PAINFUL PLEASURE [COMPLETED]

49. News

SIDDHARTH'S POV

She wasn't breathing. She had no pulse. My thoughts trailed down a gruesome path that I did not want to follow.

"Help!" I shouted as I carried her out of Abhishek Bhaiya's car and entered the hospital.

"What are the symptoms, sir?" A nurse asked as she pulled a stretcher for me to place Avneet on.

"She fainted. Her pulse is very low, and I almost cannot feel her breathing," I explained, fumbling over words and moving people aside to make way for her stretcher.

"Doctor," the nurse called, and they went inside the operation theatre. More medical staff followed, and the doors closed behind them.

Bhabhi came running, and Bhaiya was behind, too.

"What is happening, bhabhi? She was fine when I left her that night. How did this happen?" I pulled my hair and screamed internally.

"Siddharth, stop," Bhabhi held my bicep, and I stepped away from her.

I wasn't in the correct headspace, and I did not want to hurt her. I punched the wall once, twice, thrice till my knuckles were bloody, and Bhaiya had to slap me to get me to stop.

"This is not helping Siddharth," he yelled.

He never yelled at me, and though in the depths of my heart, I knew that I was not helping; my brain was too fuzzy to process anything.

"She's my wife," I cried, and Bhaiya hugged me.

"She's very strong, and she's fighting in there to come back to you," he said, holding me tight.

"How am I supposed to breathe when I know that she might stop breathing any minute?" 

"She won't. You're supposed to fight the same war she's been battling for the past three days. Wait for her to come out."

—-----

"Siddharth, did you eat something?" Bhabhi asked me for the tenth time in two hours.

Avneet had been inside for two hours, and no doctor came out to tell us anything.

"I'm fine, bhabhi," I mumbled.

"Take a bite," she said, holding a rolled parantha in front of my mouth. 

I reluctantly opened my mouth and took one small bite. She fed me tiny bites every few minutes, and I could not help but think that she was the closest woman I had to a mother figure in my life.

"How was Avneet while I was gone?" I asked.

"Exactly how you are right now," Bhabhi replied.

"Do you know how she got the footage?" 

"She told us in the courtroom." Bhabhi nodded. "The three days while you were in custody, she went to the houses of all the employees who were present at the country clubhouse that day." 

She proceeded to tell me everything in detail, and every word uttered by her made my blood turn to ice. Fear, like I had never known before, gripped me.

"She did not tell us that this is what she was doing, or we would have at least accompanied her," Bhabhi concluded.

"What if something happened to her? How could she be so reckless?" I groaned and leaned down in my seat.

—---

The doors of the operation theatre opened, and all three of us immediately stood up.

"Is she alright?" I asked the doctor with a pounding heart and held my breath till she replied.