AMARANTHINE

Act II (v) : Remember Me?

She sat with her eyes closed, still trying to process what Dr Bhattacharya had said, it appeared that even science was no match for the determined fates, who seemed relentless when it came to ensuring that she could never be happy in love.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Later that evening, at the Rathore Mansion, where both the families were gathered, Dr Bhattacharya's initial prognosis was conveyed to all present. The euphoria at the success of Shaurya's surgery immediately faded to melancholy as the implications of the situation sank in.

In the silence that followed, Aabha could hear the unspoken request; she knew what she should do, nobody had to ask her. She simply declared her decision; as everyone was aware her application for pursuing her doctorate had been accepted and she had been admitted but had sought permission to delay her joining for the course, in view of Shaurya's surgery. She informed them that she had already spoken to the Head of the Department earlier in the day and had informed the Institution that she would be starting from the very next week itself. Shaurya was a priority for her; if her presence was a possible hurdle to his recovery, this would be the best solution.

Without waiting for any response she left the room and their house.

Her announcement was not well received by her family as her Dadi launched into a tirade as to how her granddaughter's life would be destroyed if Shaurya never recovered his memories of her. She raised the questions that none wanted to address, 'How long did they expect Aabha to wait for Shaurya? And what did everyone plan to do with Ishaani and Reyansh, would their wedding also be deferred till such time Shaurya recovered his memories? And would even Reyansh'srelationship with Ishani be kept a secret?'

These uncomfortable questions had the Rathores squirming and even Vardhan was silent, acknowledging both the pertinence of her questions and his helplessness in not having any answers. Matters only got worse when both Ishaani and Reyansh declared that they would not get married till Aabha and Shaurya did. Things reached an impasse and Gautam Bansal walked out with his entire family.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

"Why are you pretending that all is right with you? And how do you think you can pretend to be fine in front of us when we know how devastated you must be?"

Aabha shook her head, unable to speak and refute them when her mother continued, "So you are trying to say that you do not care that Shaurya has forgotten about you and he only remembers Nisha?"

Aabha sat in silence, looking at the shambles that her room was in; 'much like my life,' she thought. Her suitcase lay open on the bed with her clothes haphazardly thrown in; her books lay scattered as she was unable to decide which ones to take and which to leave behind. She had been trying to pack her stuff ever since she had come back from Shaurya's house but could not summon the bare minimum focus it needed. And when her family returned, their faces of dismay, ire and anger reflecting her own inner feelings, she had struggled to put on a smiling face.

But then she realised that she was not fooling anyone and it was a very defeated Aabha who looked up at Mahua and answered, "No, Maa, it is not like that, I am miserable about Shaurya not remembering me. And it hurts, hurts more than I can tell. I love him, Maa, I cannot even express how much and...but then maybe we are not destined to be together, maybe it was fated that we could be together only for few months and not forever as we believed. See the irony of the situation, Maa, he remembers Nisha who left him and has forgotten me, who has been by his side all these days."

But before Mahua could say a word, Gautam patted Aabha on her head and said tenderly, "You should not give fate so much credit, and never think that you are not destined to be together. Life does give second chances, if it were not so, do you think your mother and I could be together after so many years?"