Chapter 22: Chapter 22

"Rather than turning the page, it's much easier to just throw the book away".

The fresh and soothing air of Chandigarh hit Ayushi on her face and an instant smile adorned her lips when she saw her best friend coming towards her way, outside the railway station. Even after years, she could recognize her best friend in the crowd, that much deeper was their friendship. Friends today are connected via Facebook, Instagram, and so many other social sites but these two were connected through their love for each other. Ayushi after bidding goodbye to that lovely family had just walked out of the railway platform towards the exit when she noticed her best friend Ananya running towards her.

"Oh my God Shiyu! You look so beautiful now Baby, seriously. More beautiful than those photos which I saw on social media. I missed you so much in these six years dude, literally. And why aren't you on any social media platform? Idiot! You know how difficult it was for me to get your number, phew! By the way, congratulations sweetheart, you're going to be a mommy very soon. I'm so much excited to see my niece or nephew, I'm gonna pamper them a lot, lot, lot," Ananya was blabbering out everything in her excitement and cheerfulness and was busy hugging her dear best friend to her heart.

Ayushi got so emotional after seeing her only best friend after so many years that her eyes were busy pouring out her confined emotions. As it was night now and not many people were around them, she had purposely pulled out her veil, it was making her too much packed and suffocated.

"I missed you Anu," her voice held so much emotion and even Ananya was crying now seeing her friend in this state. Where she had no one, no family, no husband, no home.

"Offo! I leave my fiance for one second here and see how badly she is bawling her eyes out!" a male voice caught their attention and finally, the two best friends pulled apart from their sensational sister-hug.

"Hey! You must be Ayushi, right? I'm Keshav, Ananya's fiance," Keshav introduced himself to Ayushi and she smiled at him through her tears.

"Yeah, meet my lovely and cute fiance," Ananya spoke out in a teasing tone and pulled Keshav's cheeks to annoy him as he hated to be complimented as cute. Ayushi looked at them in awe. They were such a charming and adorable couple.

"Hello, Keshav, nice to meet you," Ayushi greeted him warmly.

"Now you're my sister-in-law which also means you're my sister which I never had. So, you can call me Kashu too you know, Keshav sounds so much formal from your mouth, literally," Keshav was trying his best to make Ayushi feel at ease as his fiance had told him everything that Ayushi had endured in her life right from her childhood, they had decided that no matter what they are always going to stand by her, supporting her and giving her only and only the happiness that she deserves and no tears.

Ayushi smiled at them and unknowingly a tear rolled down her cheeks. She had no words to thank her best friend and her fiance as they were doing so much for her and her happiness.

"But Madam, where is your phone? I was trying your number but you didn't pick it up," Ananya asked Ayushi in a perplexed tone, leaving Ayushi a little worried and she started searching for her mobile phone inside her shoulder bag but she didn't find any.

"I think somebody has stolen it," Ayushi whispered in a sad tone, that phone was the first phone that she had bought with her first salary around two years back.

"These pick-pockets, I just hate them so much. Let's file an FIR against them," Ananya was going towards the police station that was on the railway station itself when Ayushi held her from behind.

"It's okay Ananya, that phone was old and I needed a new phone too. Not many worries," hearing Ayushi's words, Ananya calmed down and eventually they all relaxed a bit.

"Let's get your tummy filled Ayushi. As it's already night, we'll stay in a hotel and then eventually will head to Chamba in the early morning," Keshav lifted Ayushi's luggage and placed it down in his car's boot, and they finally headed towards a decent hotel where they could stay for one night.

After their IDs were checked along with the payment for their stay, they finally moved towards their respective rooms, Keshav in one room and Ayushi and Ananya sharing the other room. After freshening up, they finally descended together for dinner and after a very long time, Ayushi felt at home, she was happy from within. She laughed, she smiled, she talked and all of these after so many days.

At night, Ayushi shared everything that she had confined within herself for so long, they both cried when Ayushi was sharing all these. Ananya wanted nothing but to kill Dhruv but Ayushi just made her calm down, asking her to forget about him.

"Let's not remember him, Ananya. He was a bad memory and now I have got a life growing inside me, I don't want to be burning in the fire of hate and abhorrence against anyone. I don't want my baby to feel those negative feelings," her words were so powerful that even Ananya discarded the thought of Dhruv from her mind, she didn't want to burn in the fire of hate.

"You're right Shiyu. You and your baby need just love and care and not those negative emotions. Now, let's promise that we'll never talk about him. From here, your new life will begin Shiyu and I want you to get all the happiness of the world," Ananya embraced Ayushi in her arms and Ayushi sighed in relief that finally, she was at a place where someone respected her, loved her and cared for her.

"So, what does your sweet fiance do? And what about you? You wanted to be a teacher, right?" Ayushi asked Ananya in a teasing tone.

"Well, my fiance runs a family restaurant and few resorts too in Himachal and yes, ours was a love marriage. I met him when our school had organized a picnic at his resort. It was love at first sight, he was busy reading some files while walking and I was busy searching for one of my notorious students who was hiding somewhere when we eventually collided and fell on the floor. It was like the way I wanted you to know, haha. So romantic and cliche. But it's real, he was such a charmer. Do you know what he did? He asked me out that day itself when we met for the second time. And it was a big yes and from there started our love story. And recently we just got engaged as our parents too liked us as a couple. Do you know how romantic he is? No, hey, Ayushi? Did you sleep? Not fair. Offo! I've to repeat all this to you, sleepyhead. Good night baby," hearing Ananya's rant, Ayushi eventually slept, she was too tired of the train journey, and her pregnancy was another factor too. Ananya kissed her on her forehead and she too slept beside her sweet best friend.

****

"You know what dreadful sin you've committed Dhruv? Was I that much of a bad father who didn't teach you better for how to treat a woman and that too your wife? Is this how I raised you? Just answer me dammit," Dhiraj threw a punch at Dhruv's face the minute he entered inside his house in the evening.

His that house which was in the worst condition now. His all family members, from his grandmother to his sister, everyone were just in a shattered and distorted state. They all were worried about Ayushi that where would she have gone, they even contacted her parents but she was not there too, they didn't know where she went. Her number was unreachable too. Dhiraj had ordered all detectives and other investigators to find her, to search her everywhere. He had been standing on his toes, busy calling his every force to search for his pregnant daughter. His eyes were swollen because of the tears that were flowing so freely from his eyes, in the agony of losing his innocent daughter to don't know where because of his monstrous son only.

Gayathri, Pratibha, and even Payal were unstable too, they didn't know where their naive and innocent Ayushi had gone.

"This is what I taught you Dhruv? Tell me? How dare you to kick out my daughter from her own house? And tell me the reason why you kicked her out in that state when she was pregnant with your child? When did you turn this horrendous and gruesome, Dhruv? Tell me!" Dhiraj was in his worst form, he wanted nothing but to kill his son who did such a heinous crime, kicking out his wife at that hour of the night. Dhiraj again punched Dhruv's face and now his nose was bleeding but nobody cared.

"Why did you behave like that Dhruv? Tell me?" his grandmother asked him in a crying tone, she was fearing what would happen to her granddaughter, who was just so innocent and naive to even survive in this cruel world alone.

"Why Bhaiya? What crime Bhabhi did that you did such a heinous sin?" Payal asked him with tears flowing down her eyes.

"Tell us Mr Dhruv Singh Rajput, when you turned this monstrous and horrible?" his mother exclaimed at him loudly and slapped him right across his cheeks. Her upbringing was so wrong, her son had turned to a real monster, how saddening it was for a mother to see her son this much ghastly and grisly.

Dhruv just stood there with his head put down in shame and guilt, he wanted nothing but to kill himself, but he knew he needed to find his wife first and then only do any such steps, the guilt inside him was killing him from inside.

"Mom, Dad, I need to tell you all something from the start," he fell on his knees and put his palms on his face to hide his never-ending flow of tears, which were flowing down in the grief of the absence of his innocent wife and his unborn baby.

"I had a girlfriend, even though you all had met her. Chandani, who came here once and you'll never like her but I used to think that I loved her. She was behind all this because of her hidden agenda which is still unknown. But she was talking about some revenge which is still a mystery. She drugged me, manipulated me, provoked me to hurt Ayushi, hurt her like anything which I eventually did in the trance of the dreadful drug which she used to mix in my water."

"But eventually, when we shifted to Bangalore, I was away from her as I had works piled up on my head and in between that period I got near Ayushi and fell in love with her and eventually we got close. But I felt so guilty after that, I felt as if I cheated on Chandani, I moved away from our house for one month but yesterday, Chandani showed me something that I was compelled to throw Ayushi out of the house." Dhruv somehow managed to speak out in a trembling voice.

"In a video clip morphed by Chandani, Ayushi was there with another man which eventually made me so much infuriated that I just rushed to the bungalow and asked her to sign on those divorce papers and then threw her out of the house, not knowing that she was carrying my flesh, my blood, my baby within her womb," Dhruv started crying miserably remembering the innocent face of Ayushi who was begging him to not to throw her out of the house, remembering how much monstrous he was to her, remembering how wrong he was to do all this to such a soul who just gave him so much of respect and love too. He recollected the night they had made love to each other. How sick his mentality was to even doubt such an innocent soul who didn't even know how to kiss properly. He was wailing out loudly in his guilt and agony.

Dhiraj along with others was too much aghast and horrified after hearing all this. They couldn't believe what they heard from their son's mouth.

"Are you that dumb and sick to not even find that who is right and who is wrong? And who gave you the right to kick out your wife like that? Didn't your mind for once work to at least ask Ayushi that was it true or not? And even after warning you about that girl, why did you remain in contact with her? Why Dhruv? Couldn't you see how generous and humble Ayushi was? Couldn't you see how lovely that soul was? Tell me you bastard," Dhiraj pulled Dhruv up from the ground with his collars and started punching him everywhere. He was in too much pain after hearing the tortures that his son had inflicted on his damn wife.

Everyone was just crying after hearing Dhruv. They could only imagine how much broken and shattered Ayushi must have been in that horrifying state which was nothing but the deeds of their beloved son.

"You don't deserve to live you bastard. You should die," Dhiraj was now throttling Dhruv hard, suffocating him in his tight hold on his neck.

"Please leave him Dhiraj. You're choking him. Please leave him. Please," Pratibha begged Dhiraj to stop him from strangling his son to death.

But his dad didn't.

"He is not my son. I'll kill him," Dhiraj shouted out in rage and applied more pressure on Dhruv's neck, whose eyes were closed now. He too wasn't fighting back, he knew he deserved much worse punishment for what he had done.

"Leave him Dhiraj. You're going to kill him. He must be punished hard for his sins, not just this strangling but now we should focus on finding Ayushi first," Dadi commanded authoritatively, and eventually, Dhiraj left him.

He fell on the ground and gasped for air with tears flowing down his eyes. He was shameful and guilty for what he did to his wife.

"How can you hurt such an innocent soul Dhruv? I never knew that my son would do such a hideous thing to a woman and that too his woman. Why Dhruv? You know how shameful I'm just feeling now giving birth to such a beast like you. I'm shameful for being your mother," his mother cried out in grief.

"For now, I'm leaving you, as we need to find out that where Ayushi is but once she's found, she will punish you," his father spoke out solemnly and went away towards his study room, for finding out if his private investigators had found out anything about his daughter or not.

Other family members too left from there, walking up to their rooms, leaving behind the crying Dhruv who wanted nothing but the soothing arms of his lovely wife around him but he knew she was very far away from him now, he had compelled her to leave him. He cried miserably, his neck was paining, his heart was paining, but it was nothing in front of the pain he had inflicted on Ayushi although in his drugged state but even when he was sober, he had hurt her so much.

In between his mournful cries, he received a call from his private investigator who was, of course, a tech geek. He cleared his throat a few times and then attended the call.

"Sir, we've traced mam's phone but it is showing us the location of someplace in Chandigarh," his private investigator replied in a worried tone.

"Then what's the problem? I'm going to fly to that place and bring her back," Dhruv was relieved now that finally, he got to know where Ayushi was.

"Sir, but we've been calling on that number from so long to track its exact location but it's always coming to be switched off. For once it was switched on only, I doubt that the phone has been stolen or something," the private investigator replied in a fearful voice.

"What the hell do you mean by that? Just track her location, we are flying to Chandigarh immediately," Dhruv cut the call and called his PA to make his private jet ready as soon as possible, he'd be leaving for Chandigarh.

"I'm coming for you Ayushi, I won't let you go away from me," Dhruv promised to himself, unknown to the fact that it'd be so difficult to find his wife in Chandigarh who had lost her mobile somewhere.

**~.~**

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