Chapter 20

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Shehnaaz had found missed calls from two different numbers, one from Sidharth and the other was an unknown number while her phone was switched off last night. She called back to see who it was but no one answered and she let it go until there was another missed call from the same number while she was busy waitressing at Sprinkles.

"Kon hai yaar? Jab mai busy hoti hu tabhi call aata hai aur call back karne pe uthana nahi hai!" She irately mumbled, the call went unanswered when she called back again. Once she went back to work, getting busy with work she was engrossed in waitressing.

"Kuch saman lene market jana hai. Aunty kaha hai?" Bindu asked.

"Unke bhai ki family aayi hui hai, mujhe bata de mai saman le aati hu." Shehnaaz replied.

"Nahi. Tu bas thodi der yaha sambhal Vicky ke sath, mai aati hu 2-4 kitchen ka hi saman leke. Kal zarurat padegi, isliye jaldi jana pad raha hai." Bindu suggested to her friend to take charge of the kitchen by the time she was gone.

"Koi na, ja." Shehnaaz nodded but Bindu's absence overloaded her with work, even though there were people available to serve the orders, she had to handle the counter on behalf of their boss as well.

The next day when her phone rang with the same unknown number, fortunately she was available to answer it.

"Hello?" The person on the other side spoke.

"Amrit!?" Shehnaaz recognised her cousin's voice.

"Ha, mai bol ri aa. Sana, kaisi hai?" Amrit asked.

"Ye tera number hai Amrit? M-mai thik hu. Tu kaisi hai? Aur tune phone kyu lagaya? Chachi daatenge na tujhe!?" As much as she was surprised, excited and worried at the same time, she couldn't help her eyes getting watered. The sisters were talking after a really really long time, it had been months since a proper conversation had taken place after the argument that had cut Shehnaaz out of their family.

"Tu naraz hai mere se?" Amrit asked.

"Pagal hai? Maine kyu hona hai naraz? Tu jaan hai meri!!" She happily cried at that moment itself.

"Roh mat Sana, please. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry maine tere se itne gande tarike se baat ki thi, jab tune mujhe birthday wish kiya tha. Mai kya karti? Mummy ne phone speaker pe dala tha kyunki hum kitchen me the aur unhone pehchan liya tujhe. I'm sorry, please mere ko maaf karde. Mai itni buri behen hu." Amrit began to cry on the other side.

"Oye, shhhh. Nahi, tu ek bohot achi behen hai aur kyu roh rahi hai! Mai samajhti hu baba! Koi na, koi na. Mujhe bura nahi laga tha." Shehnaaz replied, lying about the other part because she was hurt when her sister discarded her birthday wish on the call that day.

"Sana, mai tujhe roz miss karti thi. Tere se gussa thi lekin humesha tujhe yaad karti thi. Mujhe itna akela lagta tha tere jane ke baad, ghar se toh tu akeli nikli thi lekin sare ghar ki raunak chali gayi tere sath." Amrit informed her. Whatever the reason for the argument had been, the family that was mad at their daughter did miss her as well.

"Mai bhi tumlogo ko humesha yaad karti hu. Daily." Shehnaaz replied, recalling those moments she spent with her family.

"Tu pehle ye bata, Chacha Chachi kaise hai? Kaha hai? Tune chhup ke phone laga rahi hai, kisi ne sunn liya toh?" She asked questions to divert the topic.

"Haaye! Yahi toh main baat hai, tujhe pata Mummy ke phone se chura ke number save kiya maine. Tab pata chala ke tu itne time se tu Mumbai me hai." Amrit proudly replied.

"Lekin kyu chahiye meri location tujhe?" Shehnaaz kind of panicked, she herself didn't know why.

"Ab ek hi shehar mein reh ke dono behne milenge bhi nahi?" Amrit chuckled.

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