TOXIC DATE

TRUTH

"Love isn't only love, sweetheart. It's hard work, and trust, and tears, with even a few glimpses of devastation. But at the end of each day, if you can still look at the person at your side and can't imagine anyone else you'd rather have there, the pain and heartache and the ups and downs of love are worth it."

IRA'S POV

"Why are you silent Rumi? Is there something that I don't know? What is it? Don't force me to think about the things which I can't even imagine..!" I was almost dying to know what's next to unfold while she stood there silent.

"I am dying Ira, i won't be surviving more than a few days from now. Can't you see my health. The truth is how much I try to hide all my pain behind the mask of happiness or through this makeup it won't change the fact that I am here for a few more days" and completing the statement Rumi sat down on the floor breaking down.

"What are you even saying?" I looked at her. Trying to hold her and offered the glass of water which she rejected to drink.

"Truth, I am saying the truth...the truth which has made me hollow from inside the truth which is your right to know. You have to know that...."

"That, what else do I have to know?" I muttered.

"That I and Asher are not married, that he never married anyone after you and neither he loved me or anyone else other than you" she replied.

And now I felt as if the floor beneath my feet shifted. He wasn't married to Rumi, he didn't love her....what was all that? That kid, Rumi is dressing up for festivals, being in the Khan mansion...and why didn't Asher tell me all this when I was being rude to him?

While I was busy talking in my head.

Rumaisa's voice brought me out of the scenarios i was busy creating inside my head. She was the only person now who could tell me what was actually going on here.

"After you left I thought things would go as planned. After all I planted the seeds of seperation. But Allah sees everything. He knew that I was doing wrong, but when we do wrong for an instant we hear a silent call from within ourselves that we shouldn't do all this but we refuse to hear it and we still do what we shouldn't like I did. I planned, and you implemented what I wished for. But love can't be snatched away from. Love is winning, love is sacrifice, love is efforts, love is dying for the one we love but never stopping their independence. Love is freedom Ira.... And eventually I was excited for our marriage, but then I found out I was pregnant before our marriage!" And she stopped.

"Ruma is not Asher's child.....oh my god" and I patted my head.

"No, she is the child of my boss. The one with whom I became physical once. But you know how these rich Bosses of big companies are, trips, tours, dating, getting physical is common for them. And the same was for him, but I never knew that how can a person reject his own blood. He asked me for abortion, he said that it's not his child. I was a whore for him. He wasn't sure because if I can sleep with him..I can sleep with anyone. He didn't accept the child. And when I said I will not go for abortion. I was kicked out of the office, my family felt shameful to even call me as their daughter, Asher's mom doesn't like me since that day, she wasn't even ready to have me in this house. It was Asher who stepped in as an hero in my life and saved me from the misfortunes my life had planned for me. He gave Ruma the name of a father. He became her popsy." And this time I could see her smiling with joy.

"And you? Weren't you in love with Asher? Why didn't you marry him? You could have convinced him?" I questioned her back.

"Why would I, the day I got to know that I have a life inside my tummy. I felt complete and the way my boss treated me, the way this society is. I decided to be a single mother, I am passionate for my work, I am hard working and I didn't believe in the concept of getting married because my child needed a father. The day I got her in my stomach i realised that I wasn't alone, I had a life growing inside me. And with or without a man I was still complete as well as sufficient. Often we believe that love happens when two people fall for eachother. But in that love we lose, we fail, we try, we succeed, we suffer. But when Ruma came inside my tummy I knew how to fall in love...all over again but not with any man. Instead with myself. I knew that loving starts from within our ownselves. How can we expect someone to love us when we can't love ourselves at first place. My baby thought me those things in life which were never in my syllabus but came as the first question in exam of my life" She replied.