Bepannaah: Against All Odds || COMPLETED

5. An ounce of Truth

Aditya walked out of Zosh office, onto the roads, but his mind didn't have a control on his limbs, as he walked haywire, stumbling a few times, sometimes right in front of speeding vehicles and a time or two the driver stopped to give him a earful, but nothing really was registered by him. He didn't even realize he had drove to Zosh, or that his car was till there in its parking, or that his phone was ringing. Nothing in the world mattered to him, not anymore.

Aditya Hooda was a destroyed man, and painfully so, but his destruction was caused by the very same people he loved, and that was the worst part of it. He didn't know how to react anymore. When Pooja passed away, and he realized she was cheating on her, the emotion that dominated him was anger. He was angry on her, because in his mind, it was not his fault, but hers. After Sakshi brought out the truth, all his anger had dissipated and the only anger he felt was for himself. He held himself responsible for droving her away. But this time, Zoya's refusal to accept her love, or Anjana's truth had made him numb, from inside. He wasn't angry, he was hurt. And disappointed in himself. Once again, in his mind, he held himself responsible.

It was when Zoya pulled him aside from a car that was almost going to hit him, that he realized he was walking on a busy street of Mumbai, in the middle of the traffic.

" Aditya! What's wrong with you? Do you even realize what could have happened?", Zoya shouted, her heart beating wildly. She did not want to think what a minute of delay could have done to him. She could have lost him too.

Only thing, she didn't realize her delay had already done too much damage to him. She had taken him and his feelings for granted this whole time, and now that she was ready to reciprocate, he wasn't willing anymore.

" I am okay", Aditya removed her hands holding his arms, and took one look at her dishevelled look before lowering his eyes.

Zoya continued to stare at him, wanting to find something in his eyes, a flicker of hope maybe. But he gave away nothing, his eyes refusing to look at here were empty anyway, and that was scaring her deep inside.

" I will drop you home", She declared, ignoring the horns of the cars passing by, irritating at the girl and the guy standing in one side of a busy one way road.

He frowned, wondering why he needed to be dropped home. The sun rays falling on his face wasn't helping either, he was squeezing his eyes again and again to combat the light.

" Aditya? Aditya are you okay?", Zoya held his arms when she found him spinning a little. Aditya tried to balance himself, and nod at her, but he could not really maintain himself on his feet, and fell down, on the road, with his head on Zoya's lap who had also bent down instinctively.

Zoya felt oddly scared at the sight of his limp body, her cheeks damp with tears that her eyes won't stop flowing. Her hands shivered as she shook him, as the people gathered around them, and as somebody help her get an auto to the nearest hospital. The only thing she registered was his vibrating phone, with Arjun's name on the display.

When Arjun walked into the hospital corridor, he found a crying Zoya standing in the lobby outside one of the rooms. The doctor was inside, checking up on Aditya, but Zoya looked much more distraught than him.

" Zoya!", Arjun kept a hand on Zoya's shoulder and she turned. Tears again filled her eyes, as her gaze roamed between Aditya and Arjun.

" Aditya fainted. I-", she could not even speak, her words caught in her throat as she tried to explain Arjun.

He held her by shoulders and asked her to calm down. It was so clearly etched on her face how much a single scratch on Aditya haunt her, just like the day of her engagement, when she had ran off to meet him just because he was in an accident.

" I wish you would have acted upon your feelings before Zoya, Maybe Bhai would not have so lost", Arjun could not help but let the bitterness seep through his words.

He didn't hate Zoya, he was empathetic to her fear of falling in love too. He understood his reluctance and hence had time and again tried to make her see through her own feelings, but the brother in him was hurt to see him elder brother in such acute pain. Somehow he knew in the morning itself that Aditya won't accept Zoya's love anymore, because it was not his trust on Zoya that had been broken, it was his trust on himself.

Zoya looked at him, stunned on his sentence, but her eyes so wide like she had never realized what he was speaking on his face.

" You know when I first confronted him with his feelings for you, he had straight away denied to act on his feelings, even though he knew he had already fallen neck deep in love for you. Do you know why? Because he was afraid the society will not let YOU leave, he was afraid YOU will have to suffer, that YOU will cry because of him. It took him so much effort and courage on his part to finally act on his feelings for you", Arjun spoke, shaking his head, and Zoya was stupefied, unable to form a single coherent sentence.

" You had accepted your past Zoya, Bhai hadn't. Did you ever think why he ran away from all of us? And when he finally saw a reason to live again in you, you brutally murdered his will to love. Denying his love, rejecting him, letting your Abbu make fun out of his love, his self respect, his personality. You even let him make Bhai make Arshad wear shoes. You toyed with his love until the last minute of your nikah Zoya. Had you seen his face when you whispered the first 'Qubool hai' Zoya, you would know what devastation looked like. He did everything to make you realize your feelings Zoya, even when on the other hand he was simultaneously convincing himself too that he was worth a second chance. I don't know what happened the night before your marriage, what did you say that he gave up? The man who was so confident about you loving him, accepted that you never loved him. I have never seen Bhai so defeated as in that moment Zoya. And now here you are, crying over him, caring about him, and I don't know if I really want to feel bad for you", Arjun stopped when he saw the doctor coming out, all his energy now focused on the doctor, the stumped woman behind him away from his sight.

" His glucose levels had dropped, and blood pressure have significantly raised. We have it in control now though, you can take him home once the drip finishes", the doctor patted Arjun's shoulder and left for his rounds, while Arjun immediately entered the room.

Zoya stood outside, frozen as a statue. Her heart clenched at Arjun's words but her mind chided her at the same moment. Wasn't every word of his monologue true? How could she have been so inconsiderate of him? Him, the man she claimed to be her best friend? How could she not know his heart? How could she not see behind his hesistant smiles, his scarred eyes?

She kept looking at Aditya through the window, weeping at her own fate. She had murdered her own chance at happiness so brutally.

When Arjun came out, she held his wrist and stooped him.

"I know majority of it is my fault. But there is something else also, isn't it? I have seen it in his eyes, they are so empty, like he is better dead than living. What is it Arjun?", Her serious eyes made him sigh. No matter how much she had hurt him, he knew she loved Aditya, probably the only remedy to his shattered soul.

" Sakshi Aunty is dead".