17/11/2019 - Sunday -At Tambaram.
Shiva's P. O. V:
I was walking restlessly inside my room.
I don't want to ask her anything. Pregnant or not, it's her issue with my parents. Why should I bother?
The time was nearly 7:00.
If I don't call her out now, she might miss the bus, the rain was getting heavier.
This is my sister in law and I don't care what she had planned. All I care about now is dropping her off.
The thing is, her sister was also here in Chennai for the past few days. A good daughter in law would have invited her home and introduced her to my parents. But she didn't.
I tried confronting her with the tattoo issue, but I was the one who got trapped.
Was my anni hiding something from my family? Maybe she is not pregnant at all? , But Rajiv was genuinely happy that he was going to be a father. There was no lie in that. Maybe she lied to Rajiv too?
What if the one here is not the one who is actually pregnant? , I felt like my head was about to blast.
I need to stop this right now. This is not something I should be thinking about.
It's better the sooner she leaves, the sooner before I start overthinking her with Aparna and I might confuse the situation in hand.
I walked out of my room and knocked on Anni's door.
She walked out with her bag in hand. Her face was still pale. She was waiting for me to ask her. But I have decided otherwise.
" Shall we go? " I asked her.
She looked down for a moment and nodded her head.
I walked down taking her bag and started booking for a cab in my phone.
She stayed silent until the cab arrived.
I locked the door and helped her throw in her luggage.
I told the otp to the driver and soon we were out of my street.
Still she was silent, her eyes were relentlessly looking at me and the outside through the window.
After few minutes, she started looking at her phone.
" Oh shit! " She told.
" What happened Anni? " I asked turning back.
" The bus! They cancelled it! " She told with shock on her face.
I asked the cab driver to pull over , she was biting off her smile looking at me.
" I got the message just now! It's cos of the rain! " She told with a sad face.
I got the phone from her and looked at the message. She was saying the truth.
If she wants to play this game, fine I'll make her regret doing this. I gave her a chance to escape out of all this, now it's fate that she is going to face me.
I told the driver to take us back home. I called my Amma and informed her. Amma sounded concerned and told me that they might stay the night in Jeya aunty house.
I was mentally preparing myself to face her.
As we got back home, I helped her take her bag upstairs.
Anni's confused face was gone, she was being too calm.
" I think we need to talk! " I finally said, thankfully Amma and Appa were not here.
She opened her mouth to say something, I stopped her midway.
" Look Anni, this shouldn't be my job. I do respect you, but I can't digest you lying about your pregnancy! The reason Amma and Appa decided to forgive Rajiv was only for their grand children. Now, all that was a lie? " I said without breathing.
" Are you done? " She asked me folding her hands in front of her.
I looked at her confused.
" Nobody lied about your Amma and Appa's grand children! " She said looking straight at me.
" Then what the hell was your period about? " I asked even more confused.
" Look, I am not pregnant. I am not your brother's wife too. " She said slowly. Who is this then? , oh my god, what drama is going on here!
" What? " I gasped out.
" Rajiv is married to my sister. " She said making her words very clear.
That's the moment the truth dawned on me.
" You aren't Prerna? " I asked finally.
" Yes! " She said with a huge grin.
I took two steps away from her and looked at her scrunching my eye brows together. I was running my hand over my hair.
" You were right! I am Aparna! " She said slowly taking a step closer to me.
I was still speechless, I closed my mouth with my hands. My heartbeat was echoing inside my ear.
The one to whom I confessed everything was actually the one I was confessing about! She was Aparna!
"Why did you lie? Why did you run away? " I asked stuttering.
" Had no other choice! To be honest, I didn't trust you. " She said.
" You are talking about trust? " I asked sarcastically.
She raised her eyebrows and started at me.
" Look, I didn't plan to be here. My sister went through IVF treatment. Rajiv was scared that your parents won't be happy knowing about it. But my sister can't travel. That's why I did this! I accepted to be here as my sister! " She said in a raised voice.
I was looking at the floor, trying to take in whatever she was saying.
" I took a major risk to be here. I know it was wrong, but I did it for my sister. " She said and a small tear escaped her eye.
I closed my eyes shut and started biting my lips. I didn't want to look at her at all. Too many memories were gushing inside my head.
" When I saw you, I knew that we had met already. I didn't want you to know my true identity. I wasn't sure of how you would take this. That's why I ran away everytime you were close to seeing the real me. " She said.
" Well, what made you change your mind now? " I asked still closing my eyes.
I heard her taking a step closer to me.
She slowly placed her hand over my arm and turned me towards her.
" Being here, i got to understand you. I was convinced that you would understand the situation. I can't pull this show longer. " She said.
I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was just a foot away from me. Her hands were still over my arms.
" Even yesterday, I was sure that I can convince you that I was my sister. Today, I knew that, it wouldn't be fair to not tell you the truth. Sorry if I had broken your trust. " She said.
I could understand her justification for imposing as her sister. Because I knew my parents, my Amma would have talked all nonsense if she knew that my brother and his wife conceived through IVF and not naturally.
That would have added to the my Amma's list of reasons why Prerna was not the right girl for my brother.
I slowly nodded back.
She moved away from me and looked at me. I was slightly yearning for her to be closer to me and it felt so wrong.
" Wait! " I said.
" What? " She asked.
" I told you everything! Every damn thing! I told you things which I never told anyone, You were playing two sides with me! How do you justify that?" I said in a raised tone, I was controlling all my anger fuming out.
" You thought you were the only one who wanted some miracle to happen? , Damn you Shiva! , Everytime you talked, I wanted to shout on your face that I was Aparna! Trust me, I so wanted to. " She said shaking her head.
I wasn't expecting this reply from her at all. I shook my head and looked at her.
" Let's not play around with words. I can forgive you for imposing as my sister in law! But not for making me chase you everytime! " I said.
" Were you the only one chasing ? " She asked. She was again trying to confuse me.
" Get to the point! " I said with a straight face.
" Fine! " She said raising her hands.
" If you remember, I was willing to give you my phone number, literally. And even the Facebook request! I accepted it the moment I saw it! " She said.
" Yes! You started a conversation and you left me hanging! You ran away twice, we could have met outside this situation!" I said.
" You were engaged and I was here as my sister! What did you expect me to do? Hi! I am Aparna , but I am also Prerna , since I am acting as your sister in law! Should I have told that? " She finally said.
I bit my lower lip as the truth finally sunk in. She ran away not because she was scared of me, but because of me chasing her.
I breathed out looking at her.
" You are thick headed! " She said.
" What? " I asked keeping my hands on my hips.
" I confessed to you! And all you cared about was the Facebook message that I didn't reply! " She said shaking her head.
She walked past me to her room angrily and closed the door loudly.
Never in my life, had I been this confused. Was I really thick headed? What was she saying?
I slowly walked to my room and closed the door.
I sat down on my bed and replayed her words.
The moment when Prerna was so interested to give her sister's number came to my mind. And the next day , she accepted the Facebook request as soon as I sent it.
She knew my side of the story, and played along with it.
Wait, was she interested in me too?
I thought, I would make her regret not going back, but the tables have turned and I was the one sitting here worried about everything , she walked off as if nothing happened!
I layed on my bed and pulled off my hair.
She was trying to make me see that! And her limitations, as she knew about Anjali too!
I thought I was the one having hard time with my feelings.
That moment, my phone's notification sound brought me back to reality.
It was a message from Rajiv.
" Shiva, is Prerna okay? "
I replied back, " You mean Aparna? "
" Yeah! " He sent.
And then in few seconds , he deleted his last message.
"Typo! " He sent.
" Haha, your cover is blown! You Bastard! " I typed in.
" I thought you would have found that long before bro. We will talk about this face to face. I was about to tell you anyway. Long story, Sorry for keeping you in the dark.
But, Tell me, is that girl okay? Is she sick or what? " He asked, concerned.
" She is alright. She sounded pretty heathy even now. " I said.
" Okay, but then, Why did she ask me to cancel the bus ticket all of a sudden ? , she really wanted to be back here. This girl is confusing me. " He sent.
I instantly smiled on seeing his message.
I believed that I was plotting all this for the truth to come out, but damn, it was her, from the beginning.
Oh God, what am I gonna do?