"Anand!" Shraddha heard the loud voice of Riya leaping into her ears. A part of her flew out of her body. Her sense told her something had happened to Anand. The sweat which formed on her body wasn't ordinary. It was signalling a bad event. A very bad event!
She turned around almost lifeless. She saw Anand being supported by his father. His father carried him on his shoulder and screamed for help from anyone. She saw people gather in a short span of the moment and helped him take Anand downstairs. She stayed numb. Not that she didn't want to help. She wanted to. But she was glued. She was thinking of the worst possibilities. Why was Anand unconscious? What happened to him? Why was his father carrying him? What happened that he fainted? Fear stopped her from going after them. She continued to stand and wept tears she didn't realize were falling.
"Shraddha," Riddhima's voice couldn't notify her of her presence. She wanted to ask her what the commotion was about. However, she jiggled Shraddha front and back. Shraddha stared at ahead impassively. Her blood had dampened, depleted and all she could think of was what happened to Anand. Riddhima got tired at the end and went downstairs to see for herself. But as she got there, she saw others carrying her father.
"Father!" she yelled and wanted to follow them. Out of nowhere, she felt trapped by someone who held her arm. She turned and saw her grandmother. Her eyes had been inundated with tears.
"What happened to my father?" she enquired.
"He's good. Stay home. Shraddha is also here. Your cousins are too, your Aunt Riya's children. I will go and bring your father back." her grandmother guaranteed her. Though, she had a lot of speculations, she nodded and decided to believe her. After all, she will not lie to her about her father being sick.
"Good girl." she smiled at her and rushed out of the house in quick steps.
Shraddha came downstairs and scurried outside without listening to Riddhima who tried to ask her where she was going. She hustled to the car park and saw one of the Drivers who was looking perplexed and is starting at the gate.
"Take me to my Anand." she told him and entered the black Lexus 2022 model. The driver entered after her into the front seat while she was at the back. He stayed put without making an effort to move.
"Take me to my Anand." Shraddha repeated again at him.
"Ma'am, Sir ordered me not to take you to him." came his short, reluctant answer.
"Did Anand tell you that? You're lying."
"No. His Father."
She closed her eyes for a long time. She could endure anything, anything and everything. But, even his father has no right to ask her to stay away from Anand when he needs her. He is tossing around with her emotions. So far, he saw her kindness. For the sake of Anand, that kindness can change to the extreme.
"Take me to Anand." she flickered her eyes open and said in a dangerously commanding tone.
The driver looked at her through the rearview mirror to explain he can't go against his order. However, his words hung in his throat. Shraddha was already looking at him and her face showed that she won't accept any refusal from him.
"Take me there. I'll tell him I took a cab." she added to relieve his worry. He saw her face changing and hushing like waves of a river.
"He'll ask how you learnt the name of the hospital. And where you got the money. What will I tell him? If I take you, I'll certainly lose my job, Ma'am."
She withdrew the necklace from her neck and kept it beside him, particularly on the passenger seat in the front.
"I'll tell him I gave the driver my necklace."
"Ma'am..." he was about to protest again. Shraddha had no time. They took her heart along which was with Anand. If she doesn't reach him soon, she'll stop breathing. No one can live without his heart, so she said.
"It is worth a lot. Check it. Mother gave it to me."
"There are security cameras in the hou....."
"You'll handle it." She replied.
The driver picked up the heavy necklace and weighed it on his hand by tossing it from his right hand to his left. Satisfied and delighted because he knew he'll get a lot after selling it, he agreed. He started the car and drove her to the hospital. The hospital didn't look like a hospital to Shraddha. Rather, it looked like a five star hotel that was built for people who loved luxury. She thanked the driver from the bottom of her heart as he risked his job to reunite her with her heart.
"Ma'am, I've been working in the house for more than eight years. Madam Supriyya never thanked us the workers. You're different. Sir is lucky to have you as his wife. I've never seen her care for him as much as I saw care in your eyes."
Shraddha hummed. In no way was she trying to be like Supriya. So, she didn't appreciate the compliment. They both were two different people. Their care for Anand should never be compared. She loved him according to her ways, and she was also loving him according to her ways.
She plunged out of the car and strode into the hospital. The huge chandelier received her in the reception. She paid no attention to other details such as the paintings that contained crucial information about one's health that were dangled on the walls.
Her eyes scoured the hospital in search of either Anand's father, or mother.
"What are you here for, Ma'am?"
She turned and looked at the white woman that spoke to her. Yes, a white woman. It's not something unusual in Mumbai. She was dressed in a nurse's attire and had a name inked on her knee-length dress. The name read Jennifer.
"Anand, where is Anand?" she asked.
She listened to the nurse saying things in English she couldn't quite comprehend. She then counselled her to the second floor of the hospital through the elevator. There, she met her mother-in-law and Riya. Riya was consoling her mother by uttering some words. Words Shraddha couldn't hear. She moved past the nurse to her family.
"Riya," she mumbled.
Both of them looked at her. She saw the tears in both their eyes. That crept her into fear. A doctor came out of the operation theatre. He sighed aggravatedly and looked at Shraddha apologetically.
"I'm sorry, all treatments are declining. His heart isn't as healthy as it used to be. I warned him in the past when his wife died to stop his excessive drinking and smoking. He didn't listen to me. We tried our best, but he may not make it out alive. You brought him here late."
"Ahhhh!" his mum's loud scream full of pain, despair, agony hooted in the building. Riya got up and silently went to a secluded corner. She slapped herself across the face while crying in silence as she blamed herself for her brother's condition.
"You can go in and say your last messages to him before we switch off the ventilator." the doctor spoke.
"Who gave you permission to put him on that? And who is giving you the permission to switch it off? You can't tell me we brought a corpse to the hospital. My son was fully well alive when we brought him." Anand's father lashed out at the doctor while he approached his family.
"Sir, he suffered from a heart attack. You took so long before bringing him. That led to the deterioration of his condition. His breathing came to a halt. We had to put him on a ventilator if not, we would have lost him without trying to save him. And since his body isn't reacting to any of our treatments, we have to let him go."
"No." Shraddha said. She trod inside the operation theatre. The other doctors there left her alone in the room. The dimmed lights from the lofty rings remained flashed at Anand's body. He was shirtless, and lying like a corpse.
"Anand, I deserve happiness. Do you think what you're doing is fair?" she took slow steps towards him. Upon reaching him, she removed the wires on his chest and the low sound of something blinking in the room abruptly stopped.
"We have a long way to go. A long way like you and I getting remarried. This time, because of love. You still have to love me. We deserve our happy ending." she seated her head against his chest. She was too engrossed, the fact that his heart wasn't beating anymore didn't occur to her. "Anand, wake up." her tear rolled down from her eyes onto his bare chest. "I love you. I really do. I can't live without you. I know death is inevitable. However, I know it can do me one favour by keeping you for me. I'm not even asking for much. Just ten years. Let's live in bliss for ten years. And then, it can take me along in place of you." another drop of tear alighted on him. "Anand, you shouldn't leave me. For God's sake, don't. We haven't lived life together. I still dream there will come a day when you and I will become one soul. When we'll wake up together and sleep and eat and do everything together. Don't let that hope die. If you leave, Father will force me to leave our children. And because I don't have your support, I'll have to go."
It was a miracle. Her tears revived Anand's heart. Something medication in a renowned hospital couldn't do. It is always said that there is no better treatment than love. Shraddha's tears proved their authenticity. They weren't empty sayings. Love is better than any drug in the world. Without the support of the ventilator, Anand continued to breath. Not only that, his eyes began to linger open. They did, but he quickly locked them close due to the bright light. Shraddha was still crying on his chest.
"Anand, wake up Anand. My life will lose its meaning without you. You're that meaning. I can't! I can't accept separation from you."
The door to the room was opened by the doctor. He noticed the ventilator had been disconnected and Shraddha lying on Anand's chest while crying. He sighed deeply and wiped the tears that came out of his eyes. Anand was his closest friend in the hospital. The hospital belonged to him. When everyone doubted his capabilities of being a good doctor because of his school certificate, Anand believed in him. He made him get training under professionals and offered him a job. They were close buddies.
"He's dead." he uttered in sheer disbelief, checked the watch on his wrist and pronounced the time. "At exactly 6:05 PM, our Anand breathed his last."
Anand became conscious as his eyes unfurled.
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