Love Happens

7

"Why am I being kept here? Who were those people,  Father? Why did you lock me up on the terrace? How could you do this to me?" Ananya showed her dislike for his behaviour.

"I'm very sorry. They were guests."

"Do they not know me? Why didn't you introduce us?"

"You should rest."

"You're hiding something. First, by keeping me away from your homeland for many years without letting me meet any of our relatives, and now by hiding me from your guests. What are you hiding, Father?"

"It's nothing."

"At your age, you really shouldn't be lying. It makes me think you're hiding an important aspect of my life that you don't wish I remembered. With the medicines, what were they for? I would always ask, but never receive an answer. I don't even know the name of the medications I was fed to look them up on the internet because I trust you blindly. What are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything. You've had a long journey; take a bath and refresh yourself. I'll send for food."

"I wish to see my mother's pictures. You've never shown me how she looked because you said all her memories were in this house. It is time I see the face of the woman who gave birth to me. Also, I want to see our family picture. And tonight, because due to your behavior, a lot of questions are cooking in my head. Maybe that is the only thing that can answer them."

"I'll join you after the party."

"Make sure you join with those pictures, or don't come until you have them.

•••••

Anand and his family—Lakshmi, Poonam, and his mother—were at the birthday. It was time for the cake-cutting ceremony, but before that, Ranbir's father suggested all the couples present dance with each other.

Ananya got restless and couldn't stay in the room her father asked her to. Since the past hour, her heart has been throbbing fast. She couldn't apprehend the reason, but she could feel the pain of a vein being dragged in her legs. The pain was weakening her whole body, and as she reached the window that overlooked the ground floor where the party was happening, she saw Anand dancing with Lakshmi. She also saw Riya and Ranbir dancing together, then his mother. The moment where Ranbir shot her in the past rifled in front of her, then her marriage with Anand in Ladnun, and all the moments they spent together at his house. The scenes where she was pronounced guilty and was prevented from going to Ladnun to discard her mother's ashe. She saw and remembered everything.

"Let's give a round of applause for all the couples."

Everyone began to clap, and the highlighted word couple reechoed in her head. Her head went blank as she rolled downstairs after fainting. Ranbir's father saw her, and forgetting his environment, he quickly ran toward her to save her. As everyone looked at them, who was now holding Shraddha, they became deeply shocked. The atmosphere dropped into appalled silence, and while Lakshmi looked at Shraddha with a dismayed face, Anand's face lit up with tremendous excitement as he ran quickly towards them.

"Shr...."

"She's not your wife. Stay away." Her father shoved Anand's hand, which was about to touch her, and asked Ranbir to help him lift her up to take her to the hospital.

He blinked out of the shock he went into and nodded, going and taking her.

"How is Shraddha here?" Anand inquired, looking at her face as she slept beautifully.

•••••

"You haven't answered any of my questions. How is Shraddha with you? She died. She disappeared. How did she end up in your house?"

The doctor came out of the room and informed the family, who were waiting outside, about Shraddha's health. He told them the reason behind her sudden fainting was that it was due to excess stress, and they should try as much as possible to make her not pressurize herself, or the result would be risky to her brain.

"Can we go and meet her?" Anand asked, while her father told him he couldn't.

"No. She said she wanted to see Mr. Pandey and no one else. Only he can go in for now. One person at a time." the doctor said.

Anand shunned his words and, regardless, entered the room where Ananya was expecting to meet Mr. Pandey to answer her questions on the reason he changed her identity for five years and who he actually was because he knew the whole family.

She saw Anand and his voice, she heard his voice when he made her a promise that he would take her to Ladnun to discard her mother's ashes, then apologized for not keeping it.

She got angry when she recalled how he danced with another woman whom Mr. Pandey pronounced as couples.

"Shraddha!" Anand happily moved towards her. Ananya asked him who Shraddha was and who he was in particular.

"You can't pretend not to recognize me. I missed you. Just recently, I got over you, and today, it still feels like a dream. You're truly before me."

She overlooked the tears forming in his eyes and asked him who he was again. Her father went in, and he held Anand's arm before he went any closer to her.

Ananya released her breath, and asked her father who Anand was.

"Family friend." her father said.

"What the hell is happening? Why are you treating me like you don't know me? Shraddha, it is me, Anand."

"She's not Shraddha. Stop calling her that." Ranbir's father whispered him a reply.

"Do you think I'm insane? What has she been doing with you all these years? Who shot her? Did Ranbir do it because he also believed she had killed his child? Were you keeping her captive at your house to cover his crime? For how long were you planning to keep her?"

Amid Anand and Ranbir's father exchanging verbal arguments—Anand accusing him of holding Shraddha captive for all the years and his father denying all accusations and informing him the lady wasn't Shraddha but Ananya—she fainted again.