Love and More

Chapter 35

"What am I doing then? Am I not giving him a chance?" Haseena counter-questioned.

"You have given him a chance to be your husband. But you never took the chance to accept his love." Karishma explained, "You know what? Initially, I thought you were going to stick yourself in a loveless marriage and live like that forever. But I'm glad that it doesn't seem to be like that. Amar loves you and I think he's one day going to win over your heart too and then you two will love each other till beyond. But for that, you first need to open the closed doors of your heart. You have to let him in too. You can't just tell him that you're giving him a chance while holding yourself back all the time."

"I'm not holding myself back... I'm doing everything I can to make this marriage work!" Haseena stated.

"That's right. You're doing everything to make this marriage work. Whereas, you're holding yourself back from loving him or letting him love you." Karishma was right.

Everything Haseena did wasn't for Amar. The dinner date, cooking for him, packing his lunch, eating with him, all of it was just to make their marriage work not because she loved Amar. She could never love him for she's always been reminding herself to not get attached.

"You have to let your guard off," Karishma said, "You have to first allow him to enter your heart. You have to at least try to love him. Try to understand his feelings. Try to learn from him. Share your insecurities with him. Who knows he might find a cure for all your pains."

"I don't want to rush things, Karishma Singh," said Haseena. "I want to take time. As much time as we can. I just want to be able to trust him!"

"Don't you trust him already?" Karishma's question took Haseena by surprise.

"What do you mean?" Haseena questioned.

"Maybe you're yet to realize but you already trust him. Otherwise, why would you share a bed with him?" Karishma wasn't wrong, "No woman would let a man sleep next to her if she doesn't trust him. You trust him and that is why you let him sleep beside you. Moreover, if you didn't trust him you would've felt uncomfortable near him but you seemed perfectly comfortable with him even when he was hugging you while asleep..." Karishma cleared her throat at last.

...

"A gun shooting in a bank. Two injured. Nobody to negotiate the robbers." The news reporter repeated.

Haseena panicked. She was expecting a call and there we go! The DSP allotted the task to handle the conflict on Haseena's shoulders. Panic rushed through her nerves. But she had to keep it cool. Taking deep breaths Haseena left her seat.

"Karishma Singh!" Haseena called out and Karishma understood they got the call.

Santosh and Cheeta both were unnerved. The constables didn't wait for their seniors to command for they knew it was an emergency, they could get a call anytime. Karishma wasn't surprised to see them all prepared without being told. Whereas, Pushpa Singh was gone on sick leave. The four police officers accompanied by Billu Champat left for the bank where the robbers broke in.

They were in the middle of the road when Haseena's phone went off. She looked at the phone screen and found it was a call from her mother. Today, Haseena was about to go to see her mother. And she thought her mother might have called to inquire if she was going to go or not. Hence, Haseena decided to ignore the calls. The situation was her priority at this time.

However, when the phone calls did not stop Karishma grabbed the phone from Haseena's pocket and picked it up,

"Ammi, Madamsir will call you later. We're up to something very important." Karishma said picking up the call before Noorjahan could utter a word. Then was about to cut the call when,