Chapter 307 - I know, kid. Me too…

Anand packed the medical kit and kept it aside before sitting beside Shreya. He gently brought her to his embrace…

Shreya did not protest as she snuggled into his warmth.

"It's okay, kid. You did great… your parents are going to be very proud. I am very proud of you!! No matter what you do or what you decide, that is never going to change Shreya… Nothing is going to change between us! I just want you to know that!!" Anand muttered softly before pecking on her forehead.

For once, somehow somewhere in her heart, Shreya believed that. Her arms circled around Anand and held on to him as tears dripped down her cheeks.

"I love you, kid. No matter what!!" Anand repeated… and he would repeat it until it gets imprinted on Shreya's head.

"I wanted to kill her so badly today… when I thought about what she had done to mum and dad, I just wanted to snap her neck… I almost did too. I just… I was so angry…" Shreya whispered and confessed.

Anand pulled her closer but did not really say anything. He couldn't say anything… this anger, this hatred… they were things she had buried in her heart for way too long a time now.

When she first found out that her parents did not die in a car accident but were killed, Shreya had shut herself in her room for two straight months… nobody could reach her. And when she came out of it, she was not the same person they knew.

She planned and calculated each and every step… She did not see the world the same way anymore.

When she first lost her parents, it was just that… a loss coupled with a lot of resentment towards God and heartbreaking anguish.

But when she found out that it was not natural but man-made… that her parents were forcefully taken away from her, there was this coldness and hatred…

Even he could not control himself when he found out… he could not help but want to smash something. He wanted to burn the whole world… But his little niece… she buried all that at such a young age… and she grew so tall in such a short time that they couldn't catch up to her.

Even when Anand knew about this all this while, he couldn't do anything about it since she had built these walls around her to the point where no one could penetrate to that part of her heart. Nobody could.

So, by some miracle when someone somehow was able to break those walls down, even when he knew it was not in a healthy way, he was still glad she was able to let it all out… that she had found a way to vent all that anger and hatred out.

Anand rubbed on her arms gently and Shreya's body slowly warmed up… he just kept her company silently as she tried to compose herself. Only her heartbreaking whimpers can be heard reverberating through the walls of the room…

When she calmed down, Anand pulled away from her and said looking at her eyes, "Shreya, I want you to know this… I know you go around thinking you have to heave the world on your shoulders because you have the power… and that you have to always behave responsibly because you are the heir! But I am here to tell you that you do not need you… You are still young… you still get to do mistakes. I am the a.d.u.l.t in the family! You do not have to protect everyone in the family… you just do as much as you can, the rest of us will share the rest… You are not alone, kid. You have a family. Just remember that when you try so hard next time."

Shreya stared back at him unblinking for two straight minutes before snuggling back into his embrace.

"I know, uncle… I know it in my head. It is just…" Shreya mumbled but she did not know how to continue…

Her first instinct when it comes to family is to protect… she yearned from the deepest part of her heart to provide something like her father did… Even when Adithya couldn't save himself and her mom, he did protect his family… and Shreya wanted to provide the same… something even better if she could. She wanted to give everyone she cared about a secure place for all her loved ones to be as and what they want to be… safe heaven where they could reach their potential without having to worry about dos and don'ts. A place they could move forward confidently and make mistakes without having to be scared about it… Just like how she grew up.

"You are our guardian angel, baby girl. You will always be… You shouldered everything when we did not know what to do… You do not know how proud I am of you for that and how much more grateful I am for what you have done and are still doing for Akash and Bhavna. But let us do our part to you too… I want to protect you too… with what little ability I have. I know I haven't done a very good job at it and your dad would probably be cursing me right about now for what I let his baby girl shoulder at such a young age… Just let me be there for you every now and then kid so that I do not feel like an absolute failure as an a.d.u.l.t. Come to me when you are down like today so that I can at least give you a hug and tell you that everything is going to be okay!!" Anand said when he saw Shreya keeping silent.

Shreya choked as she heard him… she did not know where the sob broke from… somehow for the first time since she had lost her parents, she broke down in front of Anand. She couldn't control herself. It was more profuse and uncontrollable than the last one… tears just kept stumbling down her cheeks without regard.

"I… I… I just m-miss t-them so-so much…" She mumbled between the sobs.

"I know, kid. Me too…" Anand said gathering her closer. His own eyes turned red involuntarily. He couldn't help gather her closer as she sobbed away.

By the time Shreya calmed down, she was exhausted. Anand tucked her in for the day before exiting the suite.