Happy New Year you guys! The moment you have been waiting for is finally here, and I think this chapter will resonate a lot with this time of the year!

Please vote, comment and share the story with your friends if you like it <3

⭒

Manik

A heavy boulder lifted off my chest at the knock of my bedroom door. I blinked, washing tiredness away from my eyes as I checked my watch. 3:41. Who could it be at this hour?

Diyah was at the other end of the door, wearing a white and red floral dress with a big duffel bag in one hand and a handbag over another. Was I dreaming, or was she real? Had she really come all this way for me? Why me?

"Hi, come–come in," I moved to the side of the door, my hand reaching to grab her heavy bag. Our fingers momentarily touched, and Diyah's gaze searched for mine. Unfortunately, I was looking at everything around us, except her. "Make yourself comfortable," Diyah looked around the bedroom.

It was a minimalistic enclosure, a king sized bed with neutral bedding on it, and two wooden bedside tables that suspended on either sides of the mattress. On the side of the bed was a small walkway that opened into a balcony, overseeing the luxurious terrain of Lonavala. At the foot of the bed was a lavish ensuite bathroom, about the size of the room itself.

Diyah sat at the foot of the bed, fiddling with her thumbs. I arranged her bags beside mine and then swivelled in her direction, slowly making my way to her.

"I'm glad you came," I said, with a soft smile lingering on my lips.

Her eyes brightened in the dim lighting around us, and she almost got up when she asked, "Really Manik?" I held her shoulders and sat her back down, taking a spot beside her and rubbing my hands together.

I had evaded her for ten days. Over ten days. The guilt that I had not felt all these days for my actions was uneasily tugging at my heart on that particular night. If leaving Nandini in the dark caused her so much pain, I could not even begin to imagine what it would have felt like for Diyah... a woman who truly loved me. I sniffed, palming my mouth.

"Do you remember... the very first date we went on?" Diyah flushed as she looked at me, reminiscing those early days when everything was rosy and flowery in our lives. That night we went on a small walk around the gardens in her neighbourhood around midnight, starting off as acquaintances and ending the night off with a gentle kiss by her doorstep.

Months into our relationship, she had confessed that was the night she fell in love with me. Fell in love. She meant it whenever she said she loved me, her coming all the way here after all my attempts to shoo her away was proof. I, on the other hand, had reluctantly used that phrase only when it was most convenient to me. Like when we had sex, or when she said it first so I responded the same. Never... never have those words left my mouth without an ulterior intention–or fear–of losing the only person who had loved me.

Perhaps it was true, I was not expecting the relationship to go anywhere, but it had been exhilirating to explore that side of me that was undefined by my friendships, undefined by my past mistakes: the side that had forgotten to smile, to laugh or enjoy the simpler joys in life.

Except I had snatched all of hers in that process. Much like I had with Nandini.

I licked my lips nervously and turned to her. She was toying with her manicured nails, a grin plastered on her face. "Of course Manik, I remember everything,"

"And that day on Holi, when you hid in my house hoping I would never find you," I said in a teasing tone and she giggled, her hand filling the spaces in mine. The humour in my voice disappeared at our interlaced fingers, and I was borne with a huge ache in the centre of my chest. "That day we never imagined to be like this," I waved our joined hands and looked away.

I cleared my throat, grasping both her hands gently. "It's been a great ride, for all it's been. You were an amazing person to be around, you made me forget all about the other side of me. Thank you for that,"

The joy she felt on seeing me and spending these moments with me vanished in thin air. "What do you mean thank you, Manik? It's the marriage thing na, I've driven you away from me because of it. I promise we can go back to how we were, I will not bring it up ever again," She clung desperately, her hands fiercely clawing mine.

I dropped my hands, holding the side of the bed with them. "For how many years? Five?" She nodded, "Ten?" She stared at me, "Twenty?"

Tears beaded her eyes.

The conversation was getting incredibly difficult by the moment. All my life, I had dodged conversations like this, avoided people and situations so they would not affect me. I never saw the other side to it, the effect it had on others. Especially the ones near and dear, like Nandini.

It was too late to correct those mistakes but I could avoid repeating them, which was what got me talking this time. I expected the confrontation to bring me some relief, to feel lighter having talked about what was on my mind and what I felt about my emotions, my thoughts and feelings, but I had not felt any of that since I opened my mouth. Instead, the weight on my shoulders pressed down on me, swallowing my otherwise incapacitating fear.

"No, you cannot put your entire life on hold for me. You see, I... I am the problem." I stabbed my chest with my index finger. Diyah shook her head, almost pleading. "There's a lot you don't know about me. You don't know the ugly parts of me, the destructive parts of me."

"Then tell me, Manik. Give me a space inside this shell of yours, I want to help you baby, I'll..."

"What we had was great and it worked because those were things we both wanted, but that's where we must draw the line." I was heaving hard, and she sensed it. She did not interrupt. "I can't... give you more," The last bit almost came out as a cry, and Diyah held my forearms, restlessly willing to do anything and hold on.

"I don't want anything more from you Manik, I'm really sorry. I'll take care of everything, I'll manage everything as long as you're with me... I just need you with me,"

"That's not fair to you... and you're not seeing clearly." I said composing myself and distancing from her as I stood on my feet. I walked towards the balcony, and leaned on the door frame in the shadow of darkness as I spoke to the stars. "You will keep giving and I will keep taking, because I don't want anything more than that. The problem with a relationship like that is you'll keep expecting more, and keep getting disappointed, every step of the way."

She followed me, her tears making their way down her cheeks, "Don't do this to me,"

"If I don't, you'll resent me one day, and maybe yourself too," I said, turning towards her. She was internally scolding me for putting her through all of that pain, only for it to come to this moment.

That was my last straw in realising I was finally doing the right thing. The fear I had been holding on for so long was slowly diminishing in its intensity. I was selflessly letting her go with answers to her questions, and it was not hurting that much.

Her image interfaced with another short, naive girl that wore a school uniform and had her hair tied up high in a ponytail. The girl looked at me from under my chin, with the same pained expression as her big beautiful eyes cried words her wobbling lips could not utter. I brushed her round cheeks, wiping away any tear that was shed for me. I was wholly unworthy of them.

I added, "You deserve better than that, and I'm sure there's someone out there way better than me, that can keep you the happiest you have ever been, and make you feel like your life has meaning to it." Nandini disappeared from my view and Diyah appeared, sobbing loudly while her hands held mine that were near her face. I bit my lip, struggling to breathe. "I have to do this for you, please, I'm not good... not for you, not for anyone else,"

She engulfed me in a tight hug, dampening my shirt. "I hate you! I hate you so much, Manik!" She tussled my chest, her cries never stopping. "And most of all, I hate you for not saying this ten days ago!"

I wrapped my arms around her, letting one of my tears escape in her embrace. "I know... I'm sorry,"

⭒⭒⭒

Nandini

I stepped out of the kitchen premises with a small brass plate in my hand, some pieces of flaming camphor placed on it. Another hand of mine waved the vapours in all directions of the house as the faint sound of Aiyappa's Suprabhatam drifted through the living space, purifying the atmosphere around.

The plate became hot to hold as I swayed from one area of the two bedroom flat to the other. Swirling my palm with my baby pink dupatta, I gripped the plate again, chanting the prayer alongside the speakers in the kitchen.

Abhimanyu's alarm went off for the sixth time as I neared his room. I rolled my eyes as I hit his back and ripped the bedsheet off him. "Don't make me scold you first thing in the morning, Amma and Appa will be landing any time now, go take a bath! The geyser has been on for almost an hour!"

"Okay Choti maa!" He said sarcastically, turning the alarm off. I was dolled up in a monochromatic baby pink suit and braided two sections near my ears, joining them into a band behind my waist-length hair. He reluctantly made his way to the communal bathroom outside his room with a towel and a change of clothes. "Waise where's Mukti?"

"On my head! Now go have a bath, you're nullifying all my prayers with your morning breath!"

As the bathroom door shut behind me, I giggled, resuming my chants. Amma had been right in hassling Abhi about marrying Mukti, the man could not seem to take one breath without knowing about her whereabouts!

Over the years, Chikkamma and Chikkappa had graduated to a more important position in my life. When I was younger, I had often misunderstood them and unintentionally kept them at an arm's distance, valuing Ammamma's relationship over theirs but they had truly proven their bond during my toughest school days, and had been incredibly assuring and supportive, pulling me through darkness with their love and care—at par with the amount of care Amma and Appa would have handled me had they been alive.

The very first time I called her Amma, she had dropped to her knees and bawled her eyes out in my lap. She had candidly mentioned that though Aiyappa had not been kind with her in terms of carrying a baby herself, she had been beyond blessed with a child as wonderful as me through her sister-in-law and she was forever grateful that I entered her life, and clubbed with my heartache, it had been unbearable to hear. Chikkappa had a similar reaction, though a lot less intense. He had awkwardly patted my shoulder to console me when I broke down near him. While both of them and I were shaken to our cores, the brothers of the house shrugged their shoulders.

Abhimanyu still called them Chikkamma and Chikkappa but the sensitivity with which they handled Abhimanyu's relationship with Mukti put them far above other parents of their generation, and he often acknowledged it.

Once the aarti flame died down, I put the plate back in the puja arena and picked a small garland of jasmine flowers that I offered to Aiyappa's feet earlier in the morning. Pinning it securely at the intersection of my braids, I glanced at myself once in the mirror, before Abhimanyu roasted me for being so vain about my beauty! Aiyappa, what kind of a brother did you give me!

"You keep admiring yourself, I'm going to go pick Chikkamma and Chikkappa up from the airport." He said as he saw me place a small black bindi between my eyebrows.

The airport in Bangalore was at least two hours away, one way. Even if they managed to exit the airport seamlessly, the journey itself was four hours long. If he left me behind, I would have to be all by myself for four long hours. The thought alone gave me a minor panic attack.

"I also want to come, they're also my parents," I nagged, adjusting my dupatta over my shoulders properly. I had specifically taken leave from work to spend time with them, while Abhimanyu was using his Masters thesis as an excuse to get out of commitments and play video games.

"Then who will make breakfast for when they arrive?"

"Haw! I'm not the chef of the house, okay? That's your girlfriend's forte,"

He snapped his fingers, "She's not my girlfriend, and please... don't join hands with our family and torture me about shaadi,"

"What's so wrong about getting married to Mukti? You guys are living together and..."

"You're living with her too, in fact you share a room with her, why don't you marry her?" Mildly offended by the way he was retorting, I took a moment to react, and by then Abhimanyu nudged me aside and occupied the front of the mirror in our girls' room.

The girls' room had two single beds on opposite walls, and a big wardrobe, with a mirror in the centre, on the wall at the feet of the beds. While Mukti's bedding contained shades of black and dusty pink, mine was a summery vibe with whites and yellows and an occasional sky blue checkered blanket.

I tried to push him back but he was too strong for me. He smirked, checking himself out.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not just that, Anna... whenever she needs some help, you do it even before she mentions it, and it's very obvious you like each other," I said seriously, and then teasingly side-eyed my brother, "If you guys get married, she'll move to your room and I'll have this one all to myself," He glared at me, and I brought a finger to my lips to seal it.

"It's not... obvious... okay, stop ransacking your mind with deluded ideas." He said, combing his hair with his fingers and then eyeing me with a bored look, "If you want to join me, you have ten seconds and your time starts now,"

I quickly grabbed my pink tote that had three gifts neatly packed, one for Amma, Appa and Rishu, and hurried behind Abhi who was almost locking the door. Beaming at him, I took my slippers out and crossed the threshold of the flat before wearing them and turned to see flat number 422, our flat which was the only one in the corridor that was adorned with a divine aura.

⭒

Our girl is finally here, and obviously in Bangalore–far far away from the monster! I wanted this chapter to indicate turning of a new leaf–where Manik realises the right thing and Nandini is beaming with positivity, even though it's mostly that way on the surface level only.

I really hope you liked this part! Please please don't forget to share your thoughts in the comment box below. I love writing for you guys!

Next up: a crime short story on my Hamesha - Always book, so stay tuned :P Keep smiling and spreading love!