Eshana got up and sighed. She looked at the time and then got off the bed looking at herself in the mirror.
There she stood. A girl. Who was lost. She didn't know for whom she was living. Actually she wasn't living. She was just...alive.
What else could she do. Grown up in an orphanage all her life she never had anyone. The people in the orphanage never formed a bond with any of the kids there because that would eventually hurt them.
But Eshana wished she had someone she could call hers. Even for sometime. For someone she could call her family. Someone who would love her. Be there for her.
She sighed again and looked at herself. Her face was beautiful but she has no smile and spark in her eyes. She was tired of living like this.
She didn't know who her parents are. Or were. She was only a few days old when she was taken by the orphanage.
She knew the story though. Of how she reached the place. I was midnight when a man had knocked the doors of the orphanage with a few days old baby in his arms. Her.
He was a tourist and lived abroad. He had found her crying on a footpath with a body of a man lying near her.
The man was hit by a truck and died on spot. The kind man assuming the dead man to be her father took the little girl and left her in the orphanage.
And she had been there for 21 years of her life. As soon as she turned 21 and completed her education she moved out and started working.
She lived in a rented apartment. She still does. She chuckled humourlessly. She couldn't call the house she lived in hers. Leave alone the people in her life.
Not wanting to cry at her fate she went to the bathroom to freshen up and take a shower.
She then came out and after getting dressed made herself breakfast. She quickly gulped her tea and toast and rushed to the bus stand.
She was waiting for the bus when she heard someone call her name. She turned to the source of the voice and saw a handsome man of almost her age standing there.
He came near her and looked at her in disbelief and tears shining in his eyes.
"God! Eshana! You're alive! I can't believe this. Where were these three months? We searched for you everywhere. Har jagah baat krli but no one had any clue about what happened with the bus. Some people even said ki wo bus khai (cliff) mai gir gyi. But I am so glad to see you. Thank God you are fine."
The man said it all in one go. What even was this man speaking? And who was he?
"Umm- I think you've got the wrong person. I don't know who you are."
The man looked at her trying to understand and then his eyes widened in realisation and they softened.
"You lost your memory? It's me Eshana. Hridhaan! I am your fiance."
Ok! Now she was shocked. She didn't know this man and he claimed to be her fiance. Who even was he?
"Dekhiye Mr. Whoever you are. I don't know you and I definitely don't have a fiance. My bus is here I am getting late. Excuse me!"
She said and climbed her bus while he kept looking at her retreating figure. He had found her after so long and was so not letting her go.
It was almost 8 in the evening when Eshana reached the bus stand near her house. She was tired.
But what shocked her as she got off was the man. The same man who claimed to be her fiance. He was still there.
He looked up and stood up straight seeing her back. She didn't know how to react.
"Listen Mr. Hriday! Mai wo nhi hu jo aap soch rhe hai. I think you're mistaken. I don't know you and am not your fiance. You're just wasting your time."
He smiled softly and stepped closer to her making her take a step back instinctively and look at him wide eyed. He stopped and said.
"What if I can prove that what I am saying is the truth? Tab toh meri baat ka yakin krogi na? And It's Hridhaan by the way."
He pulled put his phone and did something. Opening his gallery he forwarded his phone to her clicking a certain picture.
She cautiously took his phone still vary of him. One look at the picture and she felt like she would faint.
How on Earth was this possible? She had never met this man before today and the picture he showed was his engagement picture. With her.
How was this possible? How can she be engaged to him but not know? But the face in the picture was no doubt hers. She even had a huge smile on her face. And not to miss the twinkle in her eyes. That's definitely not her. But how?
She looked at him shocked and in disbelief and he took his phone back with a smile.
"How do I know you have not edited this picture?"
She asked dumbly and he shrugged.
"How would I edit it? I didn't have your picture. Besides mujhe itni achhi editing aati bhi nhi hai."
He said with a joke and she realised he was right. Where would he get her pictures from? She was not even on social media.
She was digesting what all she saw when he dropped another bomb on her.
"Ghar chalo Eshana. Your parents and everyone at home misses you. Maa ka bura haal ho rakha hai. Come home Eshana."
Home! The word sounded so strange and unfamiliar. She knew she shouldn't trust him. Stranger danger but the sincerity in his eyes and the way he looked at her with adoration made her rethink.
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