Kya Pyaar Karoge Mujhse....

Chapter 7- Buried Questions and New Stories

Chapter 7

"Annika." Shivaay said as everyone stopped talking. Annika looked at him as he walked towards her, slowly and painfully. Stopping a few centimetres away from her, he stopped himself from touching her, holding her, hugging her or kissing her. Instead he asked her the question which he wanted to ask from the day she left.

"Why did you leave?"

Annika, surprised for a moment, chuckled in the next to everyone's astonishment.

"You still don't know why I left? Even after so many years you didn't understand the reason?" She asked as Shivaay remained silent, not knowing what to say.

She sighed and looked at everyone around her, who were as silent as Shivaay, and then looked in his eyes with a tight smile.

"It was too much for me Shivaay, or should I say, too less?" Annika said softly. "I know what I did was not right, but I had to do it. Or else I would have lost myself forever. I hope you understand." She sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Anyways, it was all in the past! I have moved on, you have moved on, it's all good now, right?" She smiled and looked at everyone, who just stood silently, unable to meet her eyes.

Shivaay couldn't believe it.

Moved on? Who had moved on? Not him. He was still there where she had left him. Alone. Heartbroken. Incomplete. Hopeful. But she had. She said that herself. How could she? So easily? Did she forget everything? Did she forget him? Didn't she feel anything anymore for him?

Did she find someone else?

Annika couldn't take the silence, it was eating her. To see everyone here, all together, was too much for her. To see Shivaay standing in front of her, with a dejected and dull face, his once bright eyes now looking like a gloomy night sky, the sight ate her insides. It hurt to see him like this. It hurt to see him. Period.

But she needed to be strong. Act indifferent. After so many months of practicing, she had managed to change herself a little bit, make herself stronger. She was still the same but with a few add-ons. She was still Annika, but not Shivaay's Annika. She was Shivi's Annika and she had to remain that. She was not his wife anymore, she was a mother. She couldn't hear the requests of her heart who said, go and hug him and kiss him and never let go. She had to obey her mind that said, this man does not deserve to be with you, he needs you to be someone that you are not, that you can never be. So why hurt yourself? Think about your daughter. Think about the things these people thought and said when they realized that you are an orphan and then think about the things these people will think and say once they come to know that your daughter is...

No, I will never let them know about Shivi. They will hurt her like they hurt me. And no one can even touch my daughter till I am alive. And I will not let them hurt me either.

The tension was thick enough to be cut by a blunt knife. And on top of it, Pinky Aunty was looking at her with a strange look on her face. It felt like relief and disbelief mixed, and Annika did not like the relief bit at all. She needed to talk, to kill this quiet.

Start a damn conversation Annika! Or they will start playing twenty-one questions with you!

"Om!" She said in a high tone and Om looked at her, jerking his head up. "Tell me, how did you and Gauri meet? Did you have a love marriage?" She grinned as Om smiled, knowing she was trying to change the topic.

"Umm, the first time, not so much. Second time, very much so!" He said as Annika frowned in confusion.

"I don't get it...you both married twice? I-" Annika tried to understand as Rudra interrupted.