He did not look up. "Fahish," she said again, "Are you not happy? Your sister is coming home."
A pause. Then — Fahish laughed, a humorless sound that cut through the warm air of the hall like a blade, he looked up.
His eyes the same quiet, observant eyes that had watched the world from behind sketchbooks and coffee cups for years. "I have no sister."
Fahan's grin froze, his fork, halfway to his mouth, stopped mid-air. "What did you just say?"
Fahish did not look at him, he kept his eyes on Mahi. "I said I have no sister."
Faha set his fork down slowly. "Fahish." His voice faltered, disbelief spreading across his face as he stared at his brother. "What did you just say? "
Fahish did not answer. "I'm asking you a question — do you even understand what just came out of your mouth?"
Silence followed. And somehow, that only made the situation worse. Faha pushed his chair back and stood, Fahim had set his pen down.
Mahi's expression changed. The joy that had illuminated her face only moments ago faded, leaving behind something far more difficult to describe.
"Fahish,do you have even the slightest idea what you're saying? Do you understand the meaning of your own words or have you spoken without thinking about the consequences?"
She paused, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
There was no shouting. Somehow, that made her disappointment more difficult to ignore. Fahish finally lifted his gaze and looked at her fully.
"I've already told you. I have no sister." His voice was calm, the kind that came before a storm.
"How many times do I have to say it ... before you people finally understand? I don't even know who that girl is. I don't know where she came from."
Faha opened his mouth. Fahish cut him off.
"You keep looking at me as though I'm supposed to recognize her as though some old photograph or some story from the past is magically enough to make her my sister."
He leaned forward, his hands pressing flat against the table. "It isn't."
The words landed like stones.
"So tell me, who exactly are you bringing into this house? And I am not going to suddenly accept someone because everyone else has decided."
He straightened, his eyes moved across the room and then back to Mahi. "I'm sorry but I refuse to pretend."
Silence. Faha was staring at his little brother as though he had never seen him before. "Fahish..."
He murmured, his voice barely a whisper. "What the hell is wrong with you ??? You're not like this. You've never been like this."
He stared at Fahish, his eyes widening with a mixture of disbelief and mounting frustration.
"What happened to you?" his voice trembling ever so slightly. "You have never been like this, Fahish. Never.
I know what you're like, what you would say, what you would never even think of saying."
Fahish did not answer.
Fahan shook his head slowly, his face pale. "She's our sister. Our blood. How can you—"
"I don't care about the report."
"Fahish." Mahi's voice was low but there was something in it that made even Fahad look up.
"What. Did. You. Just say? I'm sorry but I need you to say that again because I cannot believe you actually said what I think you just said."
Fahish met her eyes. "I said, I will never accept that girl as my sister. To me, she's nothing but—"
"Fahish...." She took a step forward,then another. Her hands were trembling but not with fear.
"You are telling me — you are standing in front of me, in this house, with your won mother and your brothers as witnesses — that you will not accept your own sister?"
Fahish looked away, just for a moment. "I don't know her and I am supposed to just accept that? Pretend that I'm happy? Pretend that I've been waiting for her my whole life?"
Fahad's head snapped toward him. "Fahish—"
"No." Fahish cut him off.
"You found her. Fine, that's good for all of you." His gaze swept across the room. Fahad, Fahim, Fahan, Faha.
"You can go pick her up. You can bring her home. You can give her a room and a name and a place at the table. But don't expect me to be part of it."
Mahi's face went pale."Fahish, she is your sister."
"My sister died fourteen years ago."
The words landed like a stone.
Faha's script fell off the chaise lounge . Fahim's glasses slipped down his nose— he didn't push them back up.
Fahish looked at Mahi. "I. Will. Never. Accept. that girl as my sister. I don't care what you do.
I don't care where she came from or what she's been through, she is a stranger and she will be..."
[ SMACK...SMACK...SMACK ]
Fahish's head snapped sideways. His hand rose to his cheek—not in pain but in shock. He turned slowly, eyes wide.
Faha stood in front of him.
His fingers were trembling. His face was pale — but his eyes were not filled with anger. They were filled with hurt.
"Bi-big brother—" Fahish started.
Faha's voice was barely a whisper when he spoke. "You can hate her if you want but don't you dare call her a stranger when she comes here."
Fahish stared at him.
His brother—the one who had once protected him from their father's anger, the one who had hidden his sketchbooks so he wouldn't be punished for drawing during study hours —
That big brother had just slapped him.
"And I don't want to hear another word from you,If you say one more thing—one more word—you will not like what happens."
Fahish's mouth opened. Closed. Faha looked at him for one last second,
"Some words do not just hurt much. Fahish, they destroy everything you thought was still there."
Silence. The kind of silence that felt like a weight.
Fahad was standing completely still, his jaw set, his gray eyes fixed on Fahish.
Fahish stood in the center of the room, one hand still pressed to his cheek,his eyes were not angry.
They were empty, he had not expected this.
Not from Faha.
Not from the brother who had never once raised a hand against him. Not from the brother who had spent years defending him, protecting him.
He had expected Fahad's coldness, expected Fahim's logic or Fahan's silence. But not this.
Not from the one person he had never imagined would hurt him. He lowered his hand—his jaw tightened.
He turned abruptly and stormed out of the room, his jaw clenched tight and his shoulders rigid with barely contained anger.
The door swung shut behind him with a heavy thud. Ohi had been standing beside the railing the entire time. He hadn't moved.
From where he stood, he had watched the entire scene unfold the argument. He had not meant to eavesdrop, he was standing at the railing of the second-floor landing.
One hand resting lightly on the wood, his body angled just enough to see through the open archway below.
He had come down from his room for one reason only — to grab his phone charger from the study. Nahi had borrowed it the night before ... and he never returned anything on time.
The plan was simple walk down the east corridor. Slip into the study, grab the charger and walk back up but plans had a way of changing.
The memory slowly faded. The sharp sound of the slap echoed one last time in his mind faded into silence and the past slipped away like a dream.
He gave a soft, humorless chuckle. "Ah, yes. Yes. Those were your exact words, weren't they? And now, suddenly, we are discussing how much you supposedly cared about your sister all along?"
Naya's eyes narrowed with amusement. "Please. Let's not rewrite history just because the story has become emotional."
Ohi laughed under his breath. "You did not even ask what she looked like after all those years, so forgive me if I find this sudden transformation a little difficult to believe."
Fahish's face had gone very still, his neck had turned red. A deep flush climbed up from his collar and spread across his cheeks.
His expression had betrayed him before he could hide it. Nahi, who had been watching in silence, finally let out a low whistle.
Look at his face, Maya. It is practically on fire and he can't say a single word, a moment ago,he had all those words ready, now they're gone.
Her voice carried a faint, knowing amusement.
Because he knows it's true. He knows exactly what he said and more importantly, knows that he meant all of it.
He could deny it .... laugh it off, pretend he was misunderstood but none of that would change what he said. Isn't that interesting?
Yama sounded almost fascinated by his discomfort.
Do you feel anything, Maya? Anything at all?
Embarrassment? Amusement? Curiosity? Maybe something you don't want to admit?
She gave a almost imperceptible laugh.Nothing? Oh...Oh that's fine because I do, I feel warm. Very warm. Very .....Very warm.
There was something strangely satisfied in the way she said it. This is the warmest I've felt all morning.
He knows he's been seen, Maya. That's why he's so quiet. And there's something almost beautiful about that kind of silence. Funny, isn't it....
"Enough, Yama."Maya's voice rang out inside the confines of her own mind, utterly devoid of patience. "For heaven's sake, will you please - stop talking for five minutes?
Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself speak?" She pressed her lips together ever so slightly, resisting the urge to sigh.
Yama's incessant commentary had been running through her head for what felt like an eternity.
She could tolerate a great many things but the relentless voice in her mind testing the limits of her patience was rapidly becoming one of her least favourite experiences.
"Yama, please ..... Spare me the lecture. I have enough on my mind already without you adding to it. So, for once, would you kindly be quiet?"
Outwardly, however, she remained perfectly composed. Her face betrayed nothing. But, Inside her mind, she was having an entirely different conversation.
"I'm very serious, Yama. One more word and I'm mentally evicting you for the rest of the day. "
Fahish finally moved, he did not turn around to face Ohi.
He straightened his back and spoke fast, almost rushed, the words tumbling out of him before he could lose his nerve. "Maya, come on. I will start the car."
"...Alright, Mr. Fahish."
He walked almost too fast.
The kind of walk that belonged to someone who needed to be somewhere else— anywhere else as quickly as possible.
His footsteps echoed across the marble floor.
Ohi watched him go, with an expression that was impossible to read. Nahi glanced from Ohi to the doorway, then back again.
Maya turned away from them all, she stepped —into the entrance hall, her footsteps quiet as she followed the faint, hurried sound of Fahish's footsteps ahead.
He was already making his way toward the front doors. She kept her gaze fixed on him, the voices behind her gradually faded into the background.
Naya's expression had changed; the amusement that had been there moments ago was gone, replaced by a quiet disapproval.
"Ohi. That was cruel. You knew exactly what you were doing. You saw how embarrassed he was and instead of letting it go, you kept pushing.
You did not just tease him — you cornered him in front of everyone and made sure he had nowhere to hide.
And honestly, you didn't need to do that. He was already speechless." She paused, her voice still quiet, though the patience had noticeably left it.
"I know you like provoking people, you think it is funny when someone loses their composure but there is a difference between teasing someone and deliberately humiliating them."
Ohi met her eyes. "I know."
Nahi murmured quietly,
"That was really unnecessary. Especially, the part where you quoted him. Repeating his own words back to him, that was punishment. Do you have any idea what have you done?"
The room turned toward Ohi. "Yes, I do."
Nahi's pen tapped once against the notebook.
"No, you do not. You could have said it differently. You could have said it later. You could have said it privately — I don't know — given him a chance to explain himself first."
"There was nothing to explain."
"There was plenty to explain."
Ohi turned his head, he looked at Nahi properly— and his expression was not the amused one he usually wore. It was flat, serious.
"He stood in front of the entire family and said he didn't have a sister."
He paused.
"Do you remember Maya's face that night, Nahi? When she walked into that reception hall? When she stood there with her schoolbag and gloves.
And every single one of us stared at her like she was a stranger who had wandered into the wrong house?"
Nahi said nothing.
"She didn't react, not once. She just stood there and let us look at her like she was used to it like being looked at that way.
Being measured and doubted was something she had already learned to consider normal."
His jaw tightened.
"So, yes. I — humiliated — him because for one morning — just one, he needed to feel a fraction of what she has been feeling since the day she was brought in."
Naya closed her book slowly. She set it down on the side table beside her teacup. "He's right."
Nahi turned toward her.
"I understand why Fahish was angry. I've known him since we were children. He feels things more than he shows. And when he feels too much—he retreats, he pretends he doesn't care."
She paused. "When Maya came home, he was not ready. It was sudden and it opened a wound that this family has been carrying for fourteen years. So, he said what he said, he lashed out."
Her eyes lifted — and settled on the doorway through which Fahish had disappeared. "But that does not mean it was right."
Nahi leaned forward slightly. "Then what do you call it?"
"I call it what it is an injustice. He denied his own sister in front of the entire family. He rejected her before he had even seen her face.
He was angry and he had every right to be angry. No one is saying he didn't." Her gaze dropped briefly.
"I really know why he was angry. After everything that happened, after everything he went through hearing that his sister was coming back probably brought a lot of things up for him.
Anger. Maybe even resentment but being angry doesn't make what he did right. You heard your sister was coming home, you should have been happy or at least—you could have pretended.
But instead of doing that, what did you do?"
Nahi's expression tightened.
"You got irritated with your Mom when she tried to talk to you about your sisterand argued with her because you didn't want to accept your won biological sister as your sister.
And then, this morning—this morning, he stood up and tried to drive her to school like none of it had happened."
She turned her gaze toward Nahi, a devilish smile slowly curling across her lips. "Oh, no." Her voice was deceptively sweet, her eyes gleaming with mischief. "You don't get to skip the apology."
Nahi opened his mouth — then closed it just as quickly. One look at Naya's smile was enough to silence him. He knew that smile all too well.
It was the kind that spelled trouble, and coming from his sister, it was downright terrifying.
"I'm not saying he should be punished forever, but he needed to be reminded. He needed to remember what he said—
Because a person who forgets what they've said is a person who will say it again."
She reached for her teacup and took a slow sip.
"So, Ohi reminded him quite effectively."
Nahi stared at her for a long moment. Then he let out a slow breath—half sigh, half laugh, entirely without humor.
"You two, you two are terrifying when you agree."
"We are not agreeing," Ohi said. "We are being honest."
"Same thing," Nahi muttered, he picked up his pen and tapped it twice against the page. "I still think you could have been gentler."
"Probably," Ohi admitted.
"You didn't have to bring up the exact words."
"Probably not."
"You could have just, pulled him aside. Could have made your point without making him feel like everyone in the room was judging him."
"I could have."
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because he would have brushed it off. He would have said 'I know, I know, I'll apologize later.' And then he wouldn't.
He would have gone back to his coffee, his quiet corner and he would have convinced himself that it didn't matter. That she didn't notice."
He paused.
"But she does notice. She notices more than any of us realize. And if we keep pretending that what he said was just —
A moment, something to move past, then one day she will believe she isn't wanted and she'll leave."
His voice dropped.
"And I don't think she'll ever come back—not —after she's decided she's had enough. There's no guarantee she will ever give us another chance to explain ourselves."
Nahi stopped tapping his pen. Naya's hand resting on the arm of her chair, went still. Even the servant near the far doorway had stopped pretending to work.
Ohi looked at Nahi.
"So yes. I embarrassed him. I made him feel small. And I would do it again—because he needed to remember.
Because if we don't hold each other accountable for the things we say, then what are we? Just a family that looks good on paper."
Nahi held his gaze for a long time.Then slowly — he nodded. "Okay, okay." He looked down at his notebook.
"I still think you're terrifying. Honestly, I think most people would at least pretend to feel guilty.
But you just sit there as if frightening the life out of everyone around you were a perfectly ordinary thing."
Ohi's lips curved ever so slightly, the first hint of his usual self returning to his face.
"Good. I would be rather disappointed if people started finding me harmless. It would make all the effort I've put into maintaining my reputation seem rather pointless, wouldn't it?"