Prithvi... [Vol 5]

Chapter 117

Prithvi didn't glance at the girl standing near the table as he walked out of the room. The urge to seek some scrap of understanding from her was too strong, and if he approached her and she shrank from him again, he wasn't sure he could endure it.

His disorientation had increased in the last few moments. The more his mind thrashed around futilely to understand, the faster he seemed to be losing his grip on rationality.

This was not who he was...This was not how he should be...

He heard someone approach him and ask him a question. It was Sumer Singh.

"Prithvi, what's wrong?" Sumer Singh asked, greatly alarmed. There was a world of difference between the young man who had entered the room and the one who had walked out from it. He had seen many shades of Prithvi till date, but he had never seen this frightening lifelessness on the fair features...

Prithvi stared blankly at Sumer Singh. Nandini had wanted him to convey a message. What was it, he tried to recall. It came back to him on a tide of fresh despair.

"Baba, Nandini wants to...she wants to go back to Mrs Bhargava's house in Vishranti Nagar," he muttered. "She wants to leave immediately. You need to go with her."

Not registering any of Sumer Singh's frantic questions, Prithvi strolled away without being aware of where he was heading. A connection to reality seemed to have been severed, pushing him into a smothering miasma of confusion and heartache. He'd experienced this mental fog on occasions when he'd sustained life-threatening injuries. But this was more painful...

Prithvi stopped half-way down a flight of stairs. He hadn't realised he was heading to his mother's room.

Feeling ill, he stepped to the marble banister to lean against it, and remained unmoving for some time...

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Sumer Singh hastened to the room and found Nandini standing motionless in a corner. Prithvi's traumatised demeanour had been that of an innocent who had suddenly been cast into a blazing fire, Nandini had the air of one who had endured the hellish agony of the fire and had emerged alive but horribly damaged.

"Nandini, what is Prithvi saying?" Sumer Singh asked her agitatedly. "Why do you want to go Mrs Bhargava's house all of a sudden?"

Nandini's damp eyes flitted over every object in the room for some moments before she looked at the tensed man. She feebly said, "It wasn't a sudden decision, uncle. I've been thinking about it since yesterday. This whole situation with Prithvi's family is very complicated, and I don't feel comfortable in the palace. So, will you please take me to Mrs Bhargava's house?"

"Oh...that's all? You didn't have a fight with Prithvi?" Sumer Singh asked, faintly relieved.

"No, we didn't fight," Nandini mumbled.

Sumer Singh contemplated the situation more calmly. If that was the problem, it wasn't as bad as he feared. While it was unfortunate that Nandini wanted to leave, her uneasiness was understandable. She was a simple 19-year-old with hardly any exposure to the world. Any person who had been raised in a loving and stable home would feel perturbed in the palace's current environment. She'd also had an unfortunate accident this morning, though the details were murky. And if he had to be honest, he was afraid of finding out what had caused those marks on her face.

With the upheaval that was going in his life, Prithvi was naturally upset at her request, but he would understand her viewpoint eventually.

"Everything will improve soon," Sumer Singh assured earnestly. "You will return then, won't you?"