I threw the boy’s old school bag on the floor and looked at him, my eyes cold and distant. He was 12 years old.

He didn’t cry. He simply lowered his head, picked up his broken backpack, turned it around, and walked away without a word.

Ten years later, when the truth was finally revealed, I wished with all my might that I could turn back time.

My name is Rajesh, and I was 36 when my wife, Meera, died of a sudden stroke. She left behind more than just me: a 12-year-old son named Arjun.

But Arjun wasn’t biologically mine. He was Meera’s son from a previous relationship.

Meera was 26 when I married her. She’d already been through a painful experience: a nameless love, a pregnancy she carried alone.

“Get out.” I didn’t care if I survived or died.

I expected him to cry, to beg. But he didn’t. He left.

I felt nothing. I sold my house and moved. Life went on. Business prospered. I met another woman without burdens, without children.

For several years, I had sporadic thoughts about Arjun. Not out of anxiety, but out of curiosity. Where was he now? Was he still alive?

However, over time, even that interest disappeared.

A 12-year-old boy, alone in the world, where could he go? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.

He even said to me, “If he’s dead, maybe it’s for the best.”

Ten years later, I received a call from an unknown number.

“Hello, Mr. Rajesh? Could you please attend the grand opening of the TPA Gallery on MG Road this Saturday? Someone very special is waiting for you.”

I was about to hang up when the next sentence stopped me:

“Don’t you want to know what happened to Arjun?”

The name—Arjun—I hadn’t heard in ten years. My chest tightened.

I took a deep breath and replied, in a flat voice,
“I’m going.”

The gallery was modern and crowded. I walked in, feeling strangely out of place. The paintings were striking—oil on canvas, cold, distant, and terrifying. I read the artist’s name: TPA

The initials hurt me.

“Hello, Mr. Rajesh.”

A tall, thin young man, dressed in simple clothes, stood before me. His gaze was deep and expressionless.

I froze. It was Arjun.

He was no longer the fragile child I’d abandoned. Standing before me was a composed and successful man.

“I wanted you to see what my mother left behind.”

“And what you left behind.”

He led me to a canvas covered with red cloth.
“It’s called Mother. I’ve never shown it before. But today I want you to see it.”

I lift the cloth.

There she was: Meera. Pale and gaunt, lying in a hospital bed. She held a photograph of the three of us together, from our only trip together.

My knees buckled.

Arjun’s voice didn’t waver.
“Before he died, he wrote a diary. He knew you didn’t love me. But he still believed that, one day, you would understand.”

“Because… I am not another man’s son.”

“What…?”
“Yes. I’m your son. She was already pregnant when you met her. But she told you it was someone else’s, to test your heart. And then, it was too late to confess.”

“I found the truth in her diary. Hidden in the old attic.”

The world collapsed around me. I had rejected my own son. And now, he stood before me—worthy, successful—while I had lost everything.

I had lost him twice. And the second time, it was forever.

I sat in a corner of the gallery, devastated. His words echoed in my mind like swords piercing my soul.

“I am your son.”

“She was afraid you only wanted me for the child.”

“You chose silence… because I loved you.”

“You left because you were afraid of the responsibility.”

I used to think I was heroic for “accepting” another man’s child. But I was never truly kind. Never fair. I never had a father.

When Meera died, I rejected Arjun as if he were unwanted. Not knowing… that he was my own flesh and blood.

I ran after him. “Arjun, please wait… If I had known you were mine—”

He looked at me calmly, but distantly.
“I’m not here for your apologies. I don’t need you to complain.”

“I wanted you to know that my mother never lied. She loved you. She chose silence, allowing you to choose love freely.”

I couldn’t speak.

“I don’t hate you. If you hadn’t rejected me, maybe I wouldn’t have become who I am today.”

He handed me an envelope. Inside, a copy of Meera’s diary.

In shaky handwriting, she wrote:
“If you ever read this, please forgive me. I was afraid. I was afraid you would only love me for the child. But Arjun is our son.”

I cried. Silently.

Because I failed as a husband. As a father. And now… I had nothing left.

I tried to fix things, but it wasn’t easy. In the following weeks, I contacted Arjun.

I sent him a message. He was waiting for me outside his gallery. Not out of forgiveness, but just to be close.

But Arjun didn’t need me anymore.

One day, he agreed to meet me. His voice was kind but firm.

“You don’t need to atone. I don’t blame you. But I don’t need a father. Because the one I had… chose not to need me.”

I nodded. He was right.

I handed her a savings account—everything I had. I’d once planned to leave it to my new partner, but after learning the truth, I broke up with her the next day.

“I can’t get the past back. But if you let me… I’ll be by your side. Silently. Without titles. Without demands.”

“Knowing you are good is enough.”

Arjun looked at me for a long time. Then he said,
“I’ll accept. Not for money.”

“But my mother believed you could still be a good man.”