Part 11
(Still in Flashback)
It was difficult for them to see Anika in such a state. Her head was wrapped in gauze with splotches or red and purple bruises on her face and body. Shivay wanted to go and find Daksh to hurt him just as much if not more than how he hurt Anika. It’s been two days and there has been no change, she stayed still in her bed with all of us begging her to wake up.
Because no else knew that we found her, we all would go back home for the evening and leave in the morning to come. We tried to alternate from time to time so that the person behind all of this didn’t come onto us and figure out a way to escape from this. Shivay made a promise to Anika that when found the person who made Daksh’s bail and helped in her kidnapping; he will make sure that the person didn’t see another day.
“Come on Anika, wake up. How long are you going sleep, and make us all anxious? Just wake up.” Shivay plead with her. For the last two days since Anika has been in the hospital, Shivay has also been there, pleading with her to wake up. OmRu, Dadi and Sowmya can see the fear in his eyes of losing Anika. Shivay sat beside Anika holding her right hand in his, and simply talking to her, mostly pleading with her to wake up and come back to him.
“Bhabhi…” Rudra said. Everyone turned their heads in his direction, to see Rudra pointing his hands towards Anika. They all turned their heads in the direction of which Rudra was pointing and relief flooded their eyes. Anika’s left hand was making movements.
“ANIKA” Shivay called out to her. There were movements in her eyes and her right hand that was being held by Shivay was also starting to move. Everyone moved towards Anika with tears of happiness in their eyes.
Slowly and surely Anika opened her eyes. She struggled to keep her eyes opened for a bit but then managed to keep them opened as she looked around her surroundings. She looked at the faces surrounding her and made a movement to get up only to realize that one of her hands is being held by someone. She looked down and then to the person holding it. She held her eyes on Shivay for a few seconds but soon her eyes were starting to get fuzzy again. She looked away from him and looked at the others in the room, all the while Shivay still held onto her hand.
She made a slight movement to get her hands out of his grip, but Shivay held on tightly. Anika looked at him and then looked away and around her surroundings. “Would you like some water?” Sowmya asked as she understood that Anika might be thirsty. Anika stopped looking around and looked at Sowmya and shook her head in the affirmative. Sowmya went to get her water and brought a straw with her to make it easy for Anika to drink the water.
“Thank you.” Anika said in a fragile voice. “But can I ask, who are you?” her comment made everyone stand still. While they knew there might be a slight chance of this happening, they were hoping that it wouldn’t come true. “What is going on? How did I come here? Who are you all? My brother, where is he? Is he okay? What happened to me?” Anika was getting impatient and was starting to get agitated. She was trying to get up but was stopped by Shivay.
“Stop it Anika, just stop. Don’t worry, Sahil is safe and at home. You are okay and nothing is going to happen to you. You’re at the hospital as you were injured severally, but you are fine now.” Shivay reassured Anika as he was trying to calm her down.
Anika continued struggling with him trying to get out of his grip, “Who are you, just leave me alone.” She screamed all the while struggling to get free. Shivay who felt bad hearing Anika ask who he was held her tightly and asked her to stop fighting as she is injured and needs to rest. As her body was resisting her movement and giving her pain, she stopped fighting with him and took his help to lie back down. “Who are you?” she asked once again in a fragile voice as she looked around at each of their faces.
Everyone looked at one another and struggled to find the answer. They wanted to tell her the truth but were afraid of what it may do to her. Shivay was about to say something when the doctor came into the room.
“Ah Ms. Anika, it’s good to see you are awake. How are you doing?” The doctor asked her.
“I’m fine doctor, but what am I doing here? How did I get here and who are they?” She asked him. The doctor looked around and found them all looking on sad.
“This is the Oberoi family.” As he said this he watched carefully to see if any spark of recognition came in her eyes. “These three boys saved you from a dangerous situation,” he continued on.
Anika looked at the three of them and said thank you. She was still struggling to figure out who they were which was making her more and more anxious. She tried getting up once again with a failed attempt, and Shivay moved forward once again to help her. Due to the anxiousness, Shivay’s touch just made it worse and Anika started moving against him thrashing her body everywhere. Seeing this, the doctor injected her with painkillers to calm her down. Slowly the painkillers started taking its effect and calmed her body down and she fell unconscious in Shivays arms.
“Doctor, what happened to her?” Shivay asked him.
“Don’t worry Mr. Oberoi; this is usual in a head trauma case. Especially with her situation, her body and mind are just trying to forget everything that happened today. Let her rest, I have given her injection to help her sleep. Once she wakes up again we will see. Sometimes patients wake up again and are back to their normal self and sometimes their amnesia continues on and we have to help them find their way back. You just have to be patient with her.” The doctor told them.
“If she doesn’t regain her memory again when she wakes up, should we tell her about who we are to her? Will that affect her more or will that help her gain her memory faster?” Dadi questioned the doctor as Shivay and the rest looked on.
“You should tell her the truth. Most patients in this situation want to know the truth because they themselves don’t know what the truths of their own lives are. They are relying on someone else to tell them what has happened in their lives from the time they remember to the present. If you tell them something that isn’t true and when they come to find out, they won’t be able to trust you. It’s always best to simply tell the truth to them even if you think that telling the truth will hurt them more.” The doctor told the bunch. Just then the nurse opened the door to tell him that the patient next door needed to see him. “Let me know when she regains consciousness.” Saying this he walked out with the nurse.
They all looked at Anika, as Dadi walked over to her and placed her hand on Anika’s forehead. “What shall we tell you puthar that you are married to my grandson, but only our family knows about it? That the world thinks Shivay Singh Oberoi is married to Tia Kapoor. Shall I tell you that the two of you were going to get divorced, but then by god’s grace the court judge said the divorce can’t happen until you guys have been married for a year? Shall I tell you that the boy that we all trusted and treated as one of our own was the reason for your hurt and agony today? What do I tell you puthar?” Dadi was crying as she spoke to a sleeping Anika. The others watched with tears in their eyes. Just then Rudra’s phone rang.
“Yes ma?…Okay we’re coming.” Rudra cancelled the call and looked up to see everyone watching him. “That was mom, she was just wondering where we were and to come home soon as it was getting late.” Rudra told the others.
“You go I’ll stay with her in case she wakes up.” Shivay told everyone. Dadi patted Anika’s head, while Om and Sowmya held her hand to show their support to her. Rudra gently hugged Anika and kissed her cheek and whispered in her ears to get well soon and wake up as he needed someone to support him against the others.
The rest left as Shivay sat beside Anika with her hand in his. “Come on Anika, please wake up. You can’t do this to me. You have to wake up and get better, please!” He kept begging her. He was afraid that when she wakes up again she still would not regain her memory of who he is. “I know I have treated you bad since our first meet, but that doesn’t mean you have to do this to me now. Please Anika just wake up!”
A little while later…
His phone ringing woke him up. He had somehow fallen asleep holding her hand in his with his head resting against the side of her bed. He looked at his phone, he didn’t want to pick it up but still did so. “Yes Tia?”
“Shivay baby, where are you? I have been waiting for you for the whole day and you haven’t come home.” Tia wined to Shivay.
“Look Tia, I am busy with work I will call you back later.” Saying this he disconnected the phone. Lately he just didn’t feel like talking to her. He wanted Anika to get up and get well, that was his first and only priority at the moment.
The next morning…
Shivay woke up for the second time with a shake to his shoulder by Rudra. “Bhaiya wake up. We brought you a change of clothes and some breakfast.” Rudra told Shivay. “Everyone was wondering where you were, especially lady baba. But we managed everything. Now we just have to get Bhabhi back to normal and then we can take her home. All this hiding stuff is a bigger workout then the gym.” Rudra told his brothers as they smiled at him.
Shivay quickly got up and went into the bathroom to change and freshen up for the day. He came out to see Om and Rudra sitting on each side of Anika talking to her as if she was awake and replying back to them. Om and Rudra who noticed Shivay back, turned and started talking to him, however they didn’t move from their position next to their Bhabhi. Shivay sat across from them and continued talking to them. Their conversation got to the point where both Shivay and Om were teasing Rudra.
“Om? Why are you troubling Rudra?”
The three brothers were shocked to hear that voice and turned their heads towards Anika, only to see her eyes wide open and staring at Om. She tried to get up, but was having difficulty and so got the help of Rudra to get up properly.
“Bhabhi? Are you fine? You know who we are?” Rudra asked Anika as he hugged her tightly.
“What? Of course I remember who you are. How can I not?” Rudra fell into Anika`s arms and started crying. Anika questioned why he was crying.
“Bhabi, thank god you remembered me. I was afraid you’d forget me. It’s okay if you forget those two, but please Bhabhi, don’t ever forget me.” Rudra cried in Anika’s arms.
“What Rudra, what are you talking about?” Anika asked Rudra as she looked up to Om for an explanation. Om was also looking at her with tears in his eyes.
“Bhabhi, you scared us. Please don’t ever do that again.” Anika was lost at what was going on and looked towards Shivay. Anika noticed him looking at her and so diverted her eyes back to Om and questioned him.
“Don’t worry about all of that, your only job now is to rest and get better.” Om told her. Shivay was watching Anika closely and watching her every movement with critical eyes. Anika kept ignoring him as per usual and was talking to OmRu. She was feeling week and exhausted but she didn’t want to stop talking to them so she continued to do so.
Another week passes by with Shivya, OmRu, Sowyma and Dadi keeping the truth of Anika being safe under wraps and between themselves, as no one knew who was working with Daksh to help him out of prison and attack Anika. Every day they would go to meet Anika during visiting hours and then go home looking stressed to show that they still have not found Anika. Tia and her mother were happy thinking Daksh has either killed her or kidnapped her to some place unknown. Mrs. Kapoor had tried calling him a couple of times, and was getting worried that he may been caught, but seeing the distressed look on the Shivay and OmRu, put a stop to it all.
Finally the day of Anika’s discharge came. Shivay, and OmRu decided that they were going to pick up Anika while Sowmya and Dadi stayed home. They went to the hospital to pick her up and was met with an already dressed Anika struggling to get herself out of bed.
“I hate hospitals” she said when she saw them come in through the doors.
“Oh Bhabhi, don’t worry you won’t every have to come into a hospital again.” Rudra said to Anika as he helped her off the bed. Shivay watched as Anika was helped off the bed by Rudra, and was a little upset, which was noticed by Om.
“Don’t worry Shivay, one day soon she’ll open up to you again.” Om patted his shoulder as he went he walked out the door following the two. Shivay made sure to get the rest of the stuff and followed the gang out. Shivay got into the driver’s seat as Rudra and Anika got in the back with Om taking the passenger seat.
Oberoi mansion…
They finally reached home. Anika struggled to get out of the car, and before Om or Rudra can make a move to help her, Shviay walked over and picked her up in his arms. Anika was shocked with this movement and yelped. Once she regained her momentum she wriggled trying to get out of his hold, but Shivay only held on tightly. OmRu smirked at him, knowing his true intention but didn’t say anything and just grabbed Anika’s stuff and followed the two into the house.
When they reached the steps of the Oberoi mansion, they were stopped by Dadi, who was walking towards them with an arthi plate in hand. Sowmya was walking behind her while the rest of the family and Tia and her mother watched from behind. When they saw Shivay standing at the doors with Anika in his arms, everyone except for Dadi and Sowmya were shocked. They all wanted to know what was going on and how they found her and where she was all these days but were stopped as they saw Dadi doing the Arthi for Anika.
Once dadi did the Arthi, she told Shivay to take Anika into his room, but Anika stopped her and said that she wanted to continue staying at the guesthouse. But before Dadi can say anything another voice stopped them.
“Are you out of your mind? You were just attacked in there and you want to go back there. I don’t care what anyone says, you will not go there and you will not stay there by yourself. You will stay in this house, and in our room. You will stay in within my eyes and my reach so I know where you are at all times.” Shivay looked at Anika with anger in his eyes, while Anika stared at him with shock. Anika didn’t know what to say or do at this moment. All this time she’s been avoiding talking to him, and now she wants to shout at him to not interfere in her life but she didn’t want to break her promise to herself and speak with him in any way whatsoever. Without another word, Shivay carried Anika to his room with everyone following behind and placed her on the bed. “This is your room, I will have all your stuff moved in here and Sahils things moved into his room. You will stay here from now on. I don’t care if you don’t agree with me, and I definitely don’t care if you don’t like it, you will stay here.” Saying this he walked out of the room leaving everyone in their wake.
“Puthar, please understand him. He has gone through hell and back looking for you when you were taken. He feels responsible for the kidnap and he just doesn’t know how to show his concerns. Please don’t feel bad.” Dadi said.
“But mummyji, how did you guys find Anika? Where was she all this time? Where’s Daksh? What’s going on?” Janvi asked as the rest of the members stood eager to find the answers to those questions. Tia and her mother also stood eagerly waiting to hear the answer to the questions. They wanted to know if Daksh had named their names to anyone. But without saying a word Dadi along with OmRu and Sowmya left the room. Everyone looked towards Anika for an answer but she was still in a shocked state from Shivay’s outburst. After a while, they left the room as well.
Later that evening….
Anika had fallen asleep when Shivay re-emerged into the room. He felt bad for his outburst earlier, but he was wondering how on earth she thought that he would leave her all by herself especially after everything that had happened. “I don’t care if she doesn’t speak to me for the rest of eternity, but she will not leave me or this house. That’s a promise!” saying this he walks over to Anika and sits by her side. He takes her hand in his and holds her hand as she sleeps. Slowly he himself falls asleep in the sitting position.
—-
As days go by Anika has started healing both physically and mentally. There were times where she would wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, and Shivay was always there to hold her as she cried her heart out.
END OF FLASHBACK
Precap…Still deciding….