Hey, my lovely readers.
How are you all?
Are you all enjoying the book so far?
Please listen to the song above. It'll totally describe Akash's emotions which I have tried to portray in this chapter.
Let's begin with the chapter now.
Akash's POV
"Where are they?" I asked Mark on the phone.
"They've just left the mall. I am following them" he said.
"Good. Keep an eye on them" he said.
"Yes sir" he replied and I disconnected the call.
"Why are you asking Mark to follow them?" Sid asked from beside me.
We were in my car, making our way to my penthouse.
"That's because I don't want to take any risk when it comes to Siya. She wouldn't obviously like it if she comes to know that somebody had been following to keep an eye on her, that's why I asked Mark to follow her" I said.
"Jannet and Kriti are with her. They'll take care of her" he said.
Sighing, I said "I know and I also know that they'll take good care of her but Mark has been like her shadow since the day we shifted here, in New York. Though I agreed for her to go with them, we both know that she's still not fine. Facing people and lights is something that she's doing after so long. I asked Mark to follow them just in case she gets panic attacks."
"I can understand, Akash" Sid said and gave a gentle squeeze to my hands.
"I just want her to be fine" I said, looking ahead.
"She will be, Akash. One day, she will be" he said.
"I hope that day comes soon" I whispered.
There was silence for few minutes when Sid broke it.
"If she decides to...leave you then?" he asked.
I chuckled and said "that will be my punishment, I guess for not taking her here, with me."
"Will you not try to convince her?" he asked.
"No" I said after a few seconds.
"Why? We both know that you love her and she loves you, still. Then why wouldn't you try to persuade her?" he asked.
I didn't answer him because I didn't have an answer to give.
"You know she always used to say to me to fight for Kriti, our love" he said and I looked at him.
"Don't look at me like that. It's only because of her I have had the courage to confess my feelings to Kriti. She made me realize my mistake and that's why we're together" he said.
"The girl who selflessly gave up her everything for you, don't you think she deserves happiness?" he asked.
"Yes but what if I am not her happiness?" I asked, looking ahead.
"If you wouldn't have been her happiness, she wouldn't have waited for you, cried for you. You know something Akash, the person who we love the most is the only one we cry and wait for when something is not right with us" he said.
"She doesn't want me" I whispered with tears welled up in my eyes.
"She is angry at you that's why she is saying so" he said, keeping his hands on my shoulder.
"Even if she doesn't mean it, I don't want to do anything that she doesn't like or want. I've already let her down time and again, I don't want to do it again" I said.
"Let's just wait for the right time, Akash. Time heals everything" he said.
"Yes, time does heal everything but that doesn't mean we should impose our decisions and wishes on anyone, Sid" I said.
"Would you take one advise?" I asked.
"Of course" he said.
"Don't make the mistake which I did with Siya" I said.
"I didn't understand" he said.
"Don't leave Kriti in case her parents don't agree for your alliance. Fight hard for it, Sid because at the end of the day every effort is worth making when you have your love with you. I don't think I made enough efforts to be with her" I said
It's true, I feel like I didn't make enough efforts to be with Siya, may be because I knew that her parents wouldn't agree, no matter how much ever we try but that didn't mean that I should've stopped making efforts from my end.
Moreover the though of her being abandoned by her parents was something that I couldn't take for granted. If her mother said it, she could do it too and I didn't want her to regret being with me when I would take her with me.
"I shouldn't have given up on her" I said, sighing and a tear slipped my eye which I quickly wiped away.
"You tried your best, Akash" he said and I looked at him.
"But I didn't try enough" I said and he looked away.
Looked ahead and chuckling, I said "even you feel it, right?"
He didn't say anything which was the clear answer to my question.
"You even kneeled in front of them, begged them and kept your head at their feet" he reminded me.
"I know but that wasn't enough. I should've tried it again, harder or should've planned some other way of approaching and convincing them" I said.
"You kept your ego aside, for them, for Siya so that you could convince them" he said.
"So? That doesn't make me special, Sid, does it? We should keep our ego aside when it comes to love, irrespective of the gender and tell me one thing, why is it always expected of women to keep their ego aside when it comes to these situations and when it comes to men, even if we try convincing our parents normally, we are applauded. Why?" I asked.
"Did I do doing anything that nobody else does? I've seen hundreds of women swallowing their pride and ego to get the family going but when it comes to men, I can just count them on my fingers" I said.
"If anything, we should learn from them how selflessly they give up their everything, their career, ambitions, desires, dreams to just keep the family together and the least we could do for them is respect them for who they're and what have they sacrificed for us" I said.
"Even Siya cried for me, kept her head on her parents feet, begged like me, then why don't you ever talk about it? Didn't she keep her ego aside to convince her parents? Then why do I always see you convincing me with this same statement?" I asked.
"It's just that, it's not normal for every guy to go to the extent you went to convince her parents" he said.
"If someone loves their significant other, I am sure they would do the same" I said.
"Men generally don't do it" he said.
"I am not like other men" I said.
"I wanted to respect my woman, cherish her but I couldn't just because of my stupidity" I said, sighing.
"I have a feeling that she will come around" he said.
"I don't know Sid and to be honest, I don't want to even think about it. I only know one thing" I said.
"What?" he asked.
"If she decides to leave me once she's fine, I'll let her go" I said.
"You've gone crazy" he said.
"No, Sid. Love doesn't always mean to end up together. If lovers end up together, there couldn't be anything better for them but love also means other's happiness. If she'll be happy without me, I'll let her go" I said.
"I won't let that happen" he said with a hard tone.
"Nothing can come between Siya and her happiness this time, Sid, not even me and mind you if I come to know that she would be happy without me, I won't let anyone destroy it, not even you. It doesn't matter if I have to even go against you" I said and looked at him with a hard glare.
"You'll go against me?" he asked.
"If for Siya I've to do it, I wouldn't think twice" I said.
"You'll regret if you let her go" he said.
"The intensity of pain of that regret will be much less than the regret I am feeling now" I whispered.
Author's POV
The rest of the ride was silent for both Akash and Sid.
Both were lost in their thoughts but no one spoke anything to the other one.
They never had this heated conversation, ever.
Though they had small arguments over Kriti but apart from that, they never had any discussion which was so heated that Sid wanted to bang Akash's head on the wall for thinking so stupidly.
He knows how he has lived without her, both the times.
Though they were best friends, there's nobody like Akash who helped Sid in every stage of his life.
From secretly filling his fees for school trips which he couldn't afford due to his financial condition to standing by him like a brother, from filling up his college fees to secretly getting every book and study material he needed for cracking competitive exams for college entrance, his best friend had done it all.
He would forever be indebted to Akash for what he had done for him.
When he was lost, trying to figure out what to do after cracking a job in an MNC, he once again trusted on him and offered him to be his partner in the new journey of his life to set up a business of their own.
He couldn't take the opportunity he was being given by Akash for granted, that's why he never took any project for granted.
His best friend had trusted him and he never wanted to pull him down, so he had been working day and night to bring the glory to their company which Akash had been dreaming of, from a very long time.
He could never imagine the situation where Akash had been once, letting her love go due to patriarchal thinking and mentality.
He had seen him, crying, yearning for Siya.
He had seen him crying himself to sleep in the initial days when he had left her.
The once happy Akash was living like a dead corpse, like a machine, a robot who didn't have feelings.
Though he loved Kriti, a lot but he always thought that he could never match up to the love Siya and Akash had for one another.
They both were yearning for each other, crying to be together only to be kept apart because of the stupid norms of the society and now when they were finally together, everything had changed between his best friend and his lover.
"We're here" Akash said and Sid's trance broke.
Getting out of the car, they both entered the penthouse to see the living room in a dreadful condition.
There were shopping bags everywhere and the girls were squealing like little girls.
"Oh you're here" Kriti said and dashed to Sid.
"See what I bought for myself" she said and taking two bags from the couch started showing him the dresses she bought for herself.
"Even I want to show my fiancé what I brought for myself" Jannet pouted and bidding her goodbye, went away.
Akash so wanted to know if Siya bought anything for herself but he couldn't ask her.
He was not in a position to ask her.
Sighing when he was about to make his way to his room, he heard her voice.
"Akash" Siya said.
He turned around to see Siya with a bag in her hand and a phone in her another hand.
So she had bought the phone. He was glad about it.
"Yes Siya" he said, smiling at her.
"See I got a new phone" she said, smiling, showing him her new phone.
Akash had tears welled up in his eyes.
He had been waiting for this moment for so long...it has been like eternity since the last time he had seen her so excited about something.
"You liked it?" he asked, sitting on the couch and she sat beside her.
"I liked it thought I didn't want to take it initially" she said.
"Why?" Akash asked.
"Umm...you already know it very well that I am not into apple products" she said, making him smile.
Yes, he knew it very well but since she had an I phone now, he was curious to know how did she agree to buy it?
"So how come you purchased it?" he asked.
"Don't tell me bhaiya" Kriti said and sat beside him, narrating the whole incidence of the shop from where they bought the phone.
"I had to literally drag her out of the shop. You know she was attracting attention" Kriti said and Siya gasped.
"Obviously I wasn't expecting the phone to be this expensive, Kriti" Siya said.
"So what if it is expensive? You're earning now, much more than what you used to earn in India, so you should pamper yourself" Kriti said.
Well, she did have a point.
Siya never used to buy expensive things, only things that were necessary, so it was only fair for her to pamper herself, once in a while and moreover it was not like she was using other's money.
It was her money, which she earned from her hard work.
"But this was just once" Siya said.
"No, you will continue to buy and shop" Kriti retorted.
"No" Siya said.
"Yes" Kriti said.
"No"
"Yes"
"No"
"Yes"
"Uhh...stop it you two. Siya, do whatever you want" Sid said.
Kriti gasped dramatically and said "you should be on my side."
"There's no side in friendship" he said.
"You should at least help me, Sid. Do you know with so much difficulty, she agreed to shop today?" she asked.
"Yeah...I actually bought some clothes as well" Siya said and showed the clothes she had bought for herself.
"Isn't it good?" she asked excited.
Akash's happiness knew no bound when she started showing him what she had bought.
He was initially so scared to leave her alone with Kriti and Jannet and that too they were taking her to a crowded place.
Crowd was something that she was not accustomed to, yet and he didn't want to take chances but probably, she was trying her best to overcome her fears.
That's what he wanted, that's what he always wanted from her, to overcome the fears that has been pulling her down and she is trying it, to the best of her ability.
This day couldn't have been better, for him.
He had the love of his life with him when he was signing an important deal and she was even making efforts to come out of her shell.
Just this last attempt was left to cure her completely and that would happen soon, in London.
How did the chapter come out?
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Till next chapter, tk cr bbyee
Tadas.