Always Besides You.... (Editing)

39. Solace

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"Arre waah, Laksh Bhai!! You're becoming quite understanding these days, huh!" Ananya teased nudging Laksh while he chuckled and Arvind rolled his eyes.

"Can we go now?" Arvind asked feigning uninterest.

"Yeah!" Ananya couldn't stop herself from rolling eyes. This man makes her eyes work so hard! "Now don't report this too to Dad, please!" She added sarcastically as the started walking.

Sanskar and Ragini chuckled seeing the trio walking, bickering with each other. Ragini stared Sanskar, he was smiling freely after so long, a smile which reached his eyes! And it didn't fail to bring a smile to her. His smile was indeed infectious!

Purvi and Pooja walked towards them; later's head hung low. As they stood near RagSan, Purvi joined hands bidding bye to the duo.

"We are taking our leave. Sanskar--- Ragini--" Purvi mumbled not knowing what to say ahead.

Ragini held her hands and nodded blinking her eyes.

"I don't know what to say!" Pooja whispered as a tear rolled down. "I have done so wrong that I'm not able to find words to apologize; I know apology won't get you what you had lost! But---" Pooja gathered courage to look at Ragini. "I never wanted to hurt you, Ragini. I was so blinded by Kartik that I ended up-- I don't want you forgive me. I will have to live with this guilt, that's all I can--" Pooja choked as she closed her eyes in distress. She has never in her life been so weak, not even when she had nothing in her life.

"Pooja---" Ragini held her by shoulder.

"Lady Hitler hai, apni Hitlergiri hi toh dikhayi na!" Sanskar said sarcastically to which Ragini nudged him and he smiled rubbing his eyebrows. "Pooja, mistakes and misunderstanding happens with humans! We can't be perfect."

"But what I did was and is never a mere mistake." She mumbled in response.

"Yeah you could have a bit more rational, a bit more cautious in believing your brother. But, he is your brother. We are no one to question your faith in him. It's truth that along with him, you're also a culprit, you did hurt a lot of people but let us try to move on from this phase. Let the law handle the rest! Pooja, it was so much beyond our endurance, especially Ragini's..... I'm not good at advicing but consider one thing, give priority to what your heart says, always! It won't mislead you to the extent your mind does!"

He continued after a pause. "Actually, what happened with your family---" Sanskar words trailed off as he saw DP, Annapurna, RP and Sujatha approaching them.

"Kavya!" DP softly called trying to place his hand on her head while Pooja moved her head not allowing him to do so.

"Viswanath was a very close friend of mine and Ram. A younger brother to me like Ram. He had been working with both of us when Bapuji had been running the businesses." DP sighed reliving the memories.

"After his marriage with Shanthi ji, he had started his own business and we were so happy about it. We had small projects with each other and later, when he started his own spinning mills, we had thought to collaborate with each other in textile sector and we all were happy about the proposal. It was quite big! But just before the finalisation, we found the fraud he had done in order get various projects including our collaboration." His last words came out as a whisper and Pooja's eyes shot up on listening to him.

"We had consider him as family but he chose to take a wrong path, beta." Ramprasad added. "We could tolerate anything but cheating. He never had to do something like that just to seal a deal." Ramprasad said hurt evident in his voice. "We had arguments and withdrew the collaboration but never revealed the reason to anyone. That was last time we spoke in a decent manner. He was never ready to accept his mistakes saying it was common in business."