âªâ« Ye parchaaiyon se, chupta yahan
Oho.. phir tanhaiyon, se ladta yahan
Jo chahta hai voh hai kiya
Apni hi sharton pe ye hai jiya
Ziddi hai, ziddi hai, ziddi hai,
Kaisa yeh ziddi hai
Dil ye ziddi hai...âªâ«
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She was in her old house where she used to live with her parents. There was a door and she walked towards it.
A voice was stopping her but it was distant and she couldn't stop herself from walking into the room.
First, it was darknessâpitch-black and then there were voices. She knew those voices but couldn't pinpoint who the person was.
You are weak.
You are a brat.
You don't deserve to be here.
You will never be good enough.
No one will love you.
You will die.
You killed her.
You should die.
She felt all the words cut through her heart like a knife. Tears rolled down her face but the voices didn't stop. Suddenly, a bright blinding light fell into her eyes. The next time she opened her eyes, she was in her car, driving on a deserted road, toward her penthouse.
She heard a loud horn but couldn't turn fast enough to dodge the truck that came out of nowhere. It hit the car from her side, and the car rolled a few times on the road. There was a ringing sound around her.
She opened her eyes to see the truck driver coming out to check on her. He was on call.
"Your work is done. She won't make it alive." He said and left.
Her head and hand were hurting. She could see the blood around her. She didn't want to die like this so, she tried to move but a sharp pain in her abdomen stopped her. She looked down to see a huge shard of glass stuck on her abdomen. She didn't have much energy to take it out.
Everything started to blur and then there was darkness. But there was still this voice in her head and it repeated the same thing over and over again.
You should die.
âªââ©â¶âª
She woke up from the nightmare only to see Kabir there in front of her. His hand cupped her cheek and he had a worried look on his face.
She moved forward and hugged him close while he ran his hand through her hair. She had always liked it when he did that, it soothes her but she would never admit that to him.
"You were crying and weren't waking up."
"I'm fine. Everything is fine." She said but it was more to convince herself than him.
He pulled back a little to look at her. He put her hair out of her face.
"What happened that day, Ahana?" his face held seriousness and his voice held command. "It has been a year since you are having these nightmares. It's about time you tell someone what really happened."
"I told you, I was distracted and didn't see the truck coming before it hit my car." Technically it was true.
"What even happened that you were distracted while driving? Because as much as I know, you drive very carefully. You don't even have a speeding ticket."
She looked anywhere but at him. She knew he was right.
"Tell me, please." He said gently.
She scooted back towards the headboard and when she was comfortable she patted the space beside her indicating for him to sit there. He settled down and opened his arm for her to come near him which she accepted gladly. They were sitting there in each other's embrace when she started talking.
"Anirudh. Anirudh Desai happened."
"Who is he?"
"He is my father's friend. I've never liked him or his son. He had been coming to my office for a few weeks to borrow money. I always refused. That day also he came to my office to ask for money. I didn't want to give him anything because I knew he would use it on drugs or alcohol so again I refused him. I didn't realize that he was a little drunk. He tried to manhandle me and managed to cut through my arm."
"You love boxing!"
"He caught me off guard!" she retorted, "Anyway, I managed to knock him down and called guards to throw him out. Only Sneha knows about the incident."
"That's why you were distracted?"
"Yes." She hesitated but she knew she could trust Kabir. "Kabir?"
He hummed.
"There is one more thing that no one knows." He nodded. "No, first promise me you won't tell this to anyone."
He narrowed his eyes at her but agreed anyway.
"The accident? It was planned."
He whipped his head towards her so fast that she was afraid he got a whiplash. "What!?"
"Keep your voice down, Kabir. You would wake everyone up!"
"Sorry!" he looked sheepish. "You said the accident was planned!"
"Yes, by Anirudh's grace."
"This is not the time to be sarcastic!" he almost scolded. "For how long have you known this? And what do we do about him, now? Is he still troubling you?"
"I've known about it from the beginning. And Chef Kabir Jaishingh, you don't need to do anything. Everything is taken care of."
"You knew about it for a year and you didn't tell me! And what do you mean by 'taken care of'?"
"No need to get hyper. He's been in jail for the last 10 months for an attempt to murder."
He was silent for a few minutes and looked deep in thought. "Wait, you were on bed rest at that time."
"You were calculating the time?" she gave him a weird look.
"Yes. Now answer. How did you do it when you were on bed rest?"
"My mouth was working just fine. So I called a friend who also happen to be a police officer and then another friend who is a lawyer, told them everything and they took care of the rest."
"You are the strongest person I've ever met, you know that, right?"
She gave him a full-blown smile. "I do."
âªââ©â¶âª
"You sure you disliked him?"
She was with Inaya, they had come for lunch at Food DiariesâKabir's restaurant. Kabir was taking rounds today, maybe because he had hired a few interns a week ago.
"Yes. We just became friends two weeks ago."
"You like him, don't you?"
"What gave me away?"
"You stare at him, a lot." Inaya had a sly smile on her face.
"I do?"
Inaya nodded. "You do."
She again looked at him to see him already looking at her. He smiled which she returned and looked back at Inaya who was analyzing her every move very carefully.
"What?"
"It's okay, you know." Ahana raised a brow at her friend. "To like someone. To want to be with someone."
"It is but for normalâsimple people. I come with a lot of complications. And I'm okay with liking him from a distance."
"I know you are not ready right now but I would suggest that you tell him about your feelings before it's too late."
"I gave that advice to you when we were in New York."
Inaya giggled. "Yes, and it's about time that you take your own advice."
"Anyway, by New York, I remember, I got invitations for charity galas, they are next month, the first is in Delhi and the second is in New York. Are you coming with me?" She asked remembering the invitation that came a few days ago.
"I too got the invitations but I can't go."
"Why?"
"Zain has always been protective about me and now that I'm pregnant he has become overprotective. Also travelling for long hours in this condition would do me no good."
"I don't want to go alone. I'll be bored to death."
Inaya thought for a minute and grinned when an idea popped up in her mind.
"No," Ahana stated in a stern voice.
"Hey! I didn't even say anything yet."
"You don't have to. That grin on your face is telling me that you have an absurd idea."
"Listen to me first and then decide if it's absurd or not. Why don't you take Kabir with you?"
"Kabir? That's your idea?" she looked at Inaya incredulously. "No. Why would he come with me?"
"At least ask him for once. It is his decision, why don't you let him make it."
"This is a bad idea. I don't even know why I am even considering it?"
"Oh please! It is an incredible idea."