CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Swayam walked in the hall holding Sharon by her arms close to himself as she looked at him and the happiness radiating from his face made her heartbeat skip.
Gautam's eyes, who was indulged with the little kids in the party went to them and he couldn't help himself feeling pleasantly surprised. He looked over at Swayam whose ecstatic face answered his every question even before they could crop inside his head. He suddenly wanted to ask him about this sudden change but realized it wasn't the time nor he was at a place to ask such questions. But he knew his curiosity would be fed eventually. He smiled looking at his daughter's happy face and sent a thank you prayer up to the heavens wishing in his heart it never ever wears off again.
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The party was over and Swayam was just waving Rey the last goodbye of the night. He mentally kicked himself for getting so emotional in front of his best friend that he actually started to cry while telling him about his own emotions while feeling his baby for the first time and getting his wife, the one who shows that she loves her back. But then he smiled widely because he felt the moment was worth it and for him nobody knew it better than Rey.
He closed the door and put off jacket he was wearing and found Sharon fighting with Sam, her best friend over phone.
"Shut Up Sam! How come you never came? This call is not going to make up for this I am telling you!!!" She sounded furious and Swayam admired her voice, the voice which actually sounded like hers, not the cold, monotonous, hollow sound he had grown to listening from her in all these months.
Sharon cut the call shaking her head at her best friend's excuses and sorrys while smiling to herself. She raised her head up to find Swayam smiling at her and lost into his own train of thoughts. His smile made her heart flip. It had been so long, so long that she couldn't recognize the last time he had looked at her like this, lost in her like this.
"Swayam!" She called out to him softly but he was in his own land.
She blushed and smiled and pearls formed in her eyes. She had almost forgotten that her beat this loudly when he looked at her with such intense innocent eyes. Getting up from her seat she walked over to him and touched his cheek lightly calling out his name in a voice which made his heart stop beating for a second or two.
"Swayam!"
There was no conversation, no talks, no words and yet it felt like they hadn't talked so much in months. Their eyes did everything for them and to them which words couldn't have done ever. A rebelling tear escaped Swayam's eyes as he held the hand on his cheeks and took it in his own. He wanted to say something. He wanted to tell her he loves her very much. He wanted to tell her that she shouldn't be scared of losing him ever because leaving her would mean his death and he had chosen life. A life with her and only her but at the end nothing came out from his mouth. His eyes had shut his mouth completely so he just took her hand and kissed it lightly with just one word which he thought he owed to her.
"Thank You!"
"For what?" Sharon asked wiping his tears from her other hand.
For what? That was a question to which the answer was too long given his state and all his complicated situations he had found himself in last seven months.
"For everything." He said and Sharon smiled slowly through her glistening eyes and Swayam hugged her tightly to feel the heaven she brought with herself into his arms.
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Swayam walked till their room and forwarded his hands like gentleman towards the room for her to which Sharon chuckled.
"Good Night Sharon!" He said kissing her forehead and started to walk back towards his room never breaking the gaze from her face.
Sharon's face displayed confusion and she at once stopped him.
"Where are you going?"
Swayam jerked his head back comfused.
"To finally properly sleep in seven months."
"Aren't you coming with me?
Swayam at first couldn't understand to at what Sharon was pointing but then he suddenly realized.
"You mean to the room? No. You asked me to get out of it for a reason and I will enter it when the reason of that thought is gone from its being because I know its still lingering in the back of your head!" Sharon casted her eyes down listening to his words.
He knew her well enough.
Swayam saw the troubled look on her face and decided to change the topic.
"Plus it would be bliss to walk into our room with my princess in my arms."
Sharon smiled listening to him.
"You mean your buddy right?" Sharon said smiling wider to which Swayam rolled his eyes.
"You see that room? Its painted pink." Swayam said pointing towards the room which he had painted for his princess.
"You know what I have kept in the extreme corner of our room? Two boxes of blue paint because you would need to repaint it." Sharon said smirking.
Swayam gave her a bored expression and she went inside her room giggling.
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Few days after, Swayam came out of the study with some files talking over the phone while Stephie was trying to bring Sharon out from her sulking mood.
"Yeah, take things slowly. There is no hurry. Gaurav, if it gets too difficult then do it on an unofficial basis. But yes I would need a new personal assistant. Check everything from professional capabilities to personal history. Okay thanks!" Swayam cut the call and looked at Sharon watching him first perplexed and then disinterested.
Swayam watched her changing expressions carefully and then looked at Stephie raising his eyebrows asking silently "What's wrong with her?"
Stephie shook her head negative telling she didn't know.
Swayam cleared his throat while sitting on the sofa before speaking "Sharon, what's wrong?"
Sharon threw a cushion at him in response.
"I want to cook, you don't let me do it. I want to drive you don't let me do that too. I want to resume work you say no to that too. I am bored, I feel absolutely useless I would kill you if I don't get to do anything now. Do you get it?" Sharon yelled and threw another cushion at him which hit his shocked face.
Stephie sat there trying hard to suppress her laughter and look serious But was failing miserably. Swayam and Sharon both glared at her and she jumped out of her seat running away to the backyard.
"Sharon, come on! You know why I do all this."Swayam said earning another cushion and an added glare from his wife.
"Okay fine what if I say I have some work for you which you have to do. Official work." Swayam said stressing the word "Official" and saw a streak of surprise and happiness replacing her anger.
"This here! This is Malhotra's file. We need to bag this tender because it's a huge one. We had already lost the previous one as you know which had caused our textile branch huge loss. So we need to make sure we get this one. This cannot go to anyone else especially not that Ankit Raheja."
Sharon listened to him confused. "That's alright Swayam. But as far as I remember I already saw you working on its blueprint in the study. I think you must have completed this by now."
"Well I have. But here is what I want you to do. This is the presentation that I have made. I want you to make exactly the same replica of this but at a higher convincing price."
"But why would you need it? I mean your presentation looks fine to me. It's profitable yet cheap. It hits the bulls eye. I don't think anyone else in the market would be able to crack it this way at such a cheap price." Sharon said admiring his skills.
"Thanks. But please Sharon please do what I am asking you to do. Make a replica of this pricing it a bit higher. I need to give someone the taste of his own medicine." Swayam said as Pia's face crossed his mind.
"Will you do it for me?" Swayam asked softly and Sharon nodded reluctantly. Swayam smiled and got up to leave when Sharon held his hand.
"Swayam? What were you talking over the phone? Why do you need a new personal assistant? Is Pia quitting?"
"Not yet. But soon she would have no choice other than that." His jaws hardened making visible a thin line as he bid her good bye with a hundred questions in her mind.
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Stephie was jumping around the house in the excitement of the baby's kicks that has started since a few days now and along with that the trophy she had received from her music school. Sharon was just going over the presentation Swayam had asked her to prepare when Stephie jumped beside her on the sofa.
"Sharon, keep it aside! See these pictures. . . I freakin' won and I still can't believe it." Stephie exclaimed excitedly.
"The trophy does looks amazing." Sharon smiled looking at her pictures in phone.
"Oh! If I had known I'd actually win it I would have dragged you to the hall." Stephie said and Sharon laughed loudly.
Thenoise of the ringing of doorbell broke their chatter and Stephie at once got on her feet.
"I guess Nathan is here with the groceries. You watch the pictures. I will just collect it from him, yeah?" Stephie said and Sharon nodded to her smiling.
She swiped the pictures and while watching realized even after being so lively Stephie didn't really have many friends. There was just two three faces which were repeated in every picture. Maybe she chose books to be friends with than to humans because the girl was a whole encyclopedia when it came to books. She chuckled recalling her failed attempts to make her read books. She was about to keep the phone down when a picture caught her eyes and she watched it without blinking her eyes. Sweat beads formed on her forehead and she shivered looking at that smiling face.
Stephie walked into the room and jerked her slightly as worry and fear engulfed her looking at Sharon's distraughted face.
"Sharon, what happened? What's wrong?" Stephie shook Sharon and she came out of her trance pantig for breath.
"Water! Water!" Sharon said to distract her and have another look at the picture closely to confirm that the girl in the picture was actually her, the one whose mere pictures with Swayam had created havoc in her life. She saw Stephie walking inside the room hurriedly with the glass of water in her hand and she gathered herself. It was her one chance to move a step ahead to unravel the mystery and she wouldn't let it go.
"Sharon Water!" Sharon took the glasss from her hand and drank a sip from it giving it back to her.
"Are you alright?" Stephie asked looking concered.
"Yeah. Just felt a bit dizzy for a moment or so. I am fine. Stephie who is this girl with you in this picture?" Sharon asked trying to sound as casual as she can.
"Oh! She was my friend from my Creative writing classes." Stephie said taking the phone from her and smiling at the picture, probably reeling the memories in her mind.
"Oh! Was?"
"Yeah. . . She abruptly left coming to the classes almost six months back. I even called on her phone but it's always switched off. She was a bit weird you know, mostly a loner, was in relationship with a Casanova, loved her immensely, I even tried to warn her but she was blinded by love. Was very quiet but still there was something in her which I really liked. She was smart, intelligent, so protective about the people she loved, crazy at times normal at others. I miss her you know." Stephie said as a tear dropped from her eye."
Sharon watched her lost in her words.
"What was her name?" She asked sowly.
"Amaira. Amaira Mehta." Stephie answered and the name rung bells in her head so loud that she closed her eyes but the flashes of the past reeled even in the blackness, the ringing of his phone, his shouting, yelling, the name, Amaira everything was so chaotic but she couldn't stop it and the last thing she heard was Stephie calling her name repeatedly first clearly then faintly and then nothing except silence. Errie silence.
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