High On Life

65: The Plan

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It felt as if my whole world fell apart in just that one question of hers.

"Who....who am...I?" A shocked whisper escaped my lips as I interrogated myself wirh the same question. She inched away on the bed, her expressions scared.

My breaths started to become dishevelled. "N...Nida."

"Who the hell are you? Please...Please stay away from me." She moved farther away on the bed.

I held her weak face in my shivering hands as tears fell off my face. "Nida mein...mein Sheh..Shehryaar hoon, Nida. Tum...tumhaara Sh...Shehry. Shehry py...." I weeped and she just sat there with her expressions stunned.

"Dekho. Mein...mein kisi Shehryaar ko nahi jaanti. Mujhe haath. Mat. Lagao." She gritted her teeth, breathing heavily through her teeth as she peered into my eyes with her dark eyes that portrayed nothing but the harsh fact that......I was now nothing more than a mere stranger in her life.

I gripped her weak face harder in my fingers and she winced in pain. "I...I'm your husband Nida. Pehchaano mujhe. Ch...chor gayi thi tum mujhe. Yaad hai?" I tried to remind her, trying not to sound harsh because now was not the right time to get back at her for what she did to me a year back.

"Excuse me?" She looked disturbed all of a sudden. "Husband? You come to me, try to remind of something that never existed, t...touched me, and now you call yourself....my damn husband ?!" She yelled, yanking my hands off her face.

"I was never married, and you dare have the fuckin' audacity to call me your...wife? Do you not have the slightest bit of shame ?!" She screeched.

I just shook my head in sheer disbelief. "Nahi Nida......Aise nahi kar sakti tum meray saath." I looked down as rage built up in me. All of a sudden, I screamed in her face. "Nahi kar sakti tum aisa !!!!"

She almost jumped in her place and began breathing harshly. She coughed as tears rapidly screamed down her face.

"Nida?" I instantly put my hand behind her head and laid her down and she stopped coughing.

"Mat haath lagao mujhe !!!" She scorned with a torn voice.

"I am your goddamn husband !!! Don't you remember ?!" I spoke louder as I held her arms, and the door to the room opened, with Mannat entering.

"Mannat !!" She yelled as her teardrops fell down to her white hospital gown.

Mannat ran over to her and carressed her shoulders. "Everything's okay Nida. Just calm down."

"No !! I told you to take me away from here. And you brought a stranger to me who...who claims to be my husband? Kia hai yeh sab Mannat?" She looked at her in disbelief.

Stranger....

"Nida...listen carefully. This guy......" She grabbed my arm and pulled me close to Nida's bed, not worrying about the fact that she was petrified. "Is your husband, Nida. His name is Shehryaar Asif. Remember?" Mannat spoke softly to her and I just looked down at my weak, helpless and terribly broken wife.

Nida just shook her head as she stayed quiet. I sat down on my knees beside her bed as a tear rolled down my cheek.

"Tum kaise bhool sakti ho mujhe Nida. Kaise bhool sakti ho woh sab kuch jo kabhi....jo kabhi hum dono ke beech tha. Bhool gayi ho woh engagement, woh Nikaah, woh High School ke din...jab hum...jab hum pehli dafa mile thay aik doosre se?" I looked down, gulping hard all my emotions that I just wanted to let out in an ear-piercing scream.

"Why are you doing this, whoever you are. You have no right to intrude into my life as my so-called husband. I was never ever married to anyone. My parents died and I came to LA. And I..."