‘No Tara, he’s not in heaven, he is where you are, I mean, he is on earth just like you, and Deepika saw him today only,’ I told her smirking at her and her jaw dropped open in a shock. ‘He…he is here, why..why didn’t y..why didn’t you not tell me be..before?’ Tara asked stammering badly and shook me by my shoulders. I looked at her hands and then at her, I moved her hands away and smirked turning my back towards her. ‘When did I meet you before? When should I have told you? That day when you were playing with Deepu and we had just shifted here? How would I know at that time about you and Virat? I didn’t even saw you Tara baby,’ I said.
‘That’s because I didn’t want you to see me, it would’ve been a shock for you,’ she said and I turned to her. ‘Just like its a shock for you that Virat is here,’ I said and laughed. ‘What the hell are you laughing at?’ she asked me. ‘At you, how do you do this? You’re something else from the outside and something else from inside, you were meant to be married to Deep in your first birth but that was a compromise you made for me but in real you are and were made for Virat,’ I told her.
She bursted into tears. I thought about the voices I heard when I went inside the locked room upstairs in our house, the fighting voices and the voice of something breaking. It were the noises from past. ‘What were those voices I heard that day?’ I asked after a long silence and a hug. ‘They were just to mislead you,’ she said wiping her tears. I felt really bad for her, but what about me? Maybe if Deep talks to her, she will go even before Virat gets to know. ‘Tara, come with me,’ I said and pulled her out of there along with me. Deepika came there. ‘Why are you taking Tara aunty with you?’ she asked holding my hand. ‘Deepika move from here I will tell later, go to your room,’ I said and went.
I called on Deep’s number. ‘Hallo Deep, can you come? OK fine,’ I said and disconnected the call. ‘Tara, come to my room,’ I said and took her there and saw Deepika talking to someone and she and the person were talking by hiding and sitting under the blanket. I went slowly and moved the blanket from there but only she was there. ‘Deepika, who’s here? Who were you talking to?’ I asked with my hands on my hips. ‘No one mumma,’ she told me. ‘No someone was here, else why will you sit like this?’
‘No mumma, no one was there,’ she said again. I glanced at Tara and she was still beside me. ‘Deepu baby, if you can’t tell mumma, you can tell me,’ Tara said to her and she nodded in negative. ‘No, I have promised not to tell,’ she said. ‘Means someone was really here, tell us please, look mumma is so tensed,’ Tara tried convincing her sitting in front of her. ‘No first you both tell me that how you both are twins and how I had an aunt but never got to know about it my whole life?’
‘Ok fine if that is what it will take to get to know the mere truth of my daughter. Once there were two sisters me and Tara and two boys Virat and Mayank, both sisters were obsessed with one boy Mayank, they were twin sisters, and the girls were very cute, very pretty, who everyone loved, just like everyone loves you,’ I said smiling proudly at her. ‘Both the sisters became friend of both the boys, but both of them wanted to marry the same boy Mayank, the other boy Virat got alone, one of the twin sisters Tara who wasn’t loved by Mayank got married to him because other sister who was actually loved by him got brain cancer, well the boy got to know about the swapping and met the girl he loved for the last time and the other boy who loved that girl Virat, he confessed his love.’
I sighed. ‘Virat committed suicide and Tara broke down, she was also going to suicide but was stopped by his ghost, Tara and Mayank even had a child, that child was you and you too died after sometime, you three spent a great time in afterlife and soon went to heaven, now look at our fate, I was Alisha, now I am reborn as Aarohi, Tara was my twin but she’s still dead and didn’t got rebirth, Virat, I don’t know about him, your father was Mayank, he is reborn as Deep.’
‘So Tara maasi, you’re dead, but how? You’re still in front of me,’ Deepika said. ‘I m just a lost soul, I came to play with my baby,’ Tara said. ‘Oh, then the uncle I met today, he was Virat uncle, oh, even he showed me my past but asked me to confirm by you,’ Deepika said slapping her forehead. ‘So now will you bother to tell me who were you talking with?’ I asked again. Tara picked up a toy lying beside Deepika, it was a toy joker. ‘She was talking to this toy,’ she said.
‘A toy cannot reply,’ I said. ‘Maybe by pressing it, it makes a sound, by the way this toy is of Virat, I remember he used to play with it in childhood,’ Tara told me. ‘So how come she has it?’ I asked. ‘Virat uncle gave me,’ she said and I could see Tara’s expression changing. ‘But how can he give you? He’s not even alive,’ Tara said. ‘So are you, but you’re still here right? He’s also still there,’ I said. ‘Hallo baby doll,’ said a voice. ‘What was that?’ Tara shrieked. ‘This toy speaks,’ Deepika said making us shocked
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