| Dedicated to Everyone ♡ special thanks to my Potatwin
for that beautiful cover :) |

~ZARA'S P.O.V~

~The Past~ (Around 1989-1990)

"One Gin and Tonic please" I placed my fourth shot of vodka on the counter bar while the waiter shot me a concerned look.

Was he really concerned? I can't seem to differentiate between what's real and what's not. I don't give a fuck anymore. Nothing in my life seemed to be constant and I was ready to give up.

My attackers were thrown in prison but what now? Can I get back my dignity? Can the past be erased? What about my future? Everything seemed so uncertain.

From the outside I looked perfectly normal, one would seem to think that I'm a happy person with no issues but how many people could see the real me? Who am I from the inside?

I looked at the bubbly liquid kept in front of me. I dint enjoy drinking or smoking, I never ever wore short clothes, I didn't ever rile up anyone, I always did everything on time, I was a perfect goody two shoes.

"Stop pushing yourself so much; once you get the gist of it, you will begin to enjoy it." They all laughed at me, all my pleas seemed to turn on them. One by one they all took their turn. Farah had somehow tracked me down but the deed had been done. I could see my life falling apart; everything came crumbling down one by one.

Farah filed a case to the police so the attackers stooped even low and took away her legs. I was a failure. I couldn't protect myself nor the person dear to me. I wanted to take away my life but Shahid helped me to cope up with everything. He got us justice by throwing the scoundrels in prison. It's been exactly 6 years since all this has happened, time is not healing my wounds; time is keeping the burn alive. Bloody fucking painfully alive.

"Ma'am I think you should go home." The bartender backed away from thinking that I would explode on him.

I stepped out of the bar without feeling self-conscious in my life, for the first time I didn't care if I lived or die. Who would remember me? What difference will it make if I were not to live anymore?

With brooding thoughts my legs began to take longer strides to a dangerous location that no person with a sane mind would ever go but then I felt the clicking of boots behind me.

Whatever happens, next might make it to another set of my life's misery, should I fight back? Should I let it be or let it go?

"Zara?"

The voice called out to me but I couldn't make out the figure of the person as the shadow looked like a large blob of black mass.

"It's me, Arpit! Shahid sent me to get you to the hospital."

Negative thoughts began to swim through my mind but I placed them at the back of my mind. Shahid was a really good person, I hoped everything is alright with him but then I noticed that bad things often happen to people who are good... perhaps people who are bad must have been good people before something bad happened to them that changed them for better or for worse.

"Are you coming or not?"

I didn't utter a word nor did I take Arpit's hands in my hand.

What if he just wanted a reason to touch my hand? I think my small pocket knife would be enough to take him down if he tried to do anything on me. I won't commit the same mistake I did of not being ready to protect myself. If I die, I would die naturally or with my own hands but never through someone else.

"Lead the way, I will follow you." I took shorter strides because Men had the tendency to stop walking and the person behind him would most probably crash into his back and if luck was on his side, there would be a woman with a good package who would crash into him and it would just be brushed off casually.

No way in the world was I willing to take this risk.

"You remember Kria right? She is in labour right now that's why Shahid asked me to call you, said he wanted to tell you something important."

I remembered that woman really well; I used to secretly call her as Mrs.Poshness. She always carried out herself with so much dignity and pride as if the people around her were equal to a speck of dust below her fancy hand-made heels. I still wonder how Shahid got married to that woman.

I met her only thrice but I didn't like her even one bit, the last time I heard from Shahid he was busy trying to run away from her so how the fuck did her get her knocked up? Was Kria casually walking somewhere and she miraculously fell on top of Shahid's dick? Did his sperm magically get fused with her eggs?

I could smell some conspiracy going on but I didn't question Shahid at all. It was his life, his choices, his decisions. If he was happy then I was happy for him.

I followed Arpit into the labor room but I stood outside the room.

"I'm glad you came here, Zara. I wanted to tell you something"

"Congratulations sir! It's a girl"

Shahid bowed apologetically in my direction and followed the nurse back into the room.

Wow, he became a dad. Now he would be having hell lot of responsibilities but I still wonder how in the world Mrs.Poshness got pregnant. She was always self conscious about her hour glass figure and her image and shit. Maybe she is actually in love with Shahid and I'm just being a paranoid bitch who is questioning someone's happiness. Yeah that must be it.

"Sir called you in" I nodded my head towards the nurse and entered the room to see a passed out Kria who looked effortlessly beautiful as if she came out from some shooting session and not a birth giving session.

"I know it's all sudden and you wouldn't have been expecting it but since the day I came to know that I was going to be a father I already decided that you will be the godmother of my child. So Zara, would you do me the honor of being Nathalia Beckham Kaur Khan's god mother?"

Holy shit... God mother... whoa, whoa hold up... did he say Nathalia Beckham Kaur Khan? That was a huge ass of a name.

"God mother?" My answer came out more of a question but Shahid only smiled in my direction.

"Would you like to hold her?" Obviously, I couldn't deny it so I reluctantly took his child into my arms.

A pair of bright shiny brown eyes stared back at me that caused a funny sensation at the pit of my stomach.

The child in my arms blinked a few times and I saw a really small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

My baby, I mean my God child who just smiled at me had caused a new set of emotions to flare inside of me that I never knew had existed. I became a mother without giving birth! This was the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to me in a really long while.

"God mother... Zara, Nathalia's Godmother. I like the sound of that!" For the first time in a really long while a genuine smile crept up on my face and it was all because of the little bundle of joy in my arms who was now sleeping peacefully.

I was in love... I will be a better person in life and take care of my child. I will not let her down; I will revive myself into a whole new level.

"Why me?"

He could have anyone take care of her but why me? A broken and almost cold hearted person.

"I believe in you like the way you believed in me when my life was down Zara. I know you will really take care of my daughter... I trust you."

From that day onwards, our life took a huge fucking U-turn.

As I had initially feared, Kria was not the person she turned out to be. She was a manipulative, bossy, heartless and the most stupid person in the world. She had never married Shahid, she fucking faked the marriage and their certificates just so Shahid could succumb to her wishes and have sex with her but she ended up getting pregnant.

After five years Shahid left us all without any trace... He left on Nathalia's birthday... Life had fucked us all up... really bloody badly... I still wonder why...

***

~The Future~ (2030)

"You are 39 yet you like you are 93. Stop lecturing me Woman." I playfully scolded at Nathalia who was glaring at me with her hands on her hips.

"You are very old ma, stop moving around. What if you get hurt? What if you break your bones? I'm only showing concern for you and this is how you repay me? Shame on you"

Nathalia stuck her tongue and I chuckled at her behavior.

She is going to turn 40 years in a month yet instead of being anywhere in the world, here she was taking care of her poor old God mother.

"If you can't walk I can carry you... OK, I WILL SHUT UP! DON'T THROW THAT LOOK IN MY DIRECTION."

I could see Rajiv nearing us but he placed his finger on his lips and motioned for me to remain quiet.

When did he come back from Germany? I thought he was busy shooting for his new Action movie. If Rajiv is here then maybe even Bobby and Lee would have made it so that means...

"Papa is getting so lazier day by day, I swear he is getting really difficult to handle now a days. I wonder how you seemed to handle him for the past seven years."

A blush crept up my cheeks upon hearing the last sentence from her mouth. Nathalia was one stubborn woman. She conspired with her friends and got me married her Shahid.

Everything seems so surreal and cliché. I still feel that someday I would wake up and everything will just disappear. POOF! Just like that.

"AHHH HAIIYA" Nathalia swung her leg and hit Rajiv right on his crouch that made him hiss out in pain.

"OUWH WOMAN, WHY DO YOU KEEP HITTING MY JEWELS? IF YOU WANTED IT YOU COULD HAVE JUST ASKED."

Nathalia playfully punched him in the stomach then hugged him.

"I'm in pain, leave me alone. You have grown much more violent than the last time I met you."

I watched the kids exchange their bitter batter as if they were meeting after a few hours even though it has been 8 years since they parted ways to move up in their life.

Rajiv had successfully managed to bag a few films then he kept soaring up in the industry but he never failed to send us letters and souvenirs from each country he visited.

It's been two years since he got divorced from his second wife and he swore to never marry again.

Maybe I should joke about setting him up with Nathalia but then there would be a world war with all the inner organs scattered near my feet. Nah, I wouldn't want that to happen.

"BABE'S I MIISED YOU" Bobby skipped towards us followed by Lee who was carrying baby Xavier and Ahana in his arms.

Bobby and Lee had shifted to Canada where they got married 7 years ago. Nathalia gave birth to their twins through artificial insemination.

My grandkids looked even more beautiful in real life than in the pictures.

"Hand me over my grand kids you crazy nut cases." Lee gently placed the twins in my arms. Two pair of curious eyes analysed me with the most scrutinizing expression that I had ever seen. They blinked at me once then twice before a slow smile made it up to their face.

This reminds me of the day Nathalia was born. These precious memories are making me cry.

"Does anyone even care about me? Who even wants to associate with an old man eh? I shall forever be alone." Shahid smiled at us but his legs gave up so Nathalia scowled at him then forced him to sit in his wheel chair.

The wheel chair that used to be my mother's...

"How is life? Where is Ankit?" Bobby began to search for Ankit but gave us a confused look upon looking at the sad expression on our faces.

"He will come back here... eventually, I guess...Don't worry he is fine but I don't think he wants to come back to this place ever soon. He is busy exploring a lot of places with his uncle"

We all feel into a deep pit of silence. Nathalia gently walked me up to the backyard of or house while Rajiv began to wheel Shahid behind us.

Bobby was trying to calm down a crying Xavier while Lee was busy chewing Ahana's chew toy that made her giggle.

I hope he actually takes good care of my grandkids. If my health conditions were fine then I could have visited them in Ontario but I could only Skype with them.

"May she seek peace, may her soul rest in peace."

We all just stood in the backyard with our faces tilted to the sky.

Kria couldn't survive and died at an early age followed by my mother who asked us to forgive her for her mistakes.

"Life is really short to hold grudges, we all make mistakes. Don't forgive them easily but learn to forget it. Be fooled once, twice but not thrice. Kria fooled you all twice, she did once chance but it was taken away from her; never ill talk about a dead person. Maybe she would turn out to be a better person in her next life, how much did we all really know about her? Did we know her side of the story?"

These were the words my mother used to tell us all regularly, she implanted the seed of humanity in our minds.

We all felt very angry at first but ever so slowly everything started to subside and we began to emphasize the situation. Maybe in a parallel universe, things would have been different but then where would we all have ended up if the turn of events had never occurred?

Maybe everything would have been perfect but one fine day we would run away because of the excess perfection, Who knows what the future beholds for us? The past molds us for a better future and we should enjoy the present as it is a gift. How many people get to live each day knowing that their next breath would be their last breath?

You want to do anything, you fucking do it. You shouldn't look back in life and think about the 'WHAT IF'S'

Just think ahead, walk ahead and MOVE ONE.

You want life to be a bed of roses? Be prepared for the thorns that would fucking prick you and drain out your blood.

You fall, rise up, dust yourself and move on.

Life is a never ending race, you either run away from something or run into something but the point is you RUN. You keep running; enjoy the moments in your life and take your downfalls as an experience and never let success get into your head. Keep striving for something much bigger.

Keep running and enjoy your run...

It is a vicious cycle so you end up where you started... ALL OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...

Be strong, bold, and confident. Stay committed to what you do or else your plans will remain only as plans without any final result.

To each of us, one and for all... someday will be your day and if it isn't your day then you MAKE IT YOUR DAY.

~THE END~

Final note :-

I'm sorry if you expected so much but I disappointed you all but I love how the book had ended. I was thinking really hard about how to end it but yesterday in class I don't know happened but I got this idea to write the chapter in Zara's P.O.V in the past and the future and VILOA! I wrote this chapter in less than three hours straights.

I just read the chapter and I think I used the word FUCK a lot LOL.

So ... this is it people :) the final update of RUNNIN AWAY :')

I had a lot of fun while writing this book <3

Truth be told, I wanted to write a story where a girl comes on a trip to India where she gets lost and things happen then she meets people and her life takes a turn... I was going to turn it into a Rom-com but then I was like TO HELL WITH IT! LET'S WRITE SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR ONCE XD

I wanted to start writing this book by January but then I saw the YourStoryIndia competition that lured me to finish this book: p so here I am! The first round of the contest is based on votes so I am already out LOL but at-least I know I wrote this book because I wanted to and never asked you guys to vote in exchange of an update and shit but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate votes and comments :p look at my indirectness xD

For those of you who don't know yet, I finally got placed after countless failed rejections and I think my time on wattpad will be reduced or it might become Nil so I want to finish my two pending books asap before that happens. If I finish my other two books I guess I might think of writing a 500 lines short story book that can be written over break time and can be read while you brush your teeth or wipe your butt LOL

Ok enough with my rants (I have a separate book for that yet here I am ranting like no tomorrow)

I POTATO YOU ALL <3 FOREVER AND ALWAYS<3 YOU GUY'S ARE POTATOSOME!

Hope you guy's loved reading this book as much as I loved writing it hehe.

This is me signing off from Running away, Signing off from Nathalia's life and moving over to Nivea's life where you will meet all of them again. There will be clash of scenes but only for a few chapters because Nivea's life will rotate all over India and hopefully I can show you all a gist of something different. I am trying a new perspective so I hope I can do that in bittersweet.

All the best for your dreams and May you have a bright future ahead people :-) You are all beautiful people inside and out and you all deserve so much more. May God bless you all in every aspect of your life.

TILL WE MEET AGAIN PEOPLE ;)