SERENDIPITOUS|✓

Chapter 15

Two weeks, it had been two weeks since Krishn had gone back to his hometown. He still hadn't returned, hadn't fulfilled his promise of returning in a week.

And now the string was on the verge of breaking. The string of hope which connected Radha, to safety, to happiness. As the days had passed, the string had become thinner and thinner, just one more day and snap! The string would be broken completely. Her hope will be lost.

Not to be missed, how one week ago, on the said day, she had worn her favourite dress which she wouldn't have worn otherwise, had made warm kheer adorned with different dry fruits, had applied makeup on her face, had readied herself for someone for the first time in her life, had done so many things, things which eventually had to go back to their places when the whole day passed without Krishn coming back.

She should have learned her lesson that day itself.

She didn't, though.

This was so pathetic of her, so weak, so stupid, to depend on a stranger for her happiness, a stranger, who was never meant to be by her side.

Because even if Krishn didn't come back, it would not change a thing for anyone else. The people she would be living with would be the same people she was living with. Krishn never fitted in the family, was never a part of it, but her mind and dare she say, the tiniest corner of her heart, had already accommodated him carefully.

His absence in Radha's future didn't stop his presence in her present.

She didn't know why her brain was on the verge of a breakdown and why her heart was on the edge of breaking. She didn't know why her lungs weren't able to breathe properly neither did she know why was she on the brim of having a panic attack.

She just knew that she wanted Krishn to be here, by her side and If not that, then just to say her goodbye.

Just once.

She'll never say that though. She'll never admit it out loud. She would just tug at her legs even more tightly bringing them to her chest and rest her head on her knees.

Just like she did right now.

A single tear filled with frustration, betrayal, hurt and need pooled in her eyes and then rolled down, splashing on the floor. She watched as two and then three and then ten and a hundred more tears rolled and ran behind that lone drop. A bitter laugh bubbled out of her mouth knowing how at ease she felt while crying.

Like this was her home.

She just wished no one else build themselves a home like she did.

*

The Rathore mansion standing on five thousand square feet of floor space was twinkling. The whole mansion had been covered in lights and decorations and whatnot. Workers were given new clothes, the mansion was given new rooms and Mrs Rathore had added 10 more new sarees worthing almost 1 crore to her wardrobe. Every inch of the house was filled with different types of music and gatherings.

And why not?

It was Mr Abhi Rathore's Birthday, the Rathore mansion being the venue of the birthday party.

Radha saw as hundreds of people flooded through the front doors into the mansion. Thousands of gifts piled up at the one corner of the house mainly consisting of bouquets, packets of money or some keys belonging to brand new cars and bikes.

Today Radha realised, how much of a big thing, the Rathore's were. Today she also realised, how much she detested this kind of people. The kind of people who remembered to buy antique vases but bargained while buying fruits and vegetables, people who knew how to accept cars and money and whatnot, but didn't know how to fill a poor person's stomach, people who understood receiving but never bothered to learn about giving.