I hadn't got a glimpse of Mr. Oberoi from past week. One week had passed for my arrival in the mysteriously dark mansion. A mansion that had secrets hidden in its darkness.

I had arrived in the mansion to unfold some mystery but was discovering more puzzle on the way.

"Beta," Buba called me, bringing me out of my jumble thoughts. "What are you doing here alone?" She inquired, her orbs glancing at me in concern.

I had walked into abandoned room. A room that was placed at the corner. I had noticed, it was mostly closed. None walked into it. I was curious! I needed to work on my mission and the curiousity had resulted me into the room.

"I..." I fumbled with my words. I felt guilty and ashamed of getting caught.

"This room is mostly closed, no-one is allowed inside." Buba mumbled as she kept glancing at the room, lost in her thoughts. Her orbs kept staring at each object in the room. As if those items were narrating a story to her. She kept moving inside in the room, her hands helping her with the wheelchair.

It had a huge area, racks were arranged. Various kinds of book were placed on those racks. It wasn't a library, much like a cabin. There was a desk placed on the centre.

"Shlok spent his entire time here," Buba mumbled. "He had always being the workholic types," she groaned at the idea of it. "I could never understand his interest in those files and papers," she kept rambling. "This papers are more alive than him." I could hear sadness in her voice.

"What do you mean?" I inquired. What did she meant by the paper was more alive than him!

"He was the toughest kid among you all," she expressed. "I had knew, he would be there till last." She kept muttering as she scrolled through the files on the desk.

"I am not understanding a word uttered by you," I expressed my confusion. How did she knew me? She spared me a glance, her kind black orbs searching for a hint on my face. She frowned as if regretting it. "I thought he had told you about it."

"Told me about what?" I was getting curious with each passing second. I wanted to know!

"About the past you shared," she mumbled as she took a photo frame kept on Mr. Oberoi's desk. "About this..." She directed the frame towards me. I took a step towards her as I held the photo. It was a photo of many children, clicked beside a old-large house, trees decorating the surrounding. Nothing in the picture made sense. Except the girl! The same girl was present in the picture, smiling at it broadly. Who was she?

"Who is she?" I pointed at the girl in the picture.

"Who else could it be," she passed a smile. My heart accelerated at the thoughts occuring in my brain on seeing the smile Buba was offering me.

"I don't know..." I shrugged the thoughts off. I was overthinking. "Someone dear to Mr. Oberoi," I suggested.

She gave a slight nod, "she was the only ray of sunshine in his dark-traumatic world. The only person who could make him smile," she muttered.

"Is he orphan?" I couldn't help myself from asking it. I stared at the picture. The house in the background was familiar to orphanage. And Buba was the only adult in the group of children. There were children in different age-group.

"He is..." Buba muttered as I handed the picture back to her. "He was always tough to handle until she arrived," Buba was caressing the picture of the girl. "But her kind and bubbly spirit got her new parents while he was left behind, again pulled into his darkness."

"He never attempted to meet her?"

"He knew, he was fire and didn't wanted to burn her. He was happy seeing her content in her life." Buba spare a glance at me. "His love for her had never being of selfishness. The only person that could make him act selfless."

Those words, those pictures were making me uncomfortable. As if pulling some memories of past that I had intentionally pulled away. Something that I wanted to forget! Why did I hated it? Why I despised it? I shove away the thoughts as I excused myself and walked into my room.

I needed a time alone to process the things uttered to me. That picture! I stopped myself from pondering over it. I needed to talk. I needed to talk with my mother. I needed to ask Ma. How I looked as a child? Why there wasn't a single picture of my childhood?

I dialled her number and she picked it up on the second ring. Her voice was filled with concern. "How are you, Aachal?" She inquired, I sighed. Listening to her voice brought comfort to me. I felt at home.

"I am fine," I didn't allow the displeasure within me, be heard. I was upset, sad as she hadn't attempted to contact me. I had expected for a wild reaction but there was none from my parents side. I felt as if they knew it! They weren't shock by a stranger claiming me as his wife.

"You didn't call me," I slowly uttered my disappointment.

"You didn't call either," she explained after minute of silence. "And I wasn't sure if you will like to talk to us after the truth was revealed."

"Which truth?" I almost groaned in annoyance. "Everyone is talking about a truth. What is this truth? And why am I kept hidden from it?" I wasn't able to hold back my temper. I was getting frustrated with that word.

There wasn't any response, "Ma... I need answers," I pleaded with her. "There are some things which don't make sense," I almost cried to her.

"We aren't your parents," she confessed. I felt as if someone had pulled the floor beneath me. Someone had woke me up from the beautiful dream. "We had adopted you," she completed.

I wasn't able to process the emotion, I was undergoing. It felt as if my entire life was a lie. The people I considered my parents weren't my real parents. I was born orphan.

"We never wanted you to feel burden over us. As if we had done a favour to you. We wanted you to consider this as your home and for that we had to keep the truth hidden."

I wasn't in a state to process her words. I felt slight broken at the revelation. I hadn't ever expected it! Throughout my life, they had never given me a hint that I wasn't their child. I had question them on occasion that why like others they didn't had any of my childhood pictures. And they had convinced me that those pictures were burn due to the fire which occurred few years back. They had lost all of my childhood memories in that fire. I had accepted that as a truth and lived rest of my life.

"Aachal," I heard a weak voice of Ma from the other hand. "Don't hate us, beta..." I heard her sobbing, she was crying and it ached my heart.

"I can never hate you, Ma." I uttered in a need to reassure her anxious heart. "Due to you and Papa, I was offered with a blessed and beautiful life. How can I hate the people who never made me feel that I am not their blood? They treated me as theirs! Thank you for every single thing," I sobbed as I hanged the call.

•••

Just because they weren't my biological parents, won't change the fact that they weren't my parents. But still I felt the emptiness, the urge to know the truth. What was my life before getting adopted? Was it me in those pictures? Had I known Mr. Oberoi back than?

Sleep was far off, I kept changing my position. Attempting to get some sleep. But my brain was filled with questions, I needed answer off. Things I needed to know!

I moved from my bed, I walked out of my room. Making my way out of the mansion into the darkness occupying the night. I was in need of fresh air, the mansion suffocated me. It forced me to accept the reality, I wasn't planning to accept. I wasn't desiring to accept any connection with Mr. Oberoi. I couldn't be that girl! I didn't wanted to know the past. I didn't wanted to make my heart soft towards him.

"What had kept you up till this hour?" I heard a rough-masculine voice. I didn't had to glance in his direction to know about the human. "It's not good to deprive yourself of sleep in such a condition," though he was commanding but I couldn't miss the concern hidden in his stern exterior.

I kept quiet ignoring his presence. I kept staring at the dark sky that was gifted with glittering stars. The moon hidden behind those clouds as if he wasn't in a mood to be displayed.

"Are we again playing the game of ignorance?" I heard his calm yet frustrated voice.

"Why have you brought me here?" I questioned, not sparing him a glance.

"You know the reason behind it," I could feel his eyes on me. "Your injured shoulder might have not allowed you to forget about the incident," he expressed. "The culprit is enjoying his punishment," he ended with a serious note.

That offered him with my full attention. For some unknown reason I was worried about the culprit being caught because I had the slightest clue, who the culprit could be.

"You hadn't killed him?" I wasn't able to hide my worry. Despite knowing that the person wanted to harm me. I hated myself for still holding feeling for that human.

"I wish, I did..." He expressed. Those set of black orbs fuming in annoyance. "But he deserve more torturing death," his orbs were burning in rage, revenge. "For the things he had done to you," he orbs descending to my growing bump.

"You...He..." I didn't needed him to name the culprit as I got my doubt confirmed. It was Mayur, I sighed as the thought sink into my brain. He attacked me twice! My heart did ached at the thought of him being the person. I no longer doubted that the attack was for Riddhi.

I couldn't help myself from ending into tears. He was someone I trusted! I had given him second chance. Second opportunity to speak the truth. I believed that he cared, he still held feelings towards me. Those orbs weren't lying. "Can I meet him?" I stared at Mr. Oberoi with hope.

His stern orbs kept staring at me as if attempting to read my thoughts. "No," that was his simple answer.

I nodded, I hadn't expected that he would fulfil my wish. I averted my gaze back at the dark sky. Silence prevailed around us, he didn't attempt to walk inside. I could feel his gaze but I opted to ignore.

"You still love him," that wasn't a question rather a statement. As if it just hit him. "And he never did," he growled as if the thought angered him.

I stared at him, my mind coming to halt as I glanced at his features, trying to remember him. Maybe he would be locked somewhere in my memory. How he could remember me and not me? He had those pictures, those memories and I had nothing.

"You know why he want to harm me?" I inquired, maybe I would get some of my answers. Why would Mayur harm me? Harm the child within me?

"Because of me," he mumbled. "The harm surrounding you is due to me. He hurt you so he could see me in pain." His voice was getting heavy with each passing second. "People love to use weakness as I had used theirs," a smirk was playing on his face. The devil within him emerging back, making me aware of the monster he is.

I could only imagine the life he had destroyed, the people he had killed.

"You feel proud of your deeds," I stared at him in disbelief. "Killing someone isn't something to be proud of," I groaned at the thought of it.

"So, your beloved husband had made you aware about my deeds." His smirk grew wider at my words. I realised the blunder my tongue had committed. His black orbs sparkling in amusement, "what about his?" His orbs were intense, "why was he planning to kill you? Does he have any valid reason for his deeds?" His orbs were accusing me, humiliating me.