Chapter-32

Hope, you like it...❤️

The street was crowded with people as some stopped their vehicles to look at what happened. The cries of a child echoed in the atmosphere as he cried holding his mother's head in his small arms. Tears were falling down his face uncontrollably and endlessly. His voice started growing hoarse as his throat pained but his heart was paining more than anything.

"I love you, beta..." The voice of his mother echoing around him. He looked down at his knee and saw the puppy looking up at him. He licked his knee and nudged his head on it. Aditya picked the puppy up in his hands as the things started blurring around him.

"I lost my wife because of you..."

"I lost her just because of your naughtiness!" He felt the words burdening him and digging him deep into the ground.

"You will study with all your heart and become successful one day..."

"Such a disgrace you are..."

"You are bloody adopted!"

"Don't ever call me Pa."

"Didn't I asked you to never show me your face!"

"Here, you are again like a bad luck in my life...don't you have any shame?"

"I don't want to see your face, ever!" His hateful eyes choking him, making his breathing more shallow with each second. His hateful words directly stabbing his heart. He felt warmth crawling from his back to his neck as he suddenly felt sweat all over his body. The hair on his neck stood up as he felt chill running all of a sudden. His head started shaking on its own. His heart beat increased and he gasped for breath, feeling suffocated as if someone was blocking his air supply. He felt as if he was drowning in deep sea, he was feeling heavy and wasn't able to move his body.

He opened his eyes petrified as he gazed at the white ceiling atop of him. He turned his neck slightly to the left to look out of the window and saw the sunlight coming in from the window. His breathing was still paced up as if he was not sleeping but instead was running. He tried to regain his normal breathing taking deep breaths and closed his eyes. Her mother's face flashing instantly and then his father's eyes, the eyes which held so much hate for him. He opened his eyes again not wanting to think about it much. He sit up straight on his bed as he gulped down the whole bottle of water. His throat been feeling dry since a long time.

"Why am I getting these dreams again?" He asked himself.

He looked over at the small couch in the corner of his room and his eyes caught the sight of the clothes that were placed neatly on it for the day. He had a hard time figuring them out but he eventually did. Formal clothes for the day.

He thought about the ways of telling her the truth of his heart. He opened the drawer of his nightstand and took out a small royal blue colored box. A diamond ring stared back at him and he started of her. Her eyes, her smile, her laughter...and a smile came on his face.

"Will I ever found my forever, Aditya?"

"I will try to give you your forev-"

"I lost my wife because of you..." He shook his head not wanting to focus on anything but her.

"I don't know how long a forever is...but I wi-"

"Such a disgrace you are..." He closed his eyes for some time making a point in his mind to not think otherwise.

"I love you, Zo-"

"You lost your mother because of your non sense..."

"What can be expected from someone else's blood..."

"You are bloody adopted!"

"No matter how much I try to avoid these thoughts, they always come and haunt me...No matter how much I'm willing to move on, they always come and become a hindrance in my attempt...What should I do?"

"What can be expected from someone else's blood..."

"Someone else's blood...adopted...disgrace... I'm not Aditya... I'm a bad omen... careless... These words echo in my head as if they are telling the truth to me... trying to convey what I am in reality... It's been years but their sound hasn't seized... Would I be doing injustice to Zoya? Maybe my brain is trying to make me face the reality..." He said standing up from his bed.

"I should admit these..." He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked in his eyes through the mirror and said," You are a disg-race...a bad om-en...naug-hty... carel-ess... You are not Aditya... No! You are someone else's blood... You are ADOPTED!" He sat down on the floor with a thud and looked in the mirror again into his eyes repeating the lines a zillion times until he felt convinced, hoping that their sound will seize once he admits that but...it only became louder and more clear.

He closed his ears but there was no difference. He turned his head and looked towards the gate of the bathroom. He stood up from the floor and advanced towards the bathroom. He opened the door and entered with a knife in his hand. His body felt limp but he had a firm grip on the knife.

•••

Zoya stood outside the door of Aditya's house reluctant to knock. She has been trying to contact Aditya since a few days but there was no response from his side. The messages which she sent were unread. The calls that she made weren't answered. The only option left with her was to come to his house and check. She was feared to see what will be inside but she wouldn't know without knocking. She knocked once reluctantly. There wasn't a reply. She knocked twice, thrice but the situation was same.

When she tried to knock a bit louder, the door opened inside.

"Aditya?" She asked in a whisper but there was no one on the other side.

"The door was unlocked...?" She whispered to herself. She entered the hall and looked around. She turned her head to the left and the sofa set came into her sight.

"Aditya?" She asked as she moved further in. It was empty. She looked to her right at the kitchen.

But, it was still empty. There wasn't any trace of Aditya. Her heart paced up as her mind started thinking of negative thoughts. Her gaze fell on the stairs.

She hurriedly climbed them, praying in her heart for everything to be fine and for him to be fine. She reached the top and saw him standing near the settee looking out of the window. Hearing someone's loud breathing, Aditya turned and saw Zoya breathing heavily.

"Zoya?" He asked in a whisper.

"What are you doing here? Oh, it's a hallucination... I've been getting these since a long time... Maybe, like this I can forever cherish you...and our memories..." He said gently stroking her right cheek.

"I'm not a hallucination, Aditya!" She said frustrated.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Something inside Aditya's eyes changed and he withdrew his hand from her cheek.

"I'm not ignoring you..." He mumbled to himself and moved past her. Zoya held his wrist halting his movement. He looked at her with a surprised face.

"Answer my question." She demanded.

"I said I'm not ignoring you..." He said and freed his hand from her hold. Zoya turned Aditya by his shoulder and made him face her.

"Then, why are you not answering my messages and calls...acting...acting as if you just disappeared...Why, Aditya?"

"I was just a bit busy...noth-ing else..." He moved away from her towards his bedroom.

"You may think that no one can see the marks of your failed suicide attempts on your wrists...but you were not able to cover them up enough for me..." Aditya suddenly stopped and his eyes widened as he turned to her.

"This is what you said to me when we first met, right?" Zoya said through clenched teeth trying to control her emotions.

"How did yo-" Zoya's hand reached forward and grabbed his left hand. She unlocked his watch and folded his sleeves to reveal the marks. She looked at him with bloodshot eyes as be himself analyzed the marks.

"Why?" She asked in a shaky voice. He didn't said anything.

"Why!?" She asked a bit louder making him flinch. Seeing him flinch, she left his hand.

"Will you answer me please..."

"Zoya vo..."

"Dr. Aditya Hooda, answer me right now! Why did you do this! Why are you doing this with yourself!? Why!?"

"Because I don't want to destroy you!"

"Wh-at?" She asked in a whisper.

"Yes!" He sat down on the floor with a thud on his knees.

"I don't want to destroy your life with my presence..." He said leaning forward as tears started streaming down his face.

"Destroy?" She asked in a low voice as she sat down on the floor to look into his eyes.

"Yes! Because I love you!" Zoya felt everything around her stilling for a moment as she broke down his words and analysed every letter in her mind, trying to decode or understand the hidden meaning behind his words but, it was as simple as it sounded.

He loves her...

"I stopped myself from feeling this emotion again...I stopped myself...I tried my best...but. . . I lost... I lost...I lost to my heart... I lost to myself... I tried to stop this feeling... I ignored you...I thought that if I will not let your thoughts come to me then this feeling will go away but, no... Everyday it just grows... I'm such a disgrace...a bad omen...I don't want to tint your life with my presence other-wise my bad luck will come to you too..." He said sobbing as Zoya looked at him with shock and disbelief.

"You are lying." Zoya told him as she looked at him with surity in her eyes.

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This chapter was really painful to write🤧 I know you were expecting something else from this one... But, this thing had to come...

Credits for the above pictures goes to none other than Pinterest 😌 (I want to shift in that house so badly😭)

The next one will be updated soon, I know you would be so much eager to read the next one...but, till then BYE!

Also, take care of yourself and your family...Follow all precautions and if something unusual happened to you in previous days, I wish you all the strength to battle that...❤️