"Unconditional acceptance of others is the key to happy relationships."
- Brian Tracy
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WARNING: Long Chapter Ahead!
Hey guys! First of all SORRY FOR THE DELAY!
I am actually traveling and I wasn't able to edit the chapter yesterday...and hence the delay.
But please enjoy the chapter...because something really different awaits you all.
Thanks for waiting!❤
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Swara was confused whether to deny this bungee jump or accept it.
Accepting it meant saving her pride and making her a little likeable but denying it meant being a coward and loosing that first step to get accepted.
Oh Lord! What do I do?; Swara was confused.
"You know? Avni was an adventurer. She needed things that made her feel the thrill...we had planned to go Bungee Jumping together after she finished one of her important projects but..." Kunal's voice got stuck in his throat a bit. "...Who knew she wouldn't be there to complete her dreams." Kunal concluded. His eyes were fixed at Swara.
Swara's heart that was throbbing in fear a few moments ago, went silent.
All those emotions she felt a few moments ago, being called his wife....him being her husband...the eye contact...everything suddenly felt pointless.
Is this why we're here? because Avni liked adventure?; She questioned her foolish brain who for a second thought maybe Kunal is equally struggling to be with her like she was But unfortunately, it seemed like he was like any other member in his family...searching for Avni.
I am not Avni. I am not Avni. I am not Avni; Swara's heart repeated. She was about to say that out loud when she heard another loud voice from within her.
Don't ruin it Swara, remember? You have to fit into this family? If Avni liked it...then you should too!; Her Brain yelled.
"ok! l-let's do it." Swara repeated.
Kunal was supposed to smile...instead his expression suddenly dropped down. His dimples vanished, his eyes got dark.
As Swara turned around to reach the hub, to get ready for the jump...Kunal grabbed her arm...and by grabbing I mean hard enough to make Swara yell in pain.
"What are you doing Dr. Kunal?" She looked at him...trying to free her arm but Kunal had other plans. He dragged her somewhere...away from the crowd.
Her legs screaming and begging to stop the torcher but Swara did not speak a word about it.
He let her go when they had walked a little away from everyone.
"What are you doing?" She questioned.
"I'm tired. I'm tired of this act." He spoke up.
"Act?" Swara was confused.
"Why are you doing this?" Kunal yelled and grabbed her shoulders.
"Ahh! you need to be discrete, Dr. Kunal...what are you talking about?" She stated.
He let her go and suddenly ran his fingers through his messy hair, taking a deep breath.
"Listen! Dr. Swarishka...I am a very patient man and I have been very patient with you...but slowly I'm loosing that patience...I hate it when people try hiding things from me and you are exactly doing the same." He yelled.
"What did I ever hide from you?" She was confused.
A few moment ago everything seemed perfect and normal. She was going to do bungee jumping for him too...then what is he talking about?
He took a step closer to her and held her shoulders...This time, gently.
Swara had to tilt her neck to look into his eyes as he seemed like Qutub Minar in front of her.
"I never ever...wanted you to become like Avni." His words seemed concerning, like he genuinely meant it.
Swara broke the eye contact...looking here and there.
H-how did he..?; Swara wondered.
Kunal was not able to digest the fact that she wanted to be Avni...He never forced Avni's ideology on her, but looks like his actions didn't say so.
"Look at me, Dr. Swarishka." His voice was commanding.
She slowly lifted her head to look into his eyes.
"Avni and I had been together for eight years. It is not at all easy for me to forget her just like that. Mentioning her sometimes does not mean I am looking for her in you." Kunal's words were affecting her.
Her chest was rising and falling like she was about to cry but resisted.
"Wh-why are we talking about this Dr. Kun-"
"Because I want you to know that I am not trying to make you Avni. I have accepted you the way you are. you became a part of this family the day you agreed for the wedding even after knowing I have a son. Please, for god sake don't think we want you to become Avni and I am extremely sorry, if my family ,my son or even....I made it look so."
Swara felt overjoyed hearing this. She did not like the comparisons but Kunal just mentioning it made her feel understood.
"Thank you! Dr. Kunal." She said and turned around to leave when he interrupted her again.
"Not yet Dr. Swara" He stated making Swara stop in her tracks.
"I talked about Avni and Bungee Jumping to see if you would actually do anything if I took her name and unfortunately, I was right!... I am sorry if I ever made you feel less than Avni but trust me, that was not my intention."
"Please be yourself...you are a Roy Chand too. I want you to be comfortable around me." He concluded.
Swara felt relieved hearing this. She needed to hear that she was amazing the way she was. Maybe now, she would drop the idea of being like Avni.
"Thank you, Dr. Kunal! I think I needed to hear this." She said.
"I didn't say all this for the sake of saying...I said it because...I-I want to get to know you Dr. Swarishka Kunal Roy Chand." The moment these words left Kunal's mouth, Swara spun around in shock.
"You know about Avni, Aarav and me....I want to know about you. I want to know who you were before Becoming Swarishka Roy Chand, I want to know what your favorite color is, I want to know what do you like besides your profession, I also want to know why you chose this profession..." Swara couldn't help but smile at the thought of Kunal trying to get along with her.
She never planned to fall in love again but does falling in love follow a plan?
"....I want to know why you get those anxiety attacks..." Swara's smile disappeared hearing those words. The worst thing for her was to talk about her anxiety or....
"...I want to know who-who Vansh was and wh-who was is he to you..."
....Vansh.
Swara began walking backwards the moment he mentioned Vansh.
The day Kunal heard Vansh's name taken by Mala; Swara's Mother...he knew he wanted to know who Vansh was and what he meant to her.
She was not ready to talk about this with her mother, how did Kunal expect her to talk about this with him? She forgot the fact that Kunal has no idea who is Vansh in the first place.
"Dr. Swarishka please! I want to know why you said you were sorry that day? Why were you sitting under the cold shower like you lost all hopes in life...." Kunal's words were bringing back all those memories she wished she could erase from her life.
"Stop it, please" She whisper yelled.
"For once Can we be like a normal husband and wife? Without any secrets?" He kept pleading.
"I said STOP!" She yelled making Kunal stop in his track of questioning her.
He could see how devastated she was feeling but Kunal was drowning in his own curiosity. All he wanted to do was get to know her, yet she reacted like he asked her to give up on her life.
"Dr. Swar--"
"We end this right here! KUNAL" It felt like a command from Swara.
"NO. WE. DO. NOT." Kunal was adamant too.
Now it was very much evident where Aarav got all his stubbornness from.
Swara's eyes were filled in tears, as she stared right through Kunal's soul but Kunal did not hesitate to do the same.
Maybe his way of making her share her life experiences was bad but his intention wasn't.
Vansh was a very sensitive topic and maybe this was the reason she couldn't mention him when every other person never forgot to mention Avni, in front of her. Maybe this was the reason she never once tried comparing Kunal and Vansh, scared that Kunal might end up having the same fate as him.
There are a lot of different ways through which people accept things in life and her way of dealing with things was definitely way different than Kunal's.
Kunal knew to accept and forgive but maybe Swara did not know it.
Swara turned around and began walking away. It was a little too much of Kunal to mention Vansh and talk about him so casually when it was tough for Swara to even forget the night he passed away right in front of her eyes.
"SWARA! SWARA!" He yelled.
but a broken Swara walked away breaking Kunal's broken heart .
Kunal was devastated too and he decided not to return with Swara.
Her leg kept begging for her to stop but Swara's wounded heart was numbing that pain.
How could he talk about Vansh, this casually! How does he even know about Vansh? Did Mumma....No she wouldn't, she knows how much this hurts me...she wouldn't tell him just like that....But how dare he yell at me? He could have talked politely too... Ughhh! Don't think about Vansh, remember what Mumma and Dadda told? It was not my fault... I need to accept that I'm a Doctor and No god... I can try and save people but their death is not in my hands...Yes! and forget about that Kunal too...What does he think of himself...Bungee Jumping? Huh! I am scared of heights...I would never do it...right?; Her mind was a mess.
Battling with these thoughts she returned to the camp, right before sunset.
She was the only one there, with a few staff members, tired, she sat on the chair outside her tent...finally giving space for her hurt foot to relax.
"Ahh!" She finally let out a groan, as her leg was paining a lot.
Just when she about to take her shoe out, her gaze fell upon the guide who was sent with the kids to play...She noticed him coming back with the kids and genuinely she began searching for Aarav, to see if he had fun.
Scanning through the kids, her heart sank not finding Aarav with the kids.
She stood up from her seat, dragging her hurt foot in a hurry while scanning twice and thrice but Aarav was not in the group.
she stomped over to the guide and held him by his collar staring right into his eyes.
"Where's my son?" She questioned.
The guide suddenly freaked...turning around he counted the number of kids when he realized one of them was missing.
"Ma--am , I--" He was trembling in fear.
Swara's patience had crossed its limits.
She let go of him and ran into the jungle irrespective of her maybe-broken-toe when the guide and a few staff members shouted at her to stop.
"Don't go ma'am, the sun has already set...Hyenas come out for a hunt at night."
Those words dried the life out of her. Not because she was scared of dying but more like she was scared of loosing Aarav, because agree to it or not she already considers him her son.
She walked into the forest, with the same look she had carried since morning. Her looks were least of her concerns right now.
It was slowly getting dark and she wasn't able to find Aarav.... that was giving her he chills.
"Aarav? Baby? Are you here?" She yelled.
...
Kunal came back to the camp a while after Swara... The argument they had had exhausted him and he still wanted to get his answers, the only difference being that he had realized his way of questioning her was bad and maybe he had to be a little more sympathetic towards her.
He for sure knew now, that Vansh is someone very important to to her...Maybe he was her boyfriend who betrayed her? Or wait, was he her husband? Nah! I guess I'm overthinking; He kept thinking.
On returning to the camp he felt a certain commotion amongst the staff and manager but he had no clue.
Anyhow, he was too tired and he wanted to sort out the matter with Swarishka so he chose to return to his tent.
He knocked the door twice but no one opened the door, he assumed maybe she was very angry but his suspicions grew when he realized the key to their room was with him.
It was already dark and he wondered where Aarav and Swara would have gone at a time like this.
He rushed to the manager, when seeing Kunal they suddenly went mute.
"I-umm...By any chance did a woman and a kid rent an other room?" Kunal questioned.
"Name? sir!" The manager asked.
"Dr. Swarishka Kunal Roy Chand." Just as those words left his mouth the manager froze.
"S-Sir! I-I request you to sit over there." The manager requested.
"No. I'm fine, thank you! Can you be quick?" Kunal insisted.
"S-Sir, Please be seated over there..." The manager repeated.
By now, Kunal had a feeling that something was wrong....the worst case scenarios kept appearing in his head but he shoved them all away.
Loosing his patience, he grabbed the managers collar..."Where the heck is my Wife and son?" He questioned.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Calm down Dude..." A familiar voice managed to pull Kunal away from murdering the manager.
"Sir! you need to answer his question not ask him to be seated in a sofa." Lucky, The man holding Kunal from butchering the manager tried to explain.
The manager was shivering seeing the anger Kunal contained.
"S-Sir!" The manager stuttered.
Kunal tried hard to get off of the man's grip but, the man held him in place.
"Lucky, I'll kill him if anything happens to my family." Struggling against Lucky's grip, Kunal yelled.
"S-Sir, actually...." gathering all the guts the manager explained the situation that had Kunal almost get a heart attack.
...
Swara was slowly loosing hope. It was dark, The only light that helped her through the forest was the moonlight but definitely not for long as the rumbling thunder clouds were taking over the domain of the night sky.
The smell of an upcoming rainstorm was prominently filling her lungs. She for sure knew tonight was going to be a rough one and somewhere inside that brave heart of hers...was a fear of not being able to see someone ever again.
Her leg had stopped following her orders and she was literally dragging her foot everywhere with her.
"Aarav...baby...please be okay!" She cried in agony.
While making her way into the forest, even though at this point she had no clue where she was going she kept praying to find Aarav. Her pre rainstorm walk was interrupted when she heard the bushes by her side rustle.
Flinching at the sudden noise, she quickly turned on her flashlight...giving the bush a spotlight.
"Aarav? b-baby? Is that you?" A trembling Swara gathered some courage to take a peek behind those bushes. She was trying to shove away all the negative thoughts that were invading her mind. The least she needed right now was negativity...at times like these staying positive alone can mean victory.
As soon as the flashlight enlightened a small area behind the bush, Something pounced over Swara...that freaked her out making her loose balance and trip and fall over something behind her.
"Ahh!" She yelled in fright.
But soon she realized it was little bunny.
She expanded her lungs taking in all the air she missed to breathe a few moments ago.
She felt something dripping down her elbow, that she assumed it to be her blood but it wasn't.
A terrified Swara turned her gaze to see what she fell over and the sight in front of her was horrifying. Even scarier than seeing a patient drenched in blood.
"Ahhhh!" She freaked out.
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Hope you had fun reading this. (Just 2809 words)
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