Manmarziyan : A Passion Project – chapter 36

Manmarziyan : A Passion Project
Chapter 36

Guys, the next would be the last instalment of the passion project…..
Silent readers please do give your reviews.

Sometimes, things don’t go the way you want them to …..and the ones you trusted your everything with end up hurting you…..you are angry….you are hurt….you are sad…..but, does that mean they don’t deserve a second chance?
Well, trust me, they do……it wouldn’t ache their heart and plague their soul if you didn’t matter…..dont hope to never hurt your entire life…just hope to matter enough to the one who hurts you.

Neil was bewildered thinking as to what had happened…….sam was inconsolable….her tears just kept flowing one after the other….arjun was trembling in anger…..his eyes reflecting intense hatred…..and Radhika….well, she just stood numb as if whatever had happened had shaken her soul. Nandini kept staring at bonnie with a horrified expression on her face….the vermillion….the marriage locket…..the bridal saree…..the fact that the mehra princess was now the joshi queen was taking time to sink in.

Bonnie looked at everyone….their emotional turmoil….she glared at her mother, “what did you do?” she asked her dry and emotionlessly….
Nandini had tears in her eyes….even her princess thought the same about her….but then, it was her who had forced them to believe so, and there was no denying of the that they quite right too…..
Nandini tried to speak but even her own voice left her side…..she cleared her throat and spoke In a horse whisper, “bonnie…bonnie….y-you-you’re married.” She stammered.
Bonnie had no patience for the unnecessary emotional outflow of hers…..neither did she care….it was these very emotions she had used to manipulative her and Arjun…she wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice…

But she didn’t realise that though they might be fake the first time….but this time they were really true…
Nandini forwarded her hand to bless bonnie and saral, but bonnie jerked it away…..she hissed in anger, “still awaiting my answer…”
Nandini pleaded, “trust me beta….i didn’t do anything this time..”
“talking about trust doesn’t suit you, mother.” Bonnie mocked her stressing on the word mother…
Nandini’s heart shattered, it was always mom for bonnie….she never referred to or called her by mother….and yet now, there she was mocking her by it.
Nandini tried once again to make her believe…..but Arjun had enough….
He screamed, “just leave! Leave right now……and never turn back again to show your face….it isn’t just us who you destroyed emotionally….you never played with sam’s life….who had never even met once…..you want us to trust you right?

Nandini nodded eagerly…
Arjun sighed….trying to calm himself down….he was trying to restrain himself, if not his mother….she was lady elder to him, and he wanted to respect that…..he levelled his voice to his normal pitch…., “tell me….did you not know samrat uncle loved you? Did you not love him back? Did you not cheat on him with dad? Did you not marry dad because of his money? Did you ever try to know what became of samrat uncle after you left me? Did you ever try to find about sam?” Arjun shot an arrow of questions towards her. Nandini hung her head down in shame….she had no answer….her past was ruining her future….it was her past…her gross materialism that was destroying all the hopes she had of ever making up with her kids….of getting them to trust her again….of getting them to believe that she had truly changed herself….that she had seen the error of her ways the day they had left her life.
Arjun clapped his hands, “the great nandini mehra doesn’t have an answer…does she? Leave!” he spoke sardonically.

It was no longer who was speaking…..it was all the built anger and the pain of being betrayed by your own mother which had taken the forefront……well, you may for once even survive the blow of being betrayed by your lover…..but being betrayed by the woman you gave birth to you was an entirely different story….
Nandini looked at bonnie with tears in her eyes, and spoke with her voice almost choking, “may god bless you with all the happiness…..saral beta, take well care of her.” Saying so she turned around and left…
Bonnie was afterall her daughter….even her heart melted hearing her mom…she turned to face Arjun, “bhai…she really changed….did she?”
Arjun wiped her tears and held her by shoulders, “don’t think about all this now….you are starting a life new today….stay happy always….may god bless you ….and always remember, I am just a phone call away.”

She hugged him tight…..sinking herself in all the love, affection and warmth of her brother.
Arjun broke the hugged, blessing her, and turned his attention to saral….he spoke in a stern voice, “trust me, even I don’t know what I will you if you ever trouble her.”
Radhika grabbed his collar….. “Arjun!!!! Spare him today atleast..”
Arjun chuckled a little……he smiled seeing her don avatar….he raised his hands up in surrender, “okay baba…”

Radhika smiled and whispered to bonnie winking, “your brother’s a wuss..”
Bonnie’s mouth opened wide……she spoke in tone mix of teasing and disbelief, “Bhabhi….!!”
Radhika went to saral and held him by collar….drawing whistles from neil and Arjun.
She threatened him, “saral, you remember the guy, whose head I banged into the school boundary wall in sixth grade because he bullied you…..well, I can still do that.”

Sam smiled…she went and locked her hand with saral’s arm, “naa…chashni, arjun’s enough for him….also, i am sure bonnie is the one who is going to make him run around him.”
Radhika laughed and linked her hand with his other arm squealing, “team change!”
Arjun slapped his forehead…after a little more jokery….bonnie and saral were send off and ardhika and nesam headed back home. The jokery, the laughs….the fun was all a show….arjun was pained to see his mom….all the past memories just kept playing in his head…….it killed sam to find the reason for all the unhappiness she suffered her whole life right in front her eyes yet not being able to do anything about to…….moreover, it brought all her memories…..her times with her family, sorry, dysfunctional family back…..the memories which had taken 7 years to get over with….it had taken her 7 years to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t going to have a normal family ever.
her happiness was all a drama to make the gang believe that she was fine……but the storm….the fire raging within her heart…her soul was difficult to explain her…
It seemed as her heart had caught fire….burning rapidly with all memories of her childhood.
Neil turned around to look at the backseat of the car, to make sure that sam was fine…..sam smiled at him but it didn’t reach her eyes. neil didn’t fail to notice it. He even didn’t fail to notice the pain and the thin film of water covering arjun’s eyes…..
Once back home, Radhika helped sam to change and put her to bed….but sleep, well, sleep was going to allude her anyway.

Radhika heard a knock on the door and went to open it…..neil stood there giving a tired smile to her, “chashni….it is a rough night for both of them…….go to Arjun, he has locked himself in….i’ll stay with sam.”
Radhika nodded….went to her room and grabbed her dupatta. She walked out of the apartment…..wishing neil for the night and asking him to take care of sam.

She tried to open the door of arjun’s room…but it was locked from inside…..she knocked the door and gentle spoke, “open up Arjun…..its me…radhika.”
Arjun spoke in a gruff drunk voice, “Radhika….please go….i want to be alone tonight.”
His voice reflected all the deep pain inflicted and engraved on his heart….it broke radhika’s heart, she had tears in his eyes…., “Arjun….please open the door, we will both sit and talk….arjun…”
“there is nothing to talk about.” He said quietly…
Radhika kept knocking…her eyes teared up seeing arjun’s condition….her voice choked up, “arjun!!!! Please…”
Arjun, though was highly drunk…could understand that his love was crying……and it was because of him…he couldn’t hurt her….he opened the door and quietly came back and sat. Radhika entered the room a second later and was shocked…..half the things were on the floor…the room was filled with old photographs….a flower vase was lieing shattered into pieces on the floor…..and sitting amidst the huge mess was Arjun, drinking….radhika didn’t fail to observe the three consumed bottles thrown carelessly down the table. Arjun clearly had more than enough. She went to home, tried to take the bottle away from his hand….but he jerked up on her touch….looked at her once and resumed drinking…..

Radhika pleaded to him, “Arjun….give me the bottle….its enough..”
Arjun nodded in negative like a child, who was asked to switch off his tv in the middle of favourite cartoon.
Radhika tried to grabbed the bottle again….she gained a good hold on it….she pulled it towards herself.
Arjun shouted on her, “dammit woman!!! How hard is it to understand that I want to be alone for one night……give me my bottle back.” Saying so he snatched his bottle back….his nails leaving a blo*dy trail on her hand.
He sat drank drinking…when his eyes fell on a little blood caught between his skin and his nail…he looked at both his hands…no marks…..then he grabbed radhika’s and saw the long mark with blood flowing out from places….

Tears streamed down his cheeks….he stepped backwards….clutched his own hair and cried in despair, “I am such an evil man….first I shouted at you….now I have hurt you…I even screamed at my own mother.” He fell down on his knees crying with his face hidden by his palms..
Radhika’s heart shattered into a million pieces seeing her rock steady Arjun so broken…for the first time, she had seen him in such a state…for the very first time his heart and had taken over his mind.
She walked to him, kneeled down in front of him, removed his palms from his face…cupped his face, wiping his tears with her thumbs….she gently whispered, “arjun, sometimes situations get better of us….no you are not evil….its just all the pain that needs to come out….”
Arjun looking up, staring into her eyes, “but I hurt you…” he spoke with the innocence of a child.
Radhika coaxed him, she kissed his forehead….caressed his hair, “not it doesn’t hurt…..what hurts more is to see you like this..”

Radhika made him standing up….took his arm and walked to bed….she cleared his bed while he stood looking at her……she made him lie down on the bed and covered him with a blanket….she sat on the edge of the bed caressing his hair. She closed ran her palm over his eyes, shutting him close, giving him a break from continuously staring at her. She got up to leave after some time, assuming that he was fast asleep…..but as soon as she stood up, she felt a jerk on her hand…..arjun was clinging onto it tightly as if his dear life depended on it, “please don’t leave me….please don’t go.”
Radhika moved back and sat beside him…..rubbing his hand, “I am not leaving u….not now….not ever.”
Arjun gave a small smile, wrapped his arms around and slept hugging her tight…..pulling her closer to himself each passing second.

Neil sat besides sam and gently whispered, “you don’t have to be strong in front of me….let it out…its okay..”
Sam pulled him closer and hugged him tight, neil could continuously feel his shirt getting wetter each passing second. He cursed fate for playing such a cruel game against his love. Finally, she slept, burring herself in neil.

Radhika had fallen asleep in arjun’s arm….her sleep was broken by her vibrating phone….she grabbed it….unknown caller…..she was surprised, a unknown caller that too in the middle of the night….she slowly and gently removed arjun’s arms from her waist and his head from her stomach and covered him with a blanket. She went outside to take the call….she heard a frantic voice on the other side….radhika cleared her throat and spoke in a crystal clear voice, “may I know who is calling?”
The caller seemed to hesitate…..she was reluctant to give her name…but she finally did, “nandini…” she spoke in a small voice…..

Radhika sighed, “aunty, what do you want from me?”
Nandini slowly replied, “a promise……”
………………………..
Once, you have cried over something just vow to never over the same thing again.