EP 23 - Past

**Disclaimer: In my story, Kartik and Naira are not the parents of Akshara, Arohi & Kairav. I didn't want to write about them since I didn't watch that season, and it would not serve justice to them.

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Losing her mother was the biggest grief Akshara faced in her life. She was devastated, and even after six months later, a fifteen year old Akshara couldn't move on with her life. Her father, Prateek and her grandfather Manish were constantly trying to cheer her up, but nothing worked.

Akshara would lock herself in her room all day, without eating and drinking anything. Not even responding to anyone. Other times, she was in daze, constantly staring at a single thing. Her father tried  bringing her to a therapist but there was no success. She was in miserable state.

God know who gave them this suggestion that Akshara needs company of her peers who can understand and share her pain. Prateek and Manish pondered over this solution for days and finally decided to bring home a pair of siblings from the orphanage.

Arohi and Kairav were fifteen when they got adopted by the Goenkas from their funded orphanage. They were both cheerful and kind kids, that out of all children they were the most liked by the Goenkas. They wished Akshara could open up to them and shed away all the sorrows she had.

Surprisingly, with the company of Arohi and Kairav, Akshara slowly started returning to her happy self. Seeing her cheering up, Goenkas were delighted to see that their decision was the right one. Akshara thought she had found someone to confide in, her siblings.

All three would go on trips, binge-watch movies, skip classes to eat out, all the fun things siblings love to do. They were called the three musketeers by everyone. Everything seems to be getting normal. Akshara loved the company of her siblings and she loved them like she would to her real ones.

But soon she faced the harsh reality. Since Goenkas owned a huge diamond business, they were out of town for most days. That's when things started getting ugly, the true faces of her siblings were slowly revealed to her. Arohi and Kairav were not the same kind and cheerful children she knew of.

They were bullies, who were jealous of Akshara's fate of being born in a rich loving family when they were born to a poor family. It all started with sarcastic remarks, to  pulling her hair, small pranks and then eventually getting physical.

Akshara endured everything, since she didn't want her family to get worried about her. Arohi and Kairav would torture her when no house help was around, leaving marks on the places no one could see. They had made this image of being these good children, that even if Akshara had spoken the truth, no one would believe her.

They were devils behind those kind masks, which they only removed in front of Akshara.Her home and school life were made hell for three years, so at the age of eighteen she decided to move to the States for higher studies. She didn't want to stay at home with them any longer.

But even after she moved away, the terror and the nightmares followed along with her. She was constantly suffering from panic attacks and was in severe depression for a long time. One of her university friends finally couldn't bear her in this state and took her to a therapist.

After being in therapy for two years, she was finally able to live normally. As her therapist has shown Akshara the light in the world of darkness, she wanted to become a therapist who could help people like herself. After graduating, she worked with NGO's and provided her music therapy to the ones in need.

Fate brought her back to the place she escaped from, India. But she didn't go to Mumbai where her family lived and instead chose Udaipur. Who knew she would meet the love of her life Abhimanyu here.

Everything was going amazing in her life or so as she thought. Arohi came to this place, her safe haven, to ruin all her happiness she had fought hard for. But the old Akshara was dead already, this new Akshara won't give anyone a chance to destroy her happiness.

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A short one, but I didn't want to write pages on Akshara's past. Hope you enjoyed it :)

MK <3