Wearing a pastel blue saree, Sayi was standing in front of the mirror, she carefully put a little black bindi, wore matching jewelry, brushed her straight hair and tied it into a loose side ponytail and put on her white coat. She then took out her notepad and wrote something, kept it on Rishika’s side, wore her identity card, and slipping in her heels, rushed outside fixing her watch on her right arm.

She rushed to the elevator and pressed the 12th floor button and head straight to the room no. 1.

Virat came out from his room the moment the lift’s door closed. He pressed to call the lift, and went to the 12th floor in room no. 3.

Both were busy in their respective conference and were awarded by their seniors together simultaneously.

As everyone started to come out, Virat looked around and his eyes got stuck to a place. Even in that wild crowd, he was able to recognize her! She went straight inside the elevator, he followed her inside.

Sayi was shocked to see Virat in front of her. She could hear her heart racing, her hands getting cold, her cheeks getting warm, her ears turning red and her legs shivering. In the last 6 months, the only thing she ever prayed to god was to never let her face him again. He was staring right into her eyes, without blinking. She lowered her gaze, he too stood beside her seeing her uncomfortable. When they were together, they had at least reached to this point, where they could tell what the other was thinking, by looking into the eyes.

There were thousands of questions he wanted to ask her, he had been practicing to talk to her when he sees her next almost every day, but today, the words seemed to have stuck inside his throat. The lift stopped with a thud. Sayi grabbed the railing scared.

“I guess the lift stopped working” Virat tried to initiate a conversation.

Sayi chose to stay silent. She took out her phone, there was no network. Virat managed to get a look on her wallpaper and he realized it was the same girl he saw yesterday. Sayi was constantly fidgeting with her phone and was taking deep breaths. She took off her coat and started to fan herself with the invitation card in her purse.

“Is there anyone inside?” Came a voice from outside

“Yes! We are locked here, please help us out” Virat replied

Sayi was now getting out of breath. She sat down on the floor gasping for breath.

“Sayi!!” Virat panicked. He started to rub her hands and repeatedly asked her to keep her eyes open.

The lift opened after a few minutes, Rishika was standing outside crying. Virat picked Sayi in his arms while Rishika guided him to their room and made Sayi lie on the bed.

“Thank you so much officer, now I will manage. Sorry for causing you trouble.”

“No, it’s okay, I will call a doctor.”

“No need for that, I’m a resident doctor myself and her doctor is here only, I have called him, he will be here soon.”

“Then, I will wait till her doctor comes.”

He was about to sit beside Sayi when someone came inside running “Sayi!”

“Pulkit?”

“Virat?”

“Pulkit sir, thank god you came. She again had an attack”

“Again? Did she…” Virat asked worried

“Rishika can you please go to the conference room and get my bag, I think I forgot it there only. I knew your sister will forget her medicines, so I packed them for her.” Pulkit said ignoring Virat

“Even I’m at fault here, I should have packed her medicines” Rishika said crying

“Don’t cry, you had no idea this situation will occur, now get them fast.”

“Will you tell me what is happening? What are you doing here? Who is that girl? What happened to Sayi? Why did she faint inside? And why are you ignoring me?” Virat almost shouted

“You hold no right to question anything, neither to me nor to Sayi.”

“I do…Sayi is my….”

“Sayi is your?? Sayi and I are your nothing. She is no more your responsibility and I’m not your brother-in-law, so, please go back to your room. I saw you getting inside the lift with her, and had an intuition that something may happen. She is always at risk with you around.”

“Didn’t you run away?”

“Running away and being forced to run away are different things, you won’t get it. Try removing the blindfold once, the world of truth will be crystal clear. Now I request you to leave from here, before she wakes up and passes out seeing you again!”

Rishika came back with the medicine box, Virat walked away.

“Who was that man? His room is the one next to us” Rishika questioned

“Whoever he is, make sure he doesn’t come near Sayi.”

Pulkit injected something on her arm. “She will be fine after a few minutes, call me when needed”

Virat again came inside, the moment Pulkit went away

“Sir do you need anything?”

“No, I just came to check on her. Would you mind if I sit beside her for a while?”

“ummm…the thing is……Pulkit sir asked me to keep you away from di, I’m sorry, but, I won’t neglect his orders!”

“And where is you Pulkit sir’s room?”

“He lives here, his house is in Pashchim vihar. He came for di, because I had called him.”

“Can you please write it for me?”

Rishika wrote the address on a piece of paper and handed it over to Virat.

Sayi gained consciousness after a few hours. She looked around, the sun had already slept and the capital city was covered in darkness. She checked the time, it was 7:30 already! She looked at Rishika sleeping beside her and tried to recall whatever had happened.

“Virat sir is here!” she exclaimed recalling meeting him in the lift.

The door bell rang. With slow steps she went to open and found a waiter standing

“Madam, they have asked me to send you an invite to join the party”

“I’ll reach there in sometime!”

She changed her dress to a white floral pattern ball gown, tied her hair into a pony tail and complimented her look with a matching bag and a beautiful diamond set. She then woke up Rishika, who was already ready, did some touchup and both went down.

Sayi looked around hoping he would not come, but turns out, the destiny had sworn to do the opposite of what she wished for.

She saw him in the corner on the bar table, wearing a combination of white and black. She could see the girls in the hall swooning over him. She tightly held Rishika’s hand, who asked her to calm down.

Sayi was soon approached by a few doctors, who were congratulating and complimenting her. Virat watched her smile and get friendly with her colleagues and fumed in jealousy. He looked at her from head to toe and his feet automatically started to move towards her direction, his eyes didn’t move from her face even for a single microsecond. Seeing him approach, Sayi moved away. Virat kept looking for chances to talk to her, Sayi kept avoiding him.

Sometime later, she looked around and felt relieved on finding him. Someone pulled her and closed her mouth, taking her to a secluded place. She turned around and hit the person’s neck, but stopped in mid air on finding it to be Virat.

“Why did you bring me here?” She shouted

“Don’t scream please, you will gather audience. I wanted to talk to you and you are hell bent in avoiding me, this was the only option that striked my mind”

“If I was avoiding you, then that clearly means I don’t want to talk to you, so no option should have striked your mind”

“Can we for once have a normal conversation? Please?”

“We don’t share that relation, where we can converse normally. I need to go, they will start looking for me if I’m out of site for too long”

“5 minutes. Can I please have just 5 minutes from your life?”

“After what you did to me, you don’t deserve a single second from my life.”

“What did I do? Weren’t you the one who cheated on me? I’m the victim here.”

“Mr. Virat Chavan, stop self-victimization! You are not in a place to question me! Neither do we share any relation that I’m answerable to you”

She turns to go, but, he grabs her hand tight

“I won’t let you go, till I get an answer”

“You’re hurting me”

He realizes he held his hand a little too tight and harsh. “I’m sorry”

“I can’t expect anything more than from you! what answer are you talking about? Where were your questions when I was begging for my innocence and you straight away handed me a divorce letter? Where were these questions when I came back to your house to take my belongings? You once held every right to question me, but, now, you don’t even have the right to hold my hands like you did today! I expect you to maintain a distance in the future!”

“Why did you cheat on me?”

“Did you not hear a word I just said or you are too stubborn to repeat a question in various ways? Whatever ways you ask this question, my answer will remain the same. And this question doesn’t suit you Virat Chavan, when you yourself are confused about whom do you want to be with. I remember when you married me you had made it clear that you promised Pakhi didi to not replace her in your heart and that only she will be the one you will love till death. I never questioned your relation with her, now that you have finally married the love of your life, why are you hounding behind me? Can you pick up a clear stand? At least be loyal towards Pakhi didi!”

Virat had no idea this was coming. He turned dumb to Sayi’s counter-attack. He really held no right to question Sayi! He was the one responsible for this whole mess! He asked Pakhi to marry Samrat, he promised to marry Pakhi, he was the one who accepted to marry Sayi, and he was the one who sent her away from him and it was his choice to marry Pakhi!

He was blinded by the wall of hatred he had created around him for Sayi, which he never realized that Sayi and Pakhi are just the victims of his incompetency of decision making!

Her each word had hit him like a hammer, her each tear shred his heart into millions of pieces! He realized that he was in no position to question anyone, neither he was faithful towards Pakhi nor he was towards Sayi. He looked at the direction Sayi went, he kept looking at her till she disappeared from his sight.

Sayi went back to the party and asked Rishika to handle her absence, then went straight to her room. Her eyes met his on the corridor. He wanted to run to her, to hug her, to ask her to punish her, but they, were now, no less than strangers. She walked towards him, stopped in front of her room, opened the door and went inside ignoring. Virat touched the door to her room and went inside his.

Both sat on the opposite sides of the wall and cried remembering the moments they had spent together!

*******************************

As promised to Rishika, Sayi extended their stay for one night! She was seeing off her colleagues in reception when she got a call from Samrat.

Virat also reached the reception to check out. Seeing Sayi smile while talking, he involuntarily went ahead and stood behind her

“I miss you too”

Virat’s eyes widened in shock “Whom is she talking to like this?” he thought to himself.

“Samaira wants to meet you, she keeps pestering me to call and ask when will you come back” Samrat complained from the other side

“Don’t worry, I will come to you the moment I reach there! I will first meet you then will go to any other place.”

“That is actually a nice idea. You can come over for lunch, you will be exhausted after travelling. So it’s decided then!”

“Okay! Done! Wait a second….. I’ll be going to the mall today, do you want me to bring anything for you?”

“There is actually one thing I need”

“What is it” Sayi jumped

“My little sister!”

Virat fuming in jealousy couldn’t bear any longer and went back to extend his stay for another night!

Sayi talked happily to Samrat for another few minutes and Virat stood on the other side glaring at her.

“I don’t know whom is she talking to, but I had never seen her talking this happily and for this long to me.”

After disconnecting the call, Sayi came towards the reception.

“You look happy”

“None of your business”

“Of course! But it is good to see you happy”

Sayi smiled and went inside the elevator. Virat followed her inside

“You are staying for another day?”

Sayi didn’t reply

“Me too” he replied to himself “So..what do you….”

The lift opened and Sayi went towards her room, followed by Virat who went to his.

Sayi and Rishika spent the whole day shopping and wandering, while Virat kept following them!

Sayi’s duppatta flew to her face in the middle of the road, she stopped to remove it, when a speeding car approached towards her. Rishika looked back at her and shouted to move, Virat pulled her back and her, just when she was about to get hit.

The duppatta flew and fell over them. Rishika came and removed the duppatta from their head.

“Where were you lost? What if something had happened to you?” Virat questioned angrily

“Even if something had happened, it has nothing to do with you. Thank you for your favor. I’ll be forever indebted to you for saving my life” Sayi said in a mocking way.

She held Rishika’s hand and was about to go

“And don’t you think it is inappropriate for a policeman like you to follow a girl around?” She reminisces seeing him following them in various mirrors along the way.

After shopping for the whole day, they returned back to the hotel at night.

“How can you be so careless di? What if he didn’t come in time and something happened to you?”

“I’m absolutely fine, and nothing happened to me. Why are you scolding me?”

“Because you rarely give me a chance to scold you and I didn’t want to leave the opportunity of scolding the Miss perfect Dr. Sayi Joshi!” Rishika replied cheekily.

Virat was sitting in his room, reminiscing watching Sayi get happy over jewelry and accessories, jumping like a kid for candy floss and eating all he favorite street foods.

He reminisces how she was about to get hit by the car, the thought of it made him flinch. He kept his hand on his heart and could hear it beat fast as if it would come out any second!

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