Hi guys... I am back with a new chapter. I know its late but here is your update. Thankyou all who reviewed. It means a lot. Please review this one too.
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After leaving the restaurant, he came back to his hotel room. Coming to his room, he just plopped down on the couch with a thud and kept looking at the ceiling for a moment. He sat there for how many minutes he didn't know. His whole day flashed in front of his eyes. Meeting with his mother, her tired yet happy eyes after seeing her son after so many years, her face marked with the wrinkles of old age. That moment when she had held his hand, her fingers trembling slightly, as if afraid he might disappear again. And then, his investigation—the one he had secretly pulled off without her knowing.
He felt a strange mix of rage and guilt stir inside him. He should have trusted her, but his CID instincts—his relentless need to uncover the truth—couldn't be ignored. He closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to push the emotions aside, but it was hard. The guilt weighed heavily on him.
He controlled his emotions… yet again. This was his burden. Always controlling, always suppressing. He picked up his laptop from the coffee table, the familiar cold metal in his hands. The screen flickered to life as he started investigating more about the 2nd Innings old age home and the train accident. He went through pages of articles, one story after another, some heart-wrenching, some unsettling. Stories of people who had been found, some after days, some years later, and others who had simply vanished, never to be seen again.
He rubbed his temples, the ache of exhaustion creeping up on him. But there was no time to rest.
After spending hours on the laptop, his eyes were sore, but he couldn't afford to stop. Every click, every search, felt like another step toward the truth he desperately sought. He had already looked into the details of the 2nd Innings old age home—its history, its staff, and even its financial records. So far, there was nothing that suggested anything out of the ordinary. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the story, that something didn't quite sit right.
With a deep breath, he decided to look into the people working there. He combed through their backgrounds—every staff member, every volunteer. But to his surprise, everything came back clean. No criminal records, no troubling history. The people running the home were well-regarded in the community, with glowing reviews from past residents and families alike. He even found a few personal stories from individuals who had stayed there, describing the care and attention they received during their time at the facility.
His mind was still restless, but as he dug deeper into the records, he uncovered something else—a pattern of compassion that struck him. This was no ordinary old age home. 2nd Innings had a special program for people who had lost loved ones in tragic accidents, offering them not just shelter, but a sense of belonging. Many of the residents had come from devastating backgrounds—survivors of car crashes, train accidents, and other tragedies. The old age home had given them a place to heal, a space to regain their strength. It was a refuge for those who had nothing left, and it had helped countless people rebuild their lives.
For the first time that night, he felt a shift—a sense of relief mixed with a twinge of guilt. His suspicions had clouded his judgment, driving him to investigate something that, in the end, wasn't as complicated as he had feared. There was nothing sinister about the place. It was just a home, offering shelter to those in need.
His mind wandered back to the meeting with his mother earlier that day. Her tired eyes had looked up at him, filled with such warmth, and he had questioned her. But maybe she had known all along that the old age home was exactly what it appeared to be. A place of solace, a place for people to heal.
As he closed his laptop and leaned back in the couch, he realized the old age home wasn't hiding anything. There was no dark secret, no conspiracy. Just a community of people trying to make the best of what life had dealt them. Maybe, just maybe, he had been too quick to doubt.
He closed the laptop with a soft click, the weight of the night pressing down on him. His eyes lingered on the dark screen for a moment longer, as if willing it to offer one more clue, one more hint, but it remained still, offering no more answers. His thoughts swirled with everything he had uncovered, and everything he still didn't know.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. 6:00 AM. The room was still dim, the first rays of morning light beginning to creep through the blinds. The sound of the city waking up outside felt distant, as if the world was moving without him. He hadn't slept a wink—couldn't, not with the anticipation that gnawed at him.
The DNA results. The final piece. The thing that would either free him or haunt him forever. He knew they wouldn't arrive until evening, but the waiting felt unbearable. Every second stretched on, every moment a reminder of the years he'd spent wondering, doubting, second-guessing everything.
The truth, in a way, had been right in front of him all along. He had known his mother, in some way. Her face. Her warmth. But it hadn't been enough to recognize her when he had seen her again. He had doubted her when he should have believed her, should have trusted the bond that only a son and a mother share.
The guilt that had followed him all these years—thinking she was gone, believing she was dead, and never knowing the truth—had eaten at him, gnawed at his soul. He had lost her once. And in some ways, he had lost her again, simply because he couldn't bring himself to see the woman who stood right in front of him.
He closed his eyes for a moment, running a hand through his hair, pushing the thoughts away. There was nothing to be done now. He could only wait for the results. And then, after all these years of searching, of regretting, he would finally know if his mother had been alive all this time. The last nail in the coffin. That was what this DNA test represented. The final truth. He stood up, pacing the small space of the hotel room. His thoughts, though still clouded with guilt, started to settle as he focused on what was next. He would know soon enough. Tonight, the waiting would end. He could only hope that when the results came back, they would bring him peace.
His phone buzzed, and for a brief moment, his heart stopped. He grabbed it, but it was just a message from the Dmart store. Not the DNA results.
He sighed, setting the phone back down.
And then, once more, he sat in the quiet room, waiting for the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place. The weight of it all hung on his shoulders, but he couldn't ignore the flicker of hope that was beginning to grow.
After about an hour, his phone beeped again, breaking the silence of the room. He quickly grabbed it, his heart skipping a beat. It was a message from Daya—his one true best friend.
"Abhijeet, tum theek ho na?
Sab theek h na yr? main nhi janta tum wahan kyu ruke ho pr Agar kuch bhi zrorat ho toh ya bas baat karni ho, toh bas mujhe call kar lena yaar, main turant aa jaunga. Aur please apna dhyaan rkhna"
He felt warmth in his msg but he can't reveal anything to Daya… not yet. If the DNA test comes negative It would break him too as he has spent years in feeling the guilt of breaking his mother's heart. Because he feels responsible for Abhijeet's memory loss. He still feels guilty.
Daya's message had been filled with the same care and concern he had always shown Abhijeet, yet Abhijeet couldn't bring himself to reply right away. He stared at the message for a long time, feeling the familiar ache in his chest. He knew what Daya was carrying too—he had seen it in his friend's eyes so many times over the years.
Daya blamed himself for so much. The memory loss. The years of pain. But more than that, Daya felt responsible for breaking Abhijeet's mother's heart. It was Daya who had told her, with such regret in his voice, that he was there when Abhijeet was kidnapped and that there had been nothing he could do to stop it. He had watched her shatter that day, and he had never forgiven himself for not being able to protect Abhijeet, for not being able to keep him safe.
The weight of that guilt—his guilt—was something Abhijeet couldn't ignore. His best friend had been carrying it for so long, and now, Abhijeet could feel the same weight pressing on his own chest. He didn't want to add more to Daya's burden.
He laid the phone down on the couch, trying to fight the urge to call Daya, to tell him everything, to share the weight of it all. But Daya was already carrying so much. Abhijeet couldn't let him carry this too, not when he was struggling so much with his own guilt.
Minutes stretched into hours, and the silence in the room grew louder. Every passing second felt like an eternity.
Soon, the evening came, and just as Abhijeet sat there lost in his thoughts, his phone rang. It was Vineet.
Abhijeet picked up immediately, his voice shaky. "Han, Vineet?"
Vineet's voice came through, steady but with a hint of urgency. "Abhijeet sir… DNA test ka result aa gaya hai. Main aapko email kar raha hoon. Aap chahe toh main aapko hotel mein dene aa jata hoon."
Abhijeet felt a lump form in his throat. The fear was creeping up again, threatening to choke him. He couldn't afford to let his emotions take over. Not now. Not yet. "Vineet, tum email kar do… main tumse collect kar lunga khud."
Vineet's voice was respectful, understanding. "Ok sir."
"Thank you, Vineet," Abhijeet replied quietly, before ending the call.
The silence in the room felt suffocating as he stared at the phone, waiting for the email. His heart was pounding in his chest, the anticipation gnawing at him. A few seconds later, his phone beeped with a new notification.
He opened the email with trembling hands, his mind racing. His eyes scanned the words—his breath catching as he read them over and over:
DNA Result: 100% Positive Match
For a moment, he couldn't believe it. He sat there, frozen, staring at the screen, his mind struggling to catch up. Is this real?
And then it hit him—like a wave crashing down, flooding him with emotions he didn't know how to handle. His eyes welled up, and before he could stop them, tears started to fall. They weren't just tears of happiness, but of guilt, relief, and all the emotions he had buried deep inside for so many years.
For years, he had thought she was gone. For years, he had blamed himself for not recognizing her, for losing time, for failing her. Now, with this confirmation, everything was different. His mother had been alive all this time. She was out there. But the truth also meant that he had carried so much pain and regret for nothing. And that guilt was heavy—too heavy to ignore.
As the tears fell, Abhijeet's heart felt like it was splitting in two—one part rejoicing, the other mourning. The joy of knowing the truth was finally within his reach, but the weight of all those lost years pressed harder than ever. He closed his eyes, trying to breathe, trying to steady himself as the flood of emotions continued to overwhelm him.
Abhijeet sat there, his hands still trembling as they held the phone, the screen showing the confirmation of the DNA results. It took a moment for it to fully register, but then it hit him—she's alive.
A wave of emotion surged through him, and before he could stop himself, he let out a soft laugh. It started as a chuckle, then grew louder. The tears in his eyes blurred his vision, but he didn't care. He laughed—laughed in joy, in relief, in disbelief, in all the emotions that had been building up for years.
The laughter echoed in the room, the sound of someone who had been carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders and had suddenly found a way to breathe again. His tears mixed with his laughter, both of them falling freely as the joy he had been waiting for finally broke through.
"Maa..." he whispered through the tears, his heart soaring even as it broke a little. She's alive. She's really alive.
His voice rose, filled with joy and disbelief as he shouted to no one in particular, as if the whole world needed to hear it. "She's alive!"
The weight that had been crushing him for so long, the guilt, the regret, the uncertainty—suddenly, it all seemed so small in the face of the truth.
He laughed again, louder this time, as the tears continued to flow. For the first time in years, he felt a spark of hope. The hope he thought he had lost forever.
But even as his heart danced with joy, guilt still gnawed at the edges of his mind. There was so much to make right, so many years of lost time. Yet, in that moment, he didn't care. For the first time, the past seemed distant. All he could think about was the future—the future he now had a chance to share with his mother.
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Brawny
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