Arranged Marriage ✓

Chapter - Forty-nine.

Nishita.

My eyes watched Anita storm out from the room I and Di were in — after I gave her an earful of yelling. Di covered her mouth at first and let out muffled cries. Then she slowly put her hand on her forehead and cried silently. Di and I coexisted in sheer silence; ‘pin drop silence’, they call it. I simply watched her doing stuff like crying and do hand gestures at me but I chose to ignore them.

I didn’t know how to react. My mother and father – who gave birth to me – lyed on a stretcher with their eyes close shut, forever. Anita– who once used to be my best friend now became the reason why my parents are now dead? I was least bothered to even think about who that guy with her was. Yet, a question was raised in my mind. Was he her new boy-toy? Because of her Darshan went through so much and maybe this guy will have to, too.

Darshan. I looked around myself in hope to find him but he was nowhere close to me. I wanted to pick up my phone and call him but I knew he was busy. Not that, that I didn’t feel leaving everything behind and rush towards him and be safe, secured and protected in his arms.

Di broke the chain of my thoughts when she pat on my shoulder. “What?”, barely escaped my mouth. “I’ll drop you home, we’ll come tomorrow to do the formalities and do their last rites, too”, She said. Their. I didn’t want to move even a single inch, let alone going home. “I don’t want to, let me stay here”, I said. She nodded her head in disagreement. “Please”, a soft request left my lips. “The hospital authority won’t allow us to! You have to understand!”, yelled Di. “Didi,” she cut me off, “Are you coming with me or shall I call Darshan?”, she threatening. What? “Would you like it when he’ll come and see you in this miserable state?”, she continued. As if he was going to see my all dolled up?

Something pinged me and I nodded my head in a ‘no’. “Let’s go, then”, she said dragging me by my arm.

*

I was soon in front of the building I and Darshan lived in. Together. I had nothing inside me to push myself and step into the elevator, go to our apartment and do stuff like rest or maybe sleep. Neither any motivation, nor any strength. Yet I managed to do every that thing that seemed impossible to do seconds before doing it.

I remember as soon as I unlocked the door of our apartment, stepped inside, put my bag on the dining table, I crashed on the sofa. The tilled floor felt freezing cold against my bare feet and so did my palms when I put them on the floor. I sat down on the floor. Held my knees close to my face and cried.

I cried and cried untill my eyes were sore but the tears won’t stop falling. I gathered some strength in me and stood up and instantly fell on the sofa. I yearned in pain, “Maa!”. Maa. Maa would now never appear in front of me. She is now only a memory. And so is Papa. I cried more at that thought and suddenly the doorbell rang.

‘Darshan. Must be Darshan’, squeaked my heart as I ran to open the door, careless of being hurt. I unlocked the door, opened it and there he stood tall. Suddenly, it felt as though I was thrown into a pool of sad emotions, made of tears. My eyes melted and I sobbed as he pulled me in a hug. And in he entered. With me wrapped in his arms. His arms felt like home. So arm, so welcoming.

[The rest has already been explained in chapter Fourty-seven. Hence, I’d continue from the part where Nishita falls asleep.]

“ ‘Maa?’ I called, ‘Maa!’. No one answered. ‘Mummy! Papa! Where are you?’, I called again but yet there was no answer. And then appeared my parents. Their faces covered in blood. My eyes widened and I ran to touch them. But I couldn’t. They smiled, ‘We are not alive anymore, beta’. ‘What?’, I said, ‘wha—why are you saying this?’. ‘It’s the truth, bachche’, they smiled again. ‘Stop lying and stop smiling Maa, Baba!’ I yelled. They didn’t. ‘Nishu’, they said my name, together, ‘we have to go now, beta. We are not meant to stay with you. You have to fight your own battles now. And you know what to do,’ they assured. ‘No,’ I blinked, ‘Please, don’t go– don't go please!’. I watched my parents turn blurry as I screamed, ‘No!’ ”

I breathed heavily and Darsh handled me. “Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay”,he repeated. “Muh—Baah”, I panted. “It was a bad dream, a nightmare. It’s alright everything is fine. I’m here”, Darshan assured but I started crying. He held me close to his chest and I could hear him breath around my head and hear and feel his heart beating as I kept my palm on his heart. His heartbeat rose and fell. And he panted a little, compared to me. “I love you”, I heard those words in whispers from him. Soon after he calmed me down, we both fell asleep. Dozed off together, in each other’s arms.

The sunrays fell on my face and Darshan’s bare chest. And I shifted, out of irritation. My head ached terribly as I opened my eyes and I wimped in pain, careful not to wake Darshan up. He looked so beautiful while asleep. I wished, we never met, didn’t marry one another and nothing happened between us. Poor guy had to go through a lot for me and still is suffering because of me.

[Author’s note: Um, hi? Yes, I finally posted today. I was, for some reasons, offline for a looooong period of time but the good news is: I’M BACK! 😌 Now I’ll be regular in uploading chapters but do forgive me if I don't update in a long time :3. And listen, forgive me this time, promise I won't be offline like this, or will I? 👀:P]