A/N: This chapter has been edited. Please read it again and feel free to comment your thoughts on it.

Miscarriage? Narain frowned but remained silent.

"That day, you walked into me accidentally just before I met him again. Why didn't you take me away from there then, Narain? I wish you had. At least I wouldn't have met him. I would have lived on with the good memories of the times I had been with him and not this painful one. There might have also been a chance my baby could have been with me now." Anuradha blinked away her tears but they did not stop.

Narain's frown creased deeper. What is she talking about? When had I walked into her?

"I can never forget that day. It was not his fault but I had been completely broken. I did not think about my baby then. I didn't know my baby would leave me like everyone else. Had I been a little stronger, my baby might have survived. Why did I love him so much that I let his words hurt me in a way no one else ever has?" Anuradha trailed off, unknowingly voicing the thoughts in her mind.

...

Raghav was an impatient man; he didn't like waiting. This Narain had to walk into me right now and make me forget about my Raghav for one second. Raghav has come all the way here to meet me and now that I've made him wait longer, he might have lost his calm, waiting for me and turned to go by now. I turned back to the direction I had been heading and froze.

I was wrong; he was still patiently waiting for me by the side of his car with a bouquet of flowers in hand. Just the way he had been waiting for me outside that day when I had packed my things and left the hostel to move in with him....

Am I dreaming? I looked away in the direction Narain had gone before turning back to Raghav to make sure. He was still there, waiting so patiently for me. He's really back for me. Even though I took time, he's still waiting. So, he had come back. For me. For our baby. I knew he would come back.

Our love was true. You're my Raghav, my one and only true love; I knew you would come back for me and our baby. But I never expected you would come searching for me all the way to this new branch of my office with a bouquet of flowers in hand as well. You have no idea how much I love you, Raghav. You're the best!

I started walking over to him again, faster this time. I was going to play hard-to-get so that he won't think of letting go of me once more. I approached him and waited. What was he going to say? How was he going to call me to go back home with him?

"I'm sorry, Anu." He spoke with a dry voice.

I was really finding it difficult to hide the smile that wanted to break the seriousness in my face. It was more tough than I thought to hold myself back from hugging him right then because that was just how happy I was over the fact that he had come back for us. But I tried to remain expressionless. Go on, my dear man.

He stepped back and turned to go.

I frowned in confusion. Wait, what? Is that all? Aren't you gonna call me back?

He stopped in his tracks and turned back to face me and then burst into laughter, seeing my face. "What did you think? That I came to call you back? You left me like a stubborn pest when all I asked you to do was abort your child. So nah, the only reason I came now is because my girlfriend asked me to meet you one last time, say sorry and make sure it's all over between us. That's all."

I felt a sinking feeling in my heart and a stabbing pain near my waist, where my baby's heart was beating inside without knowing the heartbreak her father was intentionally or unintentionally giving me.

He cocked his head slightly to the side. "You know Neena, right? Yeah, she's my love. Since always."

"Then, who am I?" The question escaped my lips before I could take it back. When I have lived more than a year with you and I'm bearing your child in my womb....

"Well, Neena once left me. I had told you all about her in the first place. She was my ex, who left me, stating her family is her priority. I tried to forget her and in the process, had a fling. Sadly, it was with you. I know I told you I was over her when I met you. I don't know what it was about you but I felt very attracted to you the first time my eyes sighted you. I thought you were the one I had been waiting for then. I did everything I could to win your stubborn heart and I was the happiest person when I finally won and you were my own.

I liked a lot about you and even thought I'll settle with you. But overtime I unintentionally kept comparing you to Neena in my mind. You were not like Neena and different in your own ways. I thought it's fine at first but I wasn't too sure. That's why though you wanted to get married sooner, I told you to wait till my parents return from the US. They were willing to return when I was ready for my marriage but I just didn't feel like I was ready to marry you.

But when you refused to abort your child, I knew I had enough of you. Then I found Neena again and realized that I still love her. She still loves me too. I can't lie to her so I told her that I had had a fling with you. And she's the one who asked me to meet you and apologise now." There was not even a tinge of guilt in his voice.

I frowned in disbelief. I seriously could not believe the words I was hearing. A fling? The words he had spoken had literally ripped my heart out of its cage of ribs, hurled it onto the ground and stamped on it till I felt like there was nothing left of my heart to call my own now. Yes, my heart had been stubborn not to fall in love but not after I had given it to you already.

He turned to go again and opened his car door.

I stepped back unknowingly, still finding it hard to process the facts that I had heard from him. "Just one question. When you told me that you wanted to live all your life with me, did you not once see me as your wife in your eyes?"

"I don't know. But I know I love only Neena now. And oh, I forgot this." He turned back and shoved the bouquet into my hands. "Here you go. Goodbye."

I stood there, watching him with a frown while holding the bouquet the way he had left it in my hands, feeling too numb to react with the heartache of realization.

He drove off in his car while I stood, transfixed on the spot. That day, I had lost myself. Completely. And utterly. In a way I had never lost myself before.

...

Anuradha continued clinging to Narain with her tears unleashed. "After that, I walked aimlessly, crying uncontrollably and not knowing what to do or where to go until I collapsed in a bench outside a park. Night came but I had no one to be concerned about where I am, whether I am safe or alive or not. It was almost midnight by the time I gathered myself together and returned to my room in the hostel, where I cried and cried the whole weekend through in bed without eating or bothering to look after myself.

Shiva's mother had been here in Delhi then so Shalini was busy and didn't get the time to call or check on me. And no one knew the state I had been those two days. I cried and cried. I was so hurt. But I was stupid; I didn't think about my baby once. Until an alarm rang in my phone reminding me to go for my next scan. I got up then and wiped my tears, deciding to live for my baby at least from then. I went for the scan and then met my gynae after a few days at the scheduled appointment.

But then she told me, my baby had stopped breathing a few days back. Even my baby had left me, like everyone else in my life. I felt I could die at that moment. I thought I did. But then a nurse woke me up after a while and I realized I had just fainted outside the clinic. Even death had not wanted to take me with it. While the nurse had been trying to wake me up, she had dialled the emergency contact in my mobile. Shalini.

So, after I woke up, Shalini called back, seeing the missed calls. I told her what my gynae had said. She told me to wait and she would come right away with Shiva and Nila. When she came with Nila and Nila smiled at me, I felt like living for her sake then. I am not too weak a person to contemplate suicide. For one second, I had wished death would consume me. Since it had not, I had no choice but to live. After seeing Nila's face then, I knew I would live. At least for her love."

Narain's eyes were red and moist upon hearing her confession. Feeling her tears soaking his shirt at his shoulder, he finally wrapped his arm around her warmly and rubbed her back, wishing to ease her pain.

"Where had I gone wrong? Had I not loved him enough? They say, true love can win anything, right? But my love hadn't been enough for him. What had I done wrong or where had I gone short in my love? I was so hurt then. It was not really his fault. He had just told me everything in his mind openly. He's always like that. But what he told me had hurt and he never realized that.

I wouldn't have felt this hurt even if he had had another girlfriend by then. If he had asked, I would have laid down my life for him. But to think the person I had thought of as my life; to him, I was never someone of any worth in his life and I'll never be. I had my whole life planned out before me as his wife, as his love, as his life. But he just brushed me off like a particle of dust, calling me 'just a fling'."

"No, no, you loved him too much. There was nothing short in your love but he was just the wrong person. You deserved someone better than him." Narain paused. "You were always a tough character, hasty in getting into defense mode and arguing and fighting back; you never gave up on anything. How could you have let that man who never valued your love be the reason you were so hurt and broken all these years? Why did you let him go without saying or doing anything?"

"I wanted to shout at him! I wanted to throw the bouquet on his face! I wanted to hit him so hard till he realized how much I loved him and how much it was hurting me then. Had it been anyone else in his place, I would have stood up for myself. But before him, I was broken. They say, love can be one's strength or weakness. But more than my strength, he had been my weakness. I don't know. It's just... I loved him. I could not hurt him or bear to see him hurt no matter how much I wanted to."

"He's been living a happy life since that day. But you...." Narain trailed off. "Enough, Anu, enough crying for him and wasting your life because of one wrong person. Not everyone is like him; there are good men.

So what if you lost one child because of the heartbreak he gave you, I'm sure there should be someone worth your love who would treasure your love and never break your heart. You just have to find him, the one who who will share your life, support and care for you all your life. If you could love the wrong person so much, imagine how much you could love the right one."

"I know." Like Shiva... and you. Her tears had stopped. There were no more left. The pain had gone and the tears were finished. Venting it all out to him, the burden had raised from her chest. She felt so much better already.

Anuradha smiled a bit. "But I'm scared to even look for the right one. To be honest, I felt like a fool for loving him. I didn't want to give any other guy the chance to hurt me again. I'm scared to get attached again. There's this fear that anyone I like is gonna break my heart. That's the reason why I always fought with you and brought up your sensitive topic when you stayed to look after Nila together with me at first."

"It's alright." He stroked her hair, trying to help her feel better.

Anuradha smiled amidst her tear-stained face. She slowly moved back and broke away from his embrace.

She smiled a bit at him before looking straight ahead. "After Raghav, the only person I've loved so much is Nila. This one month with Nila, I had been so excited for it. I had been so happy but I didn't know it would have been this difficult and painful for me to return to my lonely life without her. I really wish I had my own baby with me now at least. But I don't....

I'm sorry for getting so emotional. Usually, only Shalu is with me to listen when I vent it out and help me feel better. But these things, I never told her. And I just couldn't hold it to myself alone any longer. Thanks for being understanding and helping me feel better, Narain."

"What thanks? I didn't do anything now. And there's no place for sorry or thanks between friends, right?" He asked, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular.

After a long time, he was feeling the pang of emptiness in his arms once again since Anuradha had pulled away from his embrace. The emptiness was reminding him of his wife. His perfect wife.

Anuradha glanced at him in surprise. It had always been me telling him there's no place for sorry or thanks between friends. Today, he's saying it to me. Anuradha smiled a bit and leant back against the bench and then rested her head against his shoulder. There was no doubt, the warmth of having someone close was very comforting.

Feeling the tension in his rigid posture, she glanced up at him and saw his misty eyes. She reached out her hand and caught a tear just as it fell from his eye.

Holding his tear in her hand, she asked, "How long will you keep shedding a lone tear like this?"

Silence.

"Even a leaking tap can fill a bucket or an ocean, if it's left leaking for too long. But if you don't open it, and the water pressure builds inside, it will burst at one point. It might be too late to fix it then. Why don't you let it all out what's on your mind? You might feel better."

There was another moment of foreboding silence before Narain responded, while staring straight ahead aimlessly. "What is there for me to say? Where would I start? My wife was a very special person in my life. I loved her a lot. She left me so suddenly that it took me a while to realize that she was really gone.

It's like she left me so abruptly somewhere halfway through our journey that I didn't know where I was headed or what was left after that. I keep feeling like she would just appear before me from somewhere and run back into my arms saying, I promised I would give you all the love you never got before. I'm still here. How could you think I ever left you?

She loved me so much. But now I wish she had loved me just a little more. Had she realized the consequence of her impulsive action, or loved me and our baby just a little more, she might have survived. Instead, she took herself away from me as a punishment for what I had wished, gifting me a slow and painful death from the moment she left me till date."

Anuradha froze but remained silent. Gifting me a slow and painful death. There was so much pain beneath those words. She shuddered inside. He talks like she loved him so much. Yet, he wishes she loved him more now. And that day, he had spoken like she had stopped loving him. What is that supposed to mean? Even he seems to be confused whether she loved him or not.

"I met her the day I lost my mother. Maybe that's why she had been a very special friend to me from the day I knew her. Like Nila calls me Papa many times whenever she talks to me, she used to call me Rainu all the time when she speaks to me or when she's with me.

She was a great model, a budding actress at a peak of her career. She reached that peak with her own hard work, dedication and determination. When she faced a problem, her parents gave her an ultimatum to get married. She was not interested but asked me for help to find someone who would suit the kind of man she wished to marry.

Beauty will fade, my looks which people admire will not last forever. My position in my career can change at any point; new models will keep coming up as competition and just one day is enough to turn me into a nobody in the industry again. This is my dream career and I want to stay and keep going higher if I can. But I don't want someone to love me for any of these materialistic factors which won't last.

That's what she told me. I liked her mindset and I felt it was right. She did not want the men who were waiting in line, in awe of her beauty. Forming an anonymous profile, she met many men but was not satisfied with any of them. This guy's a Mommy's pet; this one's showing signs of a temperament; that one's not supportive. He's like this. He's like that. She had a reason why each and every guy we met was not right for her.

I agreed with her more or less but when she rejected the last guy we met, I knew there was some problem with her and not with the guys. When I asked her that, she told me she had realized that she is in love with me. I was shocked. She was the only girl I felt I could trust from the time I've known her. And all I wanted was one who loved me if I could trust her. I couldn't ask for anything more and thought I had fallen for her at that moment.

Then I arranged a time for her to meet Shiva and Shalini for the first time. They were and still are the only family I have. I'm not a person who falls for beauty but when she draped a saree for the first time that day to impress them, I fell for her real hard. She was too beautiful; nothing could compare her beauty. I had called her parents as well that day and in front of just them, Shiva and Shalini, we exchanged rings and were engaged, quite to her surprise.

She wanted our marriage to be later but with time, seeing her parents eagerness and my supportiveness, she agreed and we got married soon enough when she was still at the peak of her career. We were very happy. She really loved me a lot and we had been just so happy. Really, she was a great wife. I was not good at expressing my love but she was and she always made me feel loved at every moment. But that beautiful life had not lasted long."

Narain paused for a moment. "The day her pregnancy test turned out positive, I saw another side of her in the Swetha I thought I knew so well." He hesitated for a long moment.

"Let's abort this child, she said instantly when the pregnancy test turned out positive. I was shocked and confused. She was the same person who had once before spoken like we would have children together and adopt a few too. Is she the same person who wanted to abort our child now? Her reason was her career.

I asked her to think over it again and make a decision. A child would be the symbol of our love, that would make us into a family with deeper bonds of love. Do you really want to choose your career over your child? If you ask me, I would say yes, I want our child. But then as a mother, you are the only one who can decide whether you want to give life to our child. So I won't go against any decision you make. Just make the decision sooner than later because it's not safe to abort too late into the pregnancy and our child would already have a life by then and I'm sure you wouldn't want to kill it then. So take your time and think and come to a decision as soon as possible.

She remained silent and seemed unsure at first. For two days, she kept asking me if I was sure I wanted the child because she was feeling very uncertain. I thought from her point of view and said the pros and cons of how life would be after we had a child if we did. Finally after those two days, she told me she had reached a decision. Quite reluctantly, she said I'll take a break from my modelling and shoots later until the baby is born and I am back in shape again.

I didn't really know if she was sure of her decision but inside, I was the happiest man on hearing that so I supported her without thinking twice and making sure she was certain about her decision. I am honestly not good in showing my love through actions or words but I loved her a lot and I didn't want her to regret her decision so I tried the best I could to shower more love and care on her during the pregnancy.

She continued her modelling and shoots though she stopped accepting new film and ad shoot offers. There were days she seemed a little moody because of the opportunities she was missing and the discomforts due to her pregnancy. Some days after our first wedding anniversary, she took a complete break from her modelling and stayed home. I told her to go for work but she said no, her body is changing; she can't continue working, flaunting it for people to notice.

I asked her if she was sure she was fine staying at home or if she wanted to take up any other job. But she said no, modelling is her dream career and she isn't interested in anything else. Since before it was always you who had to wait for me after my shoots; from now on, like every wife, your wife will be waiting for you at home, she said. Don't leave me alone for too long; come home sooner in the evenings, okay my love?

Even after she had had to take a break from the career she loved so much and had to bear the discomforts of pregnancy, she was still showering her love on me unconditionally. I really wondered how I had become so lucky to get such a lovely perfect wife like her. Everything was going so beautifully, our lives were so perfect together until that day...." Narain trailed off.

To be continued...

A/N: Hey peeps! Hope you liked the chapter.

So how are the revelations so far? It was for this moment that I had left some cliffhangers before. Waiting for your comments on this chapter. ;)

Please vote, comment and share. :)