Mahi thought she would make Anna suffer. She would reveal Raj's secret and then both of them could suffer together!
Raj was on his way back home and he couldn't stop thinking about Anna. Soon Anna would know and everything would be a mess. All the fuss and stress and unwanted sadness, would follow and Raj didn't want it! Mahi might manipulate everything and make Anna feel worse, Raj thought. All of a sudden he felt he should tell her the truth now in light of what's happened; at least it would be a clean version and not some manipulated story. He decided to drop by his house and put away the reports he had just collected and then go to Anna's house. This would be a long and hard day, he thought.
As he got closer to home he spotted Jai's car parked in front. Good, maybe he could take Jai for support. He parked the car and went inside heading for his room. He heard voices coming out, they were arguing.
"Why did you look at that?" Jai sounded annoyed.
"It was just lying here" Anna replied barely audible. Raj's heart stopped. Anna was in his room. He hadn't cleaned his room up and he had left some more reports lying around on his bed that morning.
He walked in and both of his friends stared at him. All three of them stood motionless and quiet. Raj saw his reports lying on his bed, opened and clearly looked through. His heart dropped. He looked back at Anna and she had tears in her eyes, they were threatening to fall down her cheeks. His heart broke and he cursed himself for all the pain he had inflicted on her. He wished he never knew her.
Anna couldn't believe what she had seen! Reports explaining the lack of treatment options for a certain cancer were the first ones Anna had seen. She had kept looking and found many other papers that had traumatised her. Spinal chord cancer, with very low prognosis apparently, was mentioned many times. She felt as if her worst nightmares had come to life, she wanted to wake up!
Jai didn't know what to do; he hadn't expected any of this and was worried about Anna's reaction. Without any notice Anna got up and ran to Raj, hugging him tightly – She then burst into tears, like neither of then had ever seen. It was hard for both the men to stand there and watch her wail in such pain. Raj hugged Anna back, he knew she needed to feel him near her – tears also started spilling from his eyes but he tried hard to hold it back.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Anna pulled away slightly.
"Raj, tell me the truth now" She sobbed.
"I will tell you, but first please calm down.
"Raj, I can't calm down – This is killing me, you know that right?"
He laughed slightly at the irony. "I know just how much this is killing all of us"
"How can you laugh?" She was being very serious.
"Sit down Anna, let me tell you what's going on"
"You have no choice; I know half of it already!"
"Trust me, that's only a fraction of it"
"So tell me!"
"About a year ago, I started getting nauseous and dizzy. I thought I was just overworking and ignored it for awhile. It became worse. My father decided I had to go to the doctor. We went together and got some tests done and the doctor ordered a CT scan as well."
"Does your mum know about this?"
"No, she doesn't. I didn't tell her. She didn't like hearing about dad since the divorce. I didn't tell her anything in my life either, because all of it tied back to dad and it would have hurt her."
"So what happened?"
"Well, one day – before my test results came back, dad told me he was having heart problems and that he went to see the doctor about them without telling me. I was obviously upset that he kept me in the dark, but now I understand how he must have felt."
"I'm so sorry Raj!" Anna said feeling sad for him. Jai remained silent, knowing what was coming next.
"Well, he made a request. He asked if I would agree to marry the girl he chose for me, before he passed away – I was shocked that he asked this, I didn't know what to do. Here I was in love with....." Raj stopped.
"Keep going" Anna insisted.
"I was in love, with you" Raj winced, and looked at Jai. Jai remained emotionless.
"Me? All this time? Are you serious?"
"Well, it was hard for me to agree to his request. But he said it would be his dying wish to see me married. I reluctantly agreed to see him happy."
"He introduced you to Mahi?" Anna asked
"No, I had known Mahi for a while. She was my dance partner. I thought we were acquaintances – but she had other intensions"
Anna was shocked by this. Dance partner?
"You danced with her?" Anna asked feeling a tinge of jealousy.
"We won that competition together, the one I told you about"
"You never told me about MAHI" Anna erupted angrily.
"She wasn't important to me Anna" Raj said silently. "After dance practise, she was just irrelevant"
"Keep going" Anna said still feeling a little jealous. Raj felt this as well as Jai.
"That day dad took me to Mahi's house. I had no idea she lived there! I was shocked to see her walking out of the room" Raj stopped.
"So then?"
STAI LEGGENDO
Dancing with destiny
Storie d'amore"No Anna will be my wife" Jai argued. They were playing a game they often played - houses and families. "How? I am the oldest and I get Anna" Raj pulled at her arm. Jai joined in and pulled from the other end. It was like tug-a-war and she was trapp...
