THE FATE (✔)

Chapter 5 - What Happened?

A week later, the three of them came back to Mumbai and back to usual activities. Priya went to the office accompanied by Parvati who was missing the circumstance there, met the employees and talked to them. Archana spent her time at school. She was fully responsible to the foundation, because it was her idea.

Archana checked on the few files on her desk. In the middle of the academic period, there are a lot of things that needed to be prepared, especially the exams, because they would have semester break.

~ Flashback ~

In the morning, at the huge mansion, Archana and Priya sat back in the living room. Each of them read books with different genres and covers. Then, their parents came out of the room. Her father, Arvind Singh, wore natty suit, as if he wanted to go to the office, but he brought a big sized suitcase and her mother, Parvati, wore casual clothes and brought a medium sized suitcase. Priya realised it first before Archsna who was still focus on her book.

"Dad, Mum, where are you going?" asked Priya who was only 11 years old. Hearing her sister's question, Archana, was a 16 years old teenager, turned to them. Her expression showed that she was questioning about the same thing.

"He has to work abroad, baby," Parvati replied.

"For how long? There are suitcases," Priya kept questioning.

"Till all gets done," Arvind responded.

Archana felt strange. Her father didn't look at her, as if he was trying to avoid her gaze. She glanced at her mother who seemed doesn't have any idea. She took her glance back to Arvind, deeper. It felt something made her so restless.

"Dad," she called.

"Hmm?" Arvind responded, looking at his eldest daughter, but kept trying to avoid their eyes contact.

"Which country will you visit this time?" she asked, tried not to interrogate. Arvind went to work abroad some times. So, Archana thought, it was not a sin to ask about it. It really was not a sin. Not at all. The couple of her eyes were waiting for her father's to looked at hers back.

Feeling constantly watched, Arvind gave up his gaze to Archana whilst replying her question with a curve on his lips, "Japan, baby. Wanna come with me?"

Archana left her seat and walked towards her parents. She smiled back to her father and gave him a hug. With her soft voice, yet flat and cold, she said, "No, Dad. Thanks. Safe flight, come back soon."

Arvind hugged her back and nodded. Then, Priya hugged him a swell. Afther those farewell hugs, Parvati, Archana, and Priya accompanied Arvind to the door. Parvati and Priya waved their hand. But, Archana, who stood few centimeters behind her mother, didn't. She didn't even smile.

"He won't be back," she thought.

They watched the car went out and gone from their field to drop Arvind at the airport.

"He won't be back."

Those words kept filling up her mind all day long. The urge to tell her mother about what she just found was kinda on fire. However, seeing Parvati and Priya seemed fine, she decided not to tell them anything. She kept the thought herself and trying to bury it to the deepest.

"Shut up, Archana. It won't happen. He will be back," that's a voice told her inside.

"He won't. You see it yourself, right?" another half of her said the opposite.

"Mum, please leave me alone for a while. I have assignments to do," she said to Parvati after they finished their lunch. Parvati nodded.

"I'm sorry for lying, Mum. I need to avoid you for some times," she thought.

Meanwhile Priya was just silent, staring at her. Archana knew, Priya was wondering. Not usually thing happened, Archana do her assignments on weekend. She used to take advantage of the weekend to chill.

"I won't tell you anything till we know the truth. Please don't push me to talk now, Priya," said Archana which could be heard only by herself. She gazed at Priya and smiled, as if nothing happened and nothing would be happen.

Archana went to her white room and locked the door. She didn't want to get distracted. She needed time to think. She needed time to calm herself. No matter how bad the thing or possibility that she had caught in the eyes of other people, it turned out that there were things that were even worse, which she just discovered in her father's eyes this morning. This one thing really bothered her to the core. Maybe, because it happened in her own family, her own immediate environment. She even became quiet and didn't talk much at home. She was worried that her lips would accidentally tell what she saw.

~ Flashback end ~

Archana put down the files and pressed it on the desk whilst sighing roughly. "Damn, why did the memory popped up?" she mumbled. Her mind showed up the bad memory from 17 years ago. It didn't stop there, the other bad memories were filling her head.

Among all the things Archana found in the shadows of those who looked her in the eyes and all the things that actually happened according to what she saw, this one thing bothered her the most. How could she not, she knew everything―everything, even before it happened and unfortunately it did. She knew something that until now she had been hiding from her mother. This often made her feel bad. She felt she betrayed her mother, even though she didn't, she just wanted to protect her mother's feelings. She wasn't ready to tell her mother yet.

The plane crash, which was the most talked about topic in India at the time, did happen, but her father was not one of the passengers on the plane. At that time the situation was very chaotic, very difficult to explain, resulting in damage to the information system and so on. Her father was still alive, it's just that he did not return to his family. There is a reason for Archana to call her father the rascal. Archana told this only to Priya, of course when Priya was old enough to digest all of this. Archana asked Priya to keep her mouth shut tightly after she told her everything along with the evidence she found. No one else could know. Singh's two daughters, whose name is now Kapur, followed their mother's surname of their own accord, preferring to assume that her father had died in the accident.

Archana left her desk and went to the restroom. She washed her face with the fresh water before she dried it with a towel and facing the oval mirror in front of her. "Until when are you going to keep this big secret, Archana?"