The hold on her earrings dropped for the second time in the last five minutes as she juggled between choosing the perfect match with her plain yellow saree with a rich blue border. The halter neck blouse felt suffocating but the lack of time made it impossible for her to choose another dress for today.
Clenching her fingers, she tried calming her heart as it beat at an abnormal speed as an after-effect of today's events.
The orphanage was a cluster of chaos breaking into one, leaving her disheveled as she was left confused with the open ends, and finding the strings to tie up was taking a toll on her. She felt panic rush back as the events flashed.
She had to tell someone about this or the situation would swallow her alive.
Someone had to take up the reigns from her, she was failing holding the pieces back.
There was a child missing whose records were cleared, flushed to non-existence. She had taken the child herself to the place just 3 days back on her way to the orphanage. She had found the boy of age four crying sitting behind his dead mother. She had called the medics who cleared the body and NGO workers who enrolled him in the Orphanage. She had signed those documents but now there were missing, and so was the child.
The body of the woman was cremated the same day and the ashes were disposed in the ocean which hid plenty of secrets, just like that woman.
She remembers his innocent black beady eyes staring back at her as she explained to him what had happened. She took him under and now that boy was nowhere to be found.
Her assistant, Sheetal was equally flabbergasted as she had dialed Dhwani this evening when she went to check up on him. The orphanage administration was clueless about his whereabouts. The security was shocked as no one crossed the gated campus and none entered from outside that could result in suspicion.
It was fishy and she had a hunch.
Picking any random pearls, she wore them with shaky fingers. After dinner, she will talk to Anirudh. He was the only person who could help her.
Rashi was an option but today Dhwani had tested her limits and no way she will be willing to listen without a bucketful of taunts and tagging her as incompetent.
She would rather talk to the man she shared her room with.
He seemed easy to approach.
She stood up at once but fell back as a shiver of pain crossed her skull, making her dizzy. She held onto the vanity table in support as the world spun.
"No, not today. Please." She silently begged stabblizing her breath and holding on to her head as the wave passed.
"Bhabhi"
She cringed at the loud call from the door followed by knocks.
"Be slow, Dhwani. It will be alright." She talked to herself as her vision kept oscillating between clear and blurriness.
Motivating herself worked as she tried standing up again.
"Everyone is waiting." It was Uttara.
"I am...coming." She tried replying when her legs gave up.
She tried holding onto the cabinets when her fingers lost hold and the loud crash resonated and everything turned black. She was falling on the ground, body recoiling as the cold tiles contacted her head and a wince escaped passed her lips. A piece of ceramic pierced her foot as something liquid touched her skin.
"Are you okay?"
The knocks turned into a bangs and she tried opening her eyes that felt heavy with each passing second.
"Bhai..."
The muffled voice was as far as her mind stopped sending commands and she felt herself paralyzed on the cold floor.
It was moments later that the light brightened and several footsteps entered running toward her.
The voices turned sleazy as she stopped processing them, losing her subconscious state. She falling into the abyss of darkness.
Anirudh watched her body go limp in his arms as he called her nam
e for the nth time. "Dhwani, wake up damnit. What the hell is wrong with her?" He demanded his brother who took hold of her wrist as the blank mask took over his features. "Will you speak up?"
"Carry her to bed."
The command made him irked yet he followed. He picked her in his arms and laid her on the bed gently. Patting her cheeks as if that could wake her up.
"Bhai, let me check. You need to step back." Vidyut jutted his chin to move away.
He begrudgingly followed and felt a gentle squeeze from Rakshit who had worry plastered in his eyes. "She has to be okay. Don't worry."
He nodded unfocused as he watched Vidyut checking her heartbeats and eyes which have rolled back. Uttara came panting, hurrying back with his briefcase from their car and placing it on the bed.
"Take cotton and press into her wound," Vidyut instructed her and she nodded fervently. "Shreya, help me by removing her jewelry."
She was wearing none if earrings and a thin chain around her neck didn't count. Anirudh moved forward toward her when Vidyut snapped his eyes toward him.
"No. You stay there." He ordered. "You will panic and make her panic too."
"Shut up and do your work." Anirudh scowled.
"I am." He rolled his eyes and dressed her wound. Surfing through his bag, he pulled out a syringe and a liquid. Injecting it into her arm he stepped back. "Was she stressed? Her blood pressure is abnormally high and blood loss is more due to the same."
"I don't know." Anirudh admitted guiltily as he watched her lying unconscious "She had an impromptu visit to orphanage. She came back just now. There seems to be an emergency."
"It could be stress," Vidyut concluded. "We will have to monitor her blood pressure for a week to know if it isn't serious. It could be fatal."
"What do you mean?" Anirudh stilled.
"High blood pressure leads to a lot of diseases, Bhai. It is not to be ignored. Ask her to visit me for the following week and we can track the fluctuations."
"Not needed." The small voice caught their attention.
Her head was ready to burst yet she tried sitting up. A wince left past her and she felt two arms restraining her moments.
"Are you insane?" Anirudh chided her as he helped her sit, the stubborn woman watched him with dazed eyes and licked her dried lips. "Water?"
"Thank you." Dhwani nodded and closed her eyes as the brightness made her dizzy again. He helped her drink water and placed a pillow behind her back.
"Are you okay, Bhabhi?" Rakshit whispered sitting beside her, as if a higher pitch would hurt her.
"I am now." Dhwani smiled watching his long face. He watched a worried Uttara standing close to Vidyut and Shreya standing at the far end of the room watching her with passion. Anirudh stood near the bed intimidating her to dare try and pull stunts like this more. "I am sorry to scare you all."
"You should be." He gritted while she ignored him as Vidyut gestured Rakshit to step back. He took the chair and placed the machines again. He wrapped the gauge around her upper arm as the digital machine calculated.
"170/110" Vidyut read glaring at her "This is not normal. Now if you do not compile for daily check-ups, I will be forced to come here and show my face to you and him. And trust me, you won't like seeing me every day."
"That's true. Who would see his constipated face every day?" Rakshit murmured from the sides earning a quick glare from Vidyut.
"If you do not shut up, you wouldn't have eyes left for seeing anything." He threatened holding a scalpel in his hand he procured from his bag.
"What is this doing with you?" Uttara wondered loudly.
"I was thinking the same." Dhwani supported her.
"Forget it." Vidyut dropped it back and rolled his eyes and assessed Dhwani "Back to the topic. I want you at the hospital at sharp 10."
"It is not needed." She pressed again in flow. "It is nothing, don't worry. Nothing some medicines cannot control, I will not miss them again."
"What medicines?" Anirudh caught on. His eyes stopped at hers, "What medicine are you talking about?"
Her eyes widened as the words registered. "I... I mean nothing. There is no medicine."
"You are lying." He pointed towards her clutched fingers. He glared at her hard.
"What are you hiding, Bhabhi?" Vidyut assessed her with a no-nonsense face. "Speak up."
"No." She licked her lips as all eyes shot toward her. "There is nothing."
"Out, everyone." Anirudh gritted hissing.
Vidyut wanted to protest when he caught his brother's fading composure. "We will wait outside."
He stood up, others came to life. He left his bag on a couch and watched Uttara watching her with worry.
"She is fine now." Vidyut gently whispered and dragged her by the elbow.
The door shut behind them, leaving a raged Anirudh and a scared Dhwani.
"It is... nothing." She tried.
"Stop lying." He burst. "Do you have any idea how much you worried all of us? No! Can you stop lying and spit what is wrong with you for once so that we can stop thinking, and worrying about you as you do not care what people go through after your actions? That day you ran away to your orphanage and I kept searching for you until midnight. Today your phone was off and there was no one who could tell me your whereabouts. Can you for once care that I am answerable on your whereabouts? For god's sake, stop giving me grey hairs by pulling stunts like these."
She shuddered at the intensity.
"Before we didn't live with the family so I understand that you do not know how to keep anyone informed but can you start doing it now? I enter this place and I am questioned about you. What should I tell them that the girl they got me married to doesn't keep me informed or that I have no idea where my wife could be? If you don't care about your reputation, fine! But you have no right to play with mine."
"I'm your responsibility, is that what you are trying to say?" She asked.
"You are my wife, Damn it." He snapped. "Responsibility or not, I am answerable for you. At least until your name is linked with mine. I have said it before and I will say it again. Do anything you want but the moment your actions disrupt my and my family's reputation, I will intervene. Whether you like it or not, I don't care."
"You and your family." She repeated and nodded "I understand, I am sorry. I will keep that in mind. I shouldn't damage your image in front of your family."
"Is that the only thing you could hear?" He frowned, sitting on the chair he pulled on his hair and sighed. "I didn't mean it that way, they are yours too."
"They were never mine." She mumbled feeling her throat choked. "Yours, not mine. They never were."
"Petal, I am sorry for taking it all out on you." He tried touching her palms when she flinched back. "They are yours too if you want them to be. My family loves you. It is just there way of showing that is different. I have never seen Rakshit or Vidyut worry this much for anyone. Not even GM. Uttara and Mom are already full of praise for you. Dad calls you his daughter. GM and Dado are against me for divorcing you. Can you not see how much they want you to stay?"
Dhwani didn't meet his gaze and stared down. Anirudh felt like slapping himself for losing his calm on her.
"I am sorry, please." He repeated "I have never lost my calm. It is just you who brings me to lose my composure. I cannot help feeling anger when it is anything related to you."
"You are blaming me for this?" She looked up with disbelief.
"I am not blaming you." He corrected "I just, happen to lose my composure with you. You push me to extremes."
"It is the same." She scowled with irritation.
"Where are your medicines?" He asked without missing a beat.
"Third drawer in my closet." She answered without realizing it and snapped up towards him. "No, I mean there is nothing."
"Too late, petal." He eyed her with a challenge and left her side to procure them.
Dhwani slapped her forehead but winced at the hit.
"Stop harming yourself, your quota for today is over." He commented with a twitch and settled on the bed near her scattering the contents of the small embroidered box. "This looks like a jewelry box. No doubt anyone caught on it."
She looked away bashfully.
"What are these for? When did you start taking them?" He asked reading into the names. He watched her eating her lips. "Either you tell me nicely or I will carry you to the hospital this instant and get every test performed on you that exists. A wait of few hours and I'll know everything about you."
"You cannot." Dhwani looked at him horrified.
"Either that or you tell me. Make a choice, Petal." He threatened and her resolve crumbled.
"Hypertension." She mumbled, "I was diagnosed with high fluctuations in blood pressure and the doctor prescribed me these."
"When?"
"After last February." She answered like a scared kid caught stealing.
"You didn't think it was important to tell anyone." He stated.
"Who was there to tell?" She shrugged and her words pinched him.
"You missed medicines today?" He probed ignoring the hurt.
"I forgot." She admitted.
He rubbed his forehead and sighed "Vidyut will have a field day with you. Let me call him."
"Don't." She held his wrist. "I don't want anyone to pity me."
"Is that why you never told me?" He asked taking in her crystal eyes. They looked exhausted.
"You were never there to listen."
■ ■ ■
The silence on the dining table did not stretch further as the dessert was served. The dinner that was supposed to take place some two hours back came to an end now.
Not that anyone was at fault.
None thought Dhwani would be found unconscious in her room, forehead and feet bleeding being pierced with a broken vase. But what surprised her was Anirudh's reaction towards her.
He was the most cool-headed Chauhan in the house, all having some temper issues but the eldest.
Boy, she was wrong.
Anirudh had got it worst.
When the others would get angry, they go yelling around and get done with it, cooling almost immediately. Anirudh had burst today and looked nowhere near calm. He was an old volcano that was termed to be safe but could end up burning the city to ashes.
Poor Dhwani was at the receiving end. She sat with them but looked scared as her husband made sure she ate everything bland with no salt touching her taste buds. She was afraid to protest even.
So as the other family members realm into angry Anirudh's glares and words silently.
"Are you still shocked?" Rakshit cocked a brow whispering into her ears.
"Not anymore" Shreya quipped watching the family breaking into little conversations. "I am not used to this much talk around your family."
"Me too. I have hardly seen any conversations at the dinner table." Rakshit smiled as he took a look at the people. "Mom is pampering anyone apart from her sons for the first time."
"She has come to love Uttara." Shreya hummed watching Rashi smiling and continuously talking to Uttara who basked in the attention. The girl was a sunshine in contrast to a grumpy Vidyut. "I can see quite a few changes in the other family members too."
"Right, look at me for an example," Rakshit stated with an innocent smile.
"Change and you?" Shreya played along with a raised brow. "Why don't I see any?"
"That's because you haven't got your eyes treated properly." Rakshit popped with a sarcastic smile. "How about a Monday morning appointment?"
"Why, are you visiting a psychiatrist on other days?" Shreya enjoyed the scowl on his face and those stink eye glares made her pick her wine glass and clink with his. "Cheers."
"What I wish to do with that pretty mouth of yours." He leaned and murmured like a secret making her hand frozen in the air. Her brain went into overdrive and left her cheeks flushed "Could you imagine it too?"
"Shut up!" She spat the drink and wiped it down quickly using the table napkin.
"I said nothing." He shrugged biting his grin back.
"I hear what you don't speak, Rakshit." She gritted, glaring at him and his grin widened.
"Never heard a confession this beautiful, Meri jaan."
"Get lost." She tried pushing him away when he held her steeple finger and laced it with his.
"In your eyes?" he held her gaze "Gladly."
She yanked her hand out of his hold and averted her gaze, wanting to participate in the conversation going around the table which seemed to have died much to her regret.
"Let's take desserts to the terrace." Harshvardhan smiled at his children and their partners before his mischievous eyes rested on his wife who sat with a mocking brow raised at him.
"There is only one dessert, Harsh." She pointed with an all-knowing glare that she knew the secrets he was hiding.
"Not when I am talking about you, Love." He commented making Anirudh choke followed by Vidyut who looked bashful.
"Dad, you still need to keep it PG-13," Rakshit commented grimacing but his smirk was falling out to display its existence. "Catching you two on the terrace was traumatizing itself, now hearing you may not end well with these two oldies."
"You were eager to learn. Not my fault you sneaked on a married couple." Harshvardhan tipped with a shrug.
"Harsh." Rashi stopped him with an equally powerful glare that shut him up.
"Whipped." Rakshit laughed at him.
"Let you get married, son. I can already see you dancing to Shreya's tunes." Harsh amused unfazed by the glare.
"She can have me dancing anyway she wants." He glanced at it before throwing a wink at his father. "Just like I will get her to dance on mine, which I already am."
Yes, he was.
Like a puppet, she was manipulated and made her act the way he wanted, all because she had signed her life away for the next 6 months in return for a large sum of money.
He was playing her like a pawn and she was the spectator, herself watching the ruin.
She kept mum, glaring at the tablecloth. She didn't look up and followed the rest towards the terrace.
It was an open area with a lot of hand-woven jute chairs and tables scattered to accommodate the Chauhan family. One could look over the vast Mumbai coastline standing here. The Chauhan family mansion was a mixture of 18 floored apartments spread over a good square acre with every feasibility.
She was served with a small bowl of Ice cream and she took it towards the railings. Letting the air brush against her face as the soft hum was passed through her voice box.
"An empty cheque for your thoughts?" He offered to break the serenity around her.
He was a tsunami to her tranquility.
"It is a penny." She rolled her eyes without looking at him.
"Nada. Your thoughts are more precious than that." He stated.
It was these words that ignited an old flame back in her heart, one she had extinguished years back.
"Why are we doing this again?" She looked up at the pair of mismatched eyes that are haunting her in her dreams as well. "You wanted to have a clear image, I'm working on it but why this marriage drama?"
"You term it drama? I am hurt." He touched his chest with a wince, acting hurt and in pain.
"Cut the act, Rakshit." She meant it for more than one. "You have never seen me as a woman but your partner in crime for all these years. And I wouldn't believe if God himself comes on earth and tell me that you have somehow, miraculously fallen in love with me. You had burned all those possibilities years back then why are we doing this? It is a scam with our families."
"I was seventeen." His jaw slackened at the mention of the past. "And a hormonal idiot."
"Does not give you a right to say all those things to me." She sneered turning away from him. His face brought in a lot of memories one she wished she could have forgotten.
"I don't know about the rights then but..." he trailed and she involuntary stopped breathing to hear his next words.
"But what?" She was impatient. More when it came to him.
"I need them all now." He completed with an iced tone that made her shiver, she will be blaming it on the cold seeping winds.
"You are delusional." She shook her head.
"I will be anything you want me to be." He declared with finality.
"You are late." She commented taking a bite of ice cream to number her head and heart.
"I call that a mega entry." He was back to joking.
"Arrogant bastard." She huffed.
He acted unaffected, watching the sea line leisurely savoring the sweetness.
She looked at hers, anything to stop staring at him.
A spoon pushed her's away and took a bigger portion in the air.
"Rakshit." She snapped to watch him savoring her desert. His bowl was empty and discarded on the cemented pillar. He shamefully took another bite. "Stop eating my food."
"Why? That flavor isn't even your favorite." Rakshit commented taking a spoon full from her desert bowl which she held in midair and gobbled the contents at once. "If you wanted to eat from my hands, you only had said it once."
"Shut up!" She rolled her eyes saving her desert before he could steal another spoon. "If you want more, ask for it. Don't steal mine."
"Jo tera hai wo mera hai." Rakshit sang to her. (What is yours, is mine.)
"No. Jo mera hai wo sirf mera hai." She stated with a dictating glare eating a spoon full and making a show for him. (No, what is mine remains mine.)
He leaned forward and wiped the ice cream smeared near her lips using his thumb. "Me to humesha tumhara hi hoon, Meri Jaan." (I have always been yours, Meri Jaan.)