Hello guys! I am back with another OS! I felt that moment was very powerful wherein Kabir tells Ananya about her father's demise - I wanted to experiment with a little bit of angst in there! So here it is, borrowed a little from the show and a little from my imagination! Hope you all will like it!
And please do leave back your lovely thoughts/comments/feedbacks - I would love to know what you feel!
Happy Reading! đłđł
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"You know Ms. Kashyap, that I can run back and forth until the end of time to uncover the truth, hence trust me on this please - All the proofs suggest that your father Mr. Kashyap had committed suicide" said Kabir in a placid voice, then he further added in a slightly softer tone, "You have to accept the truth Ananya"
She was completely normal and in control of her mind and senses so far, in fact she felt eerily steady, she was outdoing herself. After eight long years of waiting she was finally hearing about her father, she would have imagined any news would break her. But time had taken its toll on her anxiety regarding her fathers news - she felt strangely impersonal and distant - it felt like hearing the news bulletin - she didn't feel loss, pain, or even remorse or dejection - well not right then anyway - only she was a bit lost - had she known this all along? Somewhere deep down?
"Ananya?"
She jerked out of her own thoughts and turned to look at Kabir, he was still peering at her with a poker face, but he kept adjusting the ring in his finger, it showed his alertness and a little nervousness maybe? What was he expecting? She would fall down on the floor and cry before him for heralding this news? Did he think, she needed comfort and support? What did Kabir Sir know? She was a war-horse.
Death is easy, at least you know for sure your loved ones are never returning, and over time you get used to it - but when a loved one just vanishes, it is harsh - because the wretched hope of seeing them again never dies - She had learnt to smile and survive with such a poisonous hope inside her for eight years now - she has taken care of her ma and Armaan - she has fulfilled her father's responsibility for years - she wasn't weak - she didn't need support - and most of all she didn't need to see the slight ebbing sympathy in Kabir Sir's eyes for her - she deserves more respect than that.
She pulled herself together with whatever grace she had and turned to look at Kabir.
"What makes you think I haven't accepted the news Sir?" She asked calmly looking him in the eye - behind his composed demeanor; he looked slightly ruffled at her response. She continued,
"So far, I at least had hope by my side, you've stolen away my hope Kabir Sir"
She heard him sigh, and knew a few sympathetic lines were coming her way now - for some reason it irritated her, she didn't want to hear them. So before he could utter a word, she continued.
"I guess my eight year long search was all in vein Sir, my father...he...my father..." but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud, not without feeling a vast uncomfortable hollow deep within the pit of her stomach. She opened her mouth again to say it aloud, but again she failed - slowly the news was seeping in from an impersonal piece of information to a personal tragedy - but she couldn't fall short - her wound was hers - just hers to nurse, she would never bare them before anyone - not even Kabir Sir - from a young age she hadn't seen a father's protected haven, and it was upon her to protect her mother and Armaan - she was too used to hiding her wounds with a faade of cheerful disposition - instinct stopped her from being naked before this man tonight.
"Please leave me alone for the night Sir, I need my own space to deal with it" she whispered softly instead.
Kabir stared at her, she was standing with her back on him. She was calm and as stoic as a rock. Her voice was cold and lifeless. She scared him tonight - he remembered mentioning to Malvika once about Ananya's childish, carefree and innocent disposition - features that breathed life into her being - today stood before him was a Ms. Kashyap without all these - was she even Ms. Kashyap? Who was she? Where was her childlike heart warming reaction? No, this was someone else.
The question was, which one of these was really Ananya? The one he knew for so long, or the one standing before him? They couldn't be one. Or maybe they are one now - and he was responsible for turning that Ananya into this - the innocence and child-like beliefs that separated her from the crowd - he had pulled exactly those qualities away from her today by bringing her this news.
Kabir cursed himself for turning another former Kabir to another present day Kabir - brooding, angry, and stoic.
The damage was done, it was a necessary evil, he thought in his defense - Ananya had the right to know. But maybe it was best to let her be for a while - maybe in solitude she will breakdown and tomorrow he would be able to see a small glimpse of the former Ms. Kashyap. With this hope, he produced a rickety old wallet from his chest pocket - he had kept it, as a mark of his sole professional failure which taught him, how he was late in investigation and how it cost a life - but the prop was more important to Ananya - it was the last thread to her father's story - he left the wallet on the corner table between the couches, and slowly walked out of there.
He was walking out of her main door feeling very hollow, he felt like he had lost someone today, maybe his bond with Ananya? He had reached their porch when Ananya called from behind in the same cold voice,
"Kabir Sir, please wait." He shut his eyes in an unknown agony as the lifeless voice hit his ears, but he waited.
Slowly she came before him - eyes misty, yet voice strong - she unhooked her chain from her neck and pulled out her much-cherished locket from it, as Kabir stared at her in confusion.
She unscrewed the locket and from it came out her most prized poccession - her lifelong link to Kabir Sharma - her father's article written by him. She unfolded the article and held it out before Kabir.
"Take it Sir. Our eight year long journey ends here" it was the first time ever since he gave her the news, he heard her voice crack a bit - she was in pain, he didn't know what maimed her more, was it the loss of her father or the parting with her soul, - her soul that lay embedded in the hope that she would find her father one day - he, Kabir had snatched that today. He shuddered as he quietly took that old parchment from her and carefully put it in his pocket.
The parchment was still precious - it was now Kabir's sole connect with Ananya. With the parchment in his hand, he found hope, a fresh new hope of unearthing the former Ms. Kashyap from her ruins.
The piece of parchment that kept Ananya connected to Kabir for eight years, would now keep Kabir connected to Ananya. Kabir sighed as he finally left her place holding the wallet with the parchment close to his heart and whispered.
"Until then Ananya"
***END***
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