The question stayed between us like a blade.
I couldn’t move.
My daughter was sleeping against my chest, unaware that the man standing in front of me had just told me that the name I had called my husband for four years belonged to someone else.
I looked at him.
“Then who are you?”
He closed his eyes.
“My name is Harshavardhan.”
Amma began crying.
I stepped away from both of them.
“Don’t come near me.”
“Mrinalini—”
“Don’t.”
My voice came out stronger than I expected.
Harshavardhan stopped.
I looked down at Gauri.
Her tiny fingers were curled around the edge of my saree.
“My daughter,” I whispered. “Tell me the truth about my daughter.”
He looked at Amma.
She shook her head.
He finally said, “Gauri is yours.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He swallowed.
“Her father is my brother.”
I felt as though the floor had disappeared.
“Your brother?”
“Harivansh.”
I stared at him.
“The man who died?”
“Yes.”
“Then how?”
He didn’t answer.
I looked at the envelope in my hand.
The laboratory report.
The false medical records.
The message.
The hospital.
Everything suddenly felt connected.
“You knew I was going to discover this.”
He nodded.
“When?”
“Before we married.”
My chest tightened.
“You married me knowing I thought you were someone else?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Because my brother asked me to.”
I laughed.
It was a broken, disbelieving sound.
“Your dead brother asked you to marry his wife?”
“He wasn’t dead then.”
I froze.
“What?”
Amma covered her face.
Harshavardhan continued.
“Harivansh was alive when I first met you.”
My hands began shaking.
“He had been hiding from someone.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t tell me everything.”
“Then tell me what you know.”
He took a breath.
“My brother had borrowed money from dangerous people. He used company funds. He was going to disappear.”
I stared at him.
“And he left me?”
“He intended to return.”
“When?”
“He never got the chance.”
“What happened?”
Harshavardhan looked toward the floor.
“Six years ago, he died in an accident.”
My heart stopped.
“You said he died six years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And I married you four years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you pretend to be him?”
He looked at Gauri.
“Because your life was already in danger.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Mrinalini, listen to me.”
“You lied to me for four years.”
“I know.”
“You slept beside me.”
“I know.”
“You watched me give birth to your brother’s child.”
His eyes closed.
“I know.”
“You let me believe you were my husband.”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
He looked at me.
“I chose to keep you alive.”
I wanted to hate him.
I desperately wanted to.
But then I remembered the nine months before Gauri’s birth.
The strange phone calls.
The nights he disappeared.
The way he sometimes stared at me as though he wanted to tell me something.
I had thought he was distant.
Now I wondered if he had been afraid.
“Who wanted me dead?”
He didn’t answer.
Amma did.
“Your father-in-law.”
I stared at her.
“My father-in-law?”
“Harivansh’s father.”
“He died before I met him.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“He didn’t.”
My entire body went cold.
“What are you saying?”
“He changed his identity years ago.”
I looked from her to Harshavardhan.
“You’re telling me both brothers have been living under false identities?”
Amma nodded.
“It began long before you knew us.”
“Why?”
She wiped her tears.
“Because your husband’s family was involved in something terrible.”
Harshavardhan interrupted.
“Ma.”
“No more lies.”
She looked at me.
“She deserves the truth.”
I sat slowly on the edge of the bed.
“Tell me.”
Amma took a deep breath.
“Twenty years ago, Harivansh’s father was involved in an illegal medical research operation.”
I frowned.
“What kind of operation?”
“Blood samples.”
I looked at the laboratory report.
My stomach twisted.
“He collected blood from families without consent.”
“Why?”
“He was trying to develop a treatment for a rare genetic disease.”
I stared at her.
“And my family?”
“Your father was one of the doctors who refused to cooperate.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“My father?”
She nodded.
“He tried to expose them.”
“And what happened?”
“He disappeared.”
I felt the room tilt.
“My mother always told me he died in an accident.”
“He didn’t.”
I looked at Harshavardhan.
“You knew?”
He nodded.
“I discovered the truth after my brother died.”
“What did you discover?”
“That your father’s disappearance was connected to our family.”
I held Gauri tighter.
“And that’s why you married me?”
“No.”
He came closer but stopped when I raised my hand.
“I married you because Harivansh asked me to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“The people who were still looking for your father’s research.”
I stared at the envelope.
