Chapter 125
Karan stared ahead numbly as Amelia's words rung in his ears over and over. She had cancer.
She didn’t cheat, she didn’t betray him. She was ill all this time and he had…
He brushed a hand through his hair breathing heavily, his voice gone and a lump in his throat.
Amelia had walked out after her revelation, she didn’t wait for him to speak. Instead she had turned and walked away.
He couldn’t move from his place, his mind was still registering her words.
Slowly it seeped in, a foreign sound escaped and it had come from him. He swiped his arm across his desk at the cruelty of life, stationery went flying across shattering against the wooden floor.
He had thrown accusations, embarrassed her in front of their family and friends the other night, he… What had he done? He grabbed his head breathing heavily trying to pull himself together.
"I'm sorry…" he breathed coarsely as he clutched onto the desk trying to hold himself up.
As her words continued to settle within, he gathered himself together then found his footing. He took a step forward, walked across his office ignoring the glass that crunched underneath his shoes and opened his door. Moments later, he was climbing into his car and driving.
"Maan bete, you're going to work today?" dadima looked at her grandson as he joined them at the dining room table.
"I'm only going for one meeting that I have scheduled this morning, then coming home to spend the day with you" he promised reaching over and grasped her hand.
"Until then dadima, we're going to the café to meet my friends" Geet added.
"With the stories I've heard, I must meet them" dadima chuckled.
"They're Amelia's long lost crazy relatives" Maan quipped.
"Maan…" Geet frowned.
"Only stating the truth" Maan held his hands up in surrender which earned him a nudge from his wife.
"Dono shuru mat kijiye" dadima chuckled. "Start eating or else your breakfast will go cold" she pointed.
"The mansion is even more quiet now that dadima has gone to visit Geet and Maan bhai in London" Meera commented. "And its going to be even more quiet when you go on to your long shoots for the next couple of days" she added sounding disappointed.
"I'm sorry Meers, if I could put this off I would have said no to them" Vikrant replied looking up from his script.
"Everything seems to be going wrong in our family right now" she huffed sitting beside him on the sofa. Vikrant placed the script down on the coffee table and turned to face her.
"We're going to get through this" he assured.
"That isn't so reassuring…" she muttered still not feeling so good. Her best friend had moved away to Manchester, another friend is ridden with an illness that could possibly take her away from this world forever and she couldn’t… "Vikrant, everything is going wrong in our lives slowly, what if something goes wrong with…"
"Don’t say that" Vikrant cut her off, "don’t Meers" he repeated.
She shifted closer to him and hugged him tightly, "I don’t want anything going wrong in our life… I can't lose you or our baby…" she mumbled. "I'm just scared…"
"Aap wapas aagaye?" dadima questioned when Maan returned a few minutes after he walked out of the apartment.
"I left my wallet" Maan responded and walked towards the bedroom, dadima followed recalling she had wanted to speak to Maan for a moment.
"Maan bete…" she entered the bedroom as he looked around for his wallet. "I wanted to ask whether Geet had been seeing anyone here?"
"Seeing who?" Maan stopped what he was doing and glanced over his shoulder.
"Therapist, if not Nikita had called me a couple of days ago and she wanted to speak to Geet and see how she was doing" dadima explained.
"Where's Geet?"
"She's just gone to shower" dadima informed.
Maan looked at their bathroom door then turned to dadima gesturing her to follow, he walked into the guestroom where dadima was currently staying.
"We haven't gotten that far" he started, "Geet is slowly trying to adjust and still recovering from it all…"
"Bete, has everything been fine?" dadima looked at him sadly.
"We're getting there" he responded, he didn’t want to burden his grandmother with the recent happenings of his and Geet's marriage.
"Speak to me if you want" dadima cupped his cheek. "I don’t want to see you or Geet hurting".
"She's happy with you here dadima, her smile is enough for me today" he murmured.
Dadima cradled both his cheeks and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"As for your earlier question, Geet's therapist can contact her. Or you can speak to Geet about it. But just don’t mention…" he paused unable to voice out the rest of the words. "I don’t want her getting upset" he added. Since she's finally brought herself to smile after the last few months.
Dadima nodded in response, "Okay, why don’t you grab your wallet and head off?"
He hummed and walked out of the guestroom and returned to his bedroom.
Geet was stood near the closet wrapped in a thin towel that just about covered her thighs. He spared the briefest glance at his wife before looking away. It had been months... He closed his eyes gathering his strength and trying to push away the slick image of his wife.
"Amelia" Karan called out as he noticed her climbing out of her car and running towards her house, he had driven furiously and was sure he had gone through traffic lights and cut a lot of drivers pissing them off.
"Leave Karan" Amelia answered as she pulled out her keys and fumbled with it.
Karan picked up his pace climbing the small steps and reached her side.
He caught her hands and cradled her cheek with his hand tilting her head up.
Tears cascaded down her cheeks, she bit down on her lower lip trying to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape. "Please… don’t…"
"I'm sorry" he whispered leaning forward and pressed his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry for everything I've said… I'm sorry for accusing you, I'm sorry for believing your lies. I'm sorry I didn’t know you… I'm sorry for not looking through your fabrications, I'm sorry for ignoring the pain in your eyes… I'm so so f*cking sorry" he hissed out angry at himself.
"I'm not going to be Amelia anymore" she looked up at him. "I won't be the crazy girl…"
"You're always going to be my crazy girl" he brushed away her tears with his thumb.
"I'm scared…" Amelia confessed.
"I'm scared too" he slipped his arms around her body and pulled her to himself. His large arms engulfing her, as he held her he noticed the small different. She had lost weight, was it the illness or the stress of the last couple of months?
"You don’t deserve this Karan" Amelia murmured softly.
"I don’t deserve you" he pulled back slightly, "but I want to be with you if you can give me a chance. Don’t turn me away" he looked at her pleadingly.
She squeezed her eyes closed, now that he knew she couldn’t turn him away even if she wanted.
She was scared to go through the next stages of her life alone, she wanted to be surrounded by her family and friends. She wanted to forget the f*cking disease that was destroying her insides.
She answered his pleas by throwing her arms around him and holding onto him tightly.
Geet yelped when she noticed Maan stood near the doorway.
"Geet, shh… dadima is out there" Maan hushed her closing the door.
"Aap… I thought you've already gone to work" she frowned.
"I left my wallet, have you seen it?" he questioned averting his eyes and looking around.
"It must be on the nightstand or inside the drawer" Geet pointed. "Accha Maan, what time do you come back from this meeting?" she questioned as she sifted through her closet unsure of what she should wear today.
"I don’t know when this meeting will wrap up, why?" he walked around looking through the drawers for his wallet as it was on the nightstand.
"Well, if it finished before lunch. You can join me and dadima for lunch" she answered.
"Geet I can't find my wallet" Maan straightened resting his hands on his hips looking around.
"Where did you last leave it?" She pulled out her black high waisted jeans and white sleeveless tunic.
"Last night I left it on the nightstand" he pointed.
"So, where will it go from here?" Geet glanced over her shoulder frowning at him.
"I don’t know, did you put it somewhere? I didn’t see it after my morning run"
"Obviously, I did. I must've ate it because I was hungry" Geet scowled.
"Kya?" Maan looked at her confused.
"Don’t talk to me" she snapped. "Can you leave now? I want to get changed"
"It isn't the first time...." Maan ducked his head when his wife grabbed a pillow and chucked it in his direction.
"Bahar jaiyye" she hissed.
He didn’t, instead he walked around gripping his wife's wrist just as she was about to reach for another pillow and had her cornered. Her back hitting the closet door, his arms placed on either sides caging her in.
"Have you gone mad this morning?" he muttered, his eyes locked with hers. Her soft body pressed in all the right places, Geet had tensed with the closeness. But it wasn’t fear in her eyes.
She swallowed thickly and tried to regain herself, which wasn’t hard recalling his last words.
"Mad? You accused me" she scowled.
"Accused you? Kab?" Maan cleared his throat taking a step back putting space between them.
"You said, Geet did you put it anywhere?"
"That was a question" Maan answered.
"Well, it was a stupid question. When you said you were looking for it, if I had put it somewhere, I would have told you right then" she countered pointing her finger at him, just as she did her towel loosened. Geet gasped, Maan realised and stretched his hand out. But it had fallen to the floor leaving his wife completely naked before his sight.
"Araina" Ranbir whispered as he slipped his arms around her small waist and hugged her.
"Uff… You nearly scared the heck out of me" she complained nudging him with her shoulder. He released her and she turned around to face him. "Where are we going for dinner? I'm knackered so I want to go to sleep straight afterwards"
"Araina…" Someone had called from behind before Ranbir could response.
"Yeah Natasha" Araina glanced over.
"Court documents, you need to get them signed by Judge Howard by Monday. Also, someone dropped this into your drop box" Natasha informed passing her an envelope.
"Alright, thanks" Araina took the file and the envelope. "Shall we go to dinner now?" she looked at Ranbir.
"Yeah, how about Sally's?" Ranbir suggested.
She hummed and followed him towards his car, she opened the back door and placed the court documents at the back then climbed into the front.
"How was work?" he asked as he settled in the front.
"I'm loving working for Naina Kapoor, she is a kickass lawyer and I want to be her" she responded as she tore at the small envelope.
"That's good to know you're enjoying it here" he smiled glancing at her briefly and noticed she seemed tense by whatever was in her hand. "Araina, what is it?"
She didn’t answer which concerned him, Ranbir slowed down and parked at the side and turned to face her. "Araina?" he touched her shoulder giving her a slight shake.
Araina lifted her eyes and looked at Ranbir, her fingers trembled.
"What's wrong?" Ranbir asked again, when she couldn’t bring herself to speak he took the letter she had read and read through it himself.
"Who is Arun Mehra?" he asked confused.
"I… can't" she shook her head.
"Why?"
Araina had pushed him to the back of her mind vowing she would never ever bring his name to her lips, she had left every memory of it in London.
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Seher Hone Ko Hai
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