Fitoor | ✓

34 | Chautees

A/N - It's NaNoWriMo and I have managed to write up to chapter 38! That's more than I've written in the past year and I am extremely happy that I am also done writing Fitoor! Only two more chapters for me to write! I wanted to wait until I had sufficient chapters in draft before posting so you wouldn't have to wait much longer this time. 

Once again, extremely grateful for you all for sticking by. Much love to all of you!

Also, dedicating this chapter to ankasheart for her kind and supporting words for Fitoor!

If you want to see snippets of Fitoor and of the other story I am panning during NaNo, follow me on Instagram @AashiReads and do come and say hello! 

All the love,
Aashi x

34 | Chautees

He had her address, it was right there, glaring at him through his phone's screen.

After Indira had burst out everything, he couldn't help but feel pitiful towards his mother. Her feelings didn't make sense to him, Lekh could never understand his mother's mind. All throughout her emotional outburst, everyone had stood silently; some shocked, some understanding. He knew Tara was understanding, he could see it on her face.

What he deemed unforgivable, Tara deemed grievance. For some reason, she was sympathizing with his mother and he didn't like it.

In the end, all Lekh had asked for was Tarini's contact.

And now he had it. He just didn't know what to do with it.

She had changed her name, Indira told him. She didn't want to be found, she warned him. This, Lekh assumed was another lie. Why wouldn't she want to be found unless his mother had blackmailed her. He would never believe that Tarini would leave for money, that she really was after his lavish lifestyle and not him.

He refused to believe that the first girl he had fallen in love with, didn't love him at all.

***

Tara looked at Lekh as he stared at his phone's screen. The intensity was the same, they were just staring at different things.

She was not happy about this, a crippling fear had taken over Tara's mind. Lekh loved this girl. Lekh probably never stopped loving this girl. For all she knew, he would want to get back to her, save her from the exile Indira had sentenced her to and bring her back into his life.

He'd probably want Tara gone. With her baby.

The reality of the situation struck her with a shock that a pregnant woman shouldn't have to bear. It wasn't just her life that would be subjected to an unwanted change, her baby's life would be in danger too.

At this moment, Tara cursed herself for giving herself into her love for Lekh. A mistake she was supposed to be mature enough to ignore.

As a mother to be, her life was supposed to be dedicated to saving her unborn baby from steering to harm's way. If Lekh decided to leave, she wasn't sure how Indira would provide a safety net for her grandchild.

And the saddest part was, now she understood. All along, behind everything Indira did, was a lonely woman whose life revolved around her husband and her children. She wasn't sure Indira was the villain anymore. In a twisted way, her actions had meaning.

Tara kept looking at Lekh, nervous and even frightened. Would Lekh really leave her?

He wouldn't, not exactly. Tara knew that. He would make sure her and the baby were safe, that they had everything they would need. But him.

It would be an unsaid apology from his part, an action to compensate for broken promises. The importance of independence wasn't lost on her, but now more than ever before she felt the lack of it the most.

Lekh was a good man who deserved all the happiness of the world but Tara was a good woman too and she didn't deserve this at all. And this, she realized was why people said life was unfair.

And so, a hidden part of her wanted Lekh to never find Tarini.

It was selfish, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered to her, Tara realized, if her baby wasn't safe. Not even Lekh.

She couldn't subject her child to a life of deprivation, she couldn't bear to have him or her live a life she was forced into. And so inevitably, she dared to imagine what life would have been if Kartavya was still here. How fulfilled their life would be as a happy, how great of a father he would have been and how securely they would live away from the drama that his family carried with themselves.

Tears welled up in her eyes, the memory of Kartavya shooting her with agony. It was so painful that it hurt her physically and she wasn't sure she would live through it.

She looked back at Lekh, with bitterness this time.

And he looked back too, with dejection and despair.

He looked at her and he realised he needed to do it, he owed it to her.

"Tara," he said, "We need to talk."