AvNeil SS: Us Against the World | CHAPTER 15 UP: PG-39 (Apr 17) - Page 19

It was tough.

Very, very tough.

To lie so blatantly.

That too to that one person you adored, you loved, you cared for, the most in your life.

Neil sighed as he rested his head against the headboard of his bed in his condo, the only place that was his go-to resort, whenever he wanted some seclusion.

He looked at the black and silver ornament in his hand, with which he had been fiddling since an hour now, and enclosed it securely within the strength of his fist.

He was impatient now, and how could he not be?

Every day, every minute, every second, he wished for that day to arrive when he would be able to place this same ornament, her mangalsutra, where it rightfully belonged.

He closed his eyes as his mind took him back to wander in the timeline from two days ago, to one of the most beautiful nights he had spent with Avni, until of course she had asked him that question, which rendered him speechless.

'Were we in love before?''

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Neil had felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs, when his mind had registered what his ears had just heard.

For any onlooker, it was the most normal question one could ask. But for him, when he knew that his wife was still reeling in the aftereffects of her lost memories, this question was not just unexpected but also something he didn't know how to take.

On one hand, he was immensely elated that at least she was now able to associate the word 'love'' with him, but on another hand, he harbored a fear of what would be the repercussions if he dared to divulge all the details of their relationship, including the gory information of how she landed up in this state, which was not a result of any accident but because of two imposters called Juhi and Vidyut, who tried incessantly to separate them, and what costed him, was his dear wife's present condition.

He could only laugh sarcastically at his fate, for at this point, he practically had everything.

The hurdles called Juhi and Vidyut were out from his life, his family supported him, Neela Maa was by his side, work was fine too, and most importantly, Avni was no more in a coma and she was right here in his arms.

Yet, he was incomplete.

For he knew so much, and his Avni knew so less.

He had sighed and then looked into the anticipating eyes of Avni, who was still waiting for an answer to the question she had just asked.

God, she looked so beautiful.

Her eyes were truly the window to her soul as he could see how much purity dwelled within her, and though she was way intelligent when it came to executing plans and taking her enemies by surprise, Neil could completely see through herself, about how much of that little Avni who only wanted normalcy in her life still prevailed within her.

He felt like committing a sin lying to her, because after blaming himself for all the pain Avni went through, physically and mentally, this was the last thing he wanted to do.

But he had to.

And this time, it was for Avni's own good.

So, mustering all the courage in the world and feigning a face full of confidence, he had averred,

'Well, no. We never fell in love, per se. But attraction was always there!''

He winked at her as he said the last part.

He knew if he had told her the truth, he would have had to reveal a lot more, and that would mean risking her health and jeopardizing whatever progress she had made health wise so far.

But he also knew that despite him sounding as convincing as ever, Avni was still not fully satisfied by his answer. And the reason was obviously her episodes that were getting stronger day by day, especially every time she met him.

However, Avni still managed to give him a small smile and nodded slightly at his answer, not wanting to aggravate anything further, to spoil their night, their date, which otherwise had been so beautiful so far.

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He opened his eyes and came back to the present.

This was so difficult.

But he knew that a little more patience was all he needed and soon his Avni would be back to him.

He got up from the bed and opened his cupboard, where he kept her mangalsutra safely inside the locker.

Yes, he had removed all proofs of their marriage so that Avni didn't get to see any of it, as it meant increasing the risk of her having a nervous breakdown, till she got all her memories back by herself. But he would be lying if he said, he didn't cheat at this.

How could he manage to remove all traces of that one event, one fact of his life that meant so much to him?

Wiping off the lone tear that had escaped his eye, he walked towards the big wall on the opposite side of his bed.

For onlookers, it had a giant painting in horizontal dimensions, but when he removed it, the wall was covered with pictures of him and Avni.

A smile automatically lit up his face as he traced his fingers on Avni's face in the picture, feeling like he was indeed touching her for real, as he said, 'Just some more days wifey. Very soon, I will get you back in my life.''

And he knew this time, no force on Earth could stop him from fulfilling this vow.

There was also a bulletin board on that wall that still had cut-outs from the time he was chasing after Case 123, oblivious to the fact that this would become the biggest case of his life, and its culprit would become his very own wife.

He chuckled as he recalled it all, when suddenly his eyes shifted to a particular cut-out which boiled his blood alongside a distorted picture from his and Avni's wedding day.

It was from the time when Vidyut had made the media aware of how Mishti was Neil and Juhi's illegitimate child and how it had dampened Avni the most. It was an utter defamation of his whole family wherein he was accused of having an extra-marital affair with his ex-girlfriend, and little did he know that time that not just Vidyut but Juhi too was an equal perpetrator here.

'What the hell is this cut-out doing here?''

He gritted in anger as he roughly pulled it out from the board and crumpled it before throwing it on the floor, in the process also making the distorted wedding picture fall.

His breathing had fastened in that fraction of second and it was proof enough that he was still not over the events from 8 months back, when due to his mistakes of letting Juhi back into his life, he had to pay the price by putting Avni's life in danger.

When he calmed down a bit, he thought maybe DD would have accidentally put this cut-out from the newspaper here, when he had instructed him to hide everything on the wall by that giant painting.

'Kabhi toh koi kaam dhang se kar liya kar, DD!''

He muttered to himself, before sighing in relief and shifted his gaze to look at a picture of Avni instead.

He was lost again in the beauty of her eyes yet again when suddenly the shrill ringtone of his cell phone broke his reverie and he quickly attended the call.

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'WHAT?''

His eyes widened in shock as he heard DD tell him that the commissioner had suffered a massive cardiac arrest and was being taken to the hospital right away, and that Neil was urgently needed at the moment.

Without wasting another second, he didn't even change his night clothes as he grabbed his car keys and left the apartment in a jiffy, without even locking the main door.

When duty called, Neil fell blind to everything else, and almost everyone was aware of this fact.

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As Avni parked his car, she exhaled deeply.

This was so not her.

Yes, she was damn adventurous at heart, but sneaking out of her house in the middle of the night that too to meet her boyfriend.. Well, this was quite an adrenaline rush to start with.

But she was sure she won't get caught because Neela had already left for the airport since she had to catch a flight to Delhi, to attend a very important business conference.

In the past two days, ever since their date, Avni had had episodes again, this time without Neil's presence.

She knew that so far Neil was the only trigger to her episodes, but she couldn't just sit and wait till her episodes came one by one now, could she?

If meeting Neil more often than she did, meant she could get her memories sooner, so be it! She would spend maximum time with him!

A part of her chided her for her cheat day, for it said that was it just the triggering of memories making him visit Neil this late at night or the fact that she was desperate to see him once, since she hadn't met him in the last two days!

She rolled her eyes at that, as if her own conscience was a separate entity, and walked out of the car.

Gladly, this condo was a place she distinctly remembered, for she had come here once long back when she was determined to break Neil and Rhea's marriage alliance.

She also knew that currently Neil was living here since the past few months, as he had told her the same when they had a chat at Ali's caf.

Little did she know that in reality, she had visited this place not just once but many times, and also stayed here with her husband, Neil Khanna, right after saving him from the bomb blast.

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As she reached the doorstep of the condo, she waited for a while.

'Should I be doing this?''

She asked herself, suddenly feeling nervous.

Yes, she and Neil were in a relationship, but she was still concerned about what he would think of her, seeing her at his doorstep at 10 p.m. in the night!

'Come on, Avni! Since when do you get afraid of things?''

She gave herself some motivation, before ringing the doorbell.

She waited, but no one came to open the door, making her pout in disappointment.

Was Neil already asleep?

But he never slept this early! They would daily talk on Whatsapp till at least 12 a.m. or 1, then..

She was about to ring the doorbell again when her eyes noticed that the door was actually ajar.

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That made her alarmed as she held the door knob and said to herself, 'God! This Neil is so careless! How can he leave the main door open like that? If some robbers come in, what would he do? Police wala hai toh kya apne aap ko super hero samajhta hai!''

She opened the door and quickly came inside, calling out his name, 'Neil!''

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When it was only silence that resonated in the room in return, she began to think that perhaps, he was indeed not at home.

She thought to call him up but felt it would be better not to, if he was in some case, then she didn't want to disturb him.

'Avni! Tera luck hi kharab hai!''

She told herself, as she caught a glimpse of the house keys kept on the study table, and it confirmed that Neil had indeed left in a hurry.

'I will lock the door and give the key to the security guy downstairs.''

She decided as she grabbed the keys and was all set to leave when suddenly her eyes spotted two crumpled things on the floor, making her stop in her tracks.

'Uff! These guys! Always so untidy! I get it, it's his bachelor pad! But it doesn't have to be a messy pad!''

She rolled her eyes as she bent to take the papers up and went to throw them in the dustbin when suddenly her eyes spotted Neil's face vaguely on that crumpled cut-out, making her alarmed instantaneously.

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Avni didn't know why but her heart skipped a beat unwarrantedly.

A part of her was taking this at levity, saying how everything related to Neil made her heart do weird things.

Keeping that thought aside, she finally opened the crumpled piece of paper, expecting it to be some old news story on how ACP Neil Khanna was rewarded for solving another case, when her eyes and heart, both were in for a massive shock, as she saw his picture with a little girl, joined with a picture of another woman, as the headline read: ACP Neil Khanna to Marry Ex-Girlfriend Juhi due to Their Illegitimate Child?

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Her eyes refused to blink as her chest suddenly felt heavy, and in no time a blurry sheen of tears is all that her eyes could form, stopping her from reading anything further, as her eyes went to the other crumpled paper, which was a distorted photograph.

A lump formed in her throat as she saw an unclear wedding picture, of a couple dressed in silver outfits, and though the bride's face wasn't clear because there was a long veil on her head, she could easily spot Neil sitting right beside the bride, as her groom.

She fell with a thud on the bed in the room as everything that she felt and came to know in the last two months ever since she came out of that coma, began to dissipate into thin air, leaving any some scars behind.

In that tiny moment, she recalled that one old man's question to Neil from that party at the opening of the resto-bar, wherein he had asked about Neil's 'wife,'' which later Neil had clarified about, to her, telling her that he was never married in the first place.

'Liar!''

That's all she could utter, in a voice barely audible, as she threw the crumpled pieces of paper on the bed, and roughly wiped her tears-stricken cheeks, before rushing out of his apartment, not looking back even for once.

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It was 11.45 p.m. when Neil finally came back to his place after a turbulent almost-two hours at the hospital.

Fortunately, the commissioner was stable as of now, but they would have lost him if there was even a five minutes delay in taking him to the hospital.

He sighed in exhaustion as he realized he had not even locked the door of his condo in hurry, however, it didn't seem to make a difference as all he wanted to do right now was fall asleep, but not before talking to Avni on phone at least for 10 minutes.

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He went to the washroom, splashed some cold water on his face, and came out. He took out his phone to dial Avni's number when suddenly a very strong realization hit him.

He became alarmed right away as he could feel it, very prominently.

"It's her scent! Avni's perfume!''

He said to himself.

He was damn sure that the whole air around him smelled of Avni, because this was exactly the perfume she wore.

He could never be wrong about her. He knew her inside-out.

But on a second thought, he wondered, how was that even possible?

Avni would have certainly called him before even thinking of coming here, given how she was very, very reserved and hardly ever took any lead when it came to their present relationship.

'Maybe, I am just missing her and hence, my mind is playing games with me! I am tired too. So yeah!''

He tried to convince himself with some logic, but a part of him was still not satisfied with that explanation and as if on cue, his eyes suddenly shifted on his bed, where there lay two crumpled pieces of paper, and this time, it was his heart that skipped a beat.

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He quickly grabbed the papers and opened them to see the dreaded newspaper cut-out along with their distorted wedding picture, and warning bells began to ring inside his head, as he instantly recalled, when he left, he had thrown these on the floor.

But, now these were on the bed.. This means..

'No!!''

He exclaimed to himself as adrenaline gushed through his veins, and without wasting another second, he ran downstairs.

'No! Avni, no! This can't be!''

He kept chanting to himself as the doors of the elevator opened and he quickly caught hold of the security guard's arm, and asked him in a tone that was loud and authoritative, 'WHO CAME HERE WHILE I WAS GONE?''

The poor guard was taken by surprise seeing his otherwise calm and composed Neil sahib in this avatar, as he stuttered and managed to reply, 'Av.. Avni Bhabhi came sir. But don't worry, I didn't call her Bhabhi at all, like you had told me. But she left in 10 minutes, and looked very sad while she was leaving.''

'AND YOU ARE TELLING THIS TO ME, NOW?!''

Neil barked, shocking the security guard even further.

He knew he was not himself right now and saw, he left the arm of the security guard and rushed upstairs to grab his car keys.

.

'No, God, please no! Don't do this to me now! Not when I am so close to getting my Avni back!''

'Avni.. Baby, please. Please, don't misunderstand me!''

He kept uttering to himself as he sped his car, navigating to Avni's house, hoping against hope that he wasn't too late.

**

A very happy Sankranti to all you lovely people 🤗