#3 ~FF: Untold Stories~ - Page 45

Originally posted by: -FlameOfHope-

We girls! Not guys. ;)

Originally posted by: -FlameOfHope-

Which emoji did LM put there?

Originally posted by: NidsJ

Hey LM... 😊 Epistle 59 and 60

Ishaani... Ishaani... Ishaani... back to her favourite work.. band bajaoing Ranveer...😆 and this Ranveer... what can he do... always succumb to her and if he even TRY not to... Ishaani make him do.. by hook or crook... 😆 and his journey to hospital... oops I mean her journey to seminar began... I was thinking that seminar itself might cancel but at least it went well... n she must've learned more from her journey. as they say life... the harsh teacher...

so they are struck... bt yaha bhi mazak... how happily they were ready to die.. Ishaani cherishing her moments with him n he thinking about ways to at least make her escape.. how calmly both were discussing their fantasies.. speaking of which all I can say is bachche bade ho gaye hain... stop terming them as kids anymore... 🤣 but if we look into it Ishaani's wish is to have her first kiss in rain with someone she TRULY LOVES... now two possibilities.. either her wish not fulfilled till now or Chirag's wish not fulfilled in past (although still couldn't make how, if it is really so 😕 )... and Ranveer's wish sounds like a business meeting to me.. although still pondering over other possibilities of wooden cabin... and now came the final blow... water entering the car... either do or die... Ranveer let himself die n saved her... well this was bound to happen... no other way was working...😔 but i have a discovery here... this is what must be the roots of her turning into ultimate sacrificing queen...🤣 sacrificing her happiness, husband and even life without even trying the other options...😆 the only solace in this whole chapter was their hearty laugh...👏 it feels so good that whatever the situation is they can still have some peace if toghether... 🤗

now finally he is back to his home.. even Ishaani acknowledged this fact.. she saved him... this is d good thing about Ishaani... always ready to make amends... when she can brought both of them there so can also take them out... not a big deal for her...😆 and again good work on whole ER scenario... 👍🏼 although u kept ur level in severity maintained... I mean bruised face... crowbar in chest... unconscious.. breathless, v-fib and lastly malaria... aur kuch nahin bacha tha kya... 😡

Now to their conversation after he come back to consciousness.. good one...⭐️ Ishaani was rightly mad over him.. although his actions was justified as per d situation they were in but still how can he think that she'll live happily after seeing him die in front of her... and that ER time was really horrible for Ishaani...😭 and d last part... after all this,hug was well deserved... but she could've gone back to her bed after that...😆 even doctors must be thinking ke yar chod ke to alag alag gaye the to ye kab hua...🤪 u very well reminded us gunshot period, that was quite wierd coz always family persons sit on nearby stool but as we all know normal things for normal people and Ishveer are definitely out of that criteria..🤣 one more point which was worth mentioning is their parents looking much older... the condition they must be in from d last three days can't b described...😔 fear of losing ur kids.. God.. nalayak hai dono... how much sufferings they cause to all...

and very good point about their dreams... 👏 cleared the philosophy behind them much more... why they r not back cleared significance of their occurrence.. Ranveer's words very well described the entire scenario...👏 although the unnerving factor which Ranveer felt is same for us also coz see we got d clear picture now, when love is gone... 😆 and he is ready with another one... but this couple.. first I thought Chirag Ishani but next I felt RR... thoda thoda description going for both d possibilities...😕 just a guess coz I know it may b entirely different.. will wait for that...😊

and at last Ranveer can rightly compare himself to bird trying to make his place but d best conclusion was given by Ishaani.. billi got her billa... bas jungli nahi hai.. 🤣 🤣

keep updating...🤗 🤗

A/N: Hey there everyone! :D :D Here is the next update! :D :D

Happy Reading! :D :D

Ranveer slapped his diary shut, now frustrated.

How stupid had he been! How could he have ever thought that she loved him? She was innocent... She never had any sense of how she behaved and how she was around people. But he... he had his brains on. Then how did he let himself believe that even she loved him? Slamming the diary on the table unnecessarily that caused above four dozen photos to pop out from between the pages, he got up from the bed and paced around the room, hoping to working off some of his pent-up emotions.

If anything, he felt angrier.

He wished that he'd died that day only. Atleast he'd have died with that satisfaction that she could never say such kind of things to him. He could have died with the satisfaction that there was a chance that she loved him too. If not loved, atleast he knew how much he meant to her. But no... Death didn't want to kill him so easily. Why would it, when killing him inside out and making him live day after day as an empty shell was so much more fun? Oh, the cruel sadism...

He sat upon the bed as he stared at his hands that were now shaking slightly. Tremors, when he was angry. He shut his eyes as his head drooped, the memories from the past resurfacing back into his mind with sharp images. Oh, it had taken them so long to get over that incident... A couple of months, by the end of which Ishaani was completely alright, but he had another grudge to hold against the rains.

He remembered how he'd seen those same dreams night after night - the same cafe, the same two people and the same mysterious air about them. Most nights, they'd just sit and converse casually, their conversations always mirroring the kind of ones that he and Ishaani would have during their star-gazing sessions, the air seasoned with the smell of caffeine.

The curiosity and the thrill of exploring the two people in his dreams had finally led him to tinkering with them a bit, jotting down points and everything that he could remember about them. Seven months later had led to the first chapter of Caffeinated Love being penned down, the book originally known as Another Night at the Cafe before the publishing house who took in the book changed it.

He remembered how the feverish fascination of his dreams had led him to stay up at night and pen down thoughts and scenarios, weaving and sewing through emotions and feelings and circumstances until romance bloomed, along with tragedies. And from that took birth Ben and Sarah. Two star-crossed lovers whose paths were never meant to cross in a world where happiness was temporary, miracles none. Oh... there were so many instances he used from his and Ishaani's lives, so many little moments and nuances that bled life into Ben and Sarah, yet nothing was alike about their stories... nothing except one - their stories begun at the end.

Emotions bled over pages, thoughts scampered away through words, feelings made a mark with ink as words grew into paragraphs, paragraphs into pages... pages blended into chapters, and chapters came together to narrate a story - the story of Ben and Sarah's scarred love in a brutal and unforgiving world. It took him two years to complete the novel, penning down the conclusion on the day he left for Sydney.

He hadn't mentioned a word about it to Ishaani in those two years and it was the only secret he'd ever kept from her apart from his love, ofcourse. But it was a gift he wanted to give her when he returned back from Sydney alongside another souvenir. A gift that he'd written alongside, something that had started off as a joke but had caught his fancy until he actually managed to pen it down.

Ishaani Parekh: The Enigma Unveiled. A 100-page book.

It was on her eighteenth birthday when he'd taken her to the forest again and they'd spent quality time together. She was having one of those days when the nightmare from the floods that dampened her spirit and I knew the best way to rectify it. It was sitting upon his favourite set of rocks when she'd joked that he knew her so well that he could write a book about her, titling it as Ishaani Parekh: The Enigma Unveiled.

Oh, it was no joke really since he did know her inside-out, but the idea had caught his fancy by the time they reached home. He knew her the best and almost everything about her. But did he now? Something that started as a challenge about penning down how many points he knew about her turned into serious business, until there was no stopping the number of things he knew about her - her likes, dislikes, fears, strengths, weaknesses, reactions to any situation, the best way to pacify her, the tactics, techniques, the kind of people she liked, the traits she liked and disliked in them, everything... this was not just Ishaani on paper, but this was how he handled her on paper as well.

All the secret ways, all the nuances, everything. The perfect illusion of himself on paper when it came to Ishaani. The rule-book, the directions, the advisor... everything. He remembered the rough draft of the original notebook going up to 302 pages with notes, notes and even more notes, cancellations and additions, until he shed that away and re-wrote the entire manuscript neatly in a bamboozling hundred pages, his slant handwriting an advantage in space saving.

He's somehow kept both the versions of the book because throwing away a 302-page notebook felt harsh. But he'd left that behind when he moved to Sydney for his Masters, talking along only the manuscripts of his novel and the fair version of the book about Ishaani. He wondered what happened to the 302-page book because it wasn't there when he'd returned for a week back at the Parekh Mansion. Maybe they'd sold it off as scrap. Maybe not. Atleast he had the fair version.

There were so many days when he missed her terribly, and he'd read through the book and smile fondly, revisiting countless memories of the two of them - their bickering, their affection, their joyous moments, the competitive and jealous ones... everything. His diaries had gone along with his parents back to Surat where Harshad Parekh had gifted them some money when they left his service so that they could buy a house. His parents had sold everything from the village so that Ranveer could study without any trouble, and their sacrifice had seen its rewards.

He had no souvenir of Ishaani's except the ring she'd given him and her photo that he'd put in his wallet, of hers smiling at the camera like she didn't have the slightest of worries in the world. Only happiness to embrace and give. Her smile that was always the solace to his heart, no matter how hard or rough a day he'd had. She was all he ever had in this world, really...

Ranveer snapped out from his thoughts, his fists clenched as she felt a surge of pain course through his heart. He looked up to see his reflection in the mirror and gasped. A bitter smile sat upon his lips like a king who'd lost the battle of a life-time. His eyes stared back at him - hollow, lifeless... blank. He looked like an empty shell... the ghost of a past that now didn't exist for him.

There was no Ranveer Vaghela now because he was dead. He'd died the day she'd pushed him away from him. And what little he had, his wife had stripped away from him on her death. He had nothing to give anymore, nothing to feel anymore, because he wasn't Ranveer anymore. He was RV - the man who his Mota Babuji wanted him to become, the man who he strived to become. But was the cost that he had to pay worth it?

Everything comes at a price, Ranveer. Never forget that. It's only those who are brave enough to pay the price are those who truly become something in life.

He stood at the peak today, staring down upon those who once thought he was insignificant. Oh, the thrill of being on the top of the world... but did the thrill change the fact that was alone and incomplete? Did it change the fact that the thrill wasn't enough to make his heart pump passionately? In fact, it was barely enough to make him heart pump at all. RV found his thrill at the stock markets... in the arms of the love of his life where he truly belonged. The only moment where he was actually alive, actually at the zest of enjoying what he had achieved.

But when RV bid adieu at the end of the day, there only remained a shell that returned home. A cold, tattered... poor soul, with a heart who refused to beat and a mind that refused to feel. The only time his heart agreed to beat was when the memories of his past flew through its broken fragments, singing a lifeless elegy of a love that only crushed the jagged pieces of his heart into his soul a little more cruelly, seeping a little more life out of him if it was even possible.

Hazaaron khwayishein aisi, ki har khwayish pe dum nikle,
Bohot nikle mere armaan, phir bhi kam nikle.

The memories would then fade away, and so would his existence.

Until RV would return to break his fall.

Ranveer looked up at his reflection once again, but this time a cruel smile upon his face. If she was expecting favours and returns from him, it wasn't happening. Gone was the Ranveer who would be there at the hem of her skirt, fulfilling her every beck and call. Gone was the Ranveer who could love selflessly, who could embrace the world's pain for her happiness. Gone was Ranveer because there was no Ranveer anymore. Just a shell devoid of an essence. Shells didn't feel anything - when pain crossed its limit of endurance, it only left behind an emptiness that nothing could fill up, no matter what.

He was gone because she had ripped him away from himself. She'd torn him apart, crushed him underneath the weight of her words and let the remains of his heart ebb away - that was her handiwork. Everything happens for the best. The best? He couldn't fathom a more ironic pacification for what his life had been in these six years. Professionally, it was indeed the best he could have ever hoped or even dreamed of. Personally? He'd rather have nothing but Ishaani than have everything but Ishaani.

But she could never be his because she was now somebody's wife. She was not just happily married, but independent, successful and secure as well. That's all that mattered to him. He didn't know anything about her in those six and a half years, but he didn't yearn to know anything either. Why would he, anyway? Wasn't he her puppet, her care taker? He wasn't allow to have a mind of his own. He was only supposed to do what she asked of him. Isn't that why was he here?

A knock disrupted Ranveer's line of thoughts and he turned to see Finch standing by the doorpost, looking slightly apprehensive.

"It's Mr. Puneet's phone."

"Who?" asked Ranveer, looking confused.

"Er, from the Parekh Group of Companies," replied Finch and Ranveer scowled.

"What does he want now?" asked Ranveer, his voice vexed.

"He, er, wants to know whether it'd be possible to shift the appointment for the 7th, since we'll be in town that day. Miss Parekh is worried about the deadline of the said consignment."

"Fine," came the resigned reply and Finch nodded his head as he walked back to his room, his voice fading away once again. Ranveer sighed and stared at the ring upon his finger once again when Finch's voice broke through out of nowhere.

"Vaghela, I'll be on the terrace having some beer. You wanna come up?"

Ranveer jumped up from the bed at the sudden voice, his look of shok quickly turning into a chagrined one at the sight of Finch standing at the door with two bottles of beer in his hand. Giving his offer a thought for two minutes, Ranveer shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure, why not?"

-x-

"It's been so long since we last hung out like this..." wondered aloud Finch as he took another sip from the bottle, Ranveer doing the same. The two of them were seated upon the terrace wall.

"Finch, stop being a drama queen. We hang out like this every other week-end," came back Ranveer's reply, who was now staring at the moon with a bitter reflection of the past.

"No, I meant on the roof. We used to do it when you were studying. Once you came back from India..." The rest of the statement was drowned, however, as Ranveer began to speak absent-mindedly.

"She used to love star-gazing... Not a day would go by when we wouldn't do it together. She'd drive me crazy with all the weirdest of stories and rants... There wasn't a single time when we'd be able to star-gaze quietly. We'd count the stars... I'd tell her stories about the stars and the moon when she was sad. It would always lighten up her mood. I'd spent my first time getting drunk on the terrace with her. I tried to get her drunk too, can you believe it? And the lecture she'd given me the next night... She never liked gazing at the naked skies, you know. She loved seeing them through a veil of clothes. But she even hated it when the veil wouldn't let her see the stars clearly. I'd then get her transparent materials to see through so that she could gaze at them comfortably..."

Finch looked at Ranveer, who was smiling at moon as though somebody was strangling his heart. When he was certain that Ranveer had completed his monologue, he spoke quietly into the night, his voice curious.

"This is the first time you've spoken about her in all these years." Ranveer looked at him, as though unaware about his presence. He gave Finch an agonized look.

"I have nothing to give her anymore, Finch. I don't have it in me to stand in front of her again," he confessed as he drowned the remnants of the bottle, looking at Finch squarely in the face now. Finch scrutinized Ranveer's expression for several minutes before finally speaking up.

"Can I ask you something?"

"It's not like you're going to take no for an answer, so shoot," came back Ranveer's reply, his tone exasperated.

"Why do you try to pretend she doesn't exist when you can't, really?"

Ranveer gasped at the question, caught off-guard. In Finch's opinion, he looked as though someone had bitten him. Turning his face away from Finch and staring at the inky darkness of the sky that so resembled his life, he once again spoke absent-mindedly.

"A person's life begins when he's born into this world. But my life... it began when I first saw her. I remember the breath getting hitched in my chest at her sight when I was nine. I don't think that I ever let to go of that breath until that night when she... I'm alive because she's alive. The day she..." hesitated Ranveer, the thought alone unbearable. Shaking his head, he continued in a stronger voice

"I'll perish on my own."

"You didn't answer my question," came Finch's sharp reply that snapped Ranveer out from this train of thoughts. He spoke ruthlessly, his words reverberating the cruelty of his plight.

"It's because she asked so of me. To go as far away from her life as I could like she didn't exist for me, upon my mentor's ashes. She made me promise that I'd never search for her or try to keep in contact with her or even interfere or keep tabs on her from the day she got married. She asked me to never seek her again, not until the impossible day came when she'd seek for me. Yeah right, like I had no self-respect or dignity anymore."

"And yet you are here," remarked Finch. Ranveer looked as though he was slapped.

"If you think I'm here for her, you're thoroughly mistaken," he retorted, his voice now cold. "I'm only going back because there was a legacy that my mentor had once left incomplete - the only legacy in his outstanding career that he fell short of completing. He entrusted me to fulfill that on his behalf, and now that I have the opportunity, I'm going to do it for him. Even if that means working with her," he ended forcefully.

"Don't lie to me, Vaghela," spoke Finch, his voice now dead-pan. "You may have more than one reason for agreeing to see her, but you cannot tell me that you aren't even curious in the slightest to know more about how she's been doing and about her life once you left. The kind of love you have for her doesn't just get stomped out in a moment; if anything, it grows stronger and stronger."

Ranveer smiled at Finch venomously, as though hoping that it would horrify the latter or atleast give him the taste of what he was going through.

"But what do you do when that love begins to kill you from the inside, taking away a little more of your soul away every single day, leaving you empty of your essence?" questioned Ranveer, his tone acrimonious. If anything, Finch only looked more determined.

"You keep fighting for it until you die or your love does." There was a fire in Finch's eyes that didn't go amiss by Ranveer. Blinking his eyes stupidly at his confidante, he asked stupidly.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know why Ishaani's seeking you after all these years!" came back Finch's explosive reply. He was now frustrated. "I don't know whether this is destiny or fate or whatever it is meant to be. All I know that if this is happening, it's happening for a reason. So stop self-pitying yourself or play victim and show her the man you have become rather than the one you've left behind."

"I didn't-" began Ranveer, but Finch cut him off.

"I've seen you fight battles no man can even think to take up in the first place in these eight years, Vaghela. You are not some emotionally repressed, heartbroken lover who's returned back to meet the girl he once dreamt of making his own. Oh no. You are now RV, a man who the world's been chasing to have an association and an allegiance with, and like the several others, the wonderful Miss Parekh is doing the same. Prove her wrong with what you've learnt in all these years. Prove her wrong by showing her the man you've become, the man that her father wanted and believed you would become. Don't prove her right by projecting yourself to be some kind of f**ked-up lover who's still madly in love with her, do you understand?"

"But I-" began Ranveer again, but Finch's glare was enough to silence him. Both the men sat quietly for a few minutes before Finch spoke again, this time grudgingly.

"Say what you will, Vaghela. Even those empty eyes of yours are enough to know that you're never going to stop loving her, not until your last breath. And I mean it."

"Yeah, alright. Whatever," came Ranveer's reply, now looking aloof and disinterested once again. Finch could see Ranveer's transition into RV begin right before his eyes, the brown of his eyes growing black. To speed up the process, Finch commented cheekily.

"Get RV back. I miss that cold-hearted bas***d. India's made you go all mushy."

"And you asked me why I didn't ever visit this place," retorted Ranveer, rolling his eyes at the former. Finch gave him a mock pensive look.

"I think it's the diaries that's made you go all sloppy. Why do you even have such a huge collection of them and what's with the sudden fascination?" asked Finch inquisitively while Ranveer now looked slightly flustered.

"I- I just found them in the library and well..." trailed off Ranveer, now looking as though he was caught in some kind of mischief.

"You couldn't stop once you'd started reading," completed Finch, and Ranveer nodded his head shamefully. As though suddenly struck by one of his crazy theories, he quickly put his idea into words without wasting another second.

"Do you think it's a co-incidence? Me finding these old diaries and reading them and then Ishaani seeking for me at the same time?"

There was an awkward silence as Ranveer remembered that Finch was no Ishaani when it came to things like this. God, what was wrong with him tonight?! Why was he losing control? Why was he succumbing like this?

"The stars must be glowing at you in fury," came back Finch's enigmatic reply that managed to capture Ranveer's attention. The two men shared a look of understanding as the latter got up and winked.

"We should do this more often."

Finch let minutes pass as the painful metamorphosis took place in front of his eyes. Ten minutes later, RV now stood up, a cold smile upon his face as he patted Finch on the shoulder.

"Party's over. Get back to work, we've got a lot of get done."

Finch cocked at eyebrow at the retreating figure of his friend as he whispered to himself in relief.

"My boy's back."

Both the men now made their way back into their respective rooms without speaking another word, only stopping by to wish each other goodnight. Ranveer shut the door quietly and walked towards a rack of books until he found the one he was looking for. Pulling out the copy of Caffeinated Love from between The Room and Kane and Abel, Ranveer smile translucently as his eyes fell upon the synopsis of the novel behind the paper-bound jacket of the book.

Sarah O'Connelly didn't believe in miracles because they didn't exist in her life. Not after what happened to her when she was thirteen. But one day when Sarah O'Connelly meets with an accident with architect Ben Sullivan's car, the accident is probably the best one of her life. From a trip to the hospital for a quick patch up to their first date at Sarah's cafe the same night is where their caffeinated love begins. And the moment isn't far when Sarah realizes that she has perhaps found the first miracle of her life - her true love in the form of Ben. But when old scars are re-opened and betrayals are on the cards, will Sarah O'Connelly ever truly find the miracle of her life in Ben Sullivan?

Eyeing the book wistfully, he gentle grazed his fingers upon the cover page in an intimate touch, shutting his eyes as he felt the tingle of homecoming that his characters were singing for him. Avoiding the dedications page with a harsh flip on his hand, he landed upon the third chapter of Caffeinated Love, instantly finding the reference that Finch chose to give him as an answer.

The stars gasped as Ben and Sarah shook hands, smiling coyly at each other. The stars were betrayed... they didn't know how the impossible had happened. They glowed angrily at the sight below, thinking about how the two of them crossed paths when the stars from two whole realms knew that it was never meant to happen.

Sarah looked up at the glowing stars, smiling serenely as the stars twinkled joyously in her view, purging her into a comfort she didn't know ever existed till before. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ben look up and smile as he put his hands in his pockets, admiring the same. This was certainly fascinating! Since when had the nature ever shown miracles like that to her?

Looking at each other once again, they both whispered the same thing at the same time.

"The stars look happy at our new friendship as well. The Universe agrees."

While the two of them laughed wholeheartedly, the stars glared at the comment in fury.

Ranveer eyed the book pensively as he shut it close, chuckling sarcastically. He would let things unfold the way they were meant to be. He had clearly lost all his faith upon the Universe and its ways because he didn't understand any of it. He was tired and he wanted to stop.

"If we're meant to meet, then we're meant to meet. If not, then the stars from even infinite realms can't make our paths meet," was all he remarked icily to himself, replacing the book back into its original spot.

He quickly replaced the diary and its contents back into its correct place as he now took out his laptop. Working upon the portfolios once again, his thoughts upon the twisted nature of his fate slowly faded away as he drowned himself into the escape of his professional passion.

While he snickered at his fate with disdain, the real stars glared at his comment in fury.

Constructive criticism will be more than welcome and sorry for any typos. :D :D

Next chapter:
Interlude 12

Originally posted by: LadyMeringue

Aaru, Poplu and Ash, welcome back, spammers! 🤗🤗 And since you've crossed the spamming limit, no more spamming for five chapters now. 😈😈 On another note, sorry for being such a party pooper. 🤣🤣 But since my dear beloved agrees with me, overruled. 😉😉

MM cherie, I thought they were joking. Pehle pata hota toh pehle hi naa bol deti. 🤪🤪