Page 49 of A King's Oath

That was true. His father was 37 and when Samarth compared him to other fathers in his school — on a day his father came clean-shaven, he would pass for a 27-year-old. And when he made those teasing, cheeky jokes… maybe younger. Samarth wanted to cringe and hide somewhere.

“Alright, I am running half your inheritance on this call. We can discuss the merits and demerits of my beard later. I am going to go now, mostly I will be out of coverage for the next 10 days. If there’s an emergency, contact the McMurdo Research Station and they will track me down. Ok?”

Samarth already knew that, had the numbers copied in three different places.

“Ok, Papa.”

“Ok, then…”

His father’s voice began to go faint and he panicked.

“Papa?” He blurted.

“Yes, beta?”

That ‘beta.’ Samarth’s mouth dried. The words he had begun to push out, the question he was about to ask, swallowed back in.

“No, forget it. Bye…”

“Samarth?”

That was not the voice of a non-authoritative man. For all his heckling and needling and teasing, Samarth knew when his father meant business.

“Tell me.”

That.That was him meaning business.

“Nothing,” he tried to still get out of it.

“I am starting to worry. You better tell me.”

Samarth still debated. After he blurted this out, if his father got angry…? He never got angry that way. He had never gotten angry at him. But… or what if he became sad, realising what he was missing? That could happen too. When Samarth did not knowAva and he could have this, he was living a blissfully ignorant life. Now that he knew it, there was no other way to go.

“Samarth.”

“No, I was just talking to Ava about things…” he trailed.

“And?”

“And I realised that I can talk to her about anything.”

“That’s good.”

He could hear the smile in that voice. That gave him the courage to continue.

“Yes… but then I was thinking that… who doyoutalk to?”

“To you.”

“You tell me everything?”

His father paused. Samarth had run his mouth too far to stop now so he saidJai Dwarkadhishand went on — “All these years, after Mummy had left, did you have somebody to talk to?”

“Your Dada Sarkar,” Papa was quick in relaying.

“You told him everything?”

Silence.

---