Spoiled • 18+ • Arranged Marriage Story

Thirty Seven

     "We can't tell Sakshi. It'll destroy her." Veer said once he had gathered her thoughts.

    "I agree...she is pregnant and just had problems." Viren was sat beside him in the uncomfortable chairs in the hospital lobby.

   Veer blamed himself. If he hadn't told Siddharth to come, none of this would've happened. His eyes stung. How could he tell Sakshi about him? She would break. He knew his sister loved him even though she was angry at him.

    "That won't do. If we don't, the hospital will, the insurance company will. They're still legally married. She is next of kin." Dhruv was the voice of reason in all of this chaos. Veer made a mental note to thank him.

    "It's all my fault. I should've paid more attention on the road."

     "It's not. That truck driver was drunk. It's new year's." Viren told him.

    "Fuck. It's new year's. Sakshi hates new year's. Now I've given her more reasons."

    "I think we should tell the women and they can break the news to her gently."

     "That's a plan."

***

      Sakshi sensed that something was wrong when Kushi's phone rang and she left the room in a hurry. Sakshi laid in the bed trying to sleep when she heard rustling and whispers outside her door.

    Finally she heard the door click open and she saw all of them enter with disturbed looks on their faces. Sakshi waited until Janvi helped her up. Kushi pushed a water glass in her hands and she sipped the water.

   She roughly had an idea that it might have something to do with Siddharth. She sighed tiredly, she could only imagine how angry he must've been. Why did he have to come back, she wondered. She felt angry at him.

    ***

    She couldn't stay angry. She couldn't after what Janvi had told her. She refused to believe it.

   That just couldn't be true. She didn't believe it when she sat in the car, she didn't believe it when the car pulled up in the parking and she didn't believe it when the patient board had his name. She didn't believe it when she saw her twin and how he looked distraught.

   He said sorry to her. He had said it again and again and she didn't believe it then too. She wasn't allowed yet into the ICU. She looked at him beyond the glass door and that was when it hit her.

   All her foolish pride for nothing. The immense shame she felt, crushed her. She was the judge and the defendant. Sakshi thought of why she never thought, not even once that maybe he hadn't read the letter?

     He was right. She didn't even fathom that he could ever choose to stay after reading it. She had lost her faith in him first and now what? He was lost to her.

    She was numb all over and now she felt it all at once. The crushing down of her soul and her stomach cramped again and she whimpered in almost lost her balance. There were too many hands to support her but she felt that she was drifting away. She felt something liquid dripping down and she knew her friends noticed too.

   There was panic and chaos all around her and yet she felt numb again.

   ***

    Sakshi woke up when she heard the whimpers from the baby monitor. Putting her hair in a bun, she walked to the nursery. She opened the door with a smile. "Ha! Minu!!!! Rinu!!!" At an instant the whimpering stopped., She opened the door and switched off the white noise machine . She opened the curtains and let the morning light in.