Silent Love

| 21 |

Sidharth

A month had passed since Akshay was enlightened about Shehnaaz.

There was no news from him since then, no update about Aanchal’s health. This never happened. In the few years I've known. Akshay, never did he block me out of his life like this. It surely took me sometime to become a significant part of his life but it was sooner than most others managed. I was his go-to person for everything he never spared me any news that was of grave significance to him. Which was why I wasn’t at rest knowing how he was not updating me about anything right now.

“Do you know if Aanchal's coming to the hospital for follow ups?” I asked Shehnaaz.

She was standing before the dresser in my room, fixing her hair, and her eyes flickered to look at me behind her shoulder as soon as she heard my voice.

“They came in for a few in the beginning.” She said. “Their next appointment is not until another three weeks. She was in good health the last time she came, which was about three weeks ago. Or maybe two, I’m not sure. But yeah, no post op complications and she’s in good health.”

“Did you talk to her the last time she was there?”

Whilst tying a band around her ponytail, she turned around to look at me. “Yes, but not for long. I got paged into the ER so I had to leave.”

“What did you talk about?”

She shrugged, finishing her previous task. “Mansi and Aanchal came to the hospital and I accidentally ran into them. Well, actually, Mansi ran into me. I asked how Aanchal was doing and if there was something I could help her with. Told her she could call me if she needed my assistance.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, “You never told me about this.”

“You never asked.” She said as she took hold of her phone and browsed through, casually.“I didn’t think it was important. I talked for a minute, that’s it. And Akshay wasn’t around either so I was not that worried.”

“I don’t intend to scare you but you need to be cautious regardless of Akshay’s presence.” I said, walking up to her so I could stand a metre away from her. Suddenly, I grew curious about her words earlier. “Wait, you said you asked her to call you. Did you give her your number?”

“Yes.” She shrugged her shoulders, her eyes still fixed on the screen of her mobile.

“What.. why?” I asked, “Shehnaaz, you didn’t-”

“Relax, it’s fine.” She said, looking up to meet my eyes. “It was just Mansi, she’s harmless.”

“She is in love with me, Shehnaaz, of course she’s not harmless.” I said, and instantly regretted it. Shit.

“She loves you?” Shehnaaz asked.

Grimacing, I looked at her with my narrowed. eyes, “Yes. She was the one that asked her father to get her married to me. I’m not sure how she feels about me now anyway.”

“Sidharth, I thought ” She was cut off instantly when her phone buzzed in her hands. When she looked at the caller ID, she sighed, “I gotta take this.”

She stepped a little away as she spoke into her phone and from what I understood, it was a call from work. After she hung up, she looked back at me with exhaustion, “Code Orange.”

Frawning, I asked. “What’s that?”

“Loads of incoming trauma. Mass casualties expected a bridge collapsed in the city. I need to rush to the hospital.” She said, and walked to the bed to fetch her purse.