[#20] The Happy Ending
and a secret to die with
Ria and her mother felt miserable after knowing the truth. They went to see Mr. Malhotra the next day.
When they reached Lilly’s house, Mr. Malhotra wouldn’t talk to them. They apologized and tried to talk to him.
“Dad, Please talk to me. I know we would have kept faith in you. Please, please come back with us. We have been miserable without you.” Ria said crying.
Mr. Malhotra looked at her. He couldn’t see her daughter crying and hugged her. He cried, probably for the first time in front of his daughter.
He agreed on shifting back with them together. Aman was called for a meeting at Ria’s old house with his parents. His parents were happy to know the truth and didn’t have any problem with it.
Aman was immediately approved and they both got blessings of their elders.
Next few weeks went into the wedding preparations. It was a gala time for Ria. She wanted to look the most beautiful bride ever. She was marrying the man of her dreams. 2 months later they tied a knot in a private setting where they called only a few close friends and relatives. Ria believed that the wedding should be simple yet elegant. She did look the most beautiful bride ever to Aman.
Ria’s mother and father were happy to see their daughter getting married to the man she loved, who was a fine man. They had grown fond of him in a short time.
Ria’s Dad started helping her wife out in her shop and they were earning way more than required to keep two old people alive. He would often go and see Lilly’s father. He was battling with cancer which was slowly taking away his life.
After an year, they brought the old man to their house when it became impossible for him to live alone. He fought with his cancer for 6 more months.
During his last few weeks, he started talking to Mr. Malhotra about Lilly and his family and all the things that happened. He said he was happy to go to his family.
When he died, he left Mr. Malhotra a letter:
Dear Sanjay,
Thanks for taking care of me in my last days. I am very grateful to you for helping an old man who would have otherwise died alone in a hospital bed.
In this short period of time, I have grown affinity towards your family and I love them as my own. You have a fine daughter and a son-in-law. Your wife is a generous lady, too.
I sometimes look back and ask myself, how would I have ever lived knowing that my daughter was the reason you got separated from your family.
You were right. The guilt of lying is more than I had expected. More so when I got to know your family. They don’t deserve to be lied to. But I control myself from telling the truth to them when I see them happy with you. You are the backbone of this family. They can survive but not live without you.
When I told them that Lilly was just your distant cousin and you were helping her out, my God knows how miserable I felt saying that about my daughter. She might not ever forgive me for saying this about her. I demeaned her. I let her down. But I wanted to clear the image that she had made for herself in your family’s minds. What she had done, coming close to a married man, wasn’t acceptable. It was your fault as well, more than her, in fact. But after she died, all I had was her memories and I could see you were miserable too.
I know I proposed this idea to you and it took me time to convince you. But now that everything is alright, I just want to ask you, was it a right thing to do?
I want you to be happy. Because otherwise everything I did would be in vain. I want you to live with this lie till your last breath and let this secret be buried forever. I want you to keep your family happy.
Thanks for everything. I will tell Lilly that I liked her choice had she found you at the right time in the right situation.
Mr. Malhotra read the letter after he died and cried, bitterly, for the last time on the same reason. He tore the letter till it was in an unreadable condition, dumped the shreds in a dustbin. Wiping his tears off, he walks out of his room to join his family.
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