Chapter 24
She fell on the ground, immobile, feeling helpless and sorry for herself. Although she was a strong woman, she made no attempt to withhold her tears. Tears of remorse and regret, tears of betrayal and anger rolled down and touched the ground. She could do nothing, since her hands were tightly tied. He had blindfolded her, making her sense of seeing completely useless.
"Please help me!" She let out another heart-wrenching cry, knowing that he was in the same room, taking sadistic pleasure in himself as he watch her struggle.
"Please." Her next cry came out more as a whisper and she realized that she was tired.
Unable to lift her head anymore, she let her body fall back on the ground. Slowly, her head rested on the ground, as she tried to recollect what had happened.
Most of it was still blurred and unclear. She remembers the sensation of warmth in her heart when she found herself in Armaan's arms in the morning. The sunlight disturbed him, making him more frenzy in his sleep than ever! He frowned, pulling out the pillow from underneath his head and burying his head under it. She spent about an hour or so watching him sleep, she had no idea how had been slipping away so fast. She had to push herself out of the bed, when she received a message from the hospital that she had to report to the hospital since there were some emergency cases in the ward and most of the on-duty doctors were busy elsewhere. Though Dr. Riddhima Gupta was on an official leave, she had to report back to the hospital. There was a patient, in Sanjeevni, a human being, who needed her right now. That was the first thing she had learned when she had decided to take MBBS as a profession: duty comes first.
Gently, she tried to push Armaan's arms away, only to make it worse. Armaan frowned, still in his sleep, and then wrapped his arms around her even more tightly, to be finally be at peace.
"Armaan." She whispered, bending over to place a soft kiss on his cheeks.
Silence.
"Armaan?" She shook him harder.
Silence.
"Armaan! I need have to report to the hospital. Let me go."
"Mmm." Saying so, he nuzzled her neck slightly, breathing in her intoxicating scent and planting soft kiss on her neck, whilst still in his sleep. Riddhima sighed.
"Armaan, baby? Please, let me go. I have to go to the hospital. Please." She shook him a little more, hoping that he would let her go.
"You are on a leave, Riddhima. Just let me sleep, okay?" He mumbled, hugging her closer this time.
"I know", she sighed, "its an emergency."
"I will be back soon. I promise."
At that, he opened his eyes slowly, with a little amount of disappointment and sadness marked in his expressions since Riddhima was going to spend the day with him.
"Promise?"
She smiled and kissed him.
"I promise." She stroked his cheeks, as they looked at each other till their heart content.
Riddhima began to pull away after a while, on to be be befuddled when Armaan caught her and pulled her back.
"Armaan, what are you doing? I have to g-" Riddhima was interrupted, when Armaan placed his fingers on her lips and shushed her.
"I love you." He pulled the strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her.
The sound of a chair being dragged brought her back crashing into reality and she realized that morning was long gone. She had lost track of time, since it seemed ages to her.
She tried to concentrate further, pushing herself harder to know what happened after she left home.. all she knew was that she never made it to the hospital that day.
The last thing she remembers is that she had decided to walk, inspite of Armaan's insistence that he drops her. Armaan has been working day and nights, since his new album is due to release next week. She didn't want to take away his resting hours, so decided to talk a nice long walk to the hospital and stop by her favorite coffee shop on the way. She knew that her decision wasn't the wisest one instantly, when she walked into the coffee shop to find Aditya waiting there.
She remembers being horrified. Almost instantly, she retraced her steps, walking as fast as she could, hoping that Aditya wouldn't follow her. She didn't want to create a scene, not here, not now. The next thing she remembers is... darkness. Complete darkness and nothing more.
How much ever Riddhima pushed herself, she could not fill in the gaps. She could not understand.
She was in the middle of a busy street on a weekday morning. What happened? How did she end up in here?
Her hands, tightly tied, hurt her immensely. Her jumbled thoughts made it difficult for her to think. With the tied hands and legs, and the blindfold, she tried to get up and find a way out, but it was all in vain. She knew that she was going to die.. she knew that her ends was near.
"Give up, Riddhima. Or you will hurt yourself more." Said a strangely familiar voice, who, Riddhima realized was standing close to her. Riddhima withdrew herself, afraid of the closeness.
This tone.. this voice.. this accent.. she was familiar with it. It was not she had expected.
"Let me go, please." She cried, her voice low as whisper.
"why?", he asked her shocking her even more.
"why should I let you go, huh?" The amount of rage in his tone scared her.
"so that you can go back and marry.. Armaan Malik?" He said with disgust in his voice.
"why don't you understand, Riddhima? why can't you see! He doesn't love you. He is toying with you." The distance between them was now dangerously close.
"Don't you dare." Riddhima didn't care if he cut her to pieces, but she couldn't bare another word against Armaan.
Silence.
"Don't you dare a speak a word against Armaan."
Bang!
"Dammit, Riddhima."
Silence. Riddhima realized that she was shaking.
"Don't be scared of me. It hurts."
"what do you want?" Riddhima was now sure that it wasn't Aditya she was to be scared of. It was someone else. She should have seen it long ago. It was all in front of her, and yet she ignored it. She was so blinded by love not to see the signs of a coming storm. Now that she did, she was rendered helpless. It ached her to think of how it might all end up. How it might end up for her.. for her family... for Armaan.
"I want you to trust me, Riddhima." He touched her face slightly but she pushed herself away from his touch.
She could feel him close enough, as she tried to crawl as far away as possible. And then she found herself caged by the walls.
"Really? Do you want me to trust you after everything you have done?" Pain and anger surged through her.
"I trust you! I loved you! How could you do this to me? How could you, Rahul? How could you?" She cried bitterly, with her head against the wall. Of course, she recognized his voice instantly. He was her best-friend. She loved him the most, no matter what!
Silence.
"You don't see it, Riddhima. But you will." There was an amount of calmness in his voice that scared her.
"Don't you dare, Rahul. Don't you dare touch Armaan! Rahul! Rahul!" She cried and cried, helpless, not knowing what to do. All her screams were unheard since Rahul was already out of the room, as she heard the sound of footsteps fade away, followed by the loud bang of the door.
She found herself alone in the room again..
Anupamaa
Udne Ki Aasha
12