Hello!

"Men are weird!" I sighed and he opened his eyes immediately.

"Men? How many men have you met till now?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"Quite a few. " I told him and frowned.

"Name them." He demanded causing me to frown.

"How can I name all of them? Can you name all the women you've met?" I asked him and he looked away.

"Don't talk about other men in front of me." He told me and I narrowed my eyes.

"Yeah right! I can't talk about other men but you can pull chairs for other women. Such double standards!" I shook my head.

"Are you jealous?" Wow! Manik Malhotra and his conclusions!

"Seriously? I'm just serving you your own medicine and calling out your double standards." I told him and he chuckled.

This man!

"Okay fine but there's a story behind it, you wanna know?" He asked and I rolled my eyes.

"I'll tell you anyways. " He said pulling me closer with a smile.

Whatever!

"So my mom and I were never happy here, you know." He cleared his throat and I looked at him to find him looking down.

I just kept my hand on his chest and he smiled.

"Yeah, so I've spent most of my childhood and almost all of my teen years in Australia with Masi and her family. Just used to come here to remind my Dad that he had a son, a heir, to be precise. " He told me and I gave him a nod.

A heir. Why didn't his dad remarry after his mom's demise? Evidently, Naren Malhotra wasn't in love with Manik's mom, then why?

"So I obviously grew up with Natasha and our other friends. Now coming to the main point, Natasha was always a really proper child. She learnt all the manners before we learnt to utter a thank you because she was highly fascinated by the British culture and took it on herself to teach all of us manners. According to her, that was the only way to behave since we came from the 'Elite families'.

So after the day she had taught us to pull out chairs for the 'ladies' like she liked to call herself and the other girls of our group, I forgot to pull the chair out for her and sat down instead." He chuckled with fondness.

"This girl stood there for the whole time in anger and told me that she would never ever sit on a chair pulled out by me because I'm not a gentleman. After this, I took it as a challenge and pulled out the chair for her every damn time but she never sat. I'm still trying though, and I know I'll succeed someday. I'm sure, someday she'll consider me a gentleman too." He told me grinning and I chuckled at the childishness.

He's literally a child around her.

"I know this is ready childish but it's just our thing that we can never let go of. Nandini, I need you to know that Natasha Khurana is my backbone, I'm standing straight cause she's holding me. She held me when my own father broke me.

We were both kids but she became a pillar of strength for me, I could tell her all those things which I even dreaded thinking about. I have cried for hours holding her and she never moved. She is my best friend, actually more than that, she's my family and you need to respect that. Never compare my bond with her with ours and never ever disrespect her. I hope you'll take care of that." He told me and I nodded in understanding.

"Good." I looked down and then a thought came in my mind.

"Mr. Malhotra. " I mumbled and he looked at me.

"Yes Mrs. Malhotra. " He asked smiling.

"My dad..." I mumbled and that smile left his face.

"Yeah, what about him?" He asked and I sat on the bed.

"How do you know him?" I asked and he sat with me.

"Your bith certificate. " He told me.

"And where did you get that from?" I asked and he shrugged.

"The orphanage had it. Actually you were brought there after the demise of your parents, by your extended family, so they left your birth certificate there too." He told me causing me to frown.

"Then why didn't they hand it over to my adoptive parents?" I asked him and he shrugged.

"May be cause they didn't ask for it?" He shrugged again.

"What rubbish! They should have given it but instead they had it with them all these years. And all of a sudden, you got your hands on it. Wow, so believable. " I mocked and he sighed.

"It's okay if you don't believe me but I didn't get it all of a sudden, I had to put in some work which your adoptive parents didn't care about." He told me and got up from the bed.

"Where are you going in the middle of the conversation?" I asked him in annoyance.

"The conversation is over and the conclusion is, that you don't believe me! But you know what? I have proofs, wait." He told me and went inside the closet.

I waited restlessly for a minute and then he came out with an envelope.

"Here." He handed it over to me and I opened it to find a photograph of a lady holding a baby, of a family of husband, wife and an infant, a picture of Sister Nema holding the same baby and a birth certificate.

That baby was me.

I knew it cause I've seen this picture of nurse Nema and mine.

I read the certificate and it had the name of Nandini Khanna, daughter of Dr. Mridul Khanna, born on 09.06.1995.

My birthdate and name are same as written in this certificate, that means they had my birth certificate with them, then why didn't hand it over to my adoptive parents?

"Do you believe me now?" He asked and I looked at him and then at the family picture.

My parents.

I felt tears forming in my eyes causing me to gulp. I caressed the picture with teary eyes and sighed.

"Nandini." He whispered and came closer.

I kept looking at the couple and he held my hand.

"I know, it's really heavy but I just wanted you to know about your real parents. You know, your dad was an excellent surgeon of his times and a really kind hearted man too. He used to run a trust for poor and has helped a total of 567 poor heart patients." He told me and a small smile came on my lips.

"And your mom, Mrs. Nitya Khanna was a social worker too. She used to run an NGO for women who were abused or had no one. A kind, respected woman." He told me and a tear escaped my eyes.

He immediately wiped that tear and I looked at him in the eyes.

"Your parents were really good people Nandini, they deserve to be respected. " He told me and I looked at the picture.

"M-my parents." I mumbled, trying really hard not to cry.

"Yes Nandini, your parents." He told me with a smile.

I nodded slowly and he took me in a tight hug and that was it. I broke down, completely.

_________________________________________

Next chapter will be the 50th so I want to make it a bit special for you guys. I'll be fulfilling a popular demand of yours, in my style😉

Also, New Year is around the corner so you can consider that a New Year gift too❤

I'm sure you'll love it❤

Till then, I hope you are liking the story so far.

Love
Aashi❤