“…could prove that your husband’s death was not the accident everyone believed it was.”
For several seconds, nobody moved.
I stared at Raghavendra.
The man I had loved for two years stood before me in the cream kurta he had chosen for our engagement.
And he had just told me that my daughter’s father might not have died by accident.
“What did you say?”
Raghavendra swallowed.
“Avinash discovered something before he died. Something involving my father’s former business partner.”
Harivansh stepped forward.
“Which partner?”
Raghavendra looked at him.
“Nandkumar Bedi.”
The older man’s face changed.
I gripped the edge of the desk.
“Who is Nandkumar?”
Harivansh answered quietly.
“A man I trusted with my company’s finances for eighteen years.”
Raghavendra lowered his eyes.
“He was also the last person who spoke to Avinash before the accident.”
My knees weakened.
I remembered my husband’s final morning.
The smell of ginger tea.
Kaveri sleeping in her little cot.
Avinash fastening his watch while I packed his lunch.
“Don’t forget the mangoes,” I had called.
He laughed.
“How could I forget my two favourite girls?”
Then he kissed my forehead.
That was the last time I saw him alive.
I looked at Raghavendra.
“Did you know about this when we met?”
He nodded.
The room seemed to collapse around me.
“And you said nothing?”
“I was trying to find the evidence.”
“For two years?”
He looked ashamed.
“I thought your husband might have hidden it inside the ancestral property.”
I stared at him.
There it was.
The truth behind the kindness.
The school function.
The books he carried.
The Sunday breakfasts.
He had entered my life searching for something.
And I had mistaken his interest for love.
“Did you ever love me?” I whispered.
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“Then why did you try to make my daughter disappear?”
He covered his face.
“Because Nandkumar knows about her inheritance. He has been pressuring me to secure control over the property before you discover what happened.”
Harivansh slammed his palm against the desk.
“You were going to use a child to solve a financial problem?”
Raghavendra flinched.
“I never intended to hurt Kaveri.”
I looked at him.
“You’ve already hurt her.”
He stared at me.
“She has been practising how to greet your mother for two weeks. She bought pink bangles with her pocket money. She drew a picture of the family she thought she was joining.”
My voice broke.
“And you told me to pretend she didn’t exist.”
Raghavendra began crying.
I stepped away.
“Whatever you feel for me, it isn’t the kind of love I want.”
Charulata came to my side.
“Vedika, please sit down.”
I shook my head.
“I need to go home.”
Harivansh reached into the desk and removed another envelope.
“Before you leave, take this.”
I stared at it.
“My husband’s name is written there.”
He nodded.
“Avinash submitted a complaint to our company shortly before his death. I kept a copy after the original investigation was abandoned.”
“Why was it abandoned?”
His face filled with shame.
“Because Nandkumar convinced me the documents were unreliable.”
I looked at him.
“And you believed him?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, he resembled his son more than he knew.
Two men who had allowed convenient explanations to replace uncomfortable questions.
Harivansh lowered his head.
“I was wrong.”
I took the envelope.
Then I looked at Raghavendra.
“Don’t contact my daughter.”
His face crumpled.
“Vedika—”
“Not until she is old enough to understand why an adult she trusted wanted to hide her.”
I walked out before he could answer.
Outside, the evening sky had turned dark.
The engagement dinner would begin in less than an hour.
Somewhere, a hotel ballroom was decorated with flowers for a celebration that would never happen.
I climbed into an auto-rickshaw.
And for the entire journey home, I held my husband’s envelope against my chest.
When I entered the apartment, Kaveri came running toward me.
She wore her pink lehenga.
Silver flowers glittered across the fabric.
“Amma! Did you meet Raghav Uncle’s mummy?”
I knelt.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“Did she like my picture?”
I swallowed.
“She hasn’t seen it yet.”
Kaveri studied my face.
Then her eyes moved toward my empty finger.
“Where’s your ring?”
I looked at my mother.
Sulochana quietly approached.
I took Kaveri’s hands.
“Raghav Uncle and I aren’t getting married.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Because of me?”
My heart broke.
“No, beta.”
“But I wanted to come to the party.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“You did nothing wrong.”
She began crying.
“Did his mummy say I couldn’t be her granddaughter?”
I held her face gently.
“No. She wanted very much to meet you.”
Kaveri looked confused.
“Then why?”
I searched for words a six-year-old could understand.
