The Mafia's Collateral

Part 78

Avinash's P.O.V.

It was already evening and Ananya still didn't come out of her room. I was beginning to feel restless without seeing her and went to her room. I knocked on the door and opened it. I saw her laying on the bed, sleeping. I walked closer to her and looked at her eyes. I could tell from the way they were forcing to stay closed that she was faking. I sat down and looked at her. "When you give up, you can open your eyes," I said. She opened her eyes slowly to show me how red they were. I looked at her worried and asked, "You were crying?" She sat up and held her injured hand. "I saw a bad dream," she said. "No you didn't," I said. She lowered her eyes and played with the bandage. I held her hand stopped her. "What happened? Why are you behaving like this?" I asked. "How?" she asked smiling. "Don't act so innocent. You know what you are doing," I said. She removed her hand from under mine and said, "I don't think that you should spend so much time with me." I looked at her taken aback and asked, "Why is that?" "You're married. Your wife won't approve that her husband is taking care of someone else instead of her," she said. "But you need me more than her," I said. "No, I don't. I have my father and sister. Sonia has no one besides you," she said. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. You are not well. When you are completely fit and fine, we will talk about this," I said. "Avinash..." she started but I stopped her saying, "Let's go outside. Everyone must be waiting for you." She frowned and I removed the blanket from her body, standing up. As she rested her feet on the ground, I held her arms and helped her on her feet. "You are still so weak. How can that doctor let you be discahrged this quickly?" I said. She smiled and said, "I'm fine." "Yeah. I know how fine you are," I said sarcastically. I carried her outside and made her sit on the sofa as she smiled in front of everyone. I sat next to her and Uncle Zeeshan brought a tray with coffee cups. He served everyone and we made ourselves cozy.

"I have something to show you all," Uncle Navin said and got up. He went to his room and brought back a CD. He inserted it into the player and turned on the TV. The video began playing and we saw two small girls playing. "Dad!" Arohi shouted. Uncle Navin smiled and said, "This is Ananya and Arohi's childhood." I looked at Ananya bending her head in shame and from the way Arohi just shouted, there must be some embarrassing things in this. I looked on curiously. From the video, we saw Uncle Navin holding a baby in the hospital and kissing her forehead. "This is when Ananya was born," he said. I looked at her and smiled. Next, we saw them as small kids playing with sand as Arohi was burying Ananya below. "What's going on here?" Deep sir asked. "We were playing," Arohi said. We all giggled and looked at her. "I remember this. I had recently gotten a sand box and I made Ananya lie down and began burying her. But when it was her turn to bury me, I had thrown sand in her eyes and she began to cry," she said chuckling. "And I hope you remember the licks you got after that," Ananya said. "How can I forget. Look," she said showing us the TV. We saw Uncle Navin holding a whip in his hand and Arohi crying while Ananya was laughing at her. I looked at her and said softly, "Not fair." She looked at me and said, "She deserved it." A next part came up when the both sisters were playing and combing each other's hair. "I always told Ananya that she should be a stylist. She always did her sister's hair so perfectly. But couldn't handle hers. I always had to comb it," Uncle Navin said. We spent some time looking at the videos and hearing the backstory to them. That was great fun. Everyone and especially Ananya really enjoyed it very much. My phone rang and my apartment number showed up. I rolled my eyes and took the call. I got up and went away from everyone. "Avinash, where are you. Come home quickly. I'm missing you," Sonia said. I gritted my teeth annoyed but swallowed it and said sugar coating my words, "I'll be there soon dear. Miss me a little more. I miss you too darling. Don't worry. I'll be with you very soon."

"No! I want you now!" she said. I took a deep breath to try and not tell her something and said, "I'm coming." I hang up and turned around to see Ananya standing behind me with a frown. She had a small bowl of ice cream in her hand. Did she hear my conversation? She handed me the bowl and said, "Here. I brought this for you." I took it and put away my phone saying, "Thanks." She stood and looked at me silently with a frown. I ate a bit of the ice cream and asked her, "Did you eat?" "Go home Avinash," she said. I held the spoon of ice cream halfway to my mouth and looked at her. "I'll go in a while," I said. "Go now. Your wife needs you," she said. She was making my already spoilt mood even more worse. "I said, I'll go in a while," I said firmly and walked away. I sat back on the sofa annoyed and ate the ice cream silently. She came back and stood and looked at me. I continued to eat it without looking at her. She went and sat next to Arohi and Deep sir at the dining table but kept staring at me.