Setting the bed, Swara watched the father-daughter duo. They were playing ludo and giggling like silly. Prisha caught her daddy cheating and jumped on him tickling. And Sanskaar was wholly at the mercy of six-year-old terror. Their gleeful laughter rang out in the house curving her lips upward.

Though it was a sight for sore eyes, it was not always this way. She and Prisha had gone through lots of ups and downs, a terrible time and bucketloads of tears to be here. It had started seven years back.

She had been madly in love with him. And he too. At least she thought he loved her too. She had worshipped the very ground he walked on. He belonged to a rich family and was devastatingly handsome. And she was the daughter of no one significant. But when he turned his eyes on her, she was the one everyone felt jealous of. She tried to keep a level head and pay no heed to him. And he was stubborn. Soon enough he had swept her off of her feet and she was madly in love. They were happily in love for almost a year.

Until she caught him cheating on her, with her own half-sister. Her Laksh had cheated on her with Ragini. She was broken. Instead of confronting them on the spot where she caught them red-handed, she drove her scooter away in the pain of betrayal. Her eyes were so blurry due to tears that she saw neither the bridge nor the lorry. She met with an accident and was thrown into the January chilled lake. Luckily the ageing lorry driver was compassionate and instead of running away called for help.

Her hypothermic and dying body was immediately pulled out of the water and carted off to the hospital. There she started her long journey of recovery. She had broken several bones when she had collided with the lake bed and metal scrapes of her scooty had torn through her muscles. She was in the ICU for a week where she did overcome a looming death. She was coherent after another week that's when saw him with fake worry plastered all over his face. High on pain meds, hurt from betrayal and confusion from the accident had made her all fuzzy. With an epic showdown, she threw 'The Laksh Maheswari' out of his own charity hospital room.

She had been out of the hospital for two months time. Her mother had been a rock in that situation and Sharmistha Bose stood beside her child. Everything had started getting back on track when another thing hit her.

She was pregnant.

She had cried all day. She had trusted him. And let him claim her. He had made false promises. She had slipped once in judging a person and she was going to pay for it her whole life. Apparently, the foetus had survived her accident and everyone blamed medicine for her irregular periods in the first trimester. Now she was paying for her idiocy. Though initially she was scared of her mother's possible reaction, she had told her predicament to her. Sharmistha was a little upset with her carelessness but she still stood as her mother.

Her father had tried to get her to abort the child and she had been ready at first. But in that first ultrasound, her steps faltered. She found the beauty in that soft heartbeat of her child. Beauty even in this cacophony. That medical monitor had shown her the beauty of creation. Then and right there, she decided against abortion. Her father had been furious, and like always when the chips were down, he abandoned her. Her mother had a huge fight over that with her spineless and selfish father. Sharmistha Bose had had enough and divorced him. She and her mother kept the house they had inherited from Dida and threw the man out.

Troubles had not been over. It had just started. The society did not take unmarried mothers well. A baby out of wedlock was a taboo. And that's how everyone treated her. Still, she stood strong. Like her mother had. After all her baby had no one other than her.

Laksh came back like a storm and demanded she kill her unborn child. So that that illegitimate child would not soil his reputation. She defied him bravely. Ragini too tried to kill her child more than once. Be it trying to trip her on the pavement, trying to overdose her on sleeping pills or setting the live wire on her wet bathroom floor. She avoided the foeticide narrowly.

Against all odds, she carried her child to full term. But Ragini's diligence nearly paid off. Around her due date, Ragini had cornered her in the parking lot of the shopping mall and pushed her on her belly. She had nearly bled to death right there. Ragini had taken away her phone and she had no means of calling her mother for help. She had no option other than to feel her child die within her womb. Unwilling to give up, she had tried to attract anyone's attention whenever she heard a movement. She had almost lost her hope and her life when a stranger came crashing down beside her. Through her haze, she had seen him lift herself without paying any heed to her blood. He had hastily driven her to the hospital and rest was too distorted to remember. The only thing she could remember was that her baby had been stillborn for a minute there. She had refused to pass out, despite her own conditions, until she was assured that her child was alive. Doctors had been miraculously able to save her child. And she closed her eyes in fatigue. Later her mother told her she had almost died of blood loss. But she overcame death once again.

It took her more than half a year to recover. Her mother, that unbreakable woman, had stood like a shield before her kids. And to her astonishment that stranger had been an addition. He would drop in whenever he felt like it. Her mother would welcome him with open arms and her daughter, whom she had named Prisha, would try to throw herself at him. He had been the first one to hold her child in hospital. But after what she had been through, she was reluctant to trust anyone at first. That didn't hinge him. Slowly he made a way in her life. They started a hesitant friendship.

Soon enough he brought his widow mother into their circle. Sharmistha and Sujata became fast friends and little Prisha had them dancing to her tune. If she wanted something and her own mother refused, she just had to wail her lungs out, and her Grannies would be tripping over themselves to fulfil her demands. 

Swara struggled to find a suitable job for herself which would not compromise her life with Prisha. But her new friend, Sanskaar came with a solution. He appointed her to his company. One hurdle down.

Still, there were many hurdles to cross. Society never ceased its taunting. She took up their barbed words in stride but how was a mother to bear her child being called fatherless. Some nights she would clutch Prisha and cry herself to sleep. Though her child was too young to understand those taunts right now, she won't be a baby forever. How will she keep her from the evil eyes of people? Some days she got the urge to take her daughter and tuck her away in the farthest corner of the universe.

Another shock came when Prisha started to speak. Instead of 'Maa', she called Sanskaar 'Paa' first. He had hightailed out of there and went missing for a couple of weeks. Prisha had fallen ill and still would keep looking at the door, but he didn't come. A fortnight later, haggard-looking Sanskaar was on their doorstep with a teddy as big as himself for Prisha. He told her that Prisha was the child of his heart and could not stay away from her. She nodded solemnly. She wasn't happy that her baby had fallen ill because of him and was thoroughly upset with him. Prisha perked up and was healthy in almost no time. Since then they created unspoken camaraderie.

One afternoon, 4-year-old Prisha came back running from her nursery school and cried herself to sleep. Sanskaar had picked her up so she had turned to him for an answer. He was visibly upset. He explained how some gossipmonger mothers of other children called her child orphan and fatherless in her earshot and Prisha had been too affected.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Her baby had started to suffer for her stupid mistake. She turned to go when Sanskaar grabbed her hand and asked about Prisha's Father for the first time. All these years, she never told and he never asked. She had sweared, screamed and cursed at him but he did not let go. She broke down in his arms and told him about Laksh. About Ragini. About her Father. About everything.

Sanskaar had gone stiff. His usual warm colour had gone pale. He couldn't believe his ears. In a daze, he confessed that he and Laksh were related. Laksh was his estranged cousin. Swara immediately pushed him back and threw him out. She felt betrayed. All over again.

Their falling out affected Prisha the most. She fell sick again. Swara was too adamant. She wanted to resign from her job too but could not afford that. Sanskaar would call Sharmistha every evening and ask about Prisha. Swara avoided him for almost a month. She did miss him but the pain was too great. Sharmistha had to literally knock some sense into her stubborn skull. Asked about Ragini and her. If they were similar. She had scoffed. Then how could she think that Sanskaar was like Laksh because they were blood kin?

But it was Prisha's worsening health that broke her resolve. Sanskaar had been in Cape Town but when Sharmistha called him crying that Prisha's health had taken a turn for worse, he dropped everything and came back running. Nothing was more important than Prisha for him. Slowly and gradually she recovered and they decided that she would not suffer because of an adult's stupid decision. Though Swara and Sanskaar were back to square one, they knew what had to be done to break down the walls. They were just too hesitant.

Sujata and Sharmistha had put forth a proposal for next year. Matrimony. Initially, both refused. Swara's heart was still scarred and Sanskaar was worried about her. In all these years he had found her strength and resolve beautiful and started to fall for her. But he knew her fears. Not wanting to break their perfectly fine role in each other's lives, he rejected them. The topic was buried until Prisha got into a fight with her classmate.

Her jealous classmate had called her fatherless and Prisha was so upset that she whacked the twit. They had gotten into a fight. Prisha could not go against elders but she could definitely beat such idiots to pulp. Swara was called to school and Prisha was given a stern warning. After coming home she shut herself up and refused to talk.

Sujata and Sharmistha proposed their marriage again. And they agreed. Maybe the time for being selfish was up. They agreed to marry for Prisha. Sanskaar was happy yet sad. He would get Swara and Prisha forever. But he always had them. He couldn't win her heart.

Before proceeding, Sanskaar asked Prisha's permission to marry her mother. Prisha was so happy, she threw her arms around him and sobbed calling him Daddy. It was the first time after that first time that she had called him Daddy.

He even asked his Shomi Maa to move in with them after the wedding. Swara did not want her mother to be alone in her upcoming old age. That woman had literally fought the world for her. Sanskaar knew that. And he respected that.

They had engaged the following week and kept the wedding three months later. In that transition time, Swara noticed his role in her life. From that day, when he had found her bleeding out in the parking lot, there was rarely a time when Sanskaar was not around. He was her best friend and father to Prisha. But would she be able to give him a place as her husband? Trust him? Yes trust him she could, but trust him with her heart? She wasn't sure.

During those three months time, Sanskaar took his girls out on dinner dates numerous times. Prisha was a happy child and was proudly flaunting her parents in those people's faces. And with every gesture he was breaking down her walls. Soon they were married and here are they now.

It was her wedding night and the father-daughter duo were neck and neck in the game of Ludo. She sat down on the bed and watched her family happily.

Maybe this was what it was meant to be. Maybe. She had found the beauty in this second chance. That beautiful second chance in life that rose from the ugly ashes of her past life.

Swara, Sanskaar and Prisha were Beauty of Life.

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A/N: Happy now? I gave you a happy SwaSan story. I wanted to do something for #beautyandthebeast challenge And don't know if it still on going but I did it. Better late than never right?
Now be happy and make me happy. Warna no more of my awesome stories...