Song of the chapter is Unsteady by X Ambassadors

-54-
-Kartik Malhotra-
-Present-

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Malhotra Mansion
24 December, 2019
4:30 pm

Heading downstairs, I looked at my watch for the unteemth time. Siya should have been here by now. We were going to go to Himanshu's together.

As I reached downstairs, I was surprised to see mom sitting on the couch. She was supposed to be at work at this hour. What was she doing home?

A pile of laundry sat beside her. She looked at me as I neared the couch.

" Mom, shouldn't you be at work? It's 4:30." I said, in a obvious tone.

She didn't answer and I meandered to the glass table in the centre of the living room, and grabbed the newspaper. As my eyes wandered through the first headlines of the day , she spoke, her voice quivering,

" How could you?"

I froze, not sure if I heard her correctly. Frowning, I turned around slowly, catching the sight of the look on her face. Her expression was crestfallen, her dark shiny eyes with tears, and a bad feeling arose in my stomach. It was only then that I noticed the paper she was holding in her trembling hands.

My eyes widened. " Mom...."

" You don't have to play innocent anymore, I know the truth." She said bitterly, crumpling the paper into a ball and shoving it at my chest. I flinched from the harsh movement, my eyes widening as I failed to catch the object.

It fell to the floor, but she didn't seem to care, glaring at me with her arms folded, and the malice on her face was shocking. I had never seen her look that angry before, and I had definitely never seen that sort of anger directed at me. " This was in the mail box this morning." She spat.

Feeling my pulse quicken considerably, I stared at her for a few moments. Crouching down, I plucked it from the floor, opening it back up, and it crinkled as I did so. Her accusatory gaze felt like physical contact as I scanned over the words on the page, swallowing. It was a letter, addressed to mom.

My stomach sank to the bottom of my toes, and I began to feel lightheaded.

Mrs.Malhotra, the letter began and I bit the inside of my lip, It truly saddens me to inform you that your husband has been seeing someone else for the past three years. He was seen on many instances with the same lady, (if I may be so bold) cozying up to each other. Her name is Mahi Sehgal and she was your husband's secretary a few years back. It's sickening that they've continued to have this extra marital affair for quite a while now.

And if you don't believe me, just ask your son. He knows all about it.

Sincerely,
A well wisher

I stopped at once, my knees threatening to buckle under the weight of my guilt. My head was reeling, my stomach sick. That sick fuck must've sent this. There was no one else who could know about this except him. Bringing my eyes up from the letter, I looked up at mom.

" I'm sorry." I began, my voice breaking.

" How long were you going to keep lying to my face? She asked bluntly. "Were you ever planning on telling me?"

I breathed in shakily, my nose stinging with oncoming tears, "I..."

" I feel like such an idiot." She cut me off, throwing her hands up in defeat and laughing without humour. She sauntered towards the family picture of us kept on the side table beside the couch, picked it up and shoved it in front of my eyes. " You see this woman?! This stupid woman with her stupid smile standing happily next to her loving husband!"

She threw the photo frame aside and the glass broke into a million pieces as it came in contact with the floor. I flinched , but stood still.

" That man did what his second nature told him to do. It's in his nature to screw people over!" She whirled around to face me again, tears streaming down her face. "But you? You are my son! How could you not tell me....?"

I began to cry , shaking my head and I was at a loss for words, knowing that nothing I could say would rectify the situation. It was already done and she knew the truth, there was nothing I could do about it. " Please let me explain," I choked out, struggling to speak through my tears.

" Explain? What is there to explain, Kartik? You sided with him, despite knowing the truth-"

" I didn't side with him , mom. I came to know about this through Alishka!"

She looked at me, her face hardened and stone-cold. She stared at me for a second and then in the next moment, her hand graced my right cheek and I felt a stinging pain on my face. I looked at her, unnerving.

" Don't you dare bring your sister into this!" My mom roared, her voice loud but shaky. " Don't blame her for your mistakes!"

At that moment, I realised how I much I had had of this. I was tired and exhausted, putting everyone else before me. I was fucking done with this.

" I'm not blaming her for anything, mom. Maybe if you would stop caring for your dead daughter for once and actually pay attention to your living son, you would see that." I snapped.

Her face grew shocked and heartbroken. "What's that supposed to mean?"

" You know exactly what that's supposed to mean, mom." I let it out. I finally let it all out. " Even when Alishka was alive, you cared more for her. She was your golden child, the apple of your eye. You didn't even bother about the fact that you had a son too."

She looked at me dangerously, somewhat offended that I was trying to turn ths situation towards my problems. But I had enough at that point.

I didn't care anymore.

"All those years, when you and dad locked me up in my room so that I wasn't a threat to your darling daughter, I cried. All day and night, I cried and cried for you guys to let me out! But you didn't, because you were too focused on Alishka! And slowly and gradually, I learnt to keep it all in, all of my emotions bundling up within me because dare I let them out, you would put me back in that hell hole again. I never said a thing."

Her face lightened up a bit but her eyes were still cold, staring unwaveringly at me.

" I waited....for years for you to explain...or apologize....but you never did." I choked, tears burning in the back of my eyes. "Why was I never important to you?"

" So you're really going to turn this around, Kartik? Your father cheated on me and you knew! You never told me-"

" Because I didn't know how to tell you, mom!" I shouted and her face immediately turned cold again. " I didn't know how to break it to you! And it's not like I've known this for years. I got to know about this two weeks ago, when I found a clip of them on Alishka's computer!"

" What?"

" Yes, mom. Your golden daughter knew about this, for years...but she didn't tell you. You know why? Because she wanted to have a leverage on dad. So that she could get whatever she wanted." I spat.

" You're lying." The hesitancy in her voice made realise that deep down even she knew what her daughter was capable of.

" Am I, mom?"

She sank down on the couch , exhausted, defeated. I wiped the tears off my face and faced her again.

" Dad did this to you, mom." I said, breathing heavily. " Not me, not Alishka, him. We are your kids....we aren't supposed to be saving your relationship. Infact you were the one who was supposed to look after us,care about us. But you never did. And now I realise the only reason you favoured Alishka over me, was because she had something on you both. You knew that she could destroy you in seconds. That's why you favoured her."

When her gaze returned to my face, her eyes were cold. "We gave you both everything you've ever wanted, everything! How can you be so ungrateful?"

" Kids aren't supposed to be grateful, mom!"

My voice quivered at the end and fresh tears stained my cheeks once again. " I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask to be here! All I ever asked was love and you couldn't even give me that!"

" Kartik, don't be absurd!" My mother glared at me. "You are my son, ofcourse, I love you!"

" You can't love me." I broke down. "You don't even know me!"

My mother stood still, staring at me with gleaming eyes.

" Do you know that I smoke 12 cigarettes a day? Or that I am failing my classes? Or that I haven't been able to sleep at night since the day Alishka died?" I told her, the rawness in my voice making her even more shocked. She looked bewildered.

" No, you don't. Because how would you? You have never cared about me once in your life." I choked out.

Tears were streaming down her face but my heart couldn't so much as feel sympathy for her. My breaths grew shallower every minute. I wiped my tears again and gulped.

" I'm sorry but I don't feel any remorse for you or dad. And I'm glad for whoever sent that letter." I said, looking directly at her. "Because you and dad deserve each other."

With that, I brushed past her , exiting the house and slammed the door shut behind me.

And as realisation dawned on me, I breathed the cold air in and somehow my heart felt lighter than ever.

Just then , the ring of my phone echoed from my pocket and I took it out and looked at the screen. It was a message from UNKNOWN. I sighed and clicked on the notification.

'The Final Round :

You're invited to the most exciting supper of your life. Tomorrow at midnight sharp, come to where it all began.

You know what happens if you don't. '

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