"Do you want to know about my mother"?

I asked. She looked up at me in my hold as she nodded.

I contemplated. About from where to start. I only knew her from the day I was born. But there is so much to tell her before I was born. My mother's family, and her background.

“My mother…Manvi.... That's my mother's name. Born to Veeraj Raizada and Nandini Shekhawat. Ruthless mafias. She wasn’t someone meant for an ordinary life. Not because she didn’t want one—because her blood didn’t allow it.”

I paused, watching Asha carefully, as she grew attentive.

“She was born into a family with money, power, and a lot of darkness. Old connections. Old crimes. The kind that never see daylight but control half the city from the shadows.”

“But she hated all of it.”

My fingers dragged along her shoulder, a slow restless motioin

“She wanted peace. Freedom. A life where gunshots weren’t lullabies and loyalty didn’t come with blood price. And when she fell in love with my father… she thought she had finally found her exit.”

A bitter smile twitched across my lips.

“Her family didn’t approve, of course. To them he was… beneath her. Weak. Poor. Too ordinary. Not worthy of the bloodline.”

"And i wish she should've listened to her parents. Or atleast her parents could have stopped her either through force or coercion".

“For wich they tried.They threatened, they argued, they demanded her to come back. But she didn’t bend.”

My voice grew quiet, reverent in its own way, thinking about the possibilities of erasing the past.

“She walked away from all of it. From wealth, from protection, from the only world she knew. She left with nothing except the man she loved and the clothes on her back.”

“She chose him. Blindly. Completely.”

The bitterness crept back in like an old snake.

“And he chose her money.”

“My father… Kunal… he saw her beauty, her elegance, the way she was pampered at home. He assumed she was rich. Never imagined she was running from something darker.”

His lip curled.

“She never told him anything about the underworld. She thought she was protecting him. Keeping him safe. Keeping their marriage pure.”

“But he wasn’t innocent. Not even close.”

I tapped his fingers against the chair—once, twice—like a ticking clock.

“He married her because he thought she would bring treasures with her. Dowry. Property. Gold. Capital he could use to build his big business dreams.”

“Instead, she walked into his life carrying only the jewelry she owned personally. No inherited wealth. No fat dowry. Nothing his greedy hands expected.”

“He hid the disappointment well, though. Played the grateful husband. Praised her. Kissed her forehead. All while wondering how to squeeze more out of her.”

I stared at the ground as the flashbacks appeared as clear as the past.

“She gave him everything she had anyway. Every piece of jewelry, every ornament, every scrap of gold she came with. And with that, he built his business.”

For a brief second i softened.

“My brother was born. Then me. For a while… it looked like a family.”

That softness disappeared instantly.

“And then the losses came.”

“Big losses. Brutal ones. The business started collapsing, and my father panicked. That’s when my mother stepped up—poured the last of her gold reserve into the company, ran the finances herself, practically carried the whole damn business on her back.”

“And that, more than anything… humiliated him.”

I looked up at Asha, gaze dark.

“He couldn’t stand that she was better. Smarter. Stronger. So instead of being grateful… he went looking for someone weaker.”

“That’s where the rot began. Where everything in our lives started to break.”

I exhaled slowly, controlling my emotions almost like the words tasted bitter before they even left him.

“My father… wanted a woman he could dominate.”

The admission cut through the air.

“He couldn’t stand my mother’s strength. Couldn’t tolerate that she carried the business while he danced around in her shadow. So he went looking for someone else—someone who wouldn’t question him, someone who would make him feel like a king again.”

“And he found her.”

There was no name spoken. No need. Just the weight of disgust in his voice.

“She was everything he wanted—pliant, simple, so easy to impress with scraps of attention. He built a second life with her. A second family. A second home. All while my mother was drowning herself in work to keep his business alive.”

I shook my head, eyes cold.

“He spent her money on them. Laughed with them. Lived with them. While she sat alone balancing accounts that weren’t even hers to fix.”

A long pause. My throat bobbed as i swallowed.

“But greed… greed is a beast that never sleeps.”

“Running two families wasn’t enough. He wanted more. A bigger life. More wealth. More pleasure. So he started a scam behind my mother’s back—putting debts and losses under her name while quietly transferring every rupee into his own accounts.”

Asha’s breath hitched softly, and he looked away.

“She never suspected. She trusted him blindly. Loved him blindly.”

His voice dipped into something darker.

“And that made her the perfect victim.”

I inhaled deeply, gathering the memory like a shard he’d kept hidden.

“But my mother’s family… they never truly left her alone.”

His expression softened for a fleeting second.

“They watched her from a distance. Protected her in shadows. And when they noticed something wrong—missing funds, suspicious withdrawals, money trails leading to another woman and children—they stepped in.”

“They brought her the proof. Pictures. Bank slips. Names. Addresses.”

His voice cracked around the edges.

“They begged her to come back home. To leave him. To return to safety.”

“But she… she didn’t want to believe it. She loved him too much. Gave him too much. Sacrificed too much. She needed to hear it from his mouth before she walked away.”

His fingers curled into a fist.

“So she went to him. Alone. Determined to confront him and end everything if it was true.”

I opened my eyes again—cold, distant.

“My father… was drunk on his riches back then. He wasn’t alert. Didn’t expect my mother to show up. Didn’t expect her to walk into that house. Didn’t expect her to see the woman he hid, or the children he claimed were ‘just friends.’”

“He panicked. And when a greedy man panics… he becomes dangerous.”

The silence thickened.

“That day… was the end.”

His voice lowered to a raw murmur.

“She walked into that house as Manvi—the wife he betrayed.”