Silent Whispers

Chapter 49: The Hour of Separation

Khushi frantically rang the doorbell, her fingers shaking under the duress of what lay past the doors in front of her. It was miracle that she even made it this far. After comprehending the news on the radio, it was as if the world had just ceased to exist, as if there was no meaning left to anything and everything, all in a matter of few seconds.

It was strange how that worked. It takes years to build a house, but only one storm to tear it apart; infinite encounters to know someone, but only one to fall in love; months to understand who to live with, but only a minute to realize who you cannot live without.

It was stranger than anything Khushi had ever known.

"Come on!" she muttered, banging on the mahogany doors of Shantivaan, shining beautifully under the starry sky in preparation for her brother's wedding tomorrow.

If it was another place and another time, she would have definitely taken note of how intricately the decorations had been done. But in that moment, all she noticed was a line of fiery orange flowers along the veranda. They were tiger lilies. She recognized them even before his voice flowed into her mind:

And keeping Anju calm. She spent all of last Sunday planting tiger lilies in the front lawn. It took every ounce of persuasion on my part to get her to stop and let Om Prakash do the rest.

Her throat seized up. His beautiful, baritone voice. Would she ever hear it again?

Choking down her agony, Khushi slammed her fists against the doors, praying to all the Gods who would listen. She didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold down the terror eating away inside her. It was finally Akash who answered her plight.

"Khushi?" he asked, groggily. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"A-arnav," she croaked, trying to force air in her lungs. "Is he here?"

All sleep vanished from Akash's eyes as he took in her ragged stated. "What's wrong?" he asked immediately, taking a step forward. "Did something happen at the bachelorette party?"

She shook her head. "Arnav," she repeated, failing miserably to keep her voice from shaking. "Is he here? J-Jai said he is not at the company... d-did he come home?"

"Bhai?" Akash asked puzzled. "Yeah, he is up-"

She didn't wait for the rest.  Pushing past his towering frame, she ran inside, her four-inch stilettos clicking against the marble tiles, all the way up to the second floor. She vaguely heard Akash pursue her, worried, but she didn't care. She didn't dare to stop until she reached his room and was hammering on the door. 

The sight that followed was one she was would never, ever forget. In what felt like painstaking slowness she watched the doors open to reveal a whole and healthy Arnav. His handsome face was just the way she last saw it – perfectly in place without even a scratch.

Cool, glorious relief spread wide through her lungs.

"Khushi?" Arnav said, startled to see her sweat-stained face.

It took every ounce of self-control to not run into his arms.

"Where were you?" she croaked.

"I was right here," he replied, confused. "What happened? Why do you look so pale?"

She struggled to hold it together. "Then w-why weren't you picking up my calls?"

"Calls?" he repeated, confused. He looked over his shoulder, searching for his phone in question.

"Do you h-have any idea how worried I-I was?" she continued, her legs shaking.