Chapter 29

He did it again. He gave me hope and then when I was ready to reap every single grain of hope I had sowed, he had to come and burn everything in front of my eyes.

One thing that I never learned when I was with him all these years was to not have hope.

It's been like this for years, every time I hoped that he had changed, and it would be good from now on, he would do something to sabotage it. This time was no different.

***

It had been almost a week since he said that he would come and meet my parents and ask for my hand in marriage.

I tried to call him continuously, but his phone was never reachable.

After two days, I gave up and decided to wait for him to come to me, but that had never been his style. I was starting to think that something happened to him on the way here.

I wish I knew his friends from work, but I didn't. So I had nothing to do but wait.

But I hate waiting... I hate sitting down, not knowing what happened or what to do next.

I tried to search for his company's phone number online. I found a number but I wasn't sure if it would work. But it was better than doing nothing, so I called.

Fortunately, some women answered the call, saying the company name.

"Hi, Umm... my name is Aadhi. May I speak to one of your employees, Mr. Abhinav? It's urgent, and he is not picking up his phone."

"Yes ma'am, just a minute... The call will be connected to his desk," she said. Then I heard a beep.

Wow, that was easy.

I waited a minute or two, then she came back on the line.

"Ma'am...may I know if you are asking for Abhinav Maharajan?" she asked to confirm.

"Ah...yes. Is he there?"

"I am sorry, ma'am, but he resigned from his job a week ago."

"Oh...okay. Thank you. But do you know the reason if I may ask?"

"I presume he got another job, ma'am. That is all I know."

"That's okay. Thank you."

I ended the call confused. If he got another job, why didn't he tell me? What did that even mean?

My mind worked its way to the only logical conclusion.

HE TOOK THAT OFFER.

But my heart refused to believe it. I refused to believe that he would betray me like that.

Maybe he resigned to come live with me. He said he would marry me, so maybe...maybe he decided to join me here.

It wasn't logical, but only that thought was keeping me from going insane.

I spent the next few days in confusion and sadness.

I really hoped that Abhi would not hurt me like that, but I couldn't entirely discount the fact that he might betray me.

I know I shouldn't think like that, but I couldn't stop.

I prayed and waited for any kind of news about him, and I didn't stop calling, but it always said, "Not reachable."

Yeah, I didn't think he was ever going to be reachable for me again.

One morning, when I was in my room getting ready for work, I heard the doorbell. I heard my parents inviting someone inside and talking with them.

Within a few minutes, my mom yelled my name to come down.

I ran down the steps to see who that was. Part of me wished that it could have been Abhi. But to my utter disappointment, it was not him.

But it wasn't quite a disappointment. It was actually a pleasant surprise. Nikitha was standing there, holding a big gift box and smiling at me.

I should have hugged her or something... I wanted to, but after what I did to her in college, I didn't know how to talk to her.

I had no idea what she was doing here. I thought she would hate me forever after what I did.

"Well. Aren't you going to invite me in?" she asked, looking at me standing there like a statue.

"Yeah... Sorry, come on in," I said with a forced smile.

My parents left us to talk and went to get her something to drink.

"So, how is life for you?" she asked, looking at me cheerfully. She hadn't changed a bit.

"Yeah, fine...," I said not so cheerfully. I was avoiding her eyes. I was full of guilt, and I didn't know what to do about it.

"You look like you are not happy to see me," she asked, mocking me.

"No... No... It's just..." I didn't complete my sentence. She looked at me expecting to continue.

"It's just...what I said to you in college... I don't know how to talk to you. I feel bad." I confessed guiltily.

"You mean when you said you don't want to talk to me anymore because your boyfriend said so and then you didn't even look my way?"

She elaborated on what I did when I was completely obsessed with doing whatever my boyfriend said.

It was less awful in my head and after hearing her say it, I didn't know how to feel about myself. I was really pathetic.

I just nodded and looked at the floor. Suddenly the floor looked so interesting.

"It's okay. I forgot everything. That is why I am here," she said, hugging me.

This small gesture made my eyes tear up. I could hear her sniffing and guessed she was also crying.

"I was angry. That is why I didn't get back to you sooner.

But when there was a good thing going about to happen in my life, I couldn't think of a single person to share with other than you," she said, relieving me from her hug.

I looked at her, confused.

"I am engaged." She said with teary eyes but with a lot of excitement in her voice.

I squealed in joy and hugged her tightly. I didn't have any words to express how happy I was for her. I was so glad that she was still thinking of me as a special friend regardless of our history together.

My parents wished her well, accepting the invitation to her wedding. After a while of talking about her life, I noticed the gift box on the floor beside her.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the gift.

"Oh... I really forgot about that," she said, picking it in her hand and holding it out to give it to me.

"What is it?" I took it from her smiling, thinking she bought something for me. There was a card on the top with my name written on it.

"I don't know. It was on your doorstep when I arrived and I thought I would bring it inside," she said, shrugging.

I looked at her confused and started unpacking it. Deep down, I think I knew who it was from. I became antsy for no reason while unpacking it.

Inside the box, there are some photos and there is a letter. I decided to look at the photos first.

Looking at the first photo, my eyes widened in shock. I didn't realize I was crying until tears started rolling down my cheeks. It was a photo of Abhi with Ananya.

They were in some pub, and he looked like he was drunk. Ananya was lying on his chest, wasted. And then there were some photos of them in a room naked under the sheets.

There was a date on the corner of the photo. The next day to the new year. It was the next day when I refused to sleep with him.

I kept looking, there were some photos where he and she were exchanging the garland. It looked like their engagement. There was also a photo of them exchanging engagement rings.

Nikitha opened the letter for me. It was their wedding invitation. Their marriage was going to happen in three months.

There was also a letter inside the invitation. I opened it. It was from Ananya saying,

He is mine, bitch... stay away from him. Ananya.

I looked at Nikitha with teary eyes. I didn't know what to do now.