The events over the past week had shaken him to core. Her search for truth had brought them there.
The truth which he always knew yet he never wanted to share. He thought it would break her. Yet, he never knew her strength.
The truth she had never expected, the truth she had never wished for, the truth which was now staring at her. The truth she had thought would liberate her, but that truth had imprisoned her in the past.
What could she do now? Could she go back in the past and scrape it now?Could she even act over the truth she had just discovered? Or could she just forget that she had known this? Questions to which she had got answers had led to questions she couldn’t answer.
She had felt a sudden rage, which too had subsided by now. All she felt was a deep sorrow.
Just like the waves washed the shore, she wanted to be washed away with them. She wished the Mother Earth could take her in her womb again.
All those years, she had believed that he was the best dad.
Then one day, she had stumbled across her mother’s old pic and articles about her suicide.
He had hidden everything all those years. She had been born because of a rape and her father whom she loved like anything was the man responsible for it.
Her mother had committed suicide, six months after she was born.
Trials, court, police were not able to prove anything.
Her grandparents had not wanted her and had left her at orphanage. But the day her mother had gone, a heart had changed forever.
Her father had come to know and had left his home in search of her. He had left his vices, his rich family and had brought her up single handedly. He had been repenting his whole life that one moment of passion. He thought he had served his penance. He thought she would never come to know.
But truth can never be hidden. With that one article, she had like a Sherlock Holmes discovered the whole story.
He could not ask her forgiveness. He was a criminal.
She knew not how to forgive. The man because of him she had this existence, the man who had saved her from orphanage, the man who would go hungry so that she could go to the best college, who had worked day and night to give her this life, who had never gone back to the rich and bad life he had led. Yet, he was the man who had raped a girl and given her an unwanted pregnancy and was a cause of her suicide.
Now she wished she had never known.
She decided to go away, far away from his life. She had not spoken to him for past 2 weeks. She thought today she would go and tell him, It is over. She does not want to be with him. She cannot be a criminal’s daughter.
She knocked his door. No sound came. She pushed it. She could see his back. She spoke slowly, ” Mr Victor, I do not want you to call Dad. I am leaving this house. Do not ever try to find me. It is finished between us. ”
She still heard nothing. She moved closer and found him dead. He had left a note.
” All these years, I tried to rub off my sins.
I was afraid that if I told you, you would leave me. But now when you know, I do not know how to face you. I cannot see the sorrow in your eyes. This house and everything I have is yours. Try to forget me and forgive me, if you can. ”
She wept like a child. With those tears, all his sins were washed away.
The Vagabond 
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