold back her tears.

"A lost twin? Is that the best you could come up with? How many Bollywood movies are you watching these days?"

She really was not having it, was she?

Saad wasn't sure if he should go inside or not. Because the girl look like she was out for blood. And with the surprising strength she was shaking a man like Murtasim, Saad would bet she was capable of murder too. Saad did not have any wish to be physically harmed by a girl half his size.

Well, he did not get to decide his next move before Maheer saw him. Sighing in relief, she pointed her finger in his direction, "Look!"

The girl whirled around with the noise and her big doe eyes full of anger fell on him. They widened in shock as they took in his appearance.

Saad did not know what went inside her head. And he definitely couldn't have predicted what happened next.

After staring at him in shock for a few numbing minutes, the girl just uttered a soft, "Oh," and decided to promptly faint in Murtasim's arms.

Just when had Saad's life become so eventful?

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I read the comments from the Author's Note and you guys seemed to be divided equally in your opinion. I really appreciated the comments and your suggestions. So Thank you very much.

Since the opinions were 50/50, I have just decided to merge all the ideas I had and make a new route from where I will take this story further. I hope you will enjoy this story and keep on reading.

Bts, how do you like this chapter?? Tell me how you feel!

Pls, leave comments and feedback.