Page 234 of A King's Oath

“I manage.”

Samarth eyed her from the corner of his eyes — “How did you do it?”

She blinked, a smile stretching across her lips. The sun was leaving sparkles on the edges of her eyelashes and eyebrows, lighting up wisps of her hair. She was so beautiful. Between her and Brahmi, he was scared his heart rate would always remain low.

“When I discovered it, I thought you would be onboard.”

“If I had known…”

“No. No point in rehashing it. Maybe you would have been onboard…”

“I would definitely have been onboard. Please, Ava, you know me.”

“What would have happened to your Nawanagar then?” She scoffed. “And I wouldn’t want you to leave your home with me just because you had a baby to fend for.”

“That wouldn’t have been true.”

“What would have happened, Samarth?” She finally glanced at him.

“I don’t know. How can I build what-ifs now? But I can say this with full authority that I wouldn’t have let you go or do this alone.”

“Pity is not what I was ever looking for.”

“Pity is not what it would have been.”

She took a deep breath, beginning to take her gaze away from him.

“How did you manage to do this alone? Didn’t your parents force you to give them the name of the father?”

“Oh,” she laughed. “That’s an era we like to keep locked in a closet. All of us.”

“Which era?”

“My second-trimester era.”

“What happened in that era?”

“Chaos, fights, emotional blackmail, rants, victim cards pulled. I was in Paris and Mummy and Papa wouldn’t listen. Of course, now I understand why they kept hammering me to give them a name.” She looked at Brahmi swinging, tapping her hand with another little girl on the swing next to hers.

“What was your answer?”

“That he was a passing friend. I don’t know him. They asked what nationality and I said Indian. But I don’t have any contact details and even if I did I do not want to contact him.”

“Why?”

“He is not father material.”

“Your father also broke off from your Kaka around that time, isn’t it? We weren’t close with Gwalior but the news was there. It was shown to be mutual.”

“We kept the news of my pregnancy from Kaka Maharaj until the seventh month. When Papa broke it, he was torn between rage and sympathy. He called me once, first scolded me, then asked me if I was ok. Then Papa and he had many meetings about the future of Papa’s family in Gwalior. Vikram Dada would become the next king, it was time to divide the assets for Papa. We got a few businesses, Papa and Mummy moved out to Delhi, and their life has been shuttling between Delhi, Dubai where Kresha and Gopi live, and here.”

“Your Kaka Maharaj adored you…”

She shrugged — “There is a difference between adoring and loving. I had a reputation that I would carry after my delivery. There was no way he could defend that. And even if he wanted to, we later got to know that Kaki Maharaj had convinced him that distancing from us would be in their best interest. That’s the first time I understood a little bit of your whacko stepmother’s perspective, you know?” Ava’s head cocked until it was lying on her shoulder. “She was insecure about her son’s future. Of course, you are not the kind of man to do something like this. But after all these years I see that mishaps in a family have a way of creating cracks, or deepening the ones that were already there but you failed to see them in happier times. As teenagers with happy households. all you see is the good, isn’t it? Heated swimming pool built for you, crates of jewellery bought only for you, your favourite snack ready when you come home from school… when problems begin to crop up, you start seeing the realities in something you knew as an indomitable family. I was right about a lot of things about your whacko Maarani but also wrong about a few.”

“Hey,” Samarth pushed his face closer to her. “That is whacko Rajmata for you now.”

Ava chuckled, the sound not as sweet as it used to be.

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