The hidden truth. 

The hidden truth. 

I felt nothing but utter desolation, finding it inside my heart uninvited.

 

Why have my parents never said a word about this? 

 

We stood there in complete silence. Both of us were too observed in our thoughts to say a word. 

 

My heart was beating miles per second. It was an understatement to say that I was frightened after knowing what had been stored for me. 

 

A hand shot out all at once and caught my arm, causing me to freeze. Turning my face, I looked down, only to find his fingers holding me captive. My eyes widened. 

 

“W-what are you doing?” My voice came out meek and apprehensive. 

 

He took more steps towards me. Twirling me in a way, I was trapped between his widened arms. 

 

“Sir?” I whispered, my stomach churning. 

 

He stayed silent. He seemed to disregard the plea behind my words. 

 

“Don't ever try to pull a stunt like you did ever again.” His voice sounded terrifying. “Move an inch from this room, and I will make sure you cannot move anymore at all.”

 

I sucked a sharp breath, totally intimidated by the clear-cut warning in his voice. Feeling caged and cornered, I stood still. 

 

“Do you understand?”

 

I nodded. Surprisingly, he stepped away, retreating enough to make a room for me to sprint away in a flash in the opposite direction. 

 

"Uzair Bhai, big brother's here. And he's asking for you.” The door all of a sudden opened as someone informed him about someone's arrival. Precisely his brother's.

 

That broke me away from the turmoil of my thoughts. My chest was beating wildly. 

 

Brother? Did he have a brother? Perhaps he could help me get to the bottom of it? Maybe, just maybe? It was my first thought about the intruder. 

 

"It's my cue to leave,” he sighed. "And you shouldn't be wary of me, you know. I don't bite,” he said softly. “Yeah, of course, until you want me to, that is. Until then, I won't,” he grinned suddenly, his dimple deepening. 

 

As if he wasn't just trying to warn me about trying to leave.

 

My wide eyes strayed from him up to the door, where the unknown person just left by his single acknowledgement nod before colliding back with him again. 

 

"I will visit you soon, Bambolina. I have business to attain. None of which concerns you. Don't attempt anything stupid till then, will you, little one?” He drawled lazily. “Whatever I would be having a personal eye on you, though,” his voice held an underlying threat that I understood.

 

I stood still, my muscles tensing up with each of his words. 

 

Brushing his thumb one more time on my cheek and taking my hand into his, he kissed my fingers ever so lightly. The act was so innocent and pure that I didn't have it in me to pull away from him, which was not because I was liking it but because somehow I was in a daze. A daze that was maddening.

 

I just gazed at him. We both stared. And then he backed away abruptly.

 

"Don't ail yourself more than you can handle, little one.” His flecks shone in the sunlight, and his deep black eyes held an undertone of care beneath their stormy surface as he said it.

 

I wanted to say so many things in my mind. I wanted to ask so many questions, which had me disturbed for the past few days, but I could not. 

 

Leaning against the sofa, I tightly clutched my heaving chest. I could feel it throbbing and pounding wildly against my palm. 

Ignoring the chaotic thoughts going through my head, I called out. “Uzair?” My heart was as erratic as a bullet train. It was the first time I addressed him by his name.

 

He paused in his tracks.

 

His name sounded so unfamiliar and peculiar in my mouth. It didn't bring any kind of memories with it, as I thought it would.

 

"Please let us go, Uzair." I blinked as I stuttered. "If we were friends, as you said we were, you are supposed to help me, aren't you? That's what real friends do, right? Don't they? They help each other," I reiterated. “If you really knew my parents, you should help me get where their presence is. At least where I can feel them living with me.”

 

He took his time when coming closer, and before I could even react, he pressed his warm, soft lips over the crown of my head, pecking it gently. 

 

"Are you quite certain, little one?” His voice was as soft as a breeze. “I have no doubt that wherever they are, they are watching over you.” My eyes widened. “And for the second question of yours, the answer would be yes. Friends are supposed to help each other out,” he admitted. "But not when you know you'll be the only one who can keep your friend safe in perilous situations. And that's what I'm trying to do—keeping you both safe," he said, stroding backwards from me. His eyes still held mine.

 

"Do I have the right to know anything? Why can't you just tell me? Not even where I am staying, and what type of people I am with?" His nerves tensed as I whispered when he was about to walk away. 

 

"I desire to say yes more than anything, but I simply can't. The truth might.... break you, Radhika. And for that, we both aren't ready.” His face slightly turned from me as he said it. “You are not ready.” Hand running over his mane. "Neither am I!"

 

"What would you have us do, then? Await for the right moment. But for what purpose, and more importantly, for how long and for whom? For you to let us leave? What if you aren't ever ready for that?" I breathed hard. "I want to leave right now! I say!"

 

I didn't conjure when my soft state turned into a demanding one that must have existed in the tone I was using. His dark obsidian eyes softened as I thought I saw them because, in the very next second, they were as impassive as his facial expression. Totally emotionless. 

 

"I can't just let you leave. You are—you both are," mentioning his index finger at Shaurya, he completed, "Now, my responsibility." 

 

And without waiting for my comeback, he left just like that. The door shut with a click, indicating he locked the door from outside. I tumbled down on the floor. The answers, which were so unseen and unpredictable, kept swirling in my head again and again and again...

 

We were friends.

 

Very close friends.

 

Our families were close. We used to be neighbours.

 

Our elders were childhood friends. 

 

Your uncle is safe, happy, and stress-free knowing you both are with me. His voice rang inside my head. 

 

His cold, menacing answers ailed me, bringing back the afflictions from inside me yet again as I sat there on the floor with the given answers still twirling around my psyche with inhuman speed. I couldn't help but be tense about it. 

 

What if he was telling the truth?

 

But what if he was not?

 

It must be one of his ploys that he wanted me to trust him in order to make me submit to him. Wouldn't it be the case? 

 

Both questions tempted me to find the answers, but I stayed still with trepidation. It was so messed up, I didn't know who to trust or what to do! 

 

“Why are you making me detest you more?” I murmured. “What are you saving us from?” I clenched my fists. “When all I need is to be kept safe from you; away from you,” my voice broke at the end of the sentence. “Not with you in your clutches to do as you please.”