Tejo P.O.V
Tejo wake up ple- Doctor Yes now- Tejo. Tej- Will sh- wet in the rain – be oka- stress- Tejo- Sir let her rest-
Distorted voices merged together in my head as I felt my head spin. Where were all these voices coming from and where was I? All I saw was darkness.
I heard his voice, “Tejo. Easy Tejo. Easy.”
My eyes fluttered open as his face came into view, clearly showing he had not gotten any sleep. He hid a yawn as he smiled down at me, helping me into a seated position.
“Do you want water?” He asked, reaching for the table beside our bed, “Here, drink this.”
I shook my head, wincing as the windows seeped in the daylight shine. He noticed my discomfort as he pulled them shut rendering the room back into darkness, well as dark as it would get on a sunny morning.
“Fateh what happened?” I asked him, lifting my hand to my head as I massaged my temple, not remembering how I ended up in this position, my memories blurry, the medications effect.
He sat back down next to me, removing my hands as he replaced them with his and rubbed my forehead. “You fainted because of stress and getting wet in the rain yesterday didn’t help your case.” He laughed nervously, as though he wanted to bring up something but was thinking against it. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?”
I shook my head, “I can see some flashes of yesterday but my head feels heavy when I think about it. Why? What happened yesterday?”
If I didn’t know better it seemed as though he was relieved at the fact my brain had shut out yesterday.
“Tejo bhabhi!” Mahi came rushing into the room holding a phone with Amrik following close behind her. “Look, Amrik’s been texting a girl.”
“Mahi give my phone back.” Amrik exclaimed running after her as she sat down on the bed beside me, putting the phone under my pillow.
“Bhabhi help me.” Mahi squealed as he tried pulling her off the bed.
“No, Tejo ji’s on my team, she knows you’re not supposed to go through people’s personal stuff.”
“Shut up both of you.” Fateh said, turning around to face them,as his phone buzzed on the table. He looked down at it, grabbing his phone. “Can’t you see that Tejo is unwell and here you are arguing like children.”
“Why do you care, you’re going to leave and go to do important work in the academy anyways.” Amrik retorted, glaring at him.
“Amrik.” Fateh said, his phone ringing once again as he turned the sound off. “Mind your words, I’m your older brother.”
“He’s telling the truth.” Mahi mumbled but as I was next to her I heard her. My fingers pinched her lightly on her knee as she playfully hit my hand back.
“Fateh it’s fine go finish your important work. Mahi and Amrik are with me.” I found myself saying as he nodded, checking his phone again before caressing my cheeks softly.
“If you need anything call me.”He said as he turned towards the door
“Mahi, go get Tejo ji some food.” Amrik told her as soon as Fateh left the room. “She must be hungry.”
Once Mahi left the room, I looked at Amrik with my brows raised, “Who’s the girl?”
“What?”
“The girl that Mahi said you were talking to.” I cleared, “Isn’t that why you sent her out, so you could talk about the girl?”
“What. No. There is no girl, well there is but not like that. We’re just talking as friends.” I could’ve sworn I saw him blush but I decided not to embarrass him further, “I wanted to talk to you about Fateh and Jasmine.”
Fateh carassed Jasmine’s cheeks embracing her whispering into her ears.
I held my head as a blurry image of the two of them came into my mind. What the hell was going on?
“Tejo ji.” Amrik called out as he rushed to my side, holding onto my arms, “Are you alright?”
“What about Fateh and Jasmine?” I asked him, wondering whether he knew about what Fateh was hiding from me about yesterday.
“You asked about then yesterday-“
Bingo. Amrik knew about what happened yesterday.
“- whether they were still hung up on each other.”
I did?
Why would I ask him that? Why would I even think that my husband still likes my sister?
“Amrik, what are you talking about?”
“Do you not remember?” He asked, looking at me in confusion, “Yesterday you called me for a ride in front of the shopping mall, you were wet from the rain and then you asked whether I thought Jasmine and Fateh have moved on from each other.”
I shook my head slowly, “I don’t remember that. I can’t remember anything from yesterday. Why was I at the mall? Why was I wet? Wait, pass me my phone.”
He did as I asked him to and while I was unlocking my phone Mahi returned with a hamper filled with food.
“Are you going on a picnic?” Amrik asked her, hiding a laugh.
“Yeah, me and bhabhi are. You’re not invited.” She stuck her tongue out at him as she took a seat beside me peering at my screen, “Dissociative Amnesia? Why are you searching that up bhabhi?”
“Listen,” I said as I read from my screen, “Dissociative Amnesia, someone with dissociative amnesia will have periods where they cannot remember information about themselves or events in their lives. This can happen due to traumatic experiences or major stress.”
“So what you’re saying is that you lost your memory of what happened yesterday because it was traumatic for you?” Amrik nodded to himself, “Makes sense. Shouldn’t you know how to treat it, you know with you being a psychology lecturer.”
I nodded, “But for that we need to replay out everything that happened yesterday, starting from the very beginning.”
***
Once again I found myself standing outside the shopping mall but with no recollection of what had gone down here yesterday. We had walked from the spot that Amrik had picked me up from to a bench in front of the mall, with snippets of images playing in my head but from all those things, one thing was crystal clear. Fateh was involved with whatever had happened yesterday.
My eyes darted back and forth to the bench as if there was something about it I should’ve remembered. The sound of my phone ringing interrupted my thoughts,
“Hello?” I answered.
“Tejo, where are you? You’re not well enough to go to college and the doctor said you have to rest.” Fateh’s worried voice spoke into the phone.
“Fateh relax, I’m not at college.”
“Then? Where did you go?” He asked.
“I came to the shopping mall that I was at yesterday before fainting. I’m trying to see if I can remember anything.”
He was silent.
“Fateh?”
“Yeah.. The doctor mentioned you might have problems remembering a few incidents. Did you remember anything?” His voice held a curious tone to it.
I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn’t remember anything but something stopped me, instead I thought about what Amrik had told me about me questioning him about Fateh and Jasmine, “You and Jasmine were here with me, we were talking about something but I can’t remember what we were talking about.”
It sounded as though he let out a sigh, a thankful one, “Oh. Is that all?”
I nodded, then realised he couldn’t see me, “Yes.”
He let out a laugh and I imagined him rubbing the back of his head while he did so, “Why did you go all the way there for that then, I could have just told you. Do you still have that necklace?”
“What necklace?”
“The emerald one that was on our dressing table?” I thought back to my room before I left and recalled a necklace lying there.
“Yeah, I remember that. What about it?”
“I bought that for you yesterday but because I didn’t know your favourite colour I asked Jasmine to help me so she came over to the mall to help me choose. Then we met you and you were overthinking like always so we had to ruin the surprise and give you the necklace but you said your head hurt so I drove you home after dropping Jasmine.”
Fateh drove me home?
“But Amrik said-” I caught myself before I spilled out everything to him.
“What did Amrik say?”
“Nothing.Fateh I’ll call you later.” I hung up thinking about his words.
Amrik told me he took me home, discussing Fateh and Jasmine but Fateh seems to have an entirely different story. Who was telling the truth?
“Bhabhi? Where are you lost?” Mahi clicked her fingers in front of my face, holding a handful of bags. I looked down at them, raising a brow and she smiled sheepishly. “I just had to. Where did Amrik go? Never mind he’s buying food.”
Amrik. What reason did he have lying to ? Why would he even lie to me? “Mahi. Who brought me home yesterday?”
“Bhabhi what are you asking? Amrik already told you he drove you home.”
“Amrik? What about Fateh?”
“Fateh? He came about an hour or two after you fainted. He wouldn’t hold his phone but when he did we told him about you and he came running.”
So that means Fateh lied to me. He didn’t drop me home but the story he told me about the necklace, that had to be true didn’t it? I had the necklace at home. What was he hiding?
“Jasmine.” I whispered.Jasmine would know and she was my sister, she wouldn’t lie to me.
I pulled out Jasmine’s name on my contacts list and called her. It rang for a while before she held it.
“Hello Tejo, I heard you fainted, how are you feeling?”
“I’m good, I need to ask you- wait, how do you know about me fainting?” I asked her.
Just like Fateh, I was met with silence from her end, “Uh Tejo..That..I..um..I dropped by before and Amrik told me about your health. What was it you needed to ask me?”
“Amrik?”
“Yes Tejo ji?” He said nearing me as I lowered my phone telling him to be quiet.”
“Yeah, who else in that house will talk to me?” She laughed nervously, “Why do you sound so surprised?”
“No, nothing, when did you come to my house?”
She hesitated, “About an hour ago I think.”
I glanced at the time on my phone, an hour ago she said. We’ve been here for around two hours then when did she meet Amrik?
“Tejo?” Her voice on the other end called out, “Are you still there?”
“Yeah, Jasmine I’ll call you later.”
Why would she lie to me? Why did Fateh lie to me?
“Tejo ji?” Amrik said, worriedly.
“Take me home.” I whispered, trying to put together the pieces I had in my head but no matter what it all led to one thing. One thing I didn’t want to believe.
My legs wobbled as though being hit by a hurricane and with blurred vision I watched as the ground came closer to my face. Darkness engulfed me as all senses were knocked out of me.
***
A man peered down at me when I woke. My vision was blurry but recognition soon seeped in as I realised it was Amrik.
“Tejo ji?” He turned to the door, “Doctor? Doctor, she’s awake.”
“Bhabbi. Bhabhis awake. Amrik look. Bhabhis woke up.” Mahi said as she rushed into the room, pushing past the man who had entered before her.
“I can see that Mahi, I was here when she woke up.” Amrik rolled his eyes as he offered me a small smile, “How are you feeling?”
If it wasn’t for the pain soaring through my head or the uneasiness filling my body I would’ve told him I was fine but instead I only managed a weak nod. I shut my eyes trying to fade away the dizziness.
Letting out a soft breath I opened my eyes, this time clearly taking in everything in front of me. The ceiling, the machines,Amrik, Mahi and the tall man dressed in white.
My eyes trailed awkwardly around him as his gaze pierced into me, deciphering every last thing about me but unable to contain myself, I shifted my vision back onto him. He moved towards me, slowly but with a set agenda. Once close enough I read his name tag on his pocket, Ranvir Shukla, as well inhaled a large amount of the cologne he had on reminding myself to buy Fateh the same one.
Fateh. My eyes darted around the room trying to spot my husband but he wasn’t here. Why wasn’t he here? Did he even know I was at the hospital?
“How are you feeling, Miss-” Dr Shukla looked down at the clipboard in his hands, “-Tejo?”
I tried to sit up but I miscalculated how far he was away from me and when I sat upright our faces were merely inches away with his hands on my arms holding me up.
His sharp jawline was the first thing my eyes came into contact with due to his height and I noticed the light stubble around it. My eyes trailed up to his lips, stretched into a thin line with a hint of a smirk. His eyes were beautiful, a blend of blue and green with grey rimming the edges.
“Tejo bhabhi?” Mahis voice broke me out off whatever trance Ranvir had put me in as I snapped my eyes towards her, placing a safe distance between me and the very attractive doctor.
“I’m fine, really fine.” I mumbled, embarrassed at my ogling of a man when I was a married woman.
Ranvir, however, didn’t seem to mind as his eyes remained on me watching my every move.
“Could you stop?” I whispered to him as he was within hearing range, my eyes darted over to Mahi who sat on her phone.
His eyes didn’t even bat an eyelid as he lifted a brow up effortlessly, “Stop what?”
“Staring at me like that.” I hissed, annoyed by his antics.
His lips tugged into a smirk as he finally removed his eyes from me, moving them down to the clipboard as he wrote something down. “Like what Miss Tejo? I’m solely doing my job as your doctor. You know, checking you out.”
I gaped at his words. How shameless, flirting with a married woman.
“Sorry, I mean checking you up. Seriously Tejo? Do you not remember me?” He asked, looking back at me. “I thought we had something special back then.”
“We did? When?” I thought back to people I had known from school and college but nobody named Ranvir came into mind. Though I’m pretty sure I’d remember someone that good looking.
My remembrance trip took a turn for the worse as pain surged through my head, my hands moved straight there as I clutched my head wincing as it got intolerable.
“Tejo?” Dr Shukla’s teasing tone had now disappeared, a worried yet firm voice took over as he dropped the papers on the bedside table and grabbed an injection.
“Bhabhi. Amrik!” Mahi called out rushing beside me only to be told to step aside by the man beside me as he pierced my skin with the tip of the needle.
Dr Shukla, Mahi and Amrik’s voices merged into one as I felt my eyelids shut and before I knew it, darkness filled my eyes.
Ranvir P.O.V
“He’s married but she’s not.” I urged on, trying to explain the relationship to my slow sister about the couple parked a few spots in front of us.
She gasped as she understood, “He’s cheating on his wife.”
My eyes remained on the couple as Naksh and Rhea scrolled through her phone, catching up with the latest gossip. The married man, fiddling with the ring around his fingers, seemed to be angry at whatever the young woman had told him as he held both his hands up, begging her to stop. She was clearly childish from the way she jumped up onto the roof of the car and asked him to listen to her, making silly expressions.
“Bro, don’t you have to get to the hospital?” Naksh punched me lightly on my back as I nodded, giving one final look towards the cheating couple before starting the engine of my black jeep.
I drove past the man and woman, blasting my horn. I chuckled as their necks turned with their heads towards my jeep, shocked but once they realised they didn’t know me, a smile lit up on the girls face as she whispered something to the man.
“What’s the plan?” Rhea asked, turning around from the passenger seat to face both Naksh and I.
“I have a job.” I deadpanned, watching the road as Naksh and her argued about which restaurant around here was better.
“Shut up you foreign monkey, I lived here my whole life obviously I know better places.” Naksh exclaimed, ultimately ending the conversation.
God I missed him. Naksh had been my best friend since we were five. There was never a time where we had been apart until I moved to do my medical residence in London. We stayed in touch but there were days we went without talking. I had surprised him and my family when I returned to India during lockdown to help out the hospitals here. If anything, those years apart made our friendship stronger.
Finally the two of them had come to an agreement but I should’ve known, whenever these two are on each other’s side, it usually means something bad for anyone else involved. My suspicions came true as they turned to me nodding their heads, “Ranvir will pay.”
I glared at my best friend through the rear view mirror and he smirked at me as he shrugged and put his attention onto his phone.
“Watch out.” Rhea’s voice screeched as another car came speeding along the road almost crashing into mine.
The other driver remained in his car and I noticed there was another woman inside there with him in the backseat. I rushed towards their car and he exited, fuming.
“Are you crazy? Can you not see when you drive?” He shouted but that didn’t bother me, what did however was the woman sprawled on the lap of the younger one.
“Calm down brother, if anyone’s to blame its you. You were speeding,” I told him as my eyes kept moving towards the back seat of his car, “Is she okay?”
He looked back, visibly worried and it seemed as though he was holding back tears. “No. She fainted at the mall, I was rushing to take her to the hospital.”
“Take her out.” I rushed over to my jeep, kicking Rhea and Naksh out as I made space for the unconscious woman. Only after she was place in carefully with her head resting on the lap of the other girl did I look at her carefully and God she was beautiful.
Her hair tied up in a plait to the side of her head with strands on her face. The earrings she had on, moon and star ones, only added to the glisten of her beauty. Her lips were slightly pouted as she slept giving her an adorable look. An unexpected pang left my heart as I noticed the brief touch up of red on her forehead –sindoor. My eyes trailed down to her neck and sure enough, wrapped around her collar was a mangalsutra. She was married.
“Ranvir?”
I turned towards the man, probably her husband, “I’ll drop you guys to the hospital but can they borrow your car to get home? I’ll drop your car over later.”
He nodded as he handed his keys over to Naksh before getting into the jeep beside me. I kept glancing through the rearview mirror at the woman as I drove, with my flashing lights on, warning everyone that there was an emergency.
It wasn’t long before we reached the hospital and due to it being mine, the woman was taken in as soon as we arrived.
“Thank you.” The man who I assumed was her husband said, shaking my hand, “I’m sorry for lashing out at you before.”
I forced a smile before heading into the changing room and putting on my doctor’s coat and going in to check on her.
***
I teased her once she had woken up, feeling an instant connection with her as I recognise who she was. Her cheeks became red as she tried to hide the brush and I had a moment of pride, knowing I still had my charms intact but whatever I was feeling soon disappeared as her eyes shut and she gripped onto her head as though it would fall off if she didn’t.
“Tejo.” I held her face, it was ice cold not to mention pale. I checked her temperature, blood pressure and everything else I could think of but weirdly they were all normal.
“Bhabhi.” Mahi, who I learned was her sister-in-law, cried out attempting once again to push past me. “Why the hell did you inject her?”
“Tejo bhabhi!” The man who I thought was her husband but instead was her brother-in-law said rushing into the room holding onto his phone, “Doctor. What happened?”
I let out a breath as I stabilised Tejo, ushering the other two out of the room as I looked in through the small window on the door.
“According to the doctor’s report from yesterday evening, Tejo suffered from temporary amnesia, which occurs when your brain wants you to forget something that may cause harm if you remember it. From what you said, Tejo was trying to remember it and she did, which is why she fainted at the mall but after waking up the medications made her slightly drowsy which is why she couldn’t remember very well. After the drowsiness left, her memories came back but they caused her a lot of pain which is why I had to inject her again. Once she wakes up she’ll be fine and hopefully remember everything though I’m not sure that should be considered a good thing.” I summarised to them and judging by the expression they understood every word I had just said. “She should wake up in less than half an hour I have to check on another patient but I’ll drop in once I’m free.”
“Doctor,” Amrik stopped me, “Thank you very much. Honestly, not even blood relatives do what you did for us.”
“I didn’t do anything.” I said, pointing up at the top, “Whatever happened, happened because of his will. I’ll see you later.” We shook hands before I gave one last look at the woman sleeping on the bed before heading off to deal with another patient.
Next Chapter: Buzo, Tejo and Ranvir are talking together. Fateh questions Tejo about her whereabouts
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