Part 4
“Took you long enough, Mrs Bajaj”
Unblinking, Prerna continued to stare at the man whose eyes had amusement and respite dancing a soft tango.
He maintained the contact, shoving his hands in his pockets and tilted his head slightly. Prerna missed her 70th heartbeat at that moment.
“What is all this, Rishabh?” Masi stepped in front of Rishabh, her voice shaky with a hint of panic.
But he continued to look past her as his daughter who had her cheeks in a pout until this point, left her seat and wrapped her little arms thoroughly around her mother’s salwar. Prerna looked down surprised to find kuki’s eyes glimmering with a happiness that had evaded Prerna since the past 4 days. Tucking her auburn strands behind her ear, she dropped down to her knees and took her daughter in a bear hug, the smile on her face as radiant as the sun.
“Mamma aa gayi hai na”, Prerna cooed brushing her nose in kuki’s neck, “Ab meri kuki ko koi pareshaan nhi karega!”. And with that, cupping her daughter’s face, she placed sloppy kisses all over.
Rishabh smiled softly atthe scene, his eyes nearly misty.
“Rishabh!” Masi called out for the nth time as Rishabh snapped out of his reverie and blinked back the tears threatening to escape. This wasn’t the right time
Brushing masi’s hand nonchalantly off his arm, he turned to address his guests, the sardonic smile back on his lips.
“Apologies for the inconvenience people but the party is over!” He shouted as the hall burst into chatter and whispers.
“I am sure”, Rishabh spoke as the entire hall went quiet, “you all must be itching to gossip and you should…..in the comfort of your own living rooms though. This is my place”.
His words hung in the air like a katana slipping menacingly out of its scabbard. No more whispers followed but only the clicking of heels and boots as the crowd soon disappeared into the night.
“Rishabh ye sa—
“Off! Off with your hands”, Rishabh interrupted sharda unclenching her fingers off his arm. She looked at him flummoxed as he dusted his sleeve off and peaked a glance at her. “I won’t want the germs to spread. Deceit is rather infectious”.
“Par Risha—
“And! Don’t take my name” Rishabh held his hand upfront and then pulled his fingers into a tight fist, “My mother poured her love in this name.Don’t sully it”.
Prerna stood as a mute spectator,sense of the situation escaping her by a hair’s breadth.
“You underestimated me”, he started, turning his head to look at Prerna who was standing behind him with Kuki attached closely to her frame. “You thought that I won’t be able to see past the web of lies you have weaved…that I won’t know who the actual perpetrator is!”
“Mrs Bajaj bit back the truth in order to keep me alive, isn’t that right?” He asked, his back still facing her and yet she knew who he was expecting the answer from.
Prerna only nodded, confused about how he had come to know it all.
As if he had heard her unspoken query, he tilted back his head a little and took in a deep breath. “I underwent a blood test two days back and realized that anti Botulinum is present in it. Apparently I was fed botulinum in the form of my migraine medicine, but a lethal dose that was starting to constrict my lungs. And that cough medicine you gave me”, Rishabh looked at Tanvi with steely eyes, “must’ve been the antidote, I presume”.
Tanvi nodded meekly under his penetrating gaze as his lips turned up in a cruel smirk and he looked away. “It was quite the gamble, huh. If you would’ve delayed the treatment by just one more hour, my nerves would have failed me and right now I would’ve been but a pile of ashes!”
Prerna sucked in deeply as his icy words charged the atmosphere with despair.
“Don’t, Mr. bajaj”, She called out meekly, her imagination of the nightmare almost coming to fruition, running wild. “Don’t say it, please don’t”.
The hollowness from his eyes disappeared as her fearful words coated with the honey of concern soothed his burning wounds.
“I’m alive though”, he murmured with a small smile and then took a step in Sharda’s direction, “after all you needed me alive to handover the property papers otherwise all this luxury would’ve gone to my immediate family, my daughter and wife, naturally. Big mistake!”
Rishabh hissed the last two words seethingly, his demeanor flipping a drastic switch yet again, “You let me live and now I will assure that your life stinks more than any hell ever would!”
Sharda took a step back as Rishabh closed up on her, “You dared to harm my daughter! You did the unexplainable by attacking my family. You threatened my wife! You’ll pay!!” He roared, his deafening shout reverberating across the house as Kuki flinched and dug her face further into Prerna while Prerna just closed her ears.
“H-Humein maaf kar do”, Sharda stammered, her old bones shivering under his enormous pressure. He looked down at the woman as the lines on his forehead mellowed down
“The allure of forgiveness has always eluded me, you must be well aware”, He whispered, his voice ghostly as if echoing the trumpet of satan itself.
“Handing you over to the police”,Sharda and Tanvi looked at each other as Rishabh trailed amused, “will be letting you off easy. You must’ve heard endless stories of Rags to Riches”. His grin grew wide as he quickly typed a number on his phone and pressed it close to his ear, “Now it’s high time that you play the lead in Riches to Rags story”.
“Nhi…please…”
“Security!”
“Rishabh don’t!”
“Throw the trash out!”
“Prerna tum samjhao na!”
“We’re sorry! Maaf kar do but please!” Masi begged as the security dragged the duo away while Prerna turned her face in other direction.
They deserved far worse. He had been way too generous.
“Kuki beta”, Rishabh’s soft voice called out to the li’l girl holding her mother close, “Why don’t you go and play upstairs? Papa and mama need to talk”.
Kuki nodded as she sprinted across the hallway and up the stairs, soon disappearing into her room.
“Mr. Baja—
“Prerna”, he purred softly taking her slender palms in his while Prerna’s heart nearly jumped at the contact.
“Thank you for coming back”,he bit back a sob as he pressed the back of her palms close to his eyes. In response, Prerna sucked in a breath as her flesh felt the wetness of his tears against it.
“I’m sad Prerna”, he spoke softly, his eyes still pressed close against her softness, “I’ve lost the only relation I had with my mother. But, I’ll survive”, he chuckled softly as he withdrew away and looked into her eyes.
Prerna’s heart clenched as his eyes red with pain stared at her. The tear barely clinging to his lower lid caught her attention as she forwarded her hand in a trance to wipe it off, but he caught her wrist midway. “However if you wouldn’t have come”, Rishabh moved closer, his scent invading her space and filling the emptiness she never knew existed.
“I would’ve been devastated. Broken beyond repair. But you came”, he smiled a sweet one and pressed her fingers to his lips in a fleeting touch. Prerna closed her eyes,touch of his lips evoking an avalanche in the pit of her stomach.
“A-And if I didn’t?” Her query barely audible, graced his ears.
“I wouldn’t have married Tanvi either way”, he detached his lips from her fingers and started massaging his thumb slowly over her hand.
“Huh!” Prerna exclaimed, clearly distracted by the caress of his fingers against her own.
“It was a trap. You were the target. Tanvi was a mere bait”, He replied resting his inquisitive gaze on her eyes that were single handedly focused on his ministrations.
As the weight behind his words dawned, Prerna tore her gaze away from his large hands and looked up into his eyes.
“Aap hamari khaatir hi humein chhodkar gayi thi. But I wanted you to come back for our sake, for my sake. Aapne mera vishwas tootne nhi diya. There was a time when you had sacrificed your own happiness to salvage someone else’s. This time I wanted to be that pillar you rely on, so that you don’t have to sacrifice yourself”, Rishabh finished as he let go of her hand and raising it to her face, wiped the stream flowing steadily down her left side.
“Thank you for trusting me Prerna. Aapne mujhpe vishwas jatakar, mujhe ye ehsaas dilaya ki main bhi vishwas ke kaabil hoon”.
Shaking her head, she enclosed his palm over her cheek with her own and smiled, “I should be the one thanking you. Aapne mujhe bacha lia. You saved me from the loneliness that I’ve been living forever with”.
Rishabh nodded and pulling his hand away, took her both palms in his, yet again. “Prerna-
She looked on questioningly as he went onto sit on his knees with her hands clasped in his warm ones. She gasped surprised and he chuckled.“Dariye mat, marry me nhi kahunga!”
“We’re already married”, she replied suppressing a chuckle as his face lit up with a boyish goofy grin, “Of course!”
“What I wanted to say is that aap bahut achi hain. Actually, you are too good to be with me. And by that record, I should be letting you go because I sincerely feel that you deserve best of every world that exists out there”, Rishabh started as Prerna parted her lips to reply but he beat her to it.
“But I’m not sure if you will appreciate the idea of letting Kuki go. As a fact, as I said I should be letting you go but I won’t ask of you if you want to leave or not because personally, I don’t want you to leave”, Rishabh spoke sincerely as she looked at him, feeling a warm glow in her chest.
“You might want to leave though but I insist you to stay. I-I may not be and most probably will never become the man you envisioned of spending your life with but I promise to be the best that you’ll ever find. I swear!” His eyes widened as he pinched the bulge in his throat between his thumb and forefinger, making Prerna’s smile grow wider.
“The only love I’m privy to is the one I have for my daughter. I care for you, feel happy when you’re around, when you boss me around and I promise to be ordered around without a complaint if this is what will make you stay. I don’t want you to see me leaving ever again. Love won’t even begin to describe the way I feel. I j-just….want a chance. Give me one and you’ll never regret it! But…just don’t walk away. I won’t be able to live. I’ll probably become a living corp—
“Shhh!” Prerna clapped her hand over Rishabh’s mouth, dropping down to his level.
His surprised wide yet cute confusion etched eyes made Prerna’s heart flutter yet again.
“I’m not leaving, Ok! So cease with your nonsense!” She glared at him as he nodded innocently making her laugh. “Even if you wanted, I would’ve straight up refused. I’m here to stay.Main ab kabhi vapas nhi jaa sakti or should I say that I don’t want to, any more.Ek time tha, but things have changed.I never want to envision my life without you. I can’t put in words the things I feel about you but they overpower every emotion I had ever felt in the past. So, yes.I want you to give me a chance too. Give us a chance so that one day we can become truly each other’s”.
Rishabh smiled as he enclosed Prerna in a hug and she reciprocated it with a smile of her own. Her gaze flickered towards the balcony to see Anurag standing with a smile on his face as he whipped around and walked away.
“Let’s become--”, Rishabh whispered, his heart thumping loudly.
“Yours--” Prerna whispered as they both closed their eyes and spoke in unison.
“Truely!”
And with this I wrap this FS up! First of all, thank you to every reader out here for reading and liking and sharing your views and giving me a chance to share mine.
Alright so, I don’t know what emotional messy mess I’ve written here.Honestly, got a li’l lost in the depth of this all, I confess! But while writing it, I truly felt happy like you know seeing a calm scenery where the sun is rising behind the mountains and the river is flowing down, cutting across the rocks as the air whispers and trees dance. Something along those lines! This is my personal view though!
Anyway, the thing about botulinum as a poison, I researched it a bit but all the facts may not be up to the point of reality since I’m not a medical practitioner so yeah. Botulinum’s highly lethal though, can cause death even in ng of quantities but is used in various medicines like for the migraine too. So I used that as a sort of base.
That’s all! I hope you all liked the ending. I HOPE that it was befitting to pave way to the start of something new. Do share your views.
Yours Truly,
Nish~
Link to my other stories:
|Deception| - PreRish SS https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/151185103?tid=5112520
|Drunken Confessions| - PreRish OS https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/151022663?tid=5108834
Edited by nish_vir - 5 years ago
CID
Kumkum Bhagya
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
