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Shaurya lifted his head slowly. The sting of the message from his ex-wife still echoed in his chest, but this? This was personal.

“I see,” he said, his voice ice cold. “So now I’m being judged for how I live by a man whose own family barely shows up forhim. Who’s spent his life feeling that absence far deeper than I ever have. What’s the point of having a family just for namesake only? At least in my case, there’s no drama, no pretending to be the ideal family for the sake of society. I might be alone, but at least I am honest.”

Grandpa’s back straightened like a snapped branch. “What do you mean, Ahuja?”

Shaurya took a step forward. “I’m simply stating facts. Your son and daughter-in-law live halfway across the world, don’t they? They rarely visit and hardly ever call, from what I’ve heard.”

Grandpa’s lips parted to interrupt him, but Shaurya wasn’t done.

“So tell me, what’s the point of having a family that exists in name only? A family that leaves you alone to spend your old age fighting over mango trees and picking fights with neighbours just to feel seen?”

Gasps echoed through the crowd, and even the servers passing by paused mid-step, sensing the tension that hung in the air.

Nandini, who was still helping the kids with the wish lanterns, froze at the sound of those familiar raised voices. Her head whipped towards the commotion, her eyes locking onto her grandfather and Shaurya, standing merely feet apart, the air between them thick and volatile.

Grandpa's face darkened with a mixture of pain and fury. “Be careful of what you say, boy,” he warned, his voice low and trembling with restrained rage. “Yes, my son lives in London. Yes, they don’t visit often. But I had a wife who loved me till her last breath. And I have a granddaughter who treats me like I’m her whole world.”

He took a defiant step forward, his eyes burning with intense dislike. “But you? You couldn’t even hold on to the one personyou promised forever to. Your wife left you, didn’t she? And not quietly either. She left you because no woman could live with a man so self-absorbed, so cold, so emotionally bankrupt.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Shaurya’s fists clenched at his sides. His breathing was heavy, his eyes wild, as though something inside him had cracked wide open. Each word from Grandpa seemed to chip away every carefully placed brick in the wall he’d so painstakingly built around himself.

A beat passed. Then another, before Grandpa spoke again.

“A man like you will never understand what true love is. That’s why your wife left you. In fact, no woman could ever fall in love with a man like you.”

Nandini rushed towards them, her body on high alert, her instinct screaming to her that something was wrong. Even from a little distance, her grandfather’s loud voice cut through her heart like a knife. But it was the look on Shaurya’s face that truly shook her.

It wasn’t just anger. It was raw, unfiltered pain.

Shaurya’s patience snapped. He took one step towards Grandpa and then stopped himself…just barely.

“You’ve crossed a line, old man.”

Grandpa didn’t flinch. “And you’ve crossed too many already.”

For a heartbeat, it felt like something volcanic was about to erupt between them. But then Shaurya took a deep breath and turned around. His gaze swept the hall, catching everyone’s stunned expressions, the judgmental stares, and the whispers beginning to form. He looked everywhere, but not at Nandini. Not even once. And still, she felt the heat of it, as if it was directed straight at her.

Without another word, he strode out of the community hall, leaving behind hushed whispers, wide eyes, and a stunned silence—an aftermath only a storm like that could bring.

And Grandpa, still seething, gripped his walking stick tighter, as if trying to steady himself—both physically and emotionally. Nandini reached his side within seconds, her breath caught halfway to her lungs. She placed a gentle hand on his arm.

“Daadu…”

He didn’t speak. Just stood there, holding himself together. Most of the community already knew the truth, how his son and daughter-in-law rarely visited, how they chose a life far away from him, leaving him to manage everything alone. But no one had ever brought it up. Not out loud. Not in front of him. They respected him too much for that. Until today.

Today, Shaurya had dragged it all out into the open, exposing their family’s cracks under the harsh glare of public humiliation.

She didn’t press him.

She didn’t have the heart.

Instead, she stayed by his side, silently providing support and anchoring him through this storm of emotions.

But even as she stood there, her mind was anything but calm.

It was the first time, perhaps ever, that she had seen her grandfather truly shaken. And it wasn’t because of Shaurya’s words alone, but because of the very truth that lay buried in them.