|| ENDLESS LOVE || -- A MaNan FF

|| Chapter One ||

All through his journey, a thousand questions passed through his head.

"What is she doing in India?"

"She did not even try to contact him since the last three years."

"Why would she not contact him all this time?"

"Is she still angry with him?"

He would get unbearably angry when he thought that she had left him all by himself for this long. He was burning in her love, more precisely without her love and she did not even call him once. She had forgotten about him. At the same time, he would get ecstatic when he thought that he would finally see her today: look at her beautiful face, her smile, her warmth, her touch.

But no matter what, she was going to pay for putting him through the last three years.

"Manik, bhai!!!" Cabir hugged him at the airport. Mukthi was standing there with tears in her eyes. Manik kept his shades on, he was not ready to let them read into this dark side of him. He was this naughty, fiercely energetic, ambitious yet loving guy a few years ago. Now, he only had remnants of his old self. His friends had been extremely worried about him since Nandini left, because he became irresponsive to everything. None of their words went through his head.

Cabir and Mukthi tried to get him stay at the hotel with them but he had repeatedly turned it down. He tried to avoid everything that reminded him of Nandini, and all his friends were very close to her, even more than him. When he spent time with them, he could sense a prominent part missing in their conversations, their dinners, their vacations. He couldn't bear that vacuum. He had even locked up his old apartment and moved into a new place where everything is new. He had tucked away everything that even remotely reminded of her. But no matter what, he was never able to remove her from his heart.

"Cabir, I want to see her immediately." Manik said.

"Don't you want to freshen up?" Cabir asked.

"Nahi , I could not be any fresher." He replied.

~~~

He walked up the stairs in a hurried manner. His friend told him that her apartment was on the third floor. His speed decreased as he approached the last few steps. His heart was beating fast in anticipation. He was only a few steps away from her. As he reached the third floor, he saw that there were two apartments on his right. The one on the extreme corner had 'Venkatesh Murthy' board hung up on the side. That was her chacha, he walked up to that apartment slowly, passing the other one. Right when he was passing, something attracted his attention. There were daffodils in the pot before the other apartment. Those were her favorites, their old balcony used to be full of them. And the pots that they were in, they had the same kind of design that she always used to make. Some of the pots had scribbling on them which were probably resembling her design but very very poor imitations of it, almost like the scribbling of a kid.

All this was confusing to him, he decided to ignore it for the time being and walked towards her chachu's apartment. Just then a sweet little boy came running upstairs wearing a school bag. He was reaching for the handle of the apartment door, which was at least two feet above his head. Manik smiled at the little guy and kept walking forward. "Nikki!!! Baby wait for your sister.." he heard someone yell from the stairs. He could recognize that voice in a hall with thousand people. It was her, his Nandini. He smiled for a second but what he saw next took away the ground from under his feet. She walked up to the door carrying another kid who wrapped her arms and legs around her and was crying loudly. She was trying to console her, wiping her tears. She was trying to put her down to get her keys out but the girl wouldn't stay away from her arms.

"Mumma..open the door, I need to pee." the little guy banged the door with his little hands.

"One second sweetie" She put the girl on the ground and held her with one hand and opened her handbag with the other. She didn't notice the person standing behind her who was getting the shock of his life. He was turning blue.

Is she really Nandini? Who are these kids? Why did he call her mama?? His head was spinning wildly, running superfast scared at what his was about to discover. His heart sank to the bottom of the ocean and his mind worked like an erupting volcano, contemplating the various possibilities.

"Nandini?" he let out a small cry stopping Nandini's heart for a second. She turned around quickly to see him standing with his mouth open, he was trying to say something, but his voice wasn't co-operating with him. His breathing was getting heavy and he held his head with his hand wiping the sweat on his forehead.

An icy chill passed through her body. She looked around to see if this was really real. The maid was sweeping the stairs, the neighbors opposite to them were flying kites. Her son was banging on the door shouting at her to open it. Her daughter stopped crying and was looking at Manik. "Who is he mommy??" she asked her pointing towards Manik.

This was real. He was really here. Time went still. Her husband. He was here wearing her red shirt. She gulped. She didn't know what to do. For a second she forgot everything, she felt so good seeing him. Her eyes were starting to fill up. She did not even know what had happened of him. She could now see that he is fine. The next second, reality hit her. Her son, her daughter, she cannot deal with this right now. They cannot know anything. She could not look at him. Not after what he had done. She had moved on in her life and there was no place for him.

"What are you doing here Manik?" she asked indifferently.

Her words struck him like daggers, proved to him that she was really her. Not someone who looks like her. For a second, he saw the same love in her eyes, but quickly that changed colors, she looked away. What the hell was going on?

"Nandini?? Where were you? Who are these??..." there were a million questions in his eyes.

"Stop right there Manik, I cannot talk to you right now, my kids are here." "Please leave" she told him point blank.

"Your kids?" he asked her flabbergasted.

"Manik please...not a good time.." she looked at them and quickly opened the door as Nikki, her son rushed in. She looked at Manik for one last time and shut the door tightly.

                                                                             ~~~