Tej blinked again and again to make sure that it was Toasty who he was looking at. He ran to her and so did Toasty. Tej raised his hand to touch her cheek. He felt her skin. She was indeed real. He cupped her face and kissed her cheeks and forehead. He pulled her into a hug and she hugged him tightly. He felt alive holding her in his arms. He wanted the time to stop so that they would never break apart.
Toasty looked up to the sky as if talking to God and asked him to forgive her for breaking the promise that she made to him. She came out of the embrace and turned around to leave. Tej immediately caught her by her hand. He was confused as to why she was leaving.
'Toasty?'
'Toasty?...Who Toasty?...My...name is...Sonia.' Tej left her hand in shock and Toasty found the chance and ran away.
'Sonia?' Tej was confused but before he could ask her something, she had disappeared.
________________________________________________________________________
'Shant ho jao Tej. We will think of something.' Pashu Bhaiya tried to console Tej.
'Kya shant ho jao? I lost her again Bhaiya. She was just there and I...' Tej's voice broke off.
'Suno, till we have this with us, we haven't lost her.' Pashu Bhaiya said showing the locket.
'But Sonia? How did Toasty Bhabhi become Sonia Bhabhi?' Gyan asked.
'That we will have to find out.' Pashu Bhaiya said.
'But how?' Everyone asked together.
'Ek plan toh hai.' Pashu Bhaiya smiled and said.
_________________________________________________________________________
Sudha, Lalit and Dimple were giving each other strange looks on seeing Toasty walk across the room a thousand times for the past one hour.
'You ask.' Sudha said.
'Why should I ask? You ask.' Lalit said.
'Dimple, you ask na.' Sudha said. Dimple shook her head. This 'tu tu-main main' continued for quite some time.
'Stop it you people. I'm trying to think.' Toasty said.
'Think about what?'
'Tej!'
'Ab kya?'
'Mumma, I have decided that we will leave this place.'
'Leave this place? Are you mad?' Sudha stood up in shock.
'We have no other option. What I didn't want to happen, happened. I don't think I can stop myself next time when I see Tej. I don't want anything worse to happen.'
'Par Toasty'' Sudha said.
'No Mumma. I'm not listening to anything this time. I'm leaving tomorrow evening itself, with or without you people.'
The trio saw the tears in Toasty's eyes as she left to go back to her room.
'What do we do now?' Lalit asked.
'What is left to do? We have to go back.'
'But the money is less there na. We came here so that we can pay back the loan faster.'
'Don't worry. We will find some solution.' Sudha said and smiled.
'Hmm. Sudha Lalit Kumar Sharma ji, have you noticed something today?'
'What?'
'After a long time, I saw that 'chamak' in our Toasty's eyes.'
'Chamak will obviously be there in her eyes, after all she met Tej today.' The tro smiled.
'I'm telling you, Toasty will go back to that market place tomorrow morning itself to get back that locket.' Sudha said. They all knew how much Toasty valued that locket.
_____________________________________________________________________
The next day morning, Toasty reached the market place and looked around to make sure that no one from the Chaturvedi family were there. She knew that the entire family would be looking for her now so she needs to be quick in getting back home fast.
'Bhaiya, that day when I came, I left my locket here. Do you know anything about it?'
'Arre haan yeah I have it. After you left, I saw the locket on the ground so I kept it safely, hoping you would come back to get it.'
'Thank you so much Bhaiya.' The shopkeeper gave the locket back to her.
'Don't mistake me but I opened the locket and saw a picture of man. Who is he?'
'Woh mera husband hai.' Toasty gave a wide grin.
'Acha? By the way, where do you live?'
'Woh R.V Apartments hain na, wahan I stay. Chalti hoon Bhaiya.'
Five minutes after Toasty left, 6 men approached the shopkeeper.
'Kya bola?' Tej asked the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper told them everything that Toasty said. Tej couldn't help but smile when Toasty told that it was her husband's picture in the locket.
'Ji, what you asked me to do, I did. So'' The shopkeeper spoke.
Pitaji opened his wallet and gave him Rs. 50.
'Ji, only this much?'
'Iss mein bhi budget?' Pashu Bhaiya said shaking his head.
Tej opened his wallet and give the shopkeeper Rs.500.
'Ab kya?' Pracheen asked.
'R.V Appartments aur kya?' Tej grinned.
'The watchman of that apartement will be knowing which flat Bhabhi is living in na. We will show him Bhabhi's picture and find out.' Gyan said.
_____________________________________________________________________
'Coming!' Sudha screamed as she heard the door bell.
As she opened the door, Sudha stood bewildered to see 6 men of the Chaturvedi family standing at her doorstep.
'Mumma, who is it?' Toasty asked as she neared the door. Sudha didn't respond to her.
'Arre'' Toasty's voice broke off as she saw what her mom just saw. The worst had happened.
Tej entered the house and held Toasty by her shoulder and asked 'Why? Why Toasty? Why?'.
'I'm not Toasty. Sonia is my name.'
'Enough. I know that you are my Toasty. Stop lying.' He took his hands off her.
'Toasty, enough is enough. They have the right to know what happened. It's high time that you tell them. I don't want to argue any further. We have listened to everything you said, this time please listen to me and tell them.' Sudha folded her hands in request. Toasty nodded her head.
'That day when I left the house, I had no intention of returning back because I knew I would die soon. I didn't lie to you people about going to Bangalore to stay with Smita for 5 days. I really did go there for 5 days. In those 5 days, Smita did a lot of research work and came to know about a hospital in US which has been successful in most cases in curing Brain Tumor. So we decided to go to US and get treatment. Mumma and Pappa told me to to inform all of you about it but I only denied it saying that I didn't want to give any false hope and if I got cured, I would definitely return back. The treatment was for 6 months and as you can see, it was successful. The day I came back to Mumbai, I came to meet you. On my way to the house, I saw Tej and Smiley getting down the bike at a restaurant. I tried to follow them and at the entrance of the restaurant, I heard Tej say that he made a reservation for Mr. and Mrs. Tej Prakash Chaturvedi. I realized that Tej had married Smiley so I left and went back to Bangalore. I wasn't upset that Tej re-married because that's what I wanted when I thought I would be dead soon. We just shifted here last month because Pappa and I got a more paid job. We needed more money to replay the loan that we took for the treatment.'
'I didn't marry Smiley.' Tej said.
'What?' She won't deny that those words by Tej gave her happiness but she wondered what happened otherwise.
'Smiley wanted to see some performance that was taking place at the restaurant but only married couples were allowed so we lied to get into the restaurant.'
'Oh my god! All this is my fault. I should have'' Toasty didn't speak any more. She hugged Tej and said 'Sorry' at least a hundred times.
'Now we shall have Toasty Bhabhi's 2nd grihapravesh.' Pracheen said excitedly.
Precap: No precap 😛
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
