Touch Her And... (Completed)

Chapter 42

It has been a week to that accident. But so many things changed within this one week.

That day Rik couldn't stop himself from peeping inside the cabin where Dev was admitted.

She was sobbing uncontrollably and he was rubbing her back.
He heard him mumbling,

"You are safe, that's what matters."

Rik narrowed his eyes in confusion. Why would Dev say something like this when he was the one who faced the accident. Probably it was the medicines.

She looked at him with the same disbelief.
"What would've happened to me?! To me?! Your life was in danger Dev. You freaked all of us out." She said.

"Were you worried?" He asked expectantly while playing with her curls.
"Do you still need to ask that?" She said a tear slipped out of her eyes.

He wiped the tear with his thumb and continued caressing her left cheek.

Then tilted his head to the right side and kept on staring at her with his teary eyes.
Although he was trying really hard but his eyes betrayed him.
They were sad, helpless, as if he was losing something very precious.

And then that feeling, that inexplicable pain overwhelmed Rik. But no! This time it was not only the pain but an uncontrollable anger was invading his senses. He closed his eyes. His breathing became uneven.

He opened the door without knocking.
They both got startled for the moment. But she immediately pulled herself out of his arms, causing Dev to release an annoying grunt instinctively. But he let her free anyhow.

Although due to the conspiracy of some otherworldly force Rik got into the cabin but suddenly he was at loss of words. It took him almost a minute to collect himself. Finally he cleared his throat and said,

"Umm, I think you should get back to the bed Dev."

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From the next day Teressa was ordered to stay inside the mansion unless it was any emergency.

She tried her level best to negotiate, to get the permission to visit Dev for once but her every attempt went futile.

She was becoming restless, desperately begging to Manik or Pratima ji, sometimes even to Rik, but even they seemed to have no answers.

Finally a week later Dev was released. But when he entered the house everyone's jaw dropped.

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"Martha!?" Bewildered, Manik asked. He seemed to be the first one to get back to the reality.

All of them were settled around the breakfast table when all of a sudden Dev appeared at the door out of no where that too with Martha at his side.

Pratima ji seemed to be the most affected person. This stunt was obviously something she had not expected to witness in her entire life.

Rik's eyebrows raised sarcastically as he saw Dev's arm wrapped around Martha's waist. But as if immediately something inside him made him restless. His eyes started scanning his surroundings in search of a particular curly haired trouble.

He heard Manik uttering menacingly to Dev, "What is this bhai?"

But as Rik couldn't find her around his thoughts immediately led him to her room.
"She must be helping the nurse feeding her aunt." He said to himself and stood up, pushed the chair backwards and turned around only to find her standing in the very middle of the huge staircase.

Her eyes were fixed on the door. Disbelief was what one could easily read out of those beautiful orbs. She stood there still. As if she had seen a ghost.

Rik turned his head to the door.

Expressionless, Dev was looking directly at her as coldly as possible.

"What? Can't you see Manik? This is Martha and we are together." He finally said more to Teressa than anyone else and entered.

"What do you mean you are together? And what about Tere.." Manik was about to ask the most obvious question but Rik squeezed his hand lightly and tilted his head gesturing towards the staircase.

Manik immediately turned around to find Teressa still standing there. Pratima ji also noticed her standing there. She finally cleared her throat and called her out.

"Teressa.." She called but Teressa didn't budge. She called her again, this time a little louder.
"Teressa! Come down sweetheart. The breakfast is getting cold." She said.

To this she slowly turned her head to Pratima ji and very politely said,
"I have lost my appetite Pratima ji. Maybe later."

"But kiddo.." Manik tried to say something but she interrupted.

"Manik, I am going upstairs. Will you please take me to Nilu's place after you are done?" She asked.

Manik nodded.

She turned around to go upstairs again when suddenly the known husky voice stopped her on track.

"Come down and complete your breakfast Teressa." He ordered.

"It's good to see you healthy Mr. Nagpati but as I said I have lost my appetite." She firmly stated from over her shoulders and started climbing up without sparing another glance.

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She didn't know how she controlled herself till she reached her room. She ran the last few steps and entered her room. Closing the door behind her she breathed in and out to gather herself but to her dismay all she could manage to do was weeping uncontrollably.

No, they were not in a committed relationship. On top of that she was the one who always maintained the distance, then why did it hurt her so much to watch him holding Martha by his side? She should be happy to see him healthy. Yes, she was.

But then why did it suddenly feel bad to digest the fact that she could never be the most important person in his life?

Most of all why did he always make her feel so special if he had no feelings for her at all?

For the first time in her life she envied someone. She envied Martha for being so close to him.

She ran to her aunt. Who was nothing more than a doll with heartbeats at that time. She held her hand in her palms and sobbed.

"What have I dragged myself into aunt?" She asked her, still expectant to get an answer from her.

"I cannot bear this pain. I cannot see him with anyone else. It hurts." She sobbed.

"Please wake up.. say something. How could you all do this to me.. why?" And with that she continued crying for hours.

She knew the coming days were going to be more of a rollercoaster ride for her than anything else.