CH 2 || Holding Tight For The New Venture

Aditi

******

I was alone and was laid on the concrete ground. I could not see anything. Everything was entirely dark and I couldn't feel anyone's presence around me.

"Is anybody here?" I called while attempting to sit up. My voice echoed. I wasn't frightened of the darkness but of the fact that nobody was with me. I had always dreaded one feeling ever since I was a child, to be left alone, to be abandoned.

In spite of the fact that time had just given me the sensation of forlornness, either way, I had tried my best to hold onto each thread of every relationship in my life. The very first time when I was swamped by the waves of loneliness was when I lost my mother.

Dismissing those thoughts I was contemplating where I was, how I ended up in a dark room when I was in the water a few seconds ago. All of a sudden I heard the voice of the one I always craved to hear for years.

"Aditi." It was my mother calling me.

"Mom..." I yelled getting up from my sitting position. I was no less than blind at an unilluminated place. With my hands stretched I moved here and there in the hope to touch her. I presumed I was dead, otherwise, how could I hear her. She was gone long ago.

"Mom, I can't see you..." I shouted roaming like a headless chicken. No voice of hers reached me one more time. When I assumed it was all in my head I heard my father calling me.

"Aditi..."

"Dad, where are you?" I had no clue about what was happening. If I would have been dead there was no way I would have heard my father. Though he was not the same as before, still, I was happy that he was alive. He had promised me to live till long. There was a pact between us, a promise he had made to me that he would never leave me alone, no matter the circumstances.

"Ady we are getting late. Come fast..."

"Yes, Ady don't tell me you didn't find your outfit yet."

Those voices were of my best friends Dhriti and Adya.

"Sammy, Adya, where are you guys? I am stuck here in this dark room. Help me get out, please..." One thing that became apparent to me was, none of them could hear me.

"Ady, if you won't come out at this instant I won't talk to you."

"Sammy..." I cried for my best friend who had always been there to support me. Though her real name was Dhriti, yet she loved being called by the nickname I had given her.

The voices were gone. No one responded to me, neither my parents nor my friends. It felt as though something was playing an evil stunt with me.

"Aditi, are you ready?" I heard the man I had fallen in love with at first sight.

"Just a second Vidyut." The reply was by me but I hadn't said a word yet. A screen flashed right in front of me. I could see Vidyut and me. It was our first date after our wedding as a married couple. I was on cloud nine that day.

"How do I look?"

I recalled the blue dress he had bought for me. It was so ethereal and elegant that I chose not to wear it. How silly of me that I wanted to preserve it as my first gift after the wedding. But Vidyut had other plans, he wanted to see me in the same dress. He would always say blue suits me. I had to wear it, only for him.

"As always, you look gorgeous." The scene continued as part of a movie. I pondered where I was nevertheless happy to have the option to see the past times.

"I love you."

"I love you too." After our confession, he kissed me momentarily, making me all shy.

"Now, let's go. We don't want to be late, right?" Bashfully I nodded before he took me to a dinner date.

I got au courant where I was and why there was no one besides me. It wasn't any dark room where I was stuck in, instead, were my memories. The most recent one was played while for the older one I could only hear voices. I was stuck with those reminiscences. Nothing was left with me, no was there with me, except those memories which chose to stay behind.

I slumped down, crying. My tears had begun moving out. I closed my eyes and waited for something I didn't have the foggiest idea of.

The moment I shut my eyes I could hear a beep sound. I wondered where it was coming from but didn't care to open my eyes.

"How about her vitals?"

"They are normal."

"Hmmm. She seems fine."

"I surmise she will soon regain her consciousness."

The two unfamiliar voices that landed upon my ears were not from the stack of my memories.

Sometime later I felt somebody holding my wrist as though inspecting it. I was eager to see who it was so steadily I attempted to open my eyes.

My eyes squinted with the bright light the moment I tried to open them. My head was aching and my body seemed stiff. Something was hurting my hand.

"Aditi." I gradually opened my eyes only to find a concerned husband of mine sitting beside me. His eyes had bags under them as if he hadn't slept a wink.

"Vid...Vidyut." I said in my hoarse voice.

"Are you okay?" I shook my head, sniffing. I didn't have to ramble my eyes to perceive where I was. The soft pillow and crisp sheets beneath me had told me the tale. It was a hospital bed.

The pungent smell of the mixture of cleaners and antiseptic had reached my nostrils. Along with that the room was filled with the fragrance of red roses. Those scents were making me feel more sick.

"How do you feel, Mrs.Kohli?" On Vidyut's right stood a middle-aged man wearing a white overcoat. The stethoscope wrapped around his neck while a female in her thirties was checking something on a machine.

"My head is aching," I replied, slowly.

"That was anticipated." He mumbled before muttering something to the nurse. The nurse tenaciously listened to him and then the doctor turned to me again. He smiled with his crooked teeth on display and said, "You will be fine soon."

"Doctor, when can we take her home?" The solicitous view of my husband somehow made me feel content.

"In a few hours..." Relief passed over his features and he thanked the doctor for saving my life. The doctor along with the nurse when left, Vidyut stroked my hair and planted a kiss on my forehead.

"What were you doing outside at night?" Vidyut's abrupt question had caught me off guard. I was heedless to reply.

'What I was doing out at night?'

'What was I looking for?'

'Who exactly was I looking for?'

I hadn't thought about the questions which were to be directed to me before going out alone at night. While Vidyut awaited my response, I was slow to respond.

I was still in my thoughts when suddenly the door to my room barged open, breaking our eye contact.

"You love to trouble my son, don't you?" Vidyut's Mom accompanying his dad had arrived. I didn't know what they were doing in California. She was fuming, I could see.

"Mom? When did you and dad come?" Vidyut asked. He was oblivious too, of their arrival.

"Just a few hours ago. We couldn't stop ourselves when we heard from you last night." His father replied. I was trying to get up but was weak. Vidyut had to help me sit up.

"Why do you trouble my son?" His mother yelled as if I had the sole intention in my life which was to cause issues in her son's life.

"I am sorry..." I whispered. My eyes loaded up with tears of distress.

"Your sorry won't change the fact that my son had to jump into the river to save you. Will it?" The pair of black eyes I had seen was of Vidyut, I concluded hearing her. I wanted to smile but at the same time didn't create a scene by doing so.

"Mom, please..."

"Nisha, for God's sake, will you let her take a rest. She is still not fine."

"Everyone wants only me to shut up." Vidyut's mother said before dashing out of the room.

She never liked me and I always failed to understand her reason behind the disliking. I never cared too, as long as Vidyut was by my side. But we were not the same anymore. That's what I had started to feel, not him.

Everything had always been so casual for him, my pain, my suffering, my mood swings, everything was just not enough for him to pay attention that forced me to take a step to be the only person he focuses on.

I was being egocentric as far as possible yet that was the only way out for me to save our relationship.

"How are you dear?" Vidyut's dad questioned, taking a seat on my right.

"I am fine, Dad."

"Aditi, you were about to tell me why were you out last night?" I looked at my husband whose curious eyes awaited my response.

"Vidyut, don't force her, please." Though dad stopped him, still, I had to answer him. If not at that moment, then later on, but I had to.

"It was an accident," I replied. Two pairs of inquisitive eyes on me, ready to tune in to what explanation I had in store.

"I saw the man who had stolen my phone a day ago. I chased him and eventually reached the edge of a bridge trying to hunt him. Out Of nowhere he appeared from behind and pushed me." That was another stupid lie to gain my husband's attention. It was the plot of a movie I had watched with Vidyut a month ago. I wondered what he would say, whether he would catch my lie or like every other time he would fail to.

I was more than curious to be mindful of how he would react after hearing me say that someone tried to hurt his beloved wife.

"You lost your phone?" That was the first question he asked.

"That was the most recent model. Don't worry, I will get a new one for you. I am glad I reached on time."

He was glad that he reached on time. However, the first thing he heard was the phone and not me.

'Was the phone his priority or was I thinking too much?' I thought.

"And about the one who tried to hurt you, I will talk to the cops." He added further. I gawked at him stupefied.

"Dear, you seemed exhausted. Why don't you take a rest?" I heard Vidyut's father who was about to leave. After advising me to take a rest he said to his son, "Vidyut, let's leave. She needs to take a rest for a while."

Hearing him I without wasting a moment held my husband's hand.

"Don't, please...". I wanted him by my side. I needed him.

"I have a meeting sweetheart but I promise I will be back in three hours." He left a lingering kiss on top of my head before he left. I was as always left with a promise. There was no point in waiting still, I did. He didn't come, though, to pick me up.

One More fake promise had swathed me, its thorns piercing me and I inevitably embraced it.

'Was I a fool?'

No

'Then what was wrong with me?'

That I was in love with my husband.

******

Dad had taken me back home in the afternoon. Throughout the day I was confined to bed, not permitted to move. Moreover, even if I wanted to I would have failed because of the meds.

At the time of dinner, I didn't want to be stuck in the room. It was better to listen to mom's rebukings rather than the voice inside my head.

Strolling down the flight of stairs was extreme for my exhausted body. At one stage I had stopped but somebody scooped me from behind getting a screech from me.

"Let me take you to the dining hall," said Vidyut before he took me to the hall in his arms. The last I remembered to be picked up by him was a year ago, on the first night of our wedding.

"You are here for dinner?" I couldn't stop myself from asking him. The memories of when we last had dinner together had faded. We would rarely see each other for meals.

"I had to, for you." I pondered whether he came back for me or his meeting got cancelled. Whatever the reason was, I was glad he was there.

"Lucky me." Vidyut placed me on the chair beside him before kissing me on the forehead, lovingly, making me smile. His parents arrived a few minutes later.

While we were having dinner I didn't have the appetite. I was just playing with the spoon, rotating it in the hot bowl of soup.

"Aditi, why aren't you eating?"

"I am not hungry, dad."

"Dear, you will have to eat for you to get better."

"I will feed her. Don't worry." Vidyut took the spoon from my head, filled it with the hot soup, and blew air on it as if was feeding a kid. When he placed it near my mouth it felt like the old days. My eyes brimmed with tears but I flickered them away. My old Vidyut was with me feeding me, the one I had fallen in love with. My unshed tears were the proof of my happiness.

While dad had an endearing smile on his face, my mother-in-law rolled her eyes at us.

After dinner, Dad and Mom retired to their room while Vidyut took me to ours. After giving me the meds I thought he would leave to work in his study, instead, he closed the door behind and came to me.

After positioning himself on my right, he pulled me closer to him.

"Don't you have work today?" I asked keeping my head on his chest.

"Work can wait, wifey." I could feel I was important to him.

'Were all those weird thoughts I was having about our distance baseless?'

'Was I in so much pain that I could not see he was the same Vidyut and only I had changed after that incident?'

The incessant thoughts of mine had started troubling me.

I snuggled more to Vidyut, seeking the warmth but I was apprehensive. Something didn't feel like the old days. Something was indeed different, something had changed.

Vidyut seemed in his thoughts. It showed up as though he wanted to say something to me. I could detect by the way he was running his fingers in my hair. It was to calm his anxious self and not to show his love for me. Besides, in the mirror on his right, I could see he was agitated.

"Aditi..." He called after moments of silence.

"Hmmm."

"Mom and Dad want us to move to San Francisco." By his look, I could tell he was announcing that we would have to leave.

"Why?"

"The head branch of the company needs me. Also, there you can go to meet our family whenever you want. You won't even get bored." 

I thought the change of place would be a better option for me, for him, and both of us. It was the place where I had first met him. It might rekindle the flame which was on the verge of diminishing.

"Will we live in your penthouse?"

"Yes, the same we lived in after our wedding for a short while. Are you okay with it?"

"Yeah..." It was a bit far from his ancestral house but still, I was okay with the idea of us leaving California.

California had given me nothing but painful memories that I never wanted to revisit, not even in my terrible nightmares.

"Also dad was asking if you would like to work in our PR team in the main branch in San Francisco?"

I had the thought of having that conversation I was dreading from long. But it seemed necessary at that point.

"Can't I join my old job back?" I looked up at him with my chin resting on his chest. Vidyut appeared displeased with the idea of me having my old job back. He sighed audibly before saying, "We have had this discussion before, haven't we? I know you loved being a journalist but that's risky."

Despite knowing that it was dangerous I had chosen to be a journalist because I loved soaring high my voice for justice, for the public. I had always cherished being on the field, helping innocents, fighting the conniving evils of society.

Although Vidyut could never understand my uptake on my profession.

"Aditi, I love you, and no way in the world I would want to lose the people I love, got it?" I didn't say anything. I remained silent as I didn't have the energy. I was not in the favour of any argument so decided to drop the matter that had became the cause of our battles and fights previously.

I rested my head back on his chest, not wanting to look into his eyes.

"Please try to understand my point as well. You have no idea I was so scared last night. I might have lost you if I hadn't reached on time and saved you."

"I am sorry. I will be careful next time." I mumbled.

"Don't be. Aditi, I have never stopped you from doing anything but this job of yours is very much troublesome for both of us. I don't want to put your life at stake." I pecked his lips before smiling faintly at him. Turning to the other side I closed my eyes.

"You do understand what I meant, right?" Vidyut had his arm around me, his lips planting kisses on my bare shoulder.

Gulping the lump formed in my throat the only word left out was, "Yeah."

"I know it was your dream but I can't afford to lose you."

"I will not talk about that topic again," I muttered.

"I love you." Pausing for a substantial amount of time I replied, "I love you too."

My lifelong dream of being a journalist was shattered the moment I was made to wear the shackles of being Vidyut Kohli's wife. With a popular name connected to yours comes an enormous cost, I was never told.

I presumed things would get better when we would shift to San Francisco. What could go wrong at a place familiar to me, or maybe much more can happen? Who knew?

All I had to do was hold tight for the new venture of my life.

******

Author

******

The rear tinted window of the black car slid down.  

"You sure you looked well for it well?" The man in the car queried the one who was standing out in the mysterious alley.

"I tried okay, I really did," replied the one who stood out with his hands in pocked. He seemed annoyed. But his annoyance lived a short life, as the one the car growled in his low voice,"Don't you fucking use that tone on me. You should know better you are alive because of whom, Henry."

Henry Smith was a criminal, a thug who was about to get murdered but was saved by the person in the car in time and now he was indebted to him.

Henry was now calm and asked, "What do you want now? Should I keep looking for it?"

"NO, you better not do anything now. Stay still for now." Henry nodded, being aware of what was the man he considered his supervisor was capable of.

"I know what I have to do." 

After ordering Henry to be in hiding for the time being he asked his driver to drove away. Once out of the alley he dialled a number, that too of a woman.

"Hello." she said hesitantly.

"We need to talk." Even after years' hearing his voice shivered her entire self. He had called after years and she understood well the time had come, time for destruction. She did nothing but prayed, prayed for those who were clueless that their lives were at stake.