"Armaan.." She breathed and held his hands in hers. She cried as he looked away from her. She wanted to hold him, close with their bodies entangled that no force would be able to pull them away but he wasn't even looking at her. And somehow this tim...
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Shashank stared at the man sat in front of him. He would never admit without a purpose that Armaan has always been the best choice for her daughter. He would never admit to anyone that he kept tabs on Armaan's condition but he did and he never felt more sorrowful by keeping everything from Ridhima and not preparing her mind before she came here. He started at Armaan's bruised and bloodied knuckles, eyes seething fire as he breathed hard and tears spilled down his neck soaking his t-shirt and disappearing into oblivion.
"I told her to go away but she didn't. She isn't even scared Sir but I am scared that I would hurt her. I was so scared when I shouted at her but she wasn't even disgusted by who I have become but I am terrified. Please take her away by any means." Armaan looked at Shashank as he pleaded with his teeth clenched as he held his exploding head in his hands.
Shashank didn't know what to say, he had been quiet for so long that he couldn't even recognize the man he became, the father Ridhima looked up to. The first day was when Ridhima told them to stop taking her to doctors. Soon after that, it was Armaan's words he spoke to Ridhima, right from introducing her to the doctor in Bangalore to moving her there for the treatment. Soon she volunteered at United Nations to help at remote places as a Doctor and then she came back. They exchanged words like I love you Papa and I am okay, asking questions about health and the conversations were cut short.
Shashank sat on the stool and sighed and removed his coat. He picked up the first aid box and cleaned Armaan's wounds and offered him water which he drank fast.
"Armaan beta..Ridhima is not a kid anymore and the day she stepped up to me and professed her love for you, I never controlled her actions, I might have influenced some but that was all Ridhima who did what she did and I believe she's doing right for herself. Armaan meri beti aapse bohot pyaar karti hai aur shayad yehi reason tha ki aapke aur mere beech wo rishta kabhi nahi bana jo aapka Padma kai saath, Maa kai saath hai. I have always been insecure when it comes to sharing my younger daughter with a person who I always knew would take care of her like I do and maybe much more than that.
Aapko nahi pata but this time Ridhima came to find you after fighting with me, saying things a father would never want to hear aur aapko pata hai usne mujhe message kiya and yahan bulaya only because of you, if not for you, if you would've been all fine, she wouldn't have had called me I bet and I don't mind that when I look at you. I don't despise you. I know where you are coming from but I believe you should talk to Ridhima about it if you want her to be away though I doubt she would go away." Shashank sighed and rubbed his palms on his dress pants and stood up picking his coat as Armaan stared at Ridhima who now stood outside waiting to come inside.
"Armaan, believe me, I know you can be the same as before, Ridhima believes you too. She wasn't an idiot each time she stopped you from boxing in a ring." Armaan looked at Shashank in a shocked expression as he realized he didn't just mean this one time but every previous time he fought in a ring, to control his anger, to hurt himself.
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( some hours ago )
Armaan moved out of his doctor's cabin and went to the waiting area waiting for his reports. It's been a day since he saw her and he couldn't forget how breathtaking she looked. He wanted to hold her close to him, tightly and embrace her warm exterior and feel her close. She was making him so confused and had his head in haywire, he sighed and moved to the washroom with his head hung low.
He looked at himself, his eyes looked hollow, traces of tears on his pale skin. He quickly washed his face and patted it dry with a paper towel and threw the used towel in the dustbin. He looked at his palms which had dried blooded which oozed out when he clenched his palm into a fist with his nails dug in his skin. He quickly poured a little of the antiseptic solution kept on the sinking slab on his hands and cleaned with another paper towel and then rubbed some moisturizer on his hands.
Moving out of the washroom, he went to the reception to ask when his reports would come and was informed that it would take another hour. He nodded and moved to the lift to go to the physiotherapist's cabin. For the first time in weeks, they told him to go ahead and do things on his known. It isn't something new to him though, like every month, he moved two step forward and back again. Other than the feeling of gratefulness that he didn't rely on anyone, his father could do things of his own, he didn't feel anything. He was cleared to go outside for today after taking his reports which he never opened of course because being a doctor gave him the perks of understanding and analyzing every detail. He was a playboy, never an idiot, he scoffed.
Nodding at the interns there, he started working out. It was anger that triggered him to lose control, sometimes he wouldn't be able to stand up or move hands, he used to be on a rogue and so they kept him sedated as due to a brain injury he wasn't allowed yet to take antidepressants. He cleared his face and moved to the washroom picking up his extra pair of clothes they kept here to change.
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Ridhima looked at the reports in front of her and felt petrified. It wasn't just the temporary physical impairment or the brain injury or him being depressed, it was something so grave that she really wanted to know from him but the irony fate played with them. His reports were off today but his first appointment date and medical chart didn't just date some months back but years back. Before she could turn pages around or give the reports to its original file, the file was snatched from her hands.
She gasped and winced as soon as she turned and looked at him with his eyes filled with fear and rage, he looked vulnerable yet could rise flames around. His jaw was clenched and he turned around tearing up the name slip from the other file and stuck on his and pushed the other file in Ridhima's hand and turned around.
He couldn't shout at her even if his mind wanted him to. He wanted to lash on her for reading out something he didn't want her to. He turned around and looked at her pointing a finger at her as she came behind him and both of them clashed with each other.
She moved to touch his shoulder and apologize to him but he held her hand tightly and whisper-shouted in a low tone "Ridhima Gupta why don't you keep your business away from mine? You are a doctor so you know better to not invade into any patient's info. That is what the medical rulebook says right? Just go the hell away before I do something both us will regret;" and shrugged her hand pushing her a little stumbling in her steps. He turned away cursing and gave his reports to the receptionist who looked wary, to give them to his psychiatrist.
Ridhima whimpered "Arma--... I didn't mean..." and saw him leaving in hurry the hospital premises hot on his heels.
