Pagal Sa Ishq

Chapter 2

Standing in front of the entrance of her house Shehnaaz felt nervous with a tint of happiness.
Nervous to see her parents after years and happiness for coming back home again.

Shehnaaz's parents were really mad at her for the first three years after but slowly they realised how persistent their daughter can be and how serious she was about achieving her dream. They accepted it and started to support her with everything they could. Eventually they wanted her to return but Shehnaaz couldn't bring herself to return back home with the fear of someday running into the person she had hurt the most.

Shehbaaz, her brother had been her only support since the very beginning and here he was again, standing right beside her wrapping his arms around her shoulder, giving her the assurance she needed at that moment.

She was welcomed home with open arms. Her parents couldn't help but cry.

"Itni bar bola tujhe ghar aaja, rabba!! shukar hai isko thodi akal aayi" Shehnaaz's mother said weeping.

"Mera baccha kitna patla lag raha hai.....video call par toh pata he nahi chalta hai, ab tu aa gai hai na toh ab teri maa tujhe khila pila kar wapes  pehle jaisi Sana bana degi" Shehnaaz's father spoke trying to hide his teary eyes which didn't went unnoticed by his daughter.

It was truly a moment to rejoice for her and her family. She was happy to be back but somewhere in her heart she knew she had wronged Sidharth and that can never let her be at peace.

It was a few days after Shehnaaz was back in Mumbai and had joined a hospital to work at. Sidharth was busy too with all his advertisement shoots and project he had started working on recently.

"Hi Sidharth, I couldn't reach at all isliye yaha aa gai" Sunidhi barged into his vanity van where Sid was busy reading his script.

He hated when she used to do so but other than that it was all good. They had recently started dating. Sunidhi was his makeup artist but she stopped working with him after they started to date. Neither she told him the reason why and nor he was bothered to ask.

"You couldn't reach me because I didn't wanted you to" he spoke bluntly.

"Hey! You can't talk with your girlfriend like that, mai toh bas milne chahti aur aate hue I even brought you some coffee, make sure tum isse pura pee jao" she smiled placing the coffee on the table near him.

"Anyways since you're busy I'll leave now, text me once you're free" she walked out of the van and left.

It was around 15 minutes since the spot boy was knocking on the door of his van but Sidharth was not answering at all. People around started to get a bit nervous. Soon the door was broke down and a blacked out Sidharth was found on the floor.

With the beeping sound of some machines and a sharp pain in his head Sidharth slowly came back to consciousness. He looked around and found an unfamiliar surrounding with a familiar face.

"Rahul!? What the hell happened?" he asked the first thing after waking up.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt somewhere? You're not feeling sick right?" Rahul was so worried when he was informed by Sidharth's manager that he was in the hospital.

"I'm fine! meri biwi jaisa behave karna band kar" he mocked with a notorious smile on his face knowing that would irritate him more.

"Abey saale dost hu tera, tension toh hogi he, ek toh pata nahi jab se that girl Sunidhi has entered your life I've noticed things going wrong with you" Rahul was always very suspicious of that girl and day by day his suspicion was growing.

"Anyways! Let's go mujhe ye hospital waise bhi nahi pasand jo bhi hua tha mujhe ghar jaate hue car me he bata dena and don't even dare to tell mom" Sidharth got up from the bed and without any other word he left followed by his frustrated friend who was so done with him.

Few weeks passed by peacefully for Sidharth and for Shehnaaz as well. Sidharth mostly used to be busy with his shoots also Shehnaaz was back to serving the patient in the hospital. Her working hours were the only time she would actually not think about Sidharth, she was very devoted towards her work. Since her past situation with her family at the very same house was an absolute disaster, it would sometimes become very difficult for her to stay there with those memories haunting her.

*Knock knock*

"Yes?"

"Dr. Shehnaaz you need to visit a patient urgently, ye adress yaha likha hua hai." One the staff from the hospital reached her out in her cabin during her lunch break.

"But-"

"Dr. Mallik ne request kiya hai since he's busy" the staff informed cutting her off in between.

Dr. Mallik was a well known doctor in the area. Since he was around your age it made him the only person shehnaaz was comfortable talking with in her initial days at the hospital, also he had been a great help to her all this time. She could never deny his request and it was the very first time he had asked for something.

She took the piece of paper to read the address and couldn't believe what she read, her eyes widened in horror. It was as if her fate was playing games with her.

..........

Rahul was in his office when he was informed about Rita Aunty's deteriorating health by one of the caretaker. He immediately contacted their family Doctor who was Dr. Mallik. Later when he was on his way to Sidharth's place he was informed that there will be some other doctor to check up on Rita Aunty soon since the doctor he had asked for was busy.

Even though it felt like an impossible task for Shehnaaz she didn't waste a single second there. The thought about her favourite person being ill was enough to fill her up with all the strength she would need to face all the people in that house.

Before she could know she was already standing in front of Sidharth's house walking through a beautiful garden. It was still the same, nothing had changed a bit, all her favourite plants that she had once planted with him were now all grown and beautiful. But why? Why did decided to keep it even after all that she had done with him. Was there something stopping him from doing so? Maybe it was because he never really paied any attention towards them or else he would have definitely removed them all.

*Knock knock*

Rahul was already with Sidharth's mom and he was the one who rushed to opened the door.
"Sana!?" he gasped.

"Aunty kaha hai?" she asked with a straight face and being unable to form any word out of suprise he allowed her to enter and walked her to the room where Sidharth's mom was resting.

After around half an hour.

"Mom!? kaha ho ap?" Sidharth just returned from his work and was surprised to see his friend there.

"Hey! Sid!" Rahul smiled awkwardly rushing towards the entrance.

"Abey saale tera khud ka ghar nahi hai kya? Tu kya kar raha hai yaha pe?" he asked.

"Vo actually Aunty......Vo....." he had completely forgot about Sidharth and was scared to let go infront of shehnaaz who was currently treating his mom inside.

"Kya Aunty? Mom kaha hai?" he immediately felt something odd and before Rahul could react Sidharth rushed inside his mom's room.

As he walked inside he saw his mom laying on the bed with IV tubes attached to the back of her palms and then his eyes fell on this person who was sitting right beside his mom on the bed.

5 Years. After 5 long years he was standing in front of the person he despised the most or maybe atleast tried to. The one who had betrayed him and left him alone was now right in front of his eyes. He was full of rage and hurt, his eyes showed all those emotions which Shehnaaz could easily read. The more she looked into his eyes the more it was breaking her. She stood up from the bed and faced him directly. She had to, no matter how hard she had tried this was something destined to happen and it did.

"Shehnaaz" came out as a whisper from his mouth.

"Sidharth" her voice cracked as she tried to hold back her tears.

Rahul was standing outside with horror stricken face and wondered what drama this unexpected encounter will bring further in their lives.