Part Two
Months had gone by, and life as either Ishana or Omkara knew it had completely changed. After discovering Ishana's blackmailers, as Om had promised they were immediately evaporated, but not without fulfilling his personal vengeance against them. Shivaay had vowed to Omkara that both Mona and Ishana would be safe, in return giving Omkara that much-needed relief. It was only after solving Ishana's immediate threat that things somehow became even more complicated. Ishana had reclined into a pit of her own darkness that led her into a much more numb state. She wasn't exactly being hunted for money anymore, but she also wasn't sure what was left for her to do with her own life. She was surely grateful that Mona was still in college, and that they had enough money to run their house for the time being, but she didn't know what more she could possibly do after this cause she had no energy left. She didn't have the zeal to fight for anything anymore, she had already fought enough. Ishana realised that regardless of the life they were gifted for now she would still have to return to work one day. But the problem with work was that after working as a pole dancer nobody really chooses to look at the old commerce degree. Unfortunately, quick money always came with long-term repercussions something Ishana should have learnt.
Omkara would initially make a number of visits after that night's discovery. At first,it was to assure Ishana that her problem had been taken care off, but then he still chose to come when there was no reason left, at least for Ishana. Ishana although did understand why he still came, but she also knew whatever was possible once, wasn't possible anymore. And she had to tell him clearly so he would understand it.
Six Months Ago
Omkara like normal routine stepped inside Ishana and Mona's home, bearing groceries in his arms. He smiled as Ishana opened the door while she just chose to respond with a flat smile. Om walked straight for the kitchen and placed his shopping bags on the counter, and automatically he started placing the items in their appropriate places in the kitchen. Ishana didn't react much as Om went about his routine; she simply leaned into the kitchen counter and silently observed. He looked back at her while continuing to place his groceries, "you haven't eaten today, have you?"
Ishana wasn't sure what to reply, the lie would be caught, and the truth he already knew. She had simply forgotten to eat even though she specially made Mona lunch for college. "I didn't feel too hungry, I'll have something later." She lied and just gazed back, while Om was quickly finishing up.
Om then properly looked back at her, he was steady with his posture and his gaze was unmoving finally letting her break her trance and look back down, not being able to withstand his intensity.
"Do you have plans to survive? I'll make you something to eat." And as he finished his sentence he went straight to open the fridge, only to be stopped by her voice.
"You need to stop." She said firmly but quietly.
Om closed the fridge momentarily and leant back with his arms firmly crossed in front of his chest. "Stop what?" He looked at her curiously.
She looked to the side not knowing how to say what she had planned, "stop coming here. I am not saying this because I'm not grateful for what you did, I truly am. But you're just making this harder for me by being here."
He raised his eyebrow with a grin knowing that he had finally cracked her enough to say something like this.She was at least reacting, that was a start for him.
"I don't know what you could possibly get out of this? I have nothing to offer you, at least in any conventional way." She dryly laughed off her comment.
Now Om was confused, why would she say that he thought.
"I am enough for both of us, I don't need anything from you." He said calmly enough, hoping his point was clear.
"I am sorry but I am not okay with that. You've done enough for me but you need to stop." She said more sternly this time.
Om walked up to her, closing the distance between them. "Why are you worried? I said I'll figure it out from here, what are you worried about?" He asked with growing concern.
She looked back at him sarcastically horrified, "really? What have you figured out Omkara? I want to know, what exactly have you figured out that I fail to see? We are never going to be anything more than this Om, and I don't know what this is."
Om became more worried with her refusal to accept their feelings, "I am going to marry you. What more is there to figure out?" He made sure to state it sternly but slowly as possible, hoping each word soaked well into her.
She just turned her head vigorously side to side, "stop daydreaming Om, just stop! Your father wouldn't have accepted me before when I was just a middle-class girl, and now you want to tell him you that you plan to marry an ex pole-dancer? Who are you kidding Om?"
Om cringed at her saying those words, "why do you keep reminding yourself of that time. You were left to no choice and I wasn't there for you. I am to blame for that, not you." He was hoping he could reason with her before she became too adamant on her idea, and instinctively Om put his hands on her shoulders to reassure her.
"No Om, no. Our time is gone, and I won't let you be humiliated, or me, be humiliated in the process. I have lost my dignity, but I sure don't want it to be laughed at by your people. I may deserve it, but you don't." Om reacted by reaching for her face this time and cupping it firmly, pulling her closer he meshed her forehead with his.
"I don't plan to live without you, so I suggest you and my family will have to just put up with whatever it is that you all have to do. This time, I'm getting things my way, I am not compromising on my love." His tone was dead serious, and her heart accelerated hoping that he wouldn't notice.
"I can't Om. I refuse to." She stared back blankly while he struggled to look for all the emotion she had lost.
"Why?" He struggled to believe as he closed his eyes dreading her answer.
"You know why." Her eyes looking straight through his closed lids. She then brought her hands higher to feel his cheeks in return, not being able to resist touching him.
She let out a breath that she realised she never held, "maybe there is one way we could be together." Om's eyes perked up.
"How, tell me how and I'll make it happen." He asked willing to obey her any command, just for a life with her.
"Marry someone else," she said monotonously.
Om's eyes just widened with shock and disbelief, "have you gone mad."
She nodded her head to the side, "marry whoever your family wants you to, and I'll always be here... In this house." Her eyes remained blank regardless of the words she had used for her request.
It was at that moment that gravity hit Om, making him realise what she was actually suggesting. His mind not being able to digest the words she had shockingly uttered. And this was where his grasp became tighter, and his jaw harder.
"Say it, say it what you want to be for me. If you can think it surely then you can't be so shy to say it." His eyes building up in rage and fury.
Her eyes didn't feel his fear, neither did they care at the sight of Omkara building rage. Using a monotonous voice once again she answered, "I can be for you what Svetlana is for your father. This way publicly no one will know." Om just stepped back as he heard the words come out of her mouth.
"How could you! How could you bring them up knowing fully how much I don't tolerate him, and her. And this is what you want to be? This is the respect you want from me in my life." His eyes completely enraged at her degrading suggestion.
She looked back down, dropping her gaze from fatigue, "I'm sorry I refuse to step into your home to be ridiculed at for the rest of my life. This way I have the privacy of my own house. Either way, I don't see what the difference is? Being your wife or being your mistress would be the same thing, you would want my body either way, there isn't much to see that others haven't." A pin-drop silence fell which was soon followed by a smack against the soft texture of skin.
Om brought his hands forward to realise what he had done, grabbing onto his head in throbbing pain, he let out a scream. He saw Ishana drop immediately to the floor, hysterically crying and whaling as he truly observed the gravity of his action. Then Om did what was best, he headed to the door, leaving Ishana on the floor the way she wanted.
As Ishana heard the door close and she sighed in relief, she wanted him out of her life, knowing too well that nothing was ever going to come out of this relationship. She would have been ridiculed either way she got attached to his name. She wiped away her tears and got up from the floor, satisfied that her job was done.
If only people acted as you believed they would act, would Ishana have succeeded in what she set her heart to, except she had underestimated Omkara. Omkara that day went home with subjugated rage and an overemotional heart. He locked his room and refused to come out until he was sure of what he wanted to do, and the truth was he already knew the answer. He had to leave his family completely. He knew Ishana was right that they would never truly accept her, tolerate her at best if he succeeded in convincing them. But starting a life away from this one with an identity completely different could make things possible for them. It was the only way left.
That night he packed his bags and all his essentials, and then he wrote a letter to his mother and brothers bidding them a final goodbye. It didn't feel right leaving the only people that loved him, leaving the people he once vowed to never leave for anyone else. But this wasn't just any light decision, he had refused to let his remaining life suffer even if his families were making slow changes to become better people. It just wasn't fast enough, and Ishana was right. He knew Shivaay would be disappointed, Anika Bhabhi would be too, his younger brother would probably hate him, his mother would probably drink a little more, and Priyanka, she would cry away in her misery. But eventually, all of them would move on. But Om wanted to be selfish now, it was enough and he wasn't going to dare bring someone new into this hell hole. Dropping the letters on his bed Om left for the train station.
***
A month had passed by and Omkara had successfully disappeared from the Oberoi radar. He had tricked most the family in believing that he had left for Italy, a location even he didn't know why he chose, a result made in the spur of the moment. Then he also completely made sure to carefully transfer all his funds into untraceable accounts, leaving no lead for Shivaay to follow him on. Om wasn't taking anything that wasn't his, in fact he had left all of his share and claim to the Oberoi empire to Shivaay, but in an assurance that both Rudra and Priyanka would be taken care of. He wanted isolation and more importantly, he needed to build a sanctuary for his new life, his new family.
Omkara never saw Ishana until the day he felt he had enough set up in Mussoorie, a small hill station but perfectly isolated to start a life together. He wasn't sure what Ishana would say this time upon his return, but he knew this time, she would agree eventually. This was all she had ever wanted but never dared to ask. Instead, Ishana had dared the opposite to push him away. Before leaving for Mumbai in order retrieve Ishana Omkara made one more change, this one he didn't exactly want to, but knew he needed to. Om made a quick visit to one of the hair salons in Dehradun, walking out with his hair chopped into a normal short and sleek style. He even went one step further and decided to go completely clean shaven, giving a look no one would have ever associated with the Omkara they knew.
This time, when Om rung her bell it was Mona that opened the door, but he was kept waiting with curious eyes refusing to recognise who was standing in front of her. It wasn't until he said, "It's me, Mona," that it lit Mona's face making her lunge forward and ecstatically call him her Jiju. Om looked back at her with a surprised smile at his new earned nickname, and she laughed it off saying it used to be her joke with Ishana di, but somehow it was the only confirmation he needed.
Walking back inside the house, and coincidently enough, Om found Ishana standing exactly where he left her. This time, though she wasn't on the floor but her eyes were sunken deep with dark rings framing them. Her body weight had dropped even lower than her petite frame could handle, but she blankly stared back at him. And unlike Mona, it didn't take her long to realise who was entering her house again, she could tell who he was from much far. When her tired eyes finally found his, he approached her faster, feeling the emotion within her rise and slowly return to her face. Her dry and distant eyes slowly turned to glisten, and when his arms reached out to her she crashed into his chest crying. She kept apologising at first and in return he kept muttering that it was all okay.' His hands caressed her shivering back which unfortunately led him to feel the sharpness of her spine. She quickly asked if Shivaay knew that he was here, and he just shook his head replying no. She told him that his entire family were worried and that they all came looking here for him way too many times. But he just continued to stare back at her and take in her presence. All the while she adamantly mumbled and sniffed through her tears. Then she finally told him how much she regretted saying those words to him before he left, she accepted that losing him was the biggest mistake she had ever made, not realising the gravity of her loss until his family came looking for him at her doorstep. Om didn't say much but just chose to hold onto to her for a little longer, before he would practically ask away her remaining life.
"I may be back Ishana, but not for long." He said looking into her still moist eyes.
Her eyes widened with pain at the thought of losing him once again, "why? Are you leaving me again? Where are you going? Please don't go." This time, she was going to beg openly. He smiled at her concern and then cupped her cheeks, "I'm here to take you and Mona back with me."
Ishana looked back into his droplets of brown, not knowing what to say. "Where?" She asked with a fragile held breath.
He moved closer where their lips were less than an inch apart, "tell me you'll come. Tell me it's a yes." She felt his breath wash over her, only intoxicating her hazed state. She was desperate, but even then she couldn't make a decision for Mona, "I don't know if Mona will come, she still has to finish college." Omkara smiled at her already willingness, "I'll talk to her, don't worry I won't force her it will be her own decision. But if it was just you, would you come with me?" She put her hands on his while they remained firmly on her cheeks, slowly nodding back with a soft smile. "Yes, yes I will come with you."
With that Om closed the distance and kissed her forehead, engulfing her tiny body into his arms.
Mona was the most ecstatic about leaving Mumbai, the city had already brought her far too much pain destroying her family. She felt it was time to move on and studying in Dehradun didn't sound that bad. But firstly before leaving, Omkara had declared that he had one condition for leaving, he needed something in return from Ishana as well.
Ishana was surprised at his oddly timed request, but she asked away, "what do you need?"
Om's smile became a little cheeky as he made his request, "your surname..." Ishana looked back unsure of what he meant, "I want to marry you Ishana, and I want to steal your surname. Will you let me?" He asked with utmost sincerity.
This time, Ishana couldn't just remain emotionless, this time, she allowed herself to cry freely because this time, she was ready to admit that she was in love with him.
That afternoon Omkara and Ishana headed straight to the marriage register's office, they had Mona as their personal witness while Om bought two witnesses to comply with all legalities. Ishana didn't question how he got them, as long as they let them marry peacefully. When they signed away they had made sure that it was Om who was officially changing his surname, causing a few eyes to question their unusual request. Ishana wasn't exactly sure what this marriage meant to both of them, because a part of her wasn't sure if he had asked for marriage because of her surname to continue hiding, or because he genuinely wanted to marry her. But either way, she knew one thing, which was that she was with him regardless of never even religiously marrying.
Naturally, that night while all of them had dinner together she couldn't help but blush while also wonder away with her thoughts about their relationship. All the while Mona kept nudging Ishana with one or the other conversation about Omkara, "go talk to him," "he really is my Jiju now," "are you excited about tonight."
Mona's constant winking and nudging reached a peak where she became so flushed that she could compete with a scarlet tomato. When both of them had completely cleared up the kitchen Ishana nervously walked towards her bedroom, her heart skipping a beat each time. Wondering if Om would already be waiting for her she stepped inside and saw only the dim lights switched on, but nobody waiting. It took her a second to see that Omkara had already placed his bag beside her bed and soon enough she heard the running water in her joint bathroom. It still didn't help her pressing nerves because even if he was showering, he would come out soon enough. What worried her more was that she feared not even having a special nightgown for their first night. Her clothes weren't fit for this occasion, and neither did she know the situation itself. Then she put her mind together thinking of an idea, she wasn't sure if it was going to work, but she thought she would try it anyway.
When Omkara stepped outside the bathroom he realised that he had forgotten his kameez from his bag. But even before locating the bag he saw his newly wed bride seated rather patiently with her back up against the cushion on the bed, and more to his surprise draped in a red translucent sari. He always knew she was a ravishing beauty, but tonight she was probably more stunning than any artist could have ever try to capture. Even in her fragile and weak state, she was softly glowing through her sunken eyes. For him no matter what, she was still the most beautiful bride. Ishana had turned at hearing the creak of the door, as her eyes saw Omkara emerge wearing no shirt she physically felt her cheeks heat up. They both looked at each other but soon enough Ishana turned away not being able to retain her gaze against his far too passionate one. Om then simply forgot that he even needed a kameez and walked straight towards his wife, kneeling at the foot of the bed he slowly turned her face towards him.
"I don't want there to be any pressure on you tonight Isha, we don't have to do anything because I know well enough that you're not ready just yet. Once we go back to Mussoorie and settle down, then I won't let anything stop us from celebrating this moment." She looked back down at her hands, which were tightly clutching the sheets around them. She was thankful that he said they didn't need to do anything tonight because she wasn't sure how she would handle herself. She couldn't even look at his shirtless body, or hear him talk about their consummation, the night would have been too much. She didn't exactly fear him, but she still feared the gaze that customers at the club used to give her. She had to accept that from now on it was only going to be Omkara, he was the only one who was ever going to look at her like that.
In an instant, he lifted her into his arms in hope to relax her and make her at ease with him. Her body felt weightless almost like air, and before she could say anything he spun her fast making her laugh. Once he stopped she lay her head close to the nape of his neck, letting her skin feel as much of him as she could. "Look up Ishana," he whispered in her ear. She peered up but lay secure in his arms, realising that's all that mattered to her now, smiling to herself she nuzzled in closer to his chest. Om then gently placed her back on the bed but this time, he laid her out like a goddess draped in crimson red. He soon switched off all the lights before meshing his own body with hers, leaving no space in between. She clutched onto him and became synched to his heartbeat, slowly whispering into the dark, "I miss the hair you know." She smiled into his chest.
He then playfully turned her over so that she was lying on top of him, "really." He laughed.
She pushed herself a little higher to reach the crook of his neck, "I do, they were more your personality."
Om then brought his arm to move away her hair to one side exposing her deep back to the darkness and his hands. Ishana felt the cool air wash over her skin, but soon enough she felt the tips of his fingers grazing over her exposed shoulder blades, igniting goose bumps as they moved towards her lower back. She shivered at the touch of fingers tracing patterns on her back, but he only lit her up more when his hands clasped her lower back with his palms lying flat against her bare skin.
"You didn't say about your hair, Om." She asked again coming from his distraction.
His voice more husky in the dark, "you make me, me. Not my hair. I am not that Omkara anymore, I'm your Om. I was just happy that you recognised me, the way Mona looked at me I thought we would be stuck here for days."
Ishana laughed, "the only thing is now you look more like my boyfriend, rather than my husband."
With that Om craned his neck to Ishana's lips, "as long as I'm yours, I don't care."
And then he sealed his lips with hers, a kiss longing all built up desire and yearning because now there was enough time for passion if not tonight.
The next day the three of them left for Mussoorie, their bags were packed and the taxi waiting for them to reach their station in time. Ishana wasn't lying to herself at fearing the change, but she had also intended to embrace this new life Om had planned for them. She didn't want to say it out loud but she knew he had done all of this to have a life with her, and he left his own family to take care of hers instead. And there was no way she could ever repay him, but the least she could do was make him happy for the rest of their lives.
So Guys that the second part! I didn't exactly intend on writing a part two but the response was so great that I ended up writing one. Also please leave behind reviews and let me know if you would like an epilogue?? I wasn't initially going to write one, but if there are enough people willing to read it, then I don't mind writing one.
Neet.
Vasudha
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