Gauri was tired, she just wanted the day to end. It had taken her an hour to get back to the mansion thanks to the peak hours traffic. She had no heart to even be around him- the devil. She quietly and quickly made her way to the lawn where she hoped she would find Anika. Luckily, she did. She went over to her telling about her lost keys. Anika looked at Gauri weirdly.
"The key is in my room." Anika spoke referring to the room she had been staying in at the mansion.
"Give me the keys of your room, and tell me where the key is." Gauri spoke softly looking around at the crowd of ladies probably the older Oberoi ladies' friends who had come to see Anika.
Anika was hesitant. She pulled the key out and handed it over to Gauri. "I will be here."
Gauri smiled. "Will be back." Saying that she hurriedly made her way back into the mansion. The only prayer in her mind that she got out of the mansion unnoticed by anyone. She was done for the day. But deep in her heart, she was sad. Sad that Anika was permanently heading to a life where there was no Gauri. Which only meant Gauri would have no one! She sighed entering Anika's room. She quickly walked up to the study and lit the lamp. There were multiple drawers. Six in total. She started opening each hoping to find the key. She came across an brown colored diary or rather scrap book of sorts. Curious she pulled it out flipping the pages. Immediately a smiled made it to her face. There were pictures of their childhood. She now understood where the few pictures from the album had been lost. Her stupid sister slipped them out to give them a home in her book.
There were not just photographs, but also handwritten notes. Gauri smiled reading one. It was dated, also held the grade Anika was in while writing that note. 5th standard. She wrote about how happy she was when Papa attended her dance performance.
"Papa is my lucky mascot. Every time he attends anything I take part in, I always win something. When he does not, those are the times I don't win. I miss you Mama, I wish you never left. Maybe Papa would then always come when I call him. Maybe there would be no one to take him away from me."
Gauri bit her lower lip. She had an idea that Anika felt that way. She tried her best to make Anika feel like she was her own elder sister. She went back in time remembering the so many fights at home. Anika would always cry and shout and fight with her. Always say that no one loved her. Gauri recollected the many efforts her mother made to feel Anika loved.
Maybe her mother didn't try wholeheartedly to win Anika. Maybe her mother still loved her more. She was human after all. Gauri couldn't understand who was at fault. But, she felt guilty. As she flipped pages she found thorough glimpse of Anika's mind over the years. She felt terrible to read how sad and lonely Anika actually was. There were mention of so many small instances, that to Anika were big things. From the better gift Gauri got on her birthday, to the little fact of her father bringing orchids for Gauri and roses for her. Gauri's eyes were filled with tears. She always liked orchids and Anika roses. Never did she see that as, her dad spending more on her than Anika. But Anika saw it that way. Gauri had always seen it as a matter of choice, but Anika saw beyond that. They had different perspectives. Very different. Perhaps they never really understood each other because of that.
Gauri felt, if she was in Anika's place perhaps even she would have reacted in the same way. Anika's note on the day their father passed away, made Gauri cry and her hands tremble. She was emotionally drained. Anika's pain was deeper than she had ever imagined! It wasn't just stubborn insecurity. It had been growing in her since very long. It was deep rooted. She never voiced her pain aloud. Maybe her complaints, but never the pain. Despite everything she tried being a part of the family with Gauri and her mother. Of course, she never liked her mother. But she still gave Gauri a chance. Now Gauri understood, Anika had simply been fighting her own self. Not Gauri.
Who better than Gauri could understand, that war when you want to love someone for what they truly are, but want to hate them for what they did to you!
Gauri couldn't go on. She placed the book back and opened the next drawer after wiping her tears. In the fifth she found the key. It had the same key chain like hers. The one they both had bought together. She turned around and her heart almost sank hitting a hard rock. Two eyes stared at her. The deep brown ones glowing like black set on fire, due to the lamp's golden light.
She swallowed the lump of fear that had formed in her throat as he took a step forward. His eyes glaring. His manner icy cold. There was no warmth whatsoever.
"I-I-key.." Gauri mumbled stepping back. She could feel the sweat droplet trickled down her lower back. She surprisingly feared him in the moment.
"Told you - stay out. How hard is it for you to bloody understand? Or are you testing me?" His tone was cold. He took two steps closer. Gauri reminded himself that fearing him meant giving him a upper hand.
"I-"she gulped. "I came her for my key." She held up the key as though to make him understand.
"Really? " He smiled evilly and then that smile turned into a glare, sending a shiver down Gauri's spine.
"Snooping around your sister's room or planting evidences against my brother?" he was very close now, so close that Gauri could clearly see every strand of his eyelashes.
"None." She uttered trying to look back into his eyes nonchalantly. Without showing her fear.
He pulled her by her hand and in those brief moments Gauri did not know what happened. She was twirled around as she lost her balance to the right and soon he had twisted her hand behind her back. She stood with her back against his front, trapped in his steel hold. "I am no fool. Neither blind." he hissed into her ears.
"Not always what one sees is true." She spoke, gaining courage from the fact that he was no longer intimidating her with the glare of his eyes.
"One is a fool, if he chooses to be blind to what he sees." he spoke through his gritted teeth. "I have never seen a sister so against her own sister's happiness. Perhaps stories like that of Cinderella are true."
Gauri was hurt. Everyone would see her as the step sister. No one would ever see the true sister she tried to be. What was her fault in it all?
"Tell me, what punishment would make you regret what you did?" His hot breath fanned her ears.
Omkara was taking everything the wrong way. The right only gave him pain and betrayal. But, this was a different journey altogether. He knew it in the depth of his heart. He truly didn't know what he wanted more. Her love? Her ? Or To be the Devil to her!
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Do leave your povs on Gauri & Anika after this chapter.
