Time Heals Everything...Almost ✓

I would wait for her until my last breath

Gaurav
Karthik refused to help me look for Kavya. But I was not willing to give up. 'I will never give up on Kavya, or the love we shared.' – I promised myself that as I started my car to go to the bus stand. For some weird reason, I had a feeling she would take a bus. I had no idea where she'd go, but I decided to follow my intuition. I called up Rahul and asked him to help me out by going to the railway station. Either he had spoken to Karthik or he just trusted me enough to just follow my instructions. But he knew better than to ask me questions in my panic driven state. I searched multiple buses, running like a mad man, pushing away the people who came in my path. I heard people shouting at me in the background, but I couldn't care less about it. The only thing I knew was that I couldn't lose her now.

I saw a bus going out through the exit. Did I check that bus? – I wondered. I had lost count of the number of buses I had looked at. After running through the depot for half an hour, I gave up, realising the fact that she wasn't here. Even if she was, she had left before I could find her.

I entered my car disappointed, only to find my phone ringing continuously. It was Rahul and I answered the call, hoping for good news.

"Did you find her?" I asked eagerly. The silence I was greeted with, shattered the little hope I had inside me. I decided not to drag the call. I didn't want to talk. There was no point in roaming around looking for her. She would be long gone by now. I returned home dejected only to see my family waiting for me.

"Anything?" My dad asked

"Did you see her beta? What did she say?" that was my mom. My lack of response gave them my answer.

I went to my sister and handed over the ring which Kavya had left behind.

"I hope you are happy now. Glad that at least one of us is." I said before I turned to go to my room.

"Bhai, you don't understand..." she began, only to be cut off by me.

"I don't understand how different brother-sister relationships can be. On one hand we have Kavya and Karthik. You know Kavya left home, and asked only one thing from her brother, to not look for her. And, you know what, that is exactly what he is doing. Because he trusts his sister to make the right decisions for herself. It is killing him and I know it, but, he respects her wishes. He is doing what he hates to do for the sake of her happiness, and here..." I paused and I saw Shivani take a step forward. I stepped backwards while holding out my hand motioning her to stop.

"All I ever wanted was to be happy. I thought I finally found happiness with Kavya. But you Shivani.. you had to go ahead and ruin it... didn't you?"

"She had your best interest at heart Gaurav," Rajiv jumped to his wife's defense.

"No Rajiv, she had her best interest at heart. Kavya was the one for me. After all these years, I was finally happy. I never thought I'd find someone who would understand me this well. But I did. But now, it doesn't matter. She has left me. She'd never want anything to have to do with me. We have your wife to thank for that. I am back to being alone. Back to the empty life, dare I say lived, before I met her. You might say that was because I wasn't looking for anyone. I'd like to believe it was destiny that brought Kavya to me when I wasn't even looking. But now Shivani has taken her away from me."

"Gaurav, please don't be like this. You will find..." I interrupted her for the second time.

"You better say Kavya and not someone."

"Shivi, he is hurting. To be honest, what we did was bad. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of pain Kavya must be in right now. You were meeting her for the first time, you were bound to have doubts. But me, I had met with her before. I saw first-hand how happy she made my son. It was wrong of me to get carried away when you said those things." My mother turned to me next.

"You will find her son. She will come back to you. I know your love for her will bring her back to you." My father just kept his hand on my shoulder indicating his support.

I saw Shivani keep the ring on the bedside table before heading for the door. Rajiv just nodded at us before taking his leave. My parents left a little later. My mother insisted on staying but I told her that it wouldn't work. I looked around and could feel Kavya's presence all over the place. Lately we had been spending a lot of time here together. That was all gone now. Things had changed in a matter of hours and I was not ready to accept that change.

I lay awake on my bed thinking about Kavya. I did not know what to do next. Do I go about pretending like nothing had changed? Or like how it used to be before I even knew Kavya?

My alarm went off and I woke up. For a moment I hoped everything that happened was a bad dream and Kavya was yet to meet Shivani. I would stay with her all the time and protect her from Shivani's hurtful words. If only. The ring on the bedside table told me otherwise.

I contemplated not going to office for a while. But, my clients deserved better. They shouldn't suffer just because I was going through a heartbreak. If Kavya was still in office, I would've taken off without a second doubt. But, the problem here was that she wasn't around here anymore.

One look at me and Maya figured out that something was off. She followed me to my cabin.

"Everything okay boss?" She asked occupying the chair opposite to mine.

"It's nothing." I said trying to dismiss her.

"Don't make me call Kavya." She tried threatening me.- if only she knew.

"Do let me know if you can catch hold of her." I told her.

"Gaurav, is everything okay between the two of you? Please tell me everything is fine." She had genuine concern on her face. I knew how much she adored the two of us together.

"I don't know Maya, I really don't. Kavya.. she is gone." I gave her a brief version of what happened over dinner the other day.

I could see her desperately trying to call Kavya.

"I think she left her phone at home before taking off. Smart decision, she knew I would track her down otherwise."

"Aren't' you going to look for her? Are you going to give up this easily?"

"I would love to go around looking for her like a mad man Maya. Trust me I want to. But that is not what she wants. She wants me to leave her alone. I have decided to give her time. I believe in our love. I know that she will return to me. When she is ready, she will definitely come find me. I believe this Maya. You know why, because, if I don't I won't be able to survive."

Maya left me alone after our conversation, handled everything between herself, Rahul and Arjun, making sure I wasn't bothered much.

I didn't bother with lunch. But Rahul joined me in my cabin with a tray-full of food, enough for the two of us. We silently ate. I was sure Kavya's friends knew about her disappearance by now.

Arjun did a good job covering for me in court. Kavya had done a splendid job finding him to work for me here. There it is, Kavya again.

As time went by, things went back to normal – well, as normal as it could be without her. Already a month had passed. Even though I went about my life as if everything was fine, there was this huge void which none other than Kavya could fill. I hoped wherever she was, she would find the peace she was looking for, because, sooner she found it, she could come back to me at the earliest. As for me, I would wait for her until my last breath.