Knock! Knock!

'Someone at this hour? This can't be good', Mohit thought to himself.

And just as his sixth sense predicted, the two faces that greeted him after he opened the door was neither propitious nor welcoming. His father's personal manager, Mr. Bhagat and his uncle.

"What are you two doing here?" Mohit made sure to indicate bitterness in his tone.

His Uncle took the lead, " we need to talk", he said as he pushed his way inside to Mohit's main hall. Mr. Bhagat followed suit and sat on the couch.

"Oh yeah?", Mohit immediately matched their footsteps, "well, I don't think we do. I don't talk to strangers."

Unlike Mr. Bhagat, Mohit's uncle placed him right in front of Mohit, "Strangers? So that's what we are now?"

"Well, we could've been friendly acquaintances if you hadn't ed your way in", he answered savagely.

"We didn't have any other options, Master Mohit, you were ignoring our texts, calls and emails for the past few days", Mr. Bhagat finally spoke for the first time since coming.

Mohit saw that one coming. "Yeah, I don't know about texts and calls but there's my laptop in front of you with my inbox opened up. Tell me if you can see any emails".

His uncle stormed towards the laptop to sit beside Mr. Bhagat with it.

They met eyes twice before his uncle finally spoke out, "You're right I don't see any emails in the inbox but I do see our emails in the trash. All 15 of them deleted unread."

"Oh yeah, I tend to delete irrelevant mails before opening, saves a lot of time you know." Mohit finishes with a smirk relieved to outspoke his uncle for once for he was silent for few mins.

Upon getting no response, Mohit spoke again, "Right, it's rude for me to send my guests without anything. I'll make you guys coffee, because that's what I want to have now." He continued talking to his way to the open kitchen adjoined to the hall.

His back towards them when his uncle finally spoke and froze Mohit's veins. "Your father is dying." He paused for a dramatic second before speaking again," Doctor says he has a week, at most, might even be days".

Mohit turns finally, "I don't know how that concerns me uncle".

"He wants to see you before..."

"Oh well, in case he forgot, Mr Bhagat is his manager, who can be there at his one command, not me."

"You're his family, Mohit. He n....." But his shock was even more amplified when Mohit started his sarcastic laugh.

"Family? So now that he's in his death bed, he needs his family. Then what about what he did to mom?" Mohit spurted out at once.

Upon seeing a silence to his sudden outburst, Mohit continued, " Do you know what he said to me when I called to inform him about mom's condition? That I'm an adult now and that I should know how to take care of my mom and that he doesn't have time for this nonsense and that he has an important meeting to attend." He barely whispered the last few sentences as he started to break. "I hate him for that. His avariciousness broke our happy family. Not just that day, but always. Money came first. And you know what disappoints me the most, every last breath my mother took she hoped for him to took. I waited for that last minute disappointment when she'll realise that he won't come. But it never came. Till the last moment of her life, she hoped. And so I'm more disappointed, no I'm disgusted by him."

A long heavy silence fell in as Mohit finished. It was a few minutes before Mr Bhagat broke it," you're mistaken master."

"What?" Mohit asked, not believing what he heard at once.

"You're mistaken master Mohit", Mr Bhagat repeated again, this time firmly.

Mohit didn't answer, instead he chose to take a lingering look at the man in front of him. The man who managed his father for as long as he knows. Has his age finally gotten to his mind? Is he going crazy?

"You're making a big mistake to think that he blew your phone call that day master. I was there that day. I was there to witness that restless man who after cancelling all his tickets and using all his power struggled to find a single ticket back. So he did try to come back, it's not his fault he couldn't." He explained.

" That doesn't change the fact that he went to the meeting when I pleaded him not to." Mohit argued back.

"Mohit stop, stop being so obdurate. He needs you.", His uncle pleaded holding him by the shoulders.

"She needed him too." Mohit kept his tough façade.

"So this is what it is. This your revenge on behalf of your mother." His uncle's hand slid from his shoulders as realisation dawned upon him.

Mohit kept his silence. He can't deny his half intention.

" You're so hell bent upon taking revenge that you're failing to see that you're turning out to be the exact person you grew up to hate. Not being there for your family, and mind you, now that you know the truth you're going to regret it, even more."

"Let's go Mr. Bhagat", his uncle rushed out with his final words.

Mr. Bhagat left but not before stuffing the hospital name in his hand, because he knew. He knew that somewhere behind that tough façade there's a child who wanted the love of his father back.

And he knew, he knew that it'll the first thing Mohit will do the next day.

Mohit was nervous as he walked down the corridor to his father's room. 5 years, no talk, nothing. What will he say? But it turned out he doesn't have to think about it anymore.

He opened the door just in time to see his father's face being covered, his eyes meeting his uncle's and he didn't know what's worse.

The pity in his uncle's eyes upon seeing him, the fact that he didn't get to apologise to his father for misunderstanding him or the fact that he ended up being the person he hates the most. He ended up being the reason his family broke.

.    .    .