Words Unsaid

Words Unsaid

5 mins
589


The evening air was still warm even after the tremendous efforts of the blowing wind to cool it down. Darkness took over as twilight gave way to night and people started swarming in. Vihaan and Yamini welcomed their guests with an exuberant smile though deep within a feeling of uneasiness chocked them. They were throwing a party for their near and dear ones as they had welcomed a little angel into their family, a month ago.


Even though, the couple was standing next to each other, they knew that they were miles apart from each other. An invisible veil in between had separated them. But the veil was the only thing that still held their relationship intact in spite of what had happened. Quite contrary to the belief that a husband and wife shouldn't keep secrets from each other, they were compelled to guard their secret for the sake of their son's future. It seemed like their marriage would lose its meaning once the fog guarding their secret melts off.


Vihaan raised his eyes and stole a glance at his wife. Yamini was smiling at the baby who giggled happily back at her. She kissed their son Chirag and then cuddled him close to her heart. Vihaan's gaze then turned to the baby in her arms who was a spitting image of him. Usually, a close resemblance to their offspring makes every parent exultant but it was not the case with Vihaan. He shuddered as he saw his own face in that of his son and a dreaded possibility crossed his mind. He instantly dragged his eyes away from his wife and son and hurried towards the mini-bar set in the garden of his bungalow. He moistened his parched lips and realized that he was badly in need of a drink.


He took a sip of the burning liquid and closed his eyes. The potency of the liquor was nothing when compared to the fire burning inside him.


'Esha must also have given birth to the child by now.' He thought and pressed his eyes tightly as his fidgety heart threatened to burst out of his rib cage. 'Was her baby a boy or a girl? Did the baby resemble him just like Chirag?'


"Oh, God!" Vihaan buried his face in his hands, "what shall I do now? It's all so messed up!"


Yamini did notice Vihaan walk away from the party or rather from her and Chirag even though she pretended to be lost in the world around. She did notice him drown himself in drinks. She knew Vihaan would never confide in her even if he had to carry the burden of the secret till his last breath. She promised herself that she would never ask him to share it with her, no matter what. As Vihaan's life partner, Yamini was obliged to share his glooms and glees. It was her duty to read his mind, perceive his unspoken instincts and listen to his unsaid words.


'But, won't it hurt him even more,' Yamini thought as she patted her baby to sleep, 'if he comes to know that I've unveiled his secret? Or else, will it relieve him of the burden he had been carrying all these days?'


"No," Yamini mouthed the word and shook her head as she was not ready to accept both of the possibilities.


She was not willing to hurt him by blurting his secret to his face. The wife within her, who loved her husband more than anything, protested against it. Nor did she wanted him to feel relived off the suffocation that holding back the secret has caused him. The wife within her wanted to punish her husband for betraying her.


Yamini was determined to keep those unsaid words locked in a casket of secrets buried deep within her. She was never going to tell him that she had befriended Esha during her visits to their gyneacologist. She had smelt a rat when she saw a similiar ring on Esha's finger too that Vihaan had gifted her. Esha had told Yamini that she had an affair with a colleague at her office. It was too late when Esha realized that she had loved a coward who wasn't willing to rebel against his family and hold her hand. A few months after his marriage, Esha came to know that she was pregnant. As it was already late for an abortion, she decided to go ahead with the pregnancy and then give her baby up for adoption.


Yamini had never told her that she was the unfortunate wife of that coward man who had cheated on Esha. And Yamini was never going to tell Vihaan that she had lost her baby during the delivery. She had adopted the baby Esha had left behind at the hospital. Chirag was the secret that Vihaan was trying to hide in order to safeguard his reputation in society. Yamini smirked as she thought that the skeletons of his past were going to hover over Vihaan for the rest of his life.


"He deserves that," Yamini said as she lovingly ran a hand over the baby sleeping in her lap. "The secret would never let him live in peace."


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