“Come here,” she pulled her in her lap, “And let me tell you something else that is very important. Do you know why parents love their kids so much? Because they love each other. And in their children, they see their own love reflecting. So, even if I loved you only because of my love for your Baba, it would in no way be inferior.”

She started crying harder and hid her face in Piyali’s chest. Piyali embraced her and let her cry for a while. “I am annoyed at everyone,” she confessed when she came to herself.

“We’ll fix it, sweetie. We will. I am also responsible for it. And I will fix it, Promise.”

“Why? Why are you responsible? What had happened?”

“You are very mature, Sumedha. But you are still young. Someday I will tell you everything. But for now, just know that grown-ups are not immune to making mistakes. And they have their weaknesses too. I made a mistake. Your Baba was not strong enough to bring you up alone. Between our mistakes and weaknesses, we caused you a lot of pain. Still, try to believe me that both of us love you. And we are not bad people at heart.”

“Will you and Baba marry?”

“That is something you will have to ask your Baba. But I promise you that I will always be there by your side.”

“I want a home,” Sumedha snuggled up closer to her.

“Let’s pray that your Baba gets well soon.”

—

“We should move you to Kolkata,” Mrinmoyee declared when Piyali and Sumedha went to the guest house in the morning.

“Doctor has advised against traveling for at least a week,” Piyali objected demurely.

“What would the doctors here know?”

“She is right,” Mukundo intervened, “Besides Kolkata doesn’t have the freshest air in the world, does it? I know you can’t leave your daughter behind for long. You don’t worry about me, Mini. I am fine here.”

“Of course. Enjoying your honeymoon,” she muttered under her breath.

Piyali looked around anxiously to see if Sumedha had heard. But she was busy with a story-book that Piyali had got for her. Then she looked at Mukundo and they silently decided to ignore the taunt.

—

Sumedha had fallen asleep on the sofa after lunch.

Mukundo sat sprawled on the bed. Piyali went to him and sat at the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Alive. You brought me back from dead, Piyali.”

“You have a habit of exaggerating where I am concerned.”

“I am not exaggerating even one bit. But let’s not fight over that. I don’t want to fight with you. Ever.”

“Does it mean that you have forgiven me, Mukundo Babu?”

“Why do you keep saying that? There is nothing to–”

“Oh Mukundo Babu! I will never be at peace, if you don’t–”

“I do. Whatever you mean by it, I do forgive you, Piyali.”

“Will you…” she paused and gulped hard before proceeding, “Will you still have me?”

“I’ve been an arrogant idiot till now, Piyali. I should have sought you out long back. I should have asked you again. And again, if you refused. If what you were back then had made me fall head over heels in love with you, what you are now makes me bow down to you with respect. But Piyali, the man before you is even older than he was. He is ill and you have seen for yourself how close to death he was. He is the one who had left you behind to deal with the world on your own, to deal with a loneliness you were too young to handle. He is the one you had fallen out of love with. Will you still have him?”

“I have my regrets, Mukundo Babu. I have my regrets for you. If things hadn’t gone that way, you wouldn’t have tortured yourself all these years. You wouldn’t have been ill. I have regrets for Sumedha. If things hadn’t gone that way, she would have had what she craves the most. A home!”

“Piyali. You can’t–”

“No. Don’t stop me. I haven’t spoken a word about it to anyone. You know this is a missionary school. There is a church. Time and again I thought of going to the confessional. But what good confessing to a priest who knew nothing about the people I had hurt, and getting forgiveness from an abstract God, would have done? The only confession that will work is before you. And the only forgiveness that matters is yours.”

“You have the forgiveness. But confess all you want, Piyali. Because I also need to know what has happened to you in this time.”

“I hate myself for the misery I brought upon you and Sumedha, and the shame I brought upon my family. But I don’t regret what happened to me. I had fancied myself to be in love with you. Then I had equally easily fancied myself to be in love with that swine…”

“Who was he?”

“Rohan – Sonali’s cousin.”

“Sonali? Who you were visiting in Haldia?”

She nodded.

“You met him in Haldia?”

She nodded again.

“Go on.”

“I was flattered by your attention. I thought of you as an old-fashioned gentleman and I thought I knew you, and was in love with you. But it wasn’t until you had cried over what you had thought was my misfortune, and had hugged and kissed me to comfort me when you believed I had been raped, that I really got to know you as a person. I was expecting the old-fashioned gentleman to cast me aside, but there you were… And that was when I madly, irrevocably fell in love. One I could never fall out of. But it was too late!”

“Piyali!” he wiped the tears that had betrayed her.

“If it had not happened, I would never have known what gem of a person I had fortune of knowing and being loved by… And the misfortune of realizing his worth only at the time of losing him…”

“If that was the case, why didn’t you talk to me, Piyali? You let me believe that you were in love with someone else.”

—

To be continued