Aranya was almost on sleeping mode but her phone started ringing. She opened her eyes with irritation but the moment she saw her mother's number, she immediately sat upright and received the call.
" Hi mom, how are you?" Aranya asked her with big smile.
" Forget about me, tell me about you. You promised me that you will call me back and I was waiting for it but you didn't so finally I called myself. Now tell me everything. What's happening sweetheart? Saree, special dinner and all. What's going on? I want all the details." Her mother asked with a teasing smile.
" Nothing is going on mom. It's just that I did some good work and Sidharth planned a dinner to appreciate my work. It was so sudden and I didn't have time to decide anything. I went for a quick shopping and salesgirl told me that I should try saree and convinced me. I didn't have a choice so I just tried and asked your opinion. You told me that I was looking good in that so I chose that to wear as I didn't have much time to look for something else. Then we went to dinner, ate our foods and came back home few minutes back and now I was going to sleep just before you called. That's it, here I gave you all the details."
Aranya said to her mother
" Sidharth had planned special dinner to celebrate your achievement? How sweet of him. Aranya, can I ask you something? Will you answer me honestly sweetheart?" Her mother asked her.
" Mom it was very casual dinner and Sidharth planned it as my boss to encourage and appreciate my work Anyways, you can ask me anything. You don't need permission for it." Aranya replied.
" Sweetheart, if we keep aside how he forced you to get married to him for a moment, would you have consider Sidharth as your life partner if you had met him in normal circumstances? What I am trying to say is, everything happens for a reason in our life. We humans with our little knowledge only can see what happened at the moment but not why it happened. In a long run only we get to see the real purpose of all the unexpected events which happens with us. I hope you are getting what I am trying to say. I talked about this when I was there too. Please darling, think about what I am saying seriously,ok?" Her mother said to her.
" Mom, I am feeling really sleepy. Can we please talk later?" Aranya said with tired voice. She was not lying. Her mind was almost reached to sleeping mode when her mother called. She was trying to keep her eyes open with so much difficulty and the topic of discussion was making it more difficult for her. She didn't want to go into that zone at that moment considering already messed up situation of her mind and heart.
"I am so sorry darling. Please go to sleep, we will talk later. Good night and take care." Her mother said.
" Good night mom and passed it to dad also. Love you, bye." She said and disconnected the call.
After that she immediately closed her eyes to sleep before her mind venture into some other things.
On other side, Sidharth was just tossing and turning on the bed unable to sleep. Whenever he used to close his eyes, Aranya's image in that beautiful saree used to come in front of him and made him restless.
" What the hell is wrong with me?" He asked to his frustrated self by holding his head.
First office incident and then Aranya wearing that beautiful saree, doing all those extra efforts for their dinner; all these things were messing his mind. Earlier he made peace with the fact that she was not the same girl anymore whom he knew and the fact that she was angry with him made it easy for him to keep his mind and heart in control. But from last few days, the way she was behaving so normally with him and her changed attitude towards him, was creating havoc in his life. He was afraid, he will lose control on his heart and God only knows what blunder it will do?
" No Sidharth, you can't take any risk. Don't create more troubles for yourself and just stay away from this. It's matter of only few more months and then everything will be normal again. Just hold on little more or else you will only regret." His inner self advised him.
With a frustrated sigh, Sidharth stepped down from his bed, grabbed his I pad and went to terrace to get some fresh air and do some work to distract his mind...
Next morning:-
Aranya came down to go to office. She enquired about Sidharth and got to know that he left quite early. After that, she ate her breakfast and went to office. When she was entering in the office, she noticed Sidharth was coming from other side towards her in a hurry while talking on phone. She smiled and waved at him but he didn't acknowledge it and passed from her side without even looking at her as if she was invisible to him. She felt little weird and hurt also by this behaviour of him.
" Maybe he is going for some important work and didn't notice me as his mind was focused on the person he was talking on the phone." She thought to herself and went inside but her heart was still hurt a little.
Whole day, Aranya's mind was constantly going towards how Sidharth ignored her in the morning. She didn't want to but couldn't help herself. She didn't want to acknowledge it but his ignorance like that pricked her heart and there was some unsettling feeling since morning as if something bad was going to happen. She immediately left office, when the clock struck 5:00 pm. She wanted to reach home as soon as possible as if she was going to lose something if she will not reach on time.
Aranya came home and immediately ran inside. Why she was restless, she had no idea. The moment she entered inside, she heard, Sidharth's laughter. She felt relieved to know that he was at home but next second, she became alert because she had never seen him laughing openly like that. It made her curious to know what was happening and why he was laughing like that. She started taking hurried steps but stopped on the very next step when she heard a woman's voice. It made her little confused as she realised that she had heard that voice somewhere but didn't know exactly where.
Now, she was taking small steps trying to recall where she had heard that voice and the fact that Sidharth was sitting with some woman in the drawing hall and laughing like that was making her uncomfortable. With slow steps and confused mind, she reached the hall area. Now Sidharth was clearly visible to her but that woman was not as her face was tilted towards him and covered by her open hairs from where Aranya was standing.
She just stood there for few seconds, observing the scene in front of her. Sidharth was completely engrossed in the conversation with that woman and he was smiling wholeheartedly. She had never seen him this much happy ever since the time she knew him. She could clearly see from her side that woman must be very pretty as she was wearing a beautiful printed yellow and black saree. Her beautiful long hairs were completely open like waves. She must be same as Sidharth's age. What made her little restless and more eager to know about her was the fact that she was sitting very close to him. That closeness and comfort was little too much for normal situation.
Now she couldn't wait anymore and decided to intervene.
" Hi Sidharth, you came home early today?" She directly asked him by standing in front of him.
Sidharth looked at Aranya and then at that woman. His face suddenly became serious and he stood up. Aranya noticed all of it and her heart sank a little seeing his reaction. He was about to speak something but at that very moment, that woman turned towards Aranya and she too stood up. When Aranya looked at her she felt like she will faint any moment. Now Aranya realised why Sidharth was sitting in such a close proximity with that woman and was laughing wholeheartedly which he never does with anyone else. It was because that woman who was standing in front of her was none other than Samaira Chauhan, the so called ex- girlfriend of Sidharth who came and created all that drama on the day when Sidharth forcefully married Aranya. Aranya felt like her head started spinning and she was having dizziness.
" Hey, hi Aranya. I was waiting for you only. Our first meet was not really nice but you can understand my situation that day right? Anyways,how are you? I hope everything is good." She said to her and hugged her. Aranya didn't hug her back and was just looking at Sidharth who was avoiding to look at her.
Samaira herself broke the hug and started talking again.
" I wanted to talk to you for so long but was feeling awkward considering our situation. I didn't even talk with Sidharth in all these days. Last week only I got this news that I have to attend a conference here. I thought this will be a great opportunity to meet Sidharth and you personally and talk. So today morning,I called him when I came. Sidharth explained everything to me and I was just waiting for you to apologise to you for my behaviour on that day. Can we start a fresh forgetting that incident." Samaira said Aranya with an apologetic voice.
Aranya didn't know what to say to her. Her mind was completely numb and confused at that moment. She wanted to escape from that place as far as possible So, she just nodded her head at Samaira and wanted to excuse herself but before that Sidharth's phone started ringing and he went away to attend his phone. Now Aranya and Samaira were standing alone in that big hall feeling awkward on what to say and do. It was Samaira again who broke the conversation first.
" I am once again sorry Aranya for that day. Any girl will feel like me when she will hear that the man whom she had dreamt of getting married since forever was getting married with someone else and she had no clue about it. I was really mad at Sidharth and didn't even talk with him . I was feeling worried thinking how will I talk with Sidharth again but now I am feeling so relieved after knowing the reality of this marriage. Sidharth told me everything. He told me that this marriage is just on papers just to fulfill his grandfather's last wish, he will give you divorce in upcoming months and then you will go from here forever. I can't even explain it to you, how happy it made me. I thought I lost Sidharth forever but it's not true. Sidharth is still mine and after your formal divorce, he will be officially mine forever. I can't wait for the day when you will go away and I will marry Sidharth with all the rituals and our marriage will be a proper marriage. We will live like a true husband and wife. I thought I lost my chance to get my happily ever after but I will get it and that too with my Sidharth. This day is the bestest day of my life." Samaira kept blabbering all these while hugging Aranya. She couldn't see how Aranya's face had lost all colours and became lifeless after hearing her future planning.
At that moment, Sidharth entered in the hall. Aranya looked at him with tears filled eyes. She broke the hug and ran upstairs towards her room as she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of those two love birds.
Sidharth felt little weird to see her behaviour but Samaira word's broke his attention from her.
" Sidharth, she is really nice. I am really feeling bad,the way I talked with her that day and I am feeling bad for her too. No girl deserves this. God only knows why your great grandfather did such cruel thing with all of us but I am glad soon she will be free from this forced relationship and will go to her home, to her family. Our lives will be back to normal again. We will skip these few months from our life as if it didn't exist and will start afresh again from scratch.
I can't wait for that day." Samaira again blabbered in hope of her dreams being fulfilled finally and didn't notice how Sidharth's face turned white as if all blood had been sucked from him.
He just nodded his head at her and excused himself leaving a happy Samaira making plans of her dream life again.