Chapter 3

[MEMBERSONLY]

[NOCOPY]

Hey!! Time for the next part! Today we have an overdose of IshKara, and a dash of ObBros Bromance at the end. Enjoy.

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He stepped into the ICU to see her lying on the bed, a cast over her arm and a thick bandage wrapped around her head. She looked small and innocent, completely unlike her usual self. The one who would dance to any upbeat song without a care in the world, who was always playing small pranks with Rudra, that girl was now lying here in this condition.

He walked over to her bed and took a seat on the stool beside it. Her eyes were closed, something she did for absolutely no reason besides wanting some time away. He knew that was what she was doing now as well, and so he waited, until she was ready to come back to reality and deal with what had happened, and to answer the questions she knew he had waiting for her.

She spoke before she opened her eyes.

"Am I in heaven? Omkara Singh Oberoi is sitting patiently for me to decide when to talk? He isn't forcing a conversation? Maybe I should visit the hospital more often; I'll have more control over my conversations." She said with a mocking smile. 

Sure, what she was saying was true, but that was a pathetic joke. 

Ever since he found out she was a liar, and he developed some kind of obsessive need to cause her the same pain he went through, it was safe to say he was pretty messed up. Maybe not with his brothers, or with the rest of the family, but with her, he was essentially a different person. 

Instead of letting her speak based on whether she wanted to or not, he never really left her with a choice. If he wanted to talk, he'd talk to her and she would have to reply. With her, his calm and composed self seemed to disappear. He would shout, scream, do outrageous things that he would never be caught dead doing otherwise. Late night sculpting sessions would turn into midnight movie marathons. Trips to the art hub would be hijacked half way and rerouted into a dance studio, only for him to be dragged on stage unwillingly as her partner more times than he'd have liked to in his whole life time. 

He'd get into petty fights over the dumbest things. Should tonight's dessert be apple pie and ice cream, or suji ka halwa? This fight usually resulted in Shivaay and Anika taking over the kitchen to make each dish respectively. This would then lead to another fight between those two over other ridiculous things.

The only thing he could understand was that he had turned into yet another version of Shivaay and Rudra, who had started acting like a bunch of love sick idiots after finally sorting out their lives and kicking out the wrong girls.

He remembered Rudra mentioning how he thought that out of all the brothers, Omkara would have the most intense love stories. Is this it? Was this his intensity that he was in so deep before he even confessed he felt anything? That she was visibly in so deep that saying one mean thing to her would cause him more pain than it did her, and her reply was essentially just covering up how hurt she was? 

Svetlana said she was his first love, and for so long he thought that, no matter how much he hated the thought, it was true. She was his first love, yet, sitting here, seeing Ishana lying on a hospital bed, he found the answer to all his questions.

This was it, this was his first love. Not Svetlana, not Riddhima, no matter how much those break ups hurt, they were nothing compared to what he felt now. Pain, sadness, happiness, and most of all, anger. And then, he did another ridiculous thing, he took his anger out on someone who was never at fault.

"Just shut up! Stop acting as if everything is perfectly fine! You realize what has happened and what could have happened right?" He shouted standing up, looking at her with a look of disbelief. 

"Prannath, relax. Stay calm and be happy. Everything IS fine, there's nothing wrong. The doctors will let me out in what, a week? Maybe I'll be out even earlier than that!"

He sat back down looking at her, "Does none of this affect you? Ishana, she pushed you down the stairs, you fell down a whole flight of stairs. Does this make no difference to you?"

"Who pushed me down the stairs? I tripped on the rug, it was an accident. I'm at fault, no one else."

She said, hope evident in her voice, showing him how much she just wanted him to believe her lie. 

"You may get away with a hundred other lies, but not this one. I was there Ishana. I saw and heard everything. She pushed you down, right in front of me, and then put on a show for the family and made it seem as if she cared."

"You heard everything?" She asked, not knowing if she'd be able to stop her questions if he said yes.

"I told you, I heard what she said to you. I know she pushed you dow-"

"Was it true? What she said, was she telling the truth?" She asked cutting him off. She looked up, hoping she'd be able to find the truth in his eyes, only to see him staring at the edge of her bed.

He sat down again, clasping her good hand in his.

"Yes. She was telling the truth."

He felt her hand go limp in his and looked up to see her staring at the ceiling, something she did when she was upset or mad and tried to hold it all in.

"Are you mad because it's true, or are you mad because I never told you before?"

She smiled before answering, "Neither. I not mad because it's true and I'm not mad because you never told me. Why would you even tell me? You tell your brothers everything right?"

He nodded in agreement.

"Do they know about this?"

"Only Shivaay knows, I didn't want Rudra to know nor did I want to discuss something like that with him. I didn't even tell Shivaay until he sent me to rehab. I didn't want anyone to know except, now I guess everyone knows."

"You told the people who were important, that's what matters. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at her... and..." She cut off, unsure if she should say what she wanted to.

"You can tell me, it's quite obvious that you're mad at someone. I don't care who it is, just tell me."

"What's wrong with your family!?" She said, almost exploding with anger towards them.

He looked at her with confusion on his face. What was wrong with his family? What did she mean?

"I don't understand?"

"That's it! That's the biggest problem, they just don't understand! Why do they not see the real reason behind things? They've been thinking that you went down that path, because you couldn't handle all the lies and what not that was all jumbled up in your family. But in reality, the only problem was that your father was just a big, douche! Fine I said it, your dad is crap and I don't care what anyone tells me, because that is what I'll always believe. I mean how can someone do something like that to their own wife, their own son?! And how does no one else see this? How does no one even know about your probably first serious relationship? Do they not even care about maybe meeting this girl even once? What kind of people are they? If my father found out I have a boyfriend he would insist that I have them meet the next day, and you father went ahead and made your girlfriend his mistress!? I mean-!"

"Hold up! Ishana I don't think the machine is supposed to be making so much noise. If you continue ranting like that, the doctors will burst in thinking you're having a heart attack, so chill! Relax, it's my problem, I have the psycho ex, I have the crap father. You on the other hand, have a fractured arm and a huge bandage on your head, and shouting like this is not going to speed up your recovery." He said trying to calm her down, only for his brain to go down the same track he'd just pulled her off of.

"Not everyone is like you. You know that clich, the one where you compare someone to a coconut? Hard on the outside, but soft inside? I can use that on you, but my father..." He looked down with a smirk, "Sorry, Mr. Oberoi, he's not like that. Do you know what he is?" He asked looking back up at her, raising his hand to form a sort of grip around something.

"Mr. Oberoi is like a rock. Hard, inside and out. There are some rocks, where, once you get past their hard outer side, you'll find a diamond inside. A person with a heart, like Shivaay." He said with a smile, "Shivaay is that type of rock, try hard enough and you'll be able to break through the rock and gain the diamond, his heart." The smile dropped and his face hardened again. 

"But Mr. Oberoi is just a rock. That's it, no gem inside, nothing. Just a plain, hard rock. And when struck with a rock, it'll do nothing but hurt. That's what's been happening all my life, he has struck, and I've gotten hurt. It's nothing new, and there never will be anything new. This play of his might be finished but, he'll just come up with another way to hurt me, have me bend to his will. He'll find someone else, to throw in our lives, or he'll manipulate someone already in our lives but he won't stop. It's a never ending cycle."

"But," he began, grasping her hand, looking her dead in the eye, "Today I'll promise you, I'm going to solve this problem once and for all. I may not be able to control any future problems but I will solve this one."

She smiled back at him, knowing that he'll come through on his promise when the time comes.

"But before I deal with that problem, we need to get you out of here. So you get some rest, tomorrow the doctors will most likely want to get some tests done and discuss your discharge so I'll see you in the morning. For now, get some sleep, okay?" She smiled back nodding her head, her eyes already half shut. He got up with a smile and leaned down to leave a kiss on her head before stepping out. 

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Don't worry, it's not over yet! I promised ObBros Bromance at the beginning and you'll get it. Just scroll down to the next part.