I nod, although my throat suddenly feels too tight for words.
She smiles. “Good. Come on, then. I’ve made rajma chawal. I asked Siya to come down too. Let’s have dinner.”
The moment she turns to leave, something inside me reacts before my mind can catch up. My hand shoots out, and I grab the end of her saree pallu. She stops and slowly turns back towards me. I remain seated on the couch, still half lost between the dream and reality, while she stands beside me, looking confused.
My gaze lingers on her face, and a strange realisation hits me. For years, I have lived with the emptiness of not having a mother. And now, without even realising it, I have found one in her. She may not be mine by blood. But she’s mine nevertheless.
My fingers tighten slightly around the fabric, and she immediately notices.
“Raghav? What happened?”
I lower my gaze for a second before looking back at her.
“Can… can I call you Maa?” I ask.
Her eyes widen in shock, and for several seconds she just stares at me. Then her eyes fill with tears. I can see the exact moment her heart breaks and heals at the same time. A trembling smile appears on her lips.
“Oh, Raghav...” Her voice cracks. “You are already my son. You never needed permission.”
A tear slips down her cheek, and I look away because suddenly my own vision begins to blur. Something I would absolutely hate on any other day. But today feels different.
She slowly cups my face between her palms, exactly the way my mother had done in the dream. For a second, I almost believe the dream never ended.
“You can call me anything you want.” Her thumb gently brushes against my cheek. “But if you call me Maa…” Anothertear rolls down her cheeks. “...then I think I’ll be the luckiest mother in the world.”
Before I can stop myself, I get up and pull her into a hug. I hold her tightly, like a son finally finding his way home after being lost for far too long, and she immediately wraps her arms around me as well.
As I slowly pull away from Maa, I notice movement near the staircase. My gaze lifts to Siya, standing halfway down the staircase in a soft yellow kurta, her injured shoulder still secured in a sling. The surgery had gone well, and just three days later, she was back home, recovering and under strict instructions to rest as much as possible. The worst was behind her now, although she would still have to wear the sling for at least another two weeks.
She must have come down quietly because neither of us heard her approach. Her eyes are shining too, and judging by the expression on her face, she has seen and heard enough.
“Wow.” She wipes her eyes looking at Maa.
I immediately know that tone. The troublemaker has arrived. “So now you are stealing all my hugs?”
Maa laughs through her tears, while I shake my head as Siya points an accusing finger at me. “I disappear for a few minutes, and my own husband replaces me. I’m so jealous.”
That earns a laugh from both of us. Siya walks the rest of the way down the staircase and stops directly in front of us.
“Even I want hugs,” she pouts.
Maa opens her other arm. “Come here.”
Siya moves straight into her embrace, and before I know it, both of them pull me in too. Suddenly, all three of us are standing together in a ridiculous group hug in the middle of the living room, with Siya squeezed between us, her mother smiling through her tears, and me holding them both close.
SIYA
I’m too overwhelmed for words. Hearing Raghav ask Mom if he could call her ‘Maa’ feels like the biggest proof that the broken pieces of his life have finally come together.
The past week has been truly healing for both of us. Although Samarjeet, Parag, and Singhal are dead, and Kriti is behind bars, Raghav is still cautious and doesn’t want to underestimate the rest of the mafia. There’s no immediate threat to us anymore, but he isn’t willing to take any chances. To the world outside, the RK Estate appears to be just a luxury vineyard resort, but only our family knows that it is now a fortress that no outsider, not even someone from the mafia, can easily infiltrate again.
So while Raghav has been busy restoring normalcy at the RK Estate, I’ve spent my days recovering at the villa, with Mom dedicating herself entirely to helping me heal. I’m so proud of her and the strength she has shown after everything that happened with Samarjeet. She isn’t grieving his death the way she grieved Dad’s. Maybe because she knows there’s nothing left to mourn.
Throughout this week, not just Raghav and I, but the entire family has made sure that Mom never feels that loss in her life. We have kept her mind occupied and created new memories together. Good ones. Happy ones. Today, it’s not just Raghav who has found a mother in her. Mom has finally found a son in him too.
RAGHAV
One month later
