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I stood there quietly as I saw him strike Aliya hard on her face. He was hurt. Obviously. But I was shocked that Aliya was still.. still trying to make excuses when the proof was shown. She had no ways to escape.
One week back she had successfully been trapped in our plan. But at the last moment she turned the tables. When all our plans failed especially the scratch CD one we had lost hope.
Then without telling Daadi, Bulbul and Purab I took the risk. I had to.
"What do you think of yourself? You will go on lying and I'll believe it? I know your truth. Yours as well as your friend Tanu's!" I told them calmly..
"Wh..at truth? We aren't hid..ing anything"
"What do yo..u know?"
"Well, since you want to know let me tell you." I smiled at them. Their faces were worth watching. Both their faces had become chalk white.
"I know that you Ms. Aliya Mehra" I said after a slight pause "that you have been stealing money from your Bhai's account."
"What rubbish! How can you say.."
"And you Ms. Tanushree Mehta." I went near her ignoring Aliya completely. "Do you know who Nikhil is?"
"Who Nikhil? I do..n't know any Nikhil?"
"Oh! So you forgot him so easily? Didn't you just meet him yesterday?"
She looked at Aliya and then faced me. "Nikhil.. Nikhil the father of this baby" I said.
Aliya and Tanu looked as if a lightening had struck. There was pin drop silence until Aliya spoke up.
"Yes! Yes I agree that I have been stealing money from Bhai's account. I agree that Nikhil is the father of Tanu's child. Yes. Whatever you said it true. But how will you prove it? If you just go and tell him, he will not even believe you. After all this you've done, he will never believe you!
You must be wondering why I did this right? Let me tell you. I did this for revenge. Bhai had taken everything from me. He.. He took away Purab from me right? He took away my love from me. I thought I'll take away his everything. I'll take away his money, fame, property everything! I was even doing that but.. but you" she continued pointing at me "You came. You came and destroyed everything. You took over the house, company and I couldn't do anything."
Hearing Aliya speak with such confidence Tanu also spoke up as I stood there quietly hearing their confessions.
"And me? Yes this baby is Nikhil's. But you can't do anything. Remember how I took your advantage to marry Abhi. Remember? I love Abhi, Pragya. I do. But he.. he was getting emotionally attached to you. He started loving you and you can see that don't you? He loves you like anything now. What could I have done? Yes, this child is Nikhil's but my baby will get Abhi's name. And you can't do anything."
I didn't say anything but had quietly left the room as they stared at me.
Well, I had fitted a camera in the room. Our conversation.. Everything was recorded and it was shown to him.
When I showed this neither Daadi nor Bulbul & Purab knew anything about it. They were shocked as much as others.
Tanu's parents had taken her away and had decided to get her married to Nikhil and as for Aliya, she was sent to jail.
When I entered our room, I saw him with a bottle of alcohol lying on the floor against the couch. He had drunk too much. I slowly went to him and was about to take the bottle from him when he caught my wrist tightly.
"Why? Why did you leave me that time? Why did you have to do all this? You could have said it once and I would have believed it. Why all this drama?"
I sat there as tears flowed down my cheeks. After all I had no answers to his questions. I knew that he loved me. Maybe be more than I ever loved him. Yet I didn't believe that he would trust me. And I went to collect proof.
"Promise me... Promise me that you'll never leave me again. Never." he said quietly.
"I will never leave you again" I said almost in a whisper and he pulled me into a hug.
Anupamaa
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