Part 9:
Next morning Advay woke up with a sound of crack and stinging pain on the left side of his face, moaning with pain he opened his eyes and saw Chandni looking at him with hate and disgust in her teary eyes, forgetting about his own pain he jolted to sit up “Chandni are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt, or are you having fever?” he asked her with concern touching her forehead. “Don’t you dare to touch me you scoundrel” she slapped away his hand with disgust “I thought that you might be regretting for your mistake, that you actually wanted to repent your sin, but I was wrong you are the same monster and you again took advantage of me, now I hate you more than ever” she told him hysterically while slapping hard at his chest. At first Advay didn’t understand what she meant by all this but when the reality dawned upon him he wanted to clarify the situation to her but she wasn’t ready to listen “just go away from here I don’t want to see your hideous face anymore you are the same and you will remain to be the same a monster, just go or I’ll do something to myself” she shouted at him, Advay flinched at her outburst but without saying anything he left from there.
Few hours later he could hear Naani banging at his door and when opened the door a slap on his face by Naani welcomed him “Cheeku! How could you do it again to her? Wasn’t it enough for you to destroy her once that you again crushed her soul? I’m ashamed that you are my grandson” there was no way that Naani’s anger was going to cool down and he knew the reason. But he tolerated all the fuss and anger silently believing that he deserved it (but did he?). (Listen to this song to understand what Advay is feeling right now.)
“Point Of No Return” by Starset
“There’s a memory of how we used to be
That I can see through the flames
I am hypnotized as I fantasize
Forgetting lies and pain
But I can’t go back
The ashes call my name
Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
Breaking the habit and melting the chains
Embracing the fear, chasing the fight
The glow of the fire will light up the night
The bridges are burning, the heat’s on my face
Making the past an unreachable place
Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
I know, this is the point of no return” “Naani can you please calm down and give me a chance to explain this situation” he pleaded to Naani. “You call it a situation, you again took advantage of that poor girl and you are labeling as a situation! Shame on you Cheeku. I thought that your past has done damage to you and acted out of rage for what happened to you and your mother but I didn’t know that I had brought up a monster who is hell bent to destroy an innocent girl’s life” Naani spat at him with anger.
“It’s uncontrollable
Such a beautiful desire
There’s something sinister about the way it hurts
When I watch it burn
(Higher and higher)
Because I can’t go back
The ashes call my name
Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
Breaking the habit and melting the chains
Embracing the fear, chasing the fight
The glow of the fire will light up the night
The bridges are burning, the heat’s on my face
Making the past an unreachable place
Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
I know, this is the point of no return
I won’t turn around
I won’t turn around
I won’t turn around” “Naani I know I deserve worst than this but please believe me I didn’t do anything wrong to Chandni this time, please just calm down and give me a chance to explain what happened last night, please” he pleaded again, this time Naani gave him a chance to explain by nodding her head. “You know that yesterday night it was heavily raining and Murli had to go to his home for his sister’s marriage preparations, I asked him to shift me back to this room and tell Chandni that she can come back to that room but he couldn’t find her anywhere in the house and he was getting late so I asked him to go and went to look for Chandni myself. She was in the backyard garden unconscious on the floor in heavy rain, her clothes were drenched in rain and there was a big chance that she could fall ill, so all I did was taking her to the room, changed her wet clothes, wrapped her in a blanket and when her shivering didn’t lessen I laid with her to induce my body heat into her. I had no other motives except saving her life” he told Naani in a tired and broken voice.
“Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
Breaking the habit and melting the chains
Embracing the fear, chasing the fight
The glow of the fire will light up the night
The bridges are burning, the heat’s on my face
Making the past an unreachable place
Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames
I know, this is the point of no return
This is the point of no return
This is the point of no return” Naani’s angry features softened after hearing the last night’s incident and there were tears glistening in her eyes, she hugged her favourite grandson and said “Cheeku my child I’m sorry I raised my hand on you without knowing the truth, but why didn’t you tell Chandni the truth?” she asked him. “Naani do you think after what I’ve put her through she is ever gonna believe a single word that comes out of my mouth. For her I’m a monster who has destroyed her life and I’m going to be this person in her eyes for the rest of my life and she is never going to forgive me. I only deserve her hatred, so whatever she did she was right, I had it coming” Advay told Naani in his choked voice, but both of them didn’t know that Chandni had heard their whole conversation standing outside the closed door as she had come there to ask Naani to join for the lunch and a lone tear escaped her eye and she quickly went away from there.