Always There for Each Other ✔️

The End - 1

"Bhavya? You okay?" Shivaay asked the woman he considered a younger sister.

"Just," Bhavya wiped her tears, "the way you and Annika Bhabhi treat me..."

"Did we do something wrong?" Annika looked at Bhavya, wide-eyed.

"No, no." Bhavya laughed, tears streaming out of her eyes.

"You guys remind me of my mom and dad."

***

Shivaay silently sat in the waiting room, hearing Ajeet spill details about his wife's family as he waited for her to wake up.

Khanna made Annika sit in the car as he and the rest of the security team, along with Bhavya, captured Veer.

"Ma'am fainted." Khanna looked at Shivaay with sheer regret. "She was crying too much."

His heart broke for his wife who had to endure so much in the last few days.

Aryan, finally out of the room in Oberoi Mansion, sat beside him.

"She will be fine, right?" He asked with tears in his eyes.

Shivaay did not even know how this boy reached their house, but his presence was a small anchor.

"She has to," Shivaay said, hugging the little boy, who snuggled into his chest.

"I am so sorry, Shivaay." Ajeet then whispered.

Shivaay finally glanced at the man that would be known as his uncle-in-law. He did not understand what the man was apologizing for but nodded.

"If Annika wants you all in her life, who am I to stop?" Shivaay looked at Ajeet Dewan, who was grief-stricken.

It was unnerving for Ajeet and Madhu to see the stark image of Anamika in the hospital again, unconscious.

Shivaay looked back at the door that separated him and his wife.

He wondered how Annika would feel when she learned that her mother had never abandoned her. That the woman everyone told her was her mother was just a nurse instructed to dispose of her.

"Your mother never abandoned you, Annika." He whispered, hoping it would reach the broken little girl within her that still craved answers.

Shivaay's shoulders slumped as everything around him overwhelmed him.

"Shivaay!" Om quickly screamed and wrapped his arms around his formidable brother. "Bhabhi and baby ko kuch nahi hoga."

Shivaay desperately wanted to believe that.

But when has God ever been merciful to him and Annika?

***

When Annika gained consciousness, Annika was terrified. She did not want to return to that room with Veer and Svetlana.

Her body ached, and her heart thundered with fear. What if she never made it out?

What if she was back there?

Keeping her eyes firmly shut, rejecting reality for once, Annika waited.

She did not want to face reality where Shivaay was not by her side.

She was so goddamn tired of fighting and having to adhere to a painful reality every time. And that was why she kept her eyes shut as she waited. She did not want to face reality this time. She just could not.