“—your half-sister.”
I stopped breathing.
The hospital corridor remained noisy around me, but the lawyer’s words seemed to erase every sound.
“What did you say?”
“Yamini is your father’s daughter,” Advocate Deshmukh repeated. “She is your elder half-sister.”
I looked at Yamini.
She was still holding the old photograph.
Her face had turned white.
“No,” she whispered.
Ishwari closed her eyes.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
I walked toward her.
“You knew.”
She began shaking her head.
“Vaidehi—”
“You knew she was my sister.”
“Yes.”
Yamini dropped the photograph.
It landed face-up between us.
My father.
Avinash.
Yamini.
Three people from a past neither of us understood.
Yamini stared at Ishwari.
“My mother told me my father abandoned us before I was born.”
Ishwari wiped her tears.
“She was trying to protect you.”
“From whom?”
“From Vaidehi’s family.”
I almost laughed.
“My family?”
The lawyer was still on the phone.
“Mrs. Joshi,” he said, “there is more.”
Of course there was.
That day seemed determined to keep digging until it reached the bones of my life.
“Tell me.”
“Your father met Yamini when she was eighteen. By then she and Avinash had already known each other for years.”
Yamini’s hands trembled.
“We were in love.”
I looked at her.
She nodded slowly.
“We planned to marry.”
I turned toward Ishwari.
“And my father stopped them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ishwari looked at Yamini.
“Because he discovered who she was.”
My stomach twisted.
My father had discovered his secret daughter just as she was preparing to marry Avinash.
Instead of admitting the truth, he separated them.
“He sent Yamini away,” Ishwari said. “Her mother accepted money and moved to Indore.”
Yamini looked as though someone had struck her.
“My mother told me Avinash had agreed to marry someone else.”
“He hadn’t.”
Her eyes filled.
“I waited for him.”
Ishwari lowered her head.
“He waited too.”
I suddenly understood the photograph.
My father standing beside them.
The agreement.
The condition.
“But why me?”
No one answered.
I shouted.
“Why did he make Avinash marry me?”
The lawyer answered.
“Because Avinash threatened to find Yamini.”
I gripped the phone.
“What?”
“Your father offered him a choice. Stay away from Yamini permanently, marry you, and receive ownership of a commercial property—or your father would financially destroy Avinash’s family business and ensure Yamini disappeared from his life completely.”
I felt sick.
“My marriage was a transaction.”
“Initially,” Ishwari whispered.
I looked at her.
She immediately regretted the word.
“Initially?”
“Avinash grew to love you.”
I stared at her.
Twenty-one years reduced to a sentence.
He grew to love you.
Like affection was compensation for being purchased.
“How much was the property worth?”
“At the time,” Deshmukh said, “approximately thirty lakh rupees.”
“And now?”
“Close to fifty crore.”
I closed my eyes.
Avinash’s logistics company had been built using loans secured against that property.
The office.
The warehouses.
The trucks.
Everything I thought we had built together rested on a secret bargain between my father and my husband.
“What was the condition?”
The lawyer paused.
“Avinash could retain the property only while he kept Yamini’s identity from you and had no marital or romantic relationship with her.”
I opened my eyes.
“He broke the condition.”
“Yes.”
“So what happens?”
“The property returns to your father’s estate.”
“And who inherits it?”
“You.”
Avinash had not only been hiding another wife.
He had been hiding the fact that if I discovered her, I could take away the foundation of everything he owned.
Suddenly the bloodstained envelope made sense.
He had been meeting the lawyer.
Something had frightened him.
“Why were you meeting Avinash today?”
Deshmukh became quiet.
“Because someone contacted my office three days ago asking for a copy of your father’s declaration.”
“Who?”
“Yamini.”
We all looked at her.
She shook her head violently.
“I didn’t.”
The lawyer continued.
“The email came from an address registered in Yamini’s name.”
“I swear I didn’t send anything.”
Then Ishwari sat down.
Her face had changed.
“Anika.”
Yamini frowned.
“What about Anika?”
“Last week she was using your laptop at my house.”
“She’s six.”
“She was playing games.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“No,” Ishwari whispered. “But Avinash used your laptop that afternoon.”
Silence.
I understood.
“He contacted the lawyer pretending to be Yamini.”
Deshmukh spoke carefully.
“That is possible.”
“Why?”
Then I remembered the accident.
The brown envelope.
Avinash had been carrying photocopies of the documents.
He had discovered that his second marriage could cost him everything.
He had been trying to fix it before I knew.
I walked back toward his room.
This time no one stopped me.
Avinash looked up as I entered.
His face told me he knew.
“You spoke to Deshmukh.”
“Yes.”
“Vaidehi—”
“Was I ever your choice?”
His mouth opened.
No answer came.
I nodded.
