Almost Fireworks, Almost Darkness

|Epilogue|

Two years later

"Here Kaka (Uncle), that would be 250", Ragini said and got the 250 rupees from a customer. She was now handling her Baba's shop.

She closed the shop as it was late at night and then walked to baadi. As she walked the road with slight drizzling, her mind wandered over the happenings of her life. She once loved a person with all her heart and now she didn't even hate him but hated herself for loving someone beyond everything.

It has been two years since she saw him, she didn't want to see him. It took her love to almost kill her to realize how big hearted her sister had been to her. Ragini still had nightmares about the memories of almost losing her life, how did her sister forgave her? She must have also seen nightmares, right?

Within three months of Laksh going to jail, Ragini gathered the courage and called her sister to ask forgiveness. When her sister picked up her call, she could only cry unable to form any word. Like every other time, her sister told her she was forgiven but this time there was a reservedness from her side. Her sister probably thought she was acting again and it broke her heart. After that Ragini never tried to contact her taking it as a punishment.

She tried her best to move on and have a life, but she could not get job anywhere. Everyone knew she had criminal records of her trying to kill someone. She immediately knew it must be Sanskar who made sure to do that to her. She didn't complain and silently faced it as her punishment deciding to work in her baba's shop.

Within few months her maa was in all smiles and happily announced that Swara was pregnant. Ragini was extremely happy for her sister but little did she knew her happiness was short lived. Her father did not show much reaction, he didn't seem happy, he didn't seem sad. Her dadi made some sarcastic remarks and that was the day her maa walked out of their lives. Ragini never expected her maa to be holding back so much pain inside her but she burst out that day, she blamed her father for ruining her life. A lot of bitter words rolled out of her mouth that day when she asked if he ever really loved her or Swara. 

Ragini cried to her mother begging to stay back for her. Her mother simply said she was a call away for her but would never step inside the gadodia house again. It happened almost one and half years ago, her sister must now have a baby. She wondered if the baby was a boy or a girl, she would have had someone to call her Maasi. She wiped her tears as she stepped inside the baadi. She sighed heavily seeing her dadi asleep on the bed, her baba was also asleep near dadi in a sitting position.

Her dadi was extremely sick, both she and her baba struggled with the medical expenses to take care of her. It was a rare sight to see her Dadi actually sleep peacefully as she couldn't sleep most of the time.

The gadodia house was filled with regret and pain everyday, as she changed into her night clothes. She checked her mails ready to see the inbox empty or spammed with rejection mails but surprisingly her profile was shortlisted at a reputed company. She gulped her tears seeing it, had Sanskar cleared her criminal records?

She dialled her sister's number with shivering hands and tears.

"Hello", she heard her sister's voice and almost choked. "Swara I.." she stuttered when she heard her sister's voice.

"Ouch babu stop pulling Mama's hairs. What? Do you want phone? Do you want food? Ouch.. oh okay so Mama should sit like this so you can sit on my lap comfortably, got it sorry my rajkumar!"

Ragini sobbed closing her mouth hearing it. So it was a boy! "Ha Ragini, bolo (say)" she heard her sister's voice and gulped down her tears. "Woh actually I.. I wanted to ask if Sanskar cleared my.. I mean", she heard a sigh from other side.