10:20 AM, 2nd April, Mumbai Highway
Shreekant's anger was clearly visible on his face and Amna could feel its heat even in the absence of his words. His knuckles were turning white as he fisted his palm over the steering wheel tightly. As she was sitting beside him on the passenger seat in front, he started the car. He hurriedly pulled his car out of the mansion at an unimaginable speed.
Amna stared at Shreekant a couple of times while he was driving and finally blurted out nervously, "Whatever may be the situation, it was not correct of you to leave the house like that?"
"So, what do you want me to do? My family was humiliating and insulting you when they don't even know the real reason. Did you think that papa would have let you stay in that house after that amazing tidbit?" He literally shouted at her as their car was already running steadily along the highway.
Although it had been only a few days since they had known each other, both possessed unexpressed respect for each other where either of them could leap in troubles to protect the other one.
She zipped her lips silently for a moment and stared down but spoke again, "Fine...", her voice trailed off hearing his angry answer. She mumbled against the windshield of the window, "So where are we going now?"
He looked at her for a moment, "I don't know, because of that stupid rumor I can't go anywhere now. If the press spots you and me together anywhere they will eat us alive. I am thinking of going to Ratna Aunty's house"
"Belgaum... That's eight hours from here plus how will we investigate about my sister's death if we go there, it's a wastage of time and petrol"
"So, what are you suggesting?", he asked furrowing his eyebrows.
"I have a better option. Only if you agree, we can go to my Orphanage? We can stay there, although it might be a little uncomfortable for you. Once this rumor cools down a bit, we can think of some other place to stay in Mumbai itself"
He paused for a minute thinking while Amna was shaking her leg impatiently trying to guess his answer, "Your idea is not bad, but are you sure we will be allowed to stay there?"
"Sure, the only person I have to convince is Jaya and she will definitely understand our situation. Don't worry, I am not going to tell her everything, but I can convince her well", she said although she herself was unsure about Jaya's reaction.
"Okay then, let's go to Lonavala, it's just two hours from here"
Amna nodded, "If you don't mind, can I say something." He gestured to her to continue.
"Your mother is a little strange, don't think that I am trying to create any misunderstanding between you and her, but she was kind of smiling when your father was chiding you and then immediately came to defend you in front of your father"
He grinned at her, "That's how our esteemed Mrs. Mhatre is, she is not my mother. She is my father's second wife. I and my brother Daksh lost our mother when I was four and he was three due to a terminal illness. My father then married her, Saket was her son from her previous marriage, and Mishka was born later to Mrs. Mhatre and my father. They are my step-siblings. The guy whom you saw earlier today was Saket"
She sensed his pain as he talked, "I understand why you call her Mrs. Mhatre... You know she is totally like Cinderella's stepmother, a villain"
He laughed at her comment, "What! Cinderella's stepmother? Are you calling me Cinderella?"
She stared at him, "This is the first time since we met that I saw you laughing."
He stopped his laugh, "It's true, I have also not heard my own laugh for many days. After I lost my mother at a young age, I always felt lonely. This huge Mhatre Niwas is just a house made of bricks and cement where neither love nor family resides. It's the place where I had to keep my emotions and feelings always confined until the day, I met Anna, your sister."
He continued while Amna looked at him with awestruck eyes, "I met her at an art gallery in Canada. I got introduced to her by Saket only... She was Saket's batchmate in Business school. Within a small span of five to six months, we became really close and then decided to get married... Of course without my family's consent because I knew my father's reaction very well."
"You were smiling when you were talking about her, can you tell me what kind of a person she was? I can only imagine her right..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes started watering a little.
"Anna... She was the most cheerful person I had ever met, she loved her parents a lot. She was really good at paintings and wanted to pursue her career in that even though she had an MBA degree."
"She couldn't tolerate anything wrong, she was very confident and daring, and was very straightforward in nature. In fact the way, you replied to Mrs. Mhatre today reminded me of the way she used to answer the people back who messed with her. She never required my help to defend herself. In fact, she was the one who defended me many times, she was my strength but now she is gone..."
"No... she is not gone, I could imagine her right in front of my eyes, through your words, through your smile", she cleared her throat, "Enough of emotional talks... Your brother Saket seemed like a good person, I mean... he was trying to stop his mother"
"He is actually a very good person. When we were young we loved each other dearly. But as we grew up everything started changing. Daksh's behavior changed after papa decided to make me the Chairman. Mishka started hating all of us because she was denied to be a part of our business. Even if people say the world has changed for women, it was not true for her. The board members were strictly against making a woman MD in any of the businesses we owned, forget about being Chairwoman. Later my parents made her marry Mahesh Roy, son of my father's business partner"
"Saket was even closer to me than Daksh but then...", his voice trailed off recalling the past.
"Then...", she budged him but he didn't respond and she thought, "I shouldn't irate him by my silly curtness and so many questions" and looked away.
"He liked Anna"
She turned towards him, "Saket liked Anna? How do you know about it? Did my sister also know about it?"
"After Anna and I started getting close, he was not the same person anymore. He started getting colder towards me and Anna both. One day when I asked him about his changed behavior he finally told me the truth. Since then our relationship changed but he never crossed his limits. He actually never told Anna about his feelings because he knew that she loved me."
"Oh... That's what happened"
"I have told you so many things about Anna, about me, my family... Tell me something about yourself?"
She gently simpered, "My life is like an open book, I stayed in the orphanage as the adopted daughter of the caretaker. She really pampered me and helped me in my education. She is the person I owe the most. When she left me, Jaya, and the whole orphanage so suddenly, I learned the real value of money the hard way"
"It was because of Jaya and the little money my mother had saved for me, that I was able to complete my higher secondary and the five and half years of MBBS. I won some monetary grants and scholarships through which I paid for my postgraduation coaching in Bangalore and finally got a seat in that same college from where I passed my graduation. That's it"
"Your life was pretty simple until all of these things happened"
"Hmm... It was but I believe it will return to normal very soon, once we get hold of the person behind all this"
He nodded and the rest of the journey was not anymore filled with only formal conversations. Unknown to both of them, they had started becoming friends.
12:50 PM, 2nd April, Snehalaya, Lonavala
Shreekant and Amna reached the orphanage, she turned towards him, "I will inform Jaya about our situation, you wait here in the garden" and he nodded in agreement.
As Amna was heading to the office to meet Jaya, she was slightly nervous fearing what she would have been thinking, first because of the photos circulated in almost every news channel and then her abrupt entry with a supposedly married man with whom she was having an affair according to the media.
"Jaya!"
Jaya glanced up and walked towards her, "Amna, what happened to you yesterday? And what's about the news? The guest, Shreekant Mhatre you brought yesterday was the husband of the lady who donated to our orphanage? That lady had committed suicide?"
"I know you have many questions in your mind, but please understand that I can't tell you everything now, it's all very complicated right now, for time being I and Shreekant need a place to stay, at least till that stupid rumor cools down a bit"
"Amna, I trust you and you don't need my permission to come here. Whatever is happening, I just blindly believe that you can't be wrong" She caressed her forehead while saying this lovingly.
"Just give me some time...I will get the rooms ready", Amna nodded smilingly on hearing this from Jaya.
As Shreekant was strolling around the place he noticed a black car standing in front of the orphanage for a long time and found it really strange. Just as he tried to look at the person driving the car, the car suddenly strode away.
Amna happily went out of the office to the garden to find Shreekant standing near the gate and went near him, "Shreekant, we can stay here for as long as we want"
He turned towards her, "Amna, I saw a black car standing here for a long time and when I tried looking at the person driving the car, the car suddenly strode away "
She looked around, "What car? This is Lonavala, a lot of tourists come near this area. There is nothing strange about it, come inside quickly, because of all that morning drama I have not even brushed my teeth and I am very hungry"
9:30 PM, Snehalaya, Lonavala
Amna was sitting quietly on the bench of the garden and looking at the stars. Shreekant saw her sitting outside and came near her.
She shifted her glance, "Shreekant! Come sit here. Did you have dinner? Ahh... You don't have any spare clothes right?"
He sat near her, "I can manage today with these clothes, I will buy some for myself tomorrow morning. By the way, what are you doing? Counting stars?"
"No... I was just looking at the sky"
"You know when I was small someone told me that my mother has become an angel, and all angels ultimately appear like stars to human eyes", he chuckled as he continued, "Illogical theory, right? But to a boy of five years, it was really soothing to think that"
He turned his face towards her, "Do you believe that dead people become stars?"
She smiled a bit, "No... I believe in compensation theory, it's not very different from what you believed as a child, as the ultimate purpose of comforting the heart's emotions is fulfilled "
"Compensation theory... What's that?"
"I believe whenever God takes something away from us, he compensates for that in some other way, for example, I lost my parents so he compensated me with my foster mother and Jaya when I lost my foster mother, he compensated by making me stand on my own feet. I became a doctor so that I can at least try and save many people just like my mother. Compensation may take some time but it happens for sure"
"Do you think your God can compensate me with anything comparable to your sister?", he asked raising his eyebrows.
"I think God can, but it may take some time, till then why don't you do this", she gripped his hand and placed it on the left side of his chest, "Close your eyes and think about that person whom you have lost, first it will make you cry a lot because you will recall your memory of losing her. The day when instead of that memory, you start seeing only the happy moments you spent with that person and a smile comes to your face, understand that God has compensated you"
As she withdrew her hand, he looked at her gaping blankly at her face while she continued, "I got my day of compensation when in my first year of residency I saved a cardiac arrest patient by my emergency aid. As I came out of the ward, I saw the happiness on his daughter's face and finally, my painful memories were gone, don't worry your day of compensation will also come, just wait for it patiently"
On seeing his gawked face she waved her hand over his face, "Are you listening?" He snapped out from his thoughts, while his mind wandered, "Why do I think, that something similar has happened to me just like this long back?"
Unknown to him, her words were healing him slowly but steadily, little did he know that he had already started getting compensated for his loss.
As he kept on looking at her, his trance broke with a phone call, and he got up from his place, "I need to take this call" and moved away from her walking in the direction of the fountain near the entrance.
As he was talking over the phone he noticed a similar black car as the one he saw in the morning waiting outside the orphanage. The window of the car lowered and he saw a gloved hand holding a gun pointing in the direction Amna was sitting.
Without thinking for a second, he dropped the phone he was holding and rushed towards her. He gripped her wrist tightly making her stand up from her place and pushed her aside. As he did that he fell on her top. On seeing what happened, the person in the car drove away as fast as he could from the place.
She was taken aback by what had just happened and then suddenly her eye shifted to see a red-colored patch on his shirt near the right shoulder area. Before she could comprehend the situation he fell semi-conscious, his chin rubbing against her collar bone.
With all her strength she shifted herself and put him in a supine position on the ground. "Get up...Shreekant!", she tapped his face and touched the red patch, "Its blood" She then proceeded to open his shirt.
"Oh, God! It's a bullet injury!" She skimmed the area of the shoulder to resist the flow of the blood and then called for an ambulance from her phone immediately. She heard soft whimpers from his mouth and leaned to hear him as he said, "Car... Car..."
"What are you saying? Don't waste your energy, try to stay awake, an ambulance will be here soon, I am going to call Jaya for help"