Abetted by ill minded friends Kanishk took a decision that was going to change his life forever. An evening air hung heavy with tension as Kanishk paced the confines of his small room his mind racing. The DNA test was supposed to provide answers a sense of clarity amidst the chaos of his life. But instead it unraveled a web of deceit that left him reeling. He felt like a puppet whose strings had been cut tumbling into an abyss of uncertainty. "Kanishk! Come down here!" Romesh's voice echoed through the house dripping with urgency and something darker. With a heavy heart Kanishk descended the stairs dread pooling in his stomach. "What is it?" he asked trying to mask the tremor in his voice. Romesh stood in the living room. His face a mask of grim determination. "We need to talk about your test results." "Are you going to tell me I'm sick?" Kanishk snapped. His frustration boiling over. "Or are you finally going to admit that you're not my real father?" Romesh's expression hardened and for a moment silence stretched between them like a taut wire ready to snap. "You have no idea what you're asking," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Then enlighten me," Kanishk shot back. "I deserve to know the truth." Romesh took a deep breath as if preparing to unveil a long-buried secret. "You're not who you think you are, Kanishk. You are…" "An orphan? A mistake?" Kanishk interrupted, his heart pounding in his chest. "Just say it!" Romesh's eyes flickered with something akin to regret. "You were abandoned by your mother. She was a young girl who led a nymphomaniac lifestyle. Your biological parents…they didn't want you. They threw you away like garbage." Kanishk felt as if the ground had been ripped from beneath him. He staggered back gasping for breath. "You're lying. This can't be true." "It is true," Romesh pressed. His voice sharp as glass. "And that's not all. The Deshmukh family are the tyrants of this city. They're responsible for the darkness in your past. They've committed atrocities and you're a part of that twisted legacy." "What do you mean?" Kanishk's voice broke. Tears stinging his eyes. "What did they do?" "They sold orphans like you and sold their properties for their own gain," Romesh spat. "Asmee and Tushant were involved in it too. They got rid of you like you were nothing just to build their precious empire." Kanishk felt a wave of nausea wash over him. Each word from Romesh felt like a dagger twisting deeper into his soul. "So that's why you've never cared for me? I was just a burden?" Romesh's expression darkened. "You're a reminder of a past I wish to forget. You're the illegitimate child of a wealthy woman and that makes you a dwarf dreaming of capturing the moon. You'll never belong, Kanishk." The pain twisted inside him gnawing at his very core. For so long he had sought his father's approval yearning for a connection that had always felt just out of reach. Now it was clear. Romesh had never seen him as anything but a reminder of his own failures. "You don't understand," Kanishk whispered. His voice trembling. "I wanted a family. I wanted to be loved." Romesh stepped closer his voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper. "You think Asmee cares about you? She's a master manipulator. If she knew about your affair with Kashvi she'd turn you in. The Deshmukh's protect their pride above all. They'll stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried." Kanishk's heart raced as he processed Romesh's words. The Deshmukh's and their philanthropic façade masking a brutal reality.
"You're wrong about her," he protested weakly. "Asmee has done so much good." Romesh sneered. "Good? All to beguile the public. Beneath that smile is a ruthless monster. You think she'll help you? Think again. She'll cast you aside just like your birth mother did." "Enough!" Kanishk shouted, the walls shaking with the force of his anger. "If what you say is true then I need to know more. I deserve to know who I am." An then there was an eerie silence all over the lobby. Romesh's gaze hardened and he turned away avoiding Kanishk's desperate stare. "Your parents died in a road rage incident when you were just a baby. That's all you need to know." Again a cold silence filled the room and Kanishk felt the weight of those words settle heavily on his shoulders. Manisha entered sensing the charged atmosphere. "What's going on?" she asked, confusion etched on her face. Romesh waved her off his demeanour shifting to one of calmness. "Nothing, just a little family discussion." But Kanishk could see it. He could see the flicker of something darker in Romesh's eyes. Manisha sensed it too. Her expression shifting from concern to realization. "Romesh, you're being irrational," she said gently. "This isn't the way to handle things." Romesh's anger flared. "You don't understand, Manisha. They're the ones who ruined our lives. Asmee's betrayal is why I can't stand the sight of him." "So this is about her?" Manisha's voice rose with an incredulous tone. "You're taking it out on Kanishk because of your past?" Romesh turned away his jaw clenched tight. The resentment simmered beneath the surface like a festering wound that would never heal. "I won't let history repeat itself. Not with him. He's a product of her sins." Kanishk felt the walls closing in. The air thick with unspoken truths. "What do you want from me?" he pleaded. Desperation creeping into his voice.
"I want you to stay away from the Deshmukh's," Romesh warned with his chilling tone. "They will destroy you just like they destroyed countless others. You're better off forgetting your past." But how could he? The truth clawed at him relentlessly and unforgiving. Kanishk felt like the last piece of a broken puzzle desperately trying to fit into a picture that would never make sense. The realization hit him like a freight train. Romesh had never loved him and now he understood why. As he stood on the precipice of his shattered childhood Kanishk felt the first stirrings of something powerful within him. It was a desire for vengeance. The story of his life was not just a tale of abandonment. It was a call to arms against the very people who had shaped his fate. The way Romesh spoke made Kanishk feel like a dwarf who dreamt to capture the moon since he was an illegitimate child of a nasty rich women. Mental trauma afflicted Kanishk with a gnawing pain. The echoes of the past reverberated through him igniting a fire he never knew existed. Kanishk was no longer the boy lost in the shadows. He was determined to carve his own path even if it meant confronting the demons that haunted his lineage. The stage was set for a reckoning and he would not back down. Manisha was zapped by the sudden erratic behaviour of Romesh. She comprehended the reason why Romesh laid into Kanishk for no apparent reason. A hidden wrath against his first love Asmee. A wrath which knew no bounds. Romesh was dejected and rejected by Asmee. His silence was the answer to Manisha's questions that still he had a soft corner for Asmee but he also felt malice towards her when she married Tushant. Romesh wasn't willing to let bygones be bygones. A tale of avenge and revenge was just about to stir the nation.