Apologies for being MIA, but recent episodes motivated me to complete what I started.

This is part 2 of 'Aai'. Would love to know what you think! Enjoy <3

(I know I said 2-part, but the next update will be the final part to Aai)

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Renuka walked towards her room, away from the couple that sat hand in hand under the night sky, away from the shattering realisation of the truth.

She closed the door to her room behind her, dumbfounded, broken, numb.

All these years. All these damn years.

She walked lifelessly to her cupboard, opening a drawer even Paresh wasn't allowed to touch. Inside was a small iron trunk, catching dust everywhere except where her handprints were.

Renuka clutched the handles, like she did all those times when she fought with Sachin, and dragged the trunk out, opening it and staring at its contents.

Like clockwork, every time that his absence hit her.

Old pictures. Shirts. A pair of shoes. A watch that had stopped working years ago.

Renuka held the shirt as delicately as possible. Tears slipped down her face and onto the white shirt, which had faded with time.

She removed the pictures from the trunk. He was smiling while holding his baby brother. His first cricket bat. A picture with his IIT admission letter. Him showing Tejas and Sachin how to hold their new baby brother.

Her son, Nitin. Her baby. Her talented baby.

He was gone. Just like that, he was gone. Ripped apart from her so cruelly, so suddenly. He had so much to live for, he had promised his mother he'd build her a house and take care of his family for the rest of his life.

But, all she had left of him was his memories. His shirt, his watch, his shoes. That's all that was left of her child.

Renuka caressed the pictures, her tears knowing no bounds. She looked through all pictures, each one just bringing more ache to her heart.

Baby Sachin. One of them was a picture of her in the hospital with her miracle baby, Sacchu.

She caressed the picture, a teary chuckle escaping her lips. Her son had defeated all odds, no matter what people had said.

She remembered the day, her mother-in-law had called the family priest, to check for any bad omens in the house. The priest had read Renuka's horoscope, and told them that the baby will bring bad luck to the house.

She remembered clutching her baby, that was growing within her, in fear. Because she knew how superstitious her MIL was.

Paresh's mother had immediately asked Renuka to give the baby up for adoption, as she was already in her third trimester, but Renuka refused. She picked a huge fight with her, adamant on keeping her baby.

Eventually, her MIL gave in, and Renuka did everything to keep her baby safe. But 2 weeks later, she went into premature labour, 8 weeks too early to be giving birth.

Renuka waited anxiously when she regained her consciousness. She just wanted her baby to be okay. Nitin and Tejas were so excited to be having a sibling, they kept fighting over whether they'd have a brother or sister.

She prayed to the Lord, to look over her baby. Her heart dropped a little every time the doctor walked in and didn't tell her anything.

Her baby was born with underdeveloped lungs and a weak heart. The doctors weren't sure the baby would make, and Renuka almost cried.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the nurse came up to her with a wheelchair, telling her she could see her son. And that he'd be okay.

Son. She had a baby boy.

Renuka cried in relief, letting the nurse wheel her into the NICU. There her little fighter was, after battling with odds for a whole week.

He was still fragile, but she looked at him through the incubator, now breathing by himself. Those tiny fingers and tiny toes, moving so slowly around, after waking up from the best nap ever.

He cried, wailed and so did Renuka. One out of hunger and one out of relief and happiness.

She slipped her hand through the incubator, and held that tiny palm of his. Immediately, he clenched his tiny fingers around hers, and moved to suckle it.

Renuka smiled, "Mera baccha. Mera sher baccha."

And just like that, he had stopped crying. He clenched onto her finger and held it to himself, her voice calming him down. The same voice he had been hearing for 7 1/2 months.

The nurse helped her and placed her baby boy into her arms. He had her nose, and maybe even her eyes. Renuka kissed his bald head, and knew that he was going to be apple of her eye, always. She'd always have a soft spot for her little fighter.

When Renuka brought baby Sachin home, everything seemed fine for a while. But eventually, weird things started happening around the house.

First, Tejas didn't clear his exams. Which everyone brushed off. Then, the kitchen ceiling fell down, albeit due to termites. Renuka's wedding gold got stolen. And the final straw was Paresh getting into an accident.

All within the span of 6 months of Sachin's birth.

So, her MIL just barged into the house, and demanded that she will take care of Sachin for now on, away from this house.

Renuka outright refused. That was her child, her baby, her nursing baby. There was no way she was letting her MIL take her son.

She fought. She fought hard. She begged, pleaded, cried. But Paresh's mother was taking no chance after her son's accident.

And just liked that, her little baby was snatched away from her. A baby that was still nursing, still needed his mother.

Renuka didn't simply turn so bitter towards her MIL. All these actions of hers made her so bitter, because she lost a piece of herself with her child that was taken away from her. She had almost slipped into a depression, crying day and night for her child.

But she had 2 other children that needed her, and she didn't want to be unfair to them. So she decided to go every weekend and see her baby. It was enough, but it was something. And she was okay with that.

Or so she thought.

And just like that, they grew up in front of her eyes. Her Nitin, Tejas and Sachin.

The brothers loved each other, especially Sachin. He looked up to his oldest brother with such pride in his eyes, and always drew on a moustache with Renuka's kajal, because he wanted to be like his Nitin Dada.

That fateful day. It shook her to her core, and she still remembered it like it was yesterday, fresh in her mind.

They dragged his lifeless body out of the water, and the ground beneath her feet was snatched. He laid there, blue, pale, not listening to her pleas.

"Nitin! Beta, uth na!" Renuka shook him with such vigor, but to no avail. She rested his head on her lap, just like she used to when he was a child.

They rushed him to the hospital, only to be declared no more.

Renuka sunk to the ground. She wished the earth would swallow her up in this instant. Her mind went numb. She did not register the police force entering the hospital. She did not remember being carried away from the chaos. She certainly did not remember Paresh bringing her home to the devastated children, who just needed their mother's comfort.

How would she comfort her little children, when she didn't know how to comfort herself. How does one cope with the loss of a child? She would rather God have taken her before he took her son away.

She had always said that her 4 children were her heart, soul, mind and strength.

Her heart had been ripped to shreds, and it caused a pain so immense, that her body shook with tears, seeing her son lie so lifeless in front of her, in those forbidden white clothes she wished she never had to see in this lifetime.

The worst was yet to come, when the police whisked away Sachin. She had tried to stop them, pleaded, begged for them to let her son go. Not for once, could she ever believe that Sachin would do this.

That boy admired his brother, looked up to him more than he looked up to his parents.

She would accept that Nitin had an accident, but murder..... The words sent chills down her bones. No, her Sachin could never do that. Even if Lord Shiva himself descended and told her that, she wouldn't believe it.

Renuka was barely reeling from her son's funeral, on top of everything, they took away another son. She felt so defeated. The universe was doing everything to take her children away from her. And she couldn't do anything.

On the night that Sachin got whisked away, she couldn't sleep. She cried, and cried, waiting for the first rays of sun so that she could comfort her baby. God knows what jail was like, and how they'd treat him. He was just a child, he didn't deserve this.

Dawn broke, and she was adamant to get her child out of those bars. Just as she was about to step out, Tejas stopped her.

Something lapsed, and Renuka could never remember what Tejas had said that morning, that caused her to muster so much hate for her Sachin. She remembered taking off her slippers, leaving the tiffin box she had made in the kitchen, and her blood boiling.

But she could never remember what caused it. Or maybe her inability to cope with the trauma resulted in her blocking out that part from her memories. And it killed her in her lowest, because she hated the version of herself that she had become.

Renuka never went to see Sachin in jail. When he returned, she was indifferent to him. He mattered, but not as much anymore. There were moments where she missed him, and the devotion he had for her. But she had gotten used to his absence.

And when she truly thought about it, her hate only intensified because of his absence. Because he never got a chance to defend himself.

In her grief, she put all her hopes and love on her remaining two children, Tejas and Akash. Akash was still a child, but Tejas was her oldest now, and she just wanted him to be the best.

Like the children she lost. One, to fate ; and the other, to hate.

Till today, she treated Sachin like he was never hers, spoke with such a sharp tongue, vilified him, insulted him. She couldn't remember a time she was ever this vile to him as a child.

It was as if someone had flipped a switch within her.

Renuka had never known the truth, because no one let her. Her version of truth was whatever Tejas had said to her, and no one corrected her in these many years.

And hearing the truth laid out to her tonight, guilt seeped within.

So deep was her regret, it caused her pain. The physical kind, that radiated through every inch of her body, flaring up as she clutched her chest, crying.

For the time she had lost, the hate that she could never untwine, words she could never take back, and her innocent son who she pushed away, who would never come back to her.

Renuka wailed, clutching her photo frames, her cries dying out amongst the sound of firecrackers in the distance, almost at dawn.

She cried and cried until she could no more. Her heart gave way, not being able to take anymore, and the lights in her eyes went out....