His Love For Her ✔

56. Dead Yet Alive

56. Dead Yet Alive

THREE MONTHS. IT had been three months since Shreya had gone missing. The weddings were cancelled after the Shah family got the news of Shreya's kidnapping. Rajeev, Akansha, Sophia, Shaurya, Aanchal and Neil had decided to live in London whilst the rest of the family shifted back to Mumbai.

Jai was trying to find Shreya in Mumbai but all his attempts went futile. Parul also had disappeared somewhere without any clue. Each day, each hour, each minute and each second was hard for Aarav. He couldn't concentrate on anything. There wasn't a day he didn't miss Shreya.

Not even in his dreams had he thought that he would lose Shreya this way. He was so sure that he would protect her but he failed. He couldn't protect his wife and his children. He had no idea how she was and in which state she was. Was she here or in London? Was she even alive or had Samay killed her?

Every night he was slipping into darkness. Every night he was drowning himself in the addiction of alcohol and cigarettes. He was doing everything he thought he would never do. Her disappearance was taking a dangerous toll on his life. After working in the office, he would go and drink in the pub, smoke and cry himself to sleep.

With each passing day, Manish and Shweta felt that their son was going away from them. They were dying each day seeing their son in such a state. Forum and Samar had to permanently shift to Australia because of Samar's job. They shifted there only on Manish's persistence. Manish felt it was wrong to stop his son in law in his path of success so after a lot of convincing Forum and Samar along with Nidhi shifted to Australia.

Saloni went back to living with Prem since her and Rishabh's wedding had been cancelled. Rishabh also had shifted to New York for few months due to some photoshoot. Neela was the only one who was living with Manish, Shweta and Aarav.

It was one of the winter night when the doorbell of the Shah Residence rang. Neela opened the door only to find Jai at their doorstep with tears in his eyes.

"Jai... Son, why are you crying?", Neela asked worried as she took him inside the apartment.

"Jai...what happened? Is everything okay?", Neela asked as they sat on the sofa.

"Nothing is okay, Neela Auntie. Everything is over. Every damn thing is over", Jai cried.

"Jai dear, please tell me what's wrong", Neela asked comforting him.

"Sh..Shreya...", Jai trailed.

"What? Shreya? Did you find her? Where is she? Please Jai, tell me", Neela asked anxiously.

"She... She is no more Auntie", Jai said sobbing.

"What? What are talking Jai? Please be clear", Neela pleaded.

"We found Shreya's body in a car. She... she met with an accident. The car's brakes were failed...", Jai said crying

"NO! NO, THIS CAN'T HAPPEN", Shweta said falling to the floor shocked.

Neela rushed towards Shweta trying to comfort her.

"Bhabhi, please handle yourself", Neela said crying.

"She can't leave us, Neela! SHE CAN'T LEAVE US", Shweta said crying.

The Shah Residence door opened and a sober Aarav walked in with his father. For the first time in three months, Shweta had seen Aarav come home sober but now she dreaded what might happen when Aarav would hear the news of Shreya's death.

She knew she was going to lose her son forever today. The hopes she had were crushed and she cried harder. She was losing too many people in her life. The girl who had brought nothing but happiness in her son's life had gone so far from them that even if they tried they wouldn't be able to bring her back.