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abhimaan looked at everyone with a pure look of shock in his eyes

"dadu mae khud abhi ek baccha hu, ek bacche ka baap kaise banunga?"

abhimaan looked absolutely confused, everything happening just felt like a blur in his head as he needed someone to give him context.

mrs rajput jolted up as she walked towards the table and shoved a beautiful bracelet in abhimaan's chest, which he caught before it would fall

it was a kid's bracelet with blue beaded flowers and white pearls that shined brightly, the bracelet also had stones in the shades of blue, all perfectly attached to a gold chain.

the blue flower in the middle was slightly bigger than the rest with a magnificent bluish green alexandrite stone attached on to it, it was one of the most rarest gemstone in the world.

he was shocked as he clutched onto the bracelet tightly, the feeling of the charms pressing onto the skin reminded him of memories that were painful yet beautiful.

"did you go through my stuff?"

he was furious, something abhimaan despised was violation of his own privacy, he was secretive and appreciated his space more than anything

"that's not our concern, the main question is who's child is this?"

his father looked at him angrily, demanding an explanation when he himself was as confused as the rest

"you cannot just violate my privacy like this and then put fake blames on me dad, i don't appreciate that."

his father looked at him in disbelief as dadu threw his chappal flying towards him which abhimaan skilfully dodged making dadu angrier than he was before.

"2 chaate khayega na toh teri saari privacy bahar nikal jayegi, do not bring that western nonsense in this ethnic household."

reyansh's father tried to control his laugh but failed, as soon as dadu's angry wrath met his he quickly gulped down the smile and looked away

"i swear on my ferrari SF90 stradale that i am unaware about whatever is going on in here, dadi samjhao na in sabko"

one thing abhimaan loved the most was his car, the only one in india which was apparently owned by him, his SF90 stradale in red the car he adored the most, his absolute favourite.

we often in our lives have things that are so dear to us, the ones we absolutely take pride in, our prised possessions that we hold onto till our last breath or in some cases till our heart or precisely people who have our heart desires.

"if its not you, absolutely not me THAN WHO?"

the mystery of whose child is this lasted longer than anyone could ever imagine and with every ticking second abhimaan just kept on hoping for this chaos to end soon so he could go back to her, his vridha.

"i will take responsibility of him."

the silence inside the room was broken by reyansh's dad and the sentence made everyone shocked.

on the other hand the clan were on the streets of jaipur, the pink city of india, all in hopes of good street food to fulfill their growling stomachs.

"HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE?"

ritika screamed at reyansh for the nth time who quietly tried to find the market his google maps recommended but failed.

"we should zomato something cause if this continues for another second, i'll go crazy."

vridha added up to ritika's frustration, reyansh was currently scared for his life because they say an angry woman is scary but a woman who is HANGRY? she's the satan herself

and in reyansh's case he had to endure the wrath of 2.

"how do y'all feel about pizza?"

searching through the app as ritika scrolled around different menus, trying to decide on what to eat as reyansh took another turn only to return back to where they were.

"i don't truly enjoy pizza but i am craving neapolitan today, so works for me."

vridha simply didn't enjoy the doughey bread and loads of veggies in her pizza, she simply preferred a thinly sliced margarita made with fresh dough (bhookh lag gayi fr but us vridha us)

"YOU DON'T LIKE PIZZA? HOW? bhai loves them, especially the ones our old chef used to make."

chitchatting while waiting for their pizzas as ritika and reyansh revealed absolutely embarrassing stories of abhimaan's childhood, making vridha laugh.

she occasionally felt a bit dizzy here and there due to lack of protein and vitamins in her body but she felt physically fine.

her coma was a mild one, the ones that often heals as quickly as they appear making things easier for her.

they decided to go karaoke after their pizza break, abhimaan still hadn't called once which added up courage to their escaping plans as they tried to extend their fun.

par kehte hae na ellastic ko uski kshamta se zyada kheechle toh vo tut kar kisi na kisi ko toh kharoch pohchata hi hae.

abhimaan was done with his interrogation as he felt like the child's naming ceremony dates weren't as important as vridha, so he left for the hospital.

entering the room without a knock he expected reyansh and ritika fighting or worse them actually behaving but it was all empty.

ABHIMAAN

i opened the door slowly ONLY TO FIND THE ROOM EMPTY?

what? where are they?

walking inside as i kept the bag of food and some of my spare tshirts i brought for vridha on the table, i rushed to knock on the washroom

maybe she's inside and they both are out as i could see coffee a half cup of coffee still left inside the cup on the table.

getting impatient as nobody answered the door i grabbed the knob, twisting it slowly because if i don't find here i don't know where else she could be, heck i don't even know if she has her phone with her and even if she did I DONT FUCKING HAVE HER NUMBER.

i mean that i could arrange from anywhere but... i should stop blabbering and just open the door.

the door opened as a creeking sound accompanied it, my eyes roamed around the washroom only to get stuck on the broken mirror WITH BLOOD ON THE FLOOR?

WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

panic rushed into my body as the blood on the floor reminded me of the blood dripping from her wrist as they pushed the stretcher inside the operation theatre.

no no this couldn't happen, she won't do this again and i know ritika and reyansh are with her right now, i don't have to worry all's good.

the thought of losing her again just scares every bone in my body, i don't like not knowing about her whereabouts, i don't like the feeling of not being able to detect what's wrong and save her if she's in danger.

dialling reyansh's phone as i hoped he was with her, only to find it not reachable, what if something is wrong and they all are in danger but can't contact me?

every beep on either of their phones just increased the level of my anxiety, what was i even thinking when i left her with them?

continuously trying both of their phones i asked the nurses and other people on the corridor if they've seen them.

i probably looked like a madman with a phone clutched tightly onto his ear, thinking i'll miss their voice because of the noise as i asked the security to check the cctv footage.

every nerve was on its way to burst out of my body as i repeatedly stomped my feet on the floor waiting for 'someone from the higher-up' to finally let me view the cctv.

vridha please be safe.

i had reyansh's car tracked to find out if they were somewhere out having fun, knowing the two of them i did expect some mischief maybe sneaking out for a while but something that involved blood? that's definitely something they wouldn't take lightly.

the location on my phone showed me they were somewhere nearby as i ran towards my car, driving towards the karaoke bar showed on the map

various thoughts ran inside my mind as i tried to gulp them all down and just focus on the road so i could reach quickly, i missed so many signals as i could hear my phone dinging with the fine tickets but they were least of my concerns right now.

i'd pay millions of these fines if i could reach to her sooner than i should.

the place looked a bit sketchy as it was in the middle of the suburbs with very old exterior, what if they're kidnapped? his car was parked right outside so there were still hopes of them being okay.

walking inside the bar i felt like i was in a absolutely different world, there was no door at the entrance just some plastic curtains that held the cool AC air inside.

the room was mostly dark with some neon lights popping out giving it some brightness, there were various cabins as i saw waiters coming in and out of the cabins with food and beer in their hands.

the place definitely didn't look expensive from the outside but it was totally opposite on the inside, there were people playing video games on their pc, while some were engaging in activities that i don't care about.

"i am here for reyansh can you tell me which cabin is he in?"

the person on the desk looked at me from head to toe as he rolled his eyes while chewing gum so loudly that i wanted to pull his tongue and then make him choke on the gum but he looked like he was a kid too.

"reyansh who? go find him yourself i am not your servant."

i'll teach this kid some manners later, right now my main focus was to find them SAFE AND SOUND.

checking in on every booth as i just ended up disappointed when the faces i saw didn't match theirs.

walking down further as i could see people doing drugs on the table making me rethink about the place, maybe they just parked their car here and are actually roaming around somewhere else.

opening the last booth i peeked my head inside, the screen light flashed right before my eyes

and there she was, standing in a black corset that snatched her waist perfectly, screaming the lyrics of 'beedi jalaile' on top of her lungs without any worry in the world.

"bhai"

ritika called out for me but my eyes were stuck on her

she looked so mesmerising, as if the universe made the perfect mixture of  sun's brightness and moon's beauty all incorporated together creating her.

her brown orbs met mine as i felt like i could finally breathe.

the letters she wrote to him.

dear rain,

do you ever wonder how our lives would've turned out if that accident never occurred? or would've we met in the future if that day didn't exist?

i think we would've because i have heard people say that you met everyone for a reason, what is our reason abhimaan?

i think god sent you to me because he knew i was suffering, he knew only you could calm me down and make this chaos feel peaceful, he knew i needed help so he sent you to save me, just like he sends the rain everytime the greenery is dying.

you're like the rain drop that saved the tulip bulb called 'my life' from dying, you brought me back to life even though i didn't know how to ever feel alive.

i need you by my side maan, how long until we meet again?

— the girl who is waiting and will do so till the end.

kisses xoxo, june 2024 (past)

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