Bhairavi woke up with a start and an ache in her chest. She felt apprehension, fear, confusion, and sorrow all rolled into a ball that the powers-that-be were bouncing on their fingertips.

Instantly, she turned to her left: Mia's side. Finding it empty, she ran her hand over the sheets. Cold.

Mia was long gone.

How long have I been sleeping?

Where is Mia?

Did she elope with Raghav?

A legion of scary scenarios threatened Bhairavi's sanity, pushing her into action. She threw a shawl on her pajamas and rushed outside without a second's delay.

"Mrs. Chopra!" Bela exclaimed exaggeratedly, one hand covering her mouth and the other fisted over her chest. "What's gotten into you!?" she added dramatically. "You almost caused me a slipped disk!" she accused, massaging her lower back before rolling her large, beady eyes at the bewildered-looking woman and continuing towards the dining area.

"Bela-ji, have you seen Mia... Maithili?" Bhairavi ran to catch up with her. "She isn't in the cottage."

Bela stopped and fixed her with an amused stare, "Of course, she is not there. She left with the first batch, didn't she?"

Bhairavi felt a headache come on. Massaging her temples, she looked at the other questioningly, "First batch of what, exactly?"

Bela cocked her head. "How lucky Maithili is to have a broadminded mother like you." Sarcasm dripped from her words like honey from the comb. "I wouldn't have let my daughter go to the spring, let alone allow her to go first."

Bhairavi blinked a few times in quick succession. But when Bela continued to stare at her with a condescending smile, Bhairavi couldn't take it anymore. "It's a good thing then that you don't have a daughter, isn't it?" she regretted it as soon as she said it.

She opened her mouth to apologize, but Bela, eyes swimming with tears and lips quivering like a lone leaf sacrificed to harsh winds, shook off her hand and walked away.

"What's wrong with me!?" Bhairavi bemoaned. Amrit, before the accident, had mentioned that she had overheard Preet, Bela's roommate, that the thirty-six-year-old lawyer had gone through a bitter divorce after the couple had tried without success to beget a child.

Deciding it best not to approach Bela at the moment, she returned to her cottage and made haste to catch the second batch of women who were, as she was informed by Golu, in various stages of getting dressed and heading out to the spring.

Bela had decided to sit this one out. She was neither a fan of water nor comfortable getting undressed in front of others.

On arriving at the pickup point, Bhairavi was surprised to see three others waiting for their driver. It meant that only Pallavi, a twenty-seven-year-old homemaker from Bengal, and her Mia had accompanied Raghav in the so-called 'first batch.'!

Frantically, the anxious mother's eyes scanned the area for their driver. They had to leave for the spring now. Alas, Golu had disappeared.

"Preet, have you seen Golu?"

"No."

"You, Chaya?"

"No, he told us to be here by seven. He is-" Chaya snapped her mouth shut and shrugged.

What the hell is up with them? Agreed, I haven't made any effort to befriend them, but I have always been civil, haven't I? Bhairavi shoved the hostile stares directed at her to the back of her mind and called the driver's number.

"The person you are calling is speaking to someone else. Please stay on the line or call again later." The overtly sweet voice on the other end informed the distraught woman. Where the heck are you, fool!?

A wave of nausea hit Bhairavi out of the blue. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the floor unconscious.

When Bhairavi regained consciousness, she was in a cottage similar to hers.

"Welcome back. How are you feeling?" A familiar voice enquired. Concerned.

Bhairavi turned her head to her left and found Bela, the woman she had hurt not long ago, perched on the edge of the bed. She tried sitting up but found that she had no strength.

The corners of her eyes pricked as Bela helped her sit up. "You have-"

"I am sorry, Bela. I was horrible to you earlier. I really didn't mean it. I... I am usually not like this. I was just-"

"Apology accepted." Bela cut her off. "What's eating you? You look terrible."

Well, I deserve her brutal honesty after how I treated her. "Thanks." Maithili's mother muttered.

"No. I wasn't trying to insult you. I wasn't making fun of you either." Bela rampaged through her purse and passed a handheld mirror to the one she had tended to when no one wanted the job. "Look."

Dark circles, chapped lips, and faint crow's feet had made a home at the corners of her eyes.

Bhairavi blinked.

What's happening to me?

She felt bile rise to her throat, but her stomach was empty. It seemed that she had aged a decade in a matter of hours. Scared and perplexed, she glanced at Bela. "Since when..."

"When you enquired about your daughter earlier, you looked disheveled, like you had overslept."

Bhairavi bobbed her head.

"I wasn't the first to rush to your side when you passed out."

"Oh."

"It was one of the caretakers; she saw you and left, muttering something unintelligible. Before I could check up on you, she returned with Raghav."

"Raghav was here?" Bhairavi asked, surprised.

"Mn." Bela nodded, "Apparently, Golu wasn't picking up his calls, and fearing that something might have gone wrong, Raghav had rushed back to check on us."

"So, Raghav brought me here?"

"I think so. I saw the chap pick you up and carry you out of there," Bela gestured toward the general direction of the pickup point. "I should have come to your aid sooner, but I was still upset with you about... you know."

Bhairavi's shoulders stumped. "I do. I was a jerk back there."

"Yes, you were. But I kinda deserved it." Bela shrugged. "Let's put it behind us. There are more urgent matters I need to tell you."

Bhairavi's brows crawled closer.

"About half an hour after Raghav disappeared with you in his arms, Golu approached me and asked if I could keep you company till the tour returned from the springs."

"Oh, my God! The springs! I need to be there."

"You can't. You are in no shape. And there is one more thing." Bela side-eyed the open door and leaned towards the patient till they were barely an inch apart. "Chaya and Preet had been acting strangely since morning, and when I asked if they wanted to accompany me to check on you, they were quick to refuse. At first, I thought it was because they had heard our argument. But that's not what it turned out to be. I think someone is spreading rumors that you are jealous of your daughter because Raghav is not interested in you but her. It seems you even tried to seduce him by going to the van in the middle of the night!"

Bhairavi felt disgusted. Her nausea came back tenfold, and her head swam.

Who could it be!?

Too engrossed in filling Bhairavi in, Bela didn't notice the latter's blanched countenance. "Raghav seemed upset when I got here. I asked him what was wrong with you, but he left without a word."

Of course, he must have spread the rumor! He must have made Nan spill the truth and twisted it to sully my name. "Did he go back to the spring?"

Bela nodded.

"What about Golu?"

"The two drove back to the spring. Preet and Chaya left with them." The woman took the handheld mirror and returned it to her purse. "I don't know what it is, but something is going on... I can't explain it."

Bhairavi felt a pang in her heart like someone was trying to claw her heart out. Maybe... She reached for Bela. "My purse? Where is it?"

Nodding, she obliged the older woman by grabbing Bhairavi's backpack from under the cot. "Raghav left it where you fainted. I brought it over when Golu escorted me here."

Bhairavi acknowledged the information with a nod and unlocked her phone. She scrolled through the images till she arrived at the one with Koyal in the background and held it to Bela, "What do you make of this image?" she enquired.

Bela's brows crawled closer. "Who is that?" She asked, pointing at Koyal.

So I am not the only one seeing her! I am not going crazy. Bhairavi left a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"I don't remember her or anyone accompanying us there. Do you know who she is?"

Boy, do I know! Bhairavi pressed her lips in a thin line and nodded curtly. "What I am about to tell you might sound absolutely bonkers. But every word of it is true."

Bela cocked her head questioningly.

Bhairavi regarded her new confidant carefully, "You need to trust me. I am not lying. There is definitely something going on here."

"I believe you." The other woman announced. "Tell me, did Mrs. Kaur know anything about what you want to tell me?"

"Yes, she was the one who directed my attention toward it. Why?"

Bela contemplated if sharing her secret with the woman who had hurt her not long ago was the correct thing to do, but at the end of the day, she was a woman, and the urge to spill the beans was a bit too strong.

"Remember that day when Harpreet spilled her lunch on her?"

"Yes."

"When no one was looking, I saw her pick up her mother's phone and drop it in the trash." She hesitated before adding, "At the time, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I distinctly remember her smiling through her tears as she did it."

Chapter Word Count: 1662
Word Count so far: 14171