🏠 Episode 7: The House of Lies
It was a quiet Sunday.
The sun hadn’t fully risen, but the city already buzzed. Autos, birds, restless clouds. But Maya’s heartbeat outmatched them all.
She stood across the road, hidden beneath a hooded shawl, her fingers tracing the thread around her wrist where the pendant now lived like a scar. Her eyes fixed on the tall white gate of House No. 8, Ramanujam Nagar.
“Dr. Arjun R. Iyer & Family”
The golden nameplate sparkled on the gate, as if it had never buried a secret.
She stood still for a long time.
Watching. Breathing. Burning.
🕯️ Scene 1: Entering a Life That Wasn’t Hers
The plan was simple. No drama, no declarations. She’d enter as someone else.
A donation drive volunteer.
Dressed in plain cotton kurti, hair tied back, Maya rang the bell. Her hands didn’t shake. Not this time.
A little girl opened the door.
Playful eyes, butterfly clips, barefoot excitement.
“Amma! Someone’s here!” she chirped and ran back inside.
Maya’s heart caught in her throat.
Aarya.
The daughter who had everything Maya never got.
A moment later, a graceful woman in a silk saree appeared—Vaishnavi.
Warm, polished. Perfect.
“Donation for orphan support?” she asked.
Maya nodded, smiled. Silent.
She stepped inside. Every step felt like walking over a buried version of herself.
📸 Scene 2: Pictures That Lied
The house was warm, full of laughter and lemon-scented air.
But it was the wall that hit her hardest.
Dozens of family photos.
Arjun tying Aarya’s school shoe.
Vaishnavi with Aarya at a beach.
Aarya in a doctor costume, smiling like fate had already chosen her.
And then… the center frame.
The same pendant.
Around Aarya’s neck.
Polished. Preserved.
The pendant Maya had pulled from the dirt near the swing.
She blinked. Rage boiled inside her—quiet, coiled, unforgiving.
🧍 Scene 3: When Eyes Met
She turned, ready to leave the donation form and go. But then—
He entered.
Arjun.
The man she had imagined.
The ghost from torn letters.
The voice she had begged to remember.
Now in front of her. Real. Alive. Casual in a white kurta.
He stopped the moment he saw her.
For just a flicker of time, his soul hesitated.
His eyes widened. Not in recognition—but in something deeper. Something disturbed.
“You look familiar,” he said.
Maya smiled, calm and cold.
“Maybe I remind you of someone you erased.”
He blinked.
She handed him the envelope silently.
It was addressed:
“To the man who left me.”
And before his guilt could catch up with his words, she turned and walked out.
🔥 Scene 4: The Letter & the Collapse
Back in his study, Arjun stared at the envelope like it was poison.
He opened it slowly.
Inside: a letter, a photograph—
Aarthi holding newborn Maya.
Burned at the edges. Wrinkled by time.
The letter read:
“You gave my name to another child.
You gave my pendant to someone who never bled for it.
You gave my silence a price tag.
But truth doesn’t expire.
I was the child you buried.
And now I’m the voice you cannot silence.”
Arjun’s face crumbled.
He dropped into his chair.
His hand went to his drawer, unlocked it, pulled out an old wooden box.
Inside were:
A half-burnt letter Aarthi had written before dying.
A photo of Maya, around 3 months old.
A faded envelope labeled:
“DNA Test – Confidential”
He stared at it.
And for the first time in years…
Arjun cried.
🧍♀️ Scene 5: Maya Outside the Gate
Maya stood just beyond the gate, watching through the leaves.
Not for revenge.
Not for validation.
But for the moment she knew—
He had finally remembered her.
🎭 Cliffhanger
That night, in her hostel room, someone knocked.
She opened the door to see…
The matron.
Breathless. Holding an envelope.
“He’s looking for you,” she said.
Maya:
“Let him.”
Matron (hesitant):
“He said you were… a mistake.”
Maya’s jaw clenched.
“Then tell him I’m the mistake that learned how to walk back.
Into the house. Into the silence. Into the truth.”
He gave his name to another,
But my silence wore his face.
Now he sits in his house of comfort,
As the storm knocks with grace.
