Moving on- to let go or not

Love is not the only cause

A lady in her early thirty was at the edge of the cliff and about to jump. Lakshmi rushed to her but before she could do anything, the lady had jumped. Luckily Lakshmi had managed to hold her hand. The woman's eyes were swollen and marks of dried tears were on her face.. 

Lakshmi managed to pull up the lady after lot of effort, since the lady did not want to come up. After managing to carry the woman, who niether spoke nor resisted, to a safer land, Lakshmi hugged the woman tight.

Her mother used to say "jaddu ka jhappi always works". She was right. As soon as Lakshmi hugged the lady, her body was no longer that stiff and soon she broke down in Lakshmi's arms. Lakshmi rushed to buy a bottle of water and some food from the shop nearby and fed the woman after she had calmed down. 

Lakshmi saw herself in the lady. She too had thought to die that night. Looking into the lady's eyes, Lakshmi said "What happened? Tell me. Maybe I can not solve it, but I shall definitely help you out of these deadly thoughts."

The lady- I am the cause of her misfortune.

Lakshmi- People create their own luck. You can not blame yourself for someone else's misfortune. 

The lady- My sister's marriage broke off because of me.

Lakshmi was dumbstuck. There are thousand ways she can have caused her sister's marriage to break. But was it alright for her to ask the lady to tell everything clearly. However Lakshmi's confusion came to an end when the lady herself continued-

I married the love of my life and thought that I had got my happily ever after but my bubble of happiness burst soon. He started beating me. I loved him and accepted his abuses. I tolerated everything till I saw him introducing another woman as his wife in his office function. He even had a child with that woman. When I went to confront him, the woman dragged me out. I hold her I am his wife but she told me that they were legally married and already had a child. She knew he was a married man yet she married him and made a family with him. I left the house. The news of my broken marriage spread about in my father's house. My parents accepted me. However the society blamed me. Some said I might have cheated and was thrown out, some said I was infertile, some said I could not keep my in-laws happy. My sister's marriage was broken off. Yet she did not blame me. In years, many families came to ask her hand but all refused on learning about me. Finally after 3 years, a family had wanted to marry off their son to us. The guy had a crush on my sister since school and had actually hidden the truth of my past from his family. At the wedding event, however the truth reached their ears and the groom's mother entered the wedding dias, stopped the wedding and broke off the marriage. My sister is in the hospital now. She has taken poison.

Lakshmi was in short of words. Her divorce is tomorrow and her sisters are yet to be married.

A determined Lakshmi decided "I shall make this relation run by hook or by crook till both my sisters get married."

Present day- 

A lot had happened in a night. A tired Lakshmi dozed off on the terrace. Shalu and Bani had packed up their belongings. The Mumbai city has given them nothing but bad memories.

Little Bani was thinking 'What was the need of us to enter this city?' Half-asleep Shalu could clearly see through her sister and said "We thought we shall happily move on from the grief of mom dad's death but instead ended up stepping into a maze of deceit and ungratefulness. Now sleep."

Rishi reached the terrace and sees a sleeping Lakshmi. He gets near her and thinks "You could have told me why you wanted to divorce me than making another mess. Mom and dad are more hurt." He tucks her hair strands behind her ear and leaves. A smiling dadi witnesses this scene and retires to her bed.

Meanwhile Maliska was still thinking of Lakshmi's words. She remembered how the NGO women had blackened her face. Will she actually never get the respect of being the first wife? Will people really call her homebreaker?

The comfortable sleep of the Oberois were broken by Rishi's shrill shout. Neelam, vikram, Bua Sonia, Ahana, Ayush, Dadi all rushed to Rishi's room in their night dresses only. The heartbreaking sight of Rishi clutching a piece of paper and the half-empty cupboards denoted to a single thing. Neelam asked her son "what's wrong, rishi?"