Along the Lines of Love | ✓

Chapter 25 : Scars Of The Past

Early chapter! Making up for the delay last time, Happy reading :)

- - - - ♡ - - - -

Tera nazaara mila, roshan sitaara mila,

Taqdeer ki kashtiyon ko kinara mila

♪

- - - - ♡ - - - -

For a moment, everything was forgotten. Sharanya's gaze bored into the eyes of her elder sister. The one person she probably would never want to see again. Betrayal always brought hurt. But betrayal from a loved one bought so much pain. Sharanya hated the fact that her sister, who had been the root cause of her late mother's health deterioration, got so much from her mother— the beautiful eyes, the kind smile and the title of the favorite kid. As she looked into those eyes, she was reliving every difficult moment of the past all over again.

"Sharu," She whispered, not blinking. Sharanya wanted to unhear her name her mouth. The nickname was something that made her feel special and loved. It was what her mother called her, with unending love.

Sharanya had never thought she'd cross path with her sister again. Neither did she want to. Her sister's reckless and selfish decisions had turned the life upside down for all of them. No doubt a family could be a person's rock in hard times, but people often forgot that a person's personal decision had the power to impact the life of everyone around him, especially family.

"You know each other?" Nikhil asked, surprised that his brother's girlfriend addressed her as 'Sharu', it was something he often heard Gargi address her with. He glanced at her to find her simply staring at the woman. There was no hint of any emotion, uncharacteristically. "Sharanya?" He said softly.

She looked at him disoriented. "I, I need to use the washroom," she said in a hoarse whisper as her throat had run dry.

He nodded, looking at her warily.

"Sharu," a soft whisper from the woman made them look at her.

Sharanya felt her heart squeeze, her emotions seemed to be choking her heart. Just one look at her, bought back so many painful moments of the past, the struggle through the hard times. She didn't spare another glance at her. She couldn't. She'd break into tears right there. She felt suffocated, it was like the past stood before her, like a monster with an evil smile.

"Excuse me," she said and walked away hurriedly, not bothering about anything else.

Nikhil look puzzled. Something was off. He turned his gaze back to the woman.

"Where did she go?" His mother asked walking back to them from the corner of the stage.

Nikhil had no answer. He looked around, her grandparents had come up the stage. He switched his gaze back to the direction in which Sharanya had disappeared, to briefly notice her walk away hurriedly towards the passageway that led to the inside of the hotel.

"Where is Di?" A cheerful Akshaya asked, pushing her hair behind, coming around the guests to stand where Sharanya had been standing a minute ago. She glanced at the people standing just before Nikhil. She froze.

"Sharanya went to the washroom." He said softly.

"Oh, okay," She muttered, blinking and looking at the woman and then hurriedly walked off.

"How do you know Sharanya?" Nikhil asked sensing the sudden upsetting mood of the sisters. He stole a glance at his brother who was as confused as he was.