Not Just An Ordinary Family

Chapter 17

A/N: Thanks to my friend smiley020 for making the beautiful banner above..😍❤

You had a boyfriend before, right? His question reverberated in her ears. Anuradha lowered her gaze to the table. "Yes."

"I remember Shiva once mentioned that you lost your child. So, you were married?"

"No, we were in a live-in relationship."

"Oh, did something happen to him?"

"No." Anuradha paused. "We broke up."

"Oh." Why? I won't ask because I don't want you to ask me too much about her.

Anuradha glanced at Narain. Please don't ask me why. I don't think I want to talk about it with you yet. I'm not ready to lose my composure in front of you or in this café now. Please don't ask me any more about him.

There was a long moment of silence before Narain spoke. "Nowadays, breakups are quite common. People move on quickly too. Why haven't you moved on till now? If this is too personal, you don't have to answer me."

"You haven't moved on after Swetha died till now. In the same way, even I couldn't."

"She was different. She was my wife; we were married for more than a year. I loved her more than I could ever express. Even though I have reasons to hate her, I just can't. And I can never forget her. She is who I remember every second I live. How can I look at anyone else the same way when she has occupied my mind and heart completely?"

Moistness gathered in Anuradha's eyes as she watched the way Narain spoke of his wife. If only Raghav had felt like that about me once. "So what if I was not married to him? He was also the same for me. In my mind, it was fixed that we were married. In my eyes, I could never see anyone else as my love but him. In my ears, it was his voice I always yearned to hear. In my consciousness, it was his presence that mattered the most to me.

I loved him more than he ever knew. It's easier to hate than to feel hurt but how can I hate him or love another man when he is the one who made me feel complete? Without him, I am nothing but broken."

Narain watched Anuradha in a mixture of shock and disbelief. How could she love him so much? If what she says is true, then why did they break up?

Another foreboding silence lasted for a few minutes as the two of them did not want to delve deeper into their pasts and open up about it.

Finally, Anuradha voiced her thoughts, "But you shouldn't have let Swetha have the abortion. Doctors would never have advised to have the abortion during the later part of the pregnancy. I don't know whether she had the abortion on her own will or you forced her to have it. But you shouldn't have allowed the abortion. An abortion so late into the pregnancy is much more painful than one earlier. She shouldn't have had to bear all that pain and die. You should have tried to stop the abortion from taking place."

Narain frowned a bit, glancing at Anuradha. I never forced her to have it. I did everything I could to make sure she didn't do the abortion. That's the reason I called her parents to stay with us from that day as I had urgent work to complete. Before they arrived, she had already had the abortion that morning.

Sometimes I wonder, didn't she have the common sense to know the risk of having an abortion so late in her pregnancy? Talking about her pregnancy, even you lost a child. What was the reason for that? Narain pondered. The way Anu spoke just now seemed to be against abortion. Perhaps, it was not on her own will.