His First Love (True Love)

Episode 13

"She is my wife and Karthik's mother, Shanti," said Santosh and Sejal widened her eyes in disbelief.

"She died giving birth to Karthik and Savi almost died giving birth to her first child, but luckily she got saved, but the unborn child died," said Santosh.

"That is why there is such an age gap between Karthik and Garima," said Sejal.

"Yes, but we didn't plan Garima, we were forced," said Santosh.

"Do you love her?" asked Sejal, looking at their marriage photo.

Santosh started laughing and said, "ours is an arranged marriage and we saw each other on our first night, you know at that time rituals were different, and as soon as I raised her veil, she got scared of me, but I calmed her down by hugging her, that was a different feeling."

"How many years were you together?" asked Sejal.

"Just one year, till we fell in love, she was seven months pregnant and I was busy with my business, and her mother came to take her home as no one was there to take care of her in my house, but I fought with her and ignored the business and started spending time with my Shanti, but she convinced me to start going to the office again," said Santosh and stood there looking at the photo.

"What happened then?" asked Sejal.

"She invited her mom to stay with us as she was not able to handle work and that day I had an important meeting with the client and when I came out, I received a call from her mother saying that Shanti is in pain and they are taking her to the hospital, I reached the hospital and Shanti smiled looking me, she gave me hope that nothing is going to happen and she will return safely, but after half an hour, the nurse came out with a baby. I went inside and saw she was sleeping peacefully, the same face, which always made me calm, she left me, I was not able to hold myself and came home," said Santosh.

"You didn't attend her funeral?" asked Sejal, looking at him confused.

"How can I see her burning? She was my life, she is my peace," said Santosh and Sejal hugged his arm.

"I locked myself in the house for 10 days, I didn't allow anyone to come inside, then his grandmother came with his son Vijay and I asked them to leave, but they were adamant, I closed my door and stayed inside for two days, and when I thought they left, I opened the door and Vijay came running to me and hugged me tightly and said that they are not going to leave so easily, I have to allow them to take care of Karthik," said Santosh.

"So you allowed them?" asked Sejal.

"His grandma took care of him for six months, but then they thought I am still young and Karthik also needs a mother's love and forced me to marry Savi. I never allowed her to take care of Karthik, I didn't even allow her near him. One day she said that her parents are forcing her and we need to have a child. I had no other choice. Again she came near me and said that we should pretend like a normal couple in front of others and since then we have been doing the same," said Santosh.

"Where are your in-laws?" asked Sejal.

"I hope you might have heard about the Raisinghani family? The rulers? They still hold the palace," said Santosh.

"Kings in this century?" asked Sejal.

"They are not alive, they died one by one, Vijay's son went missing. I have been searching for him for the past 10 years," said Santosh.

"Last heir of the kingdom," said Sejal.

"Yes, last heir, but no one knows where he is, whether he is alive or dead," said Santosh.

Sejal thought for some time and asked, "do you mean to say you both live in separate rooms, but your kids don't even know about it?"

"Maybe they know something, maybe they don't know anything, but they never asked," said Santosh.