"What the hell are you doing?" - Anika snatched the phone from him, cut the call, and threw it out away when he was about to call his mother with the burning rage. She should have let him do that But she was doing the opposite. She didn't want him to confront anything to his mom. He went out of patience looking at her behavior. 

"You're testing my patience, Anika. I am not going to leave this as it is." - He spoke out of anger looking at her. Anika was hell scared to see the rage in his eyes. She never saw him in that state.   

"Relax. Shivaay. It happened before a very long time. Don't dig it out, Now. Please." - She asked trying to cup his face but he jerked off her hands. 

"Do Om, Rudru, Gauri know about it?" - He asked her tightening his grip in her fists. Anika looked at her fists and looked at him. She could feel him, But there was no courage left in her to lie anymore. She nodded yes to him. 

"They knew everything." - She spoke, He released her fists and stared at her for a while. 

"Why didn't they say anything to me?" - He asked, This time, She decided to stay silent, She can't say that he was very busy with the business to get it back to the normal state. And he completely ignored her and Naina during that time. But he stopped asking her further questions when he understood the meaning behind her silence. 

"How could you forgive them? Where your self-respect went they asked for that?" - He asked her. Anika couldn't stop herself from feeling that moment again. She gulped the lump in her throat. She got jerked when he held her shoulders tightly. 

"You know the meaning of the DNA test, They suspected you. They did something which I never even think in my dreams. I ignored you, I took you for granted, I hurted you knowingly or Unknowingly many times, But I never gave you up before the third person. They pointed their fingers on your character. Why the hell you said okay? Leave me, You should have approached the police station, Then. Put them behind the bars for torturing you." - He shaked her shoulders to reply, But she stayed silent hearing his words. If she would do anything like that in the past, Whether he would be supporting her then? She asked herself, But find it very difficult to answer. He never expressed his love, She just lived in his house for security. Because she knew, She and her daughter never be safe in her grandpa's house.  

"I gave up my self-respect for the same reason for which I couldn't sign the divorce papers when you asked me to sign. I was rather ready to die with my child than to divorce you. Because I know, What will happen after that divorce? My grandfather would definitely get me married to someone else and I would be forced to sleep with him for his grandson. That's it. What else?" - She said when the tears fell uncontrollably from her eyes feeling that moment again. He was shocked but also drowned in guilt hearing her words which tore his heart with a knife. He released the grip in her shoulder. 

"I gave up my self-respect because I didn't want anything like that should happen even in my dreams. He comes to know about the gender of my child when I was three months pregnant. From then, Everything trashed. Me as well my Naina was scared to see the reality of the world where we were living. The father wanted to get rid of that shit, In-laws, Looked at her like trash, And her own family, Saw her as a babymaking machine and moreover, The person who supposed to be like a father-like-figure to me, Finding the time to slip me off in his bed. After dealing with everything, Do you think I will care about my self-respect even for a while?" - She asked chuckling with tears, He moved away from her hearing those heavy words, It didn't hurt him this much when he heard about that from another person. When it's from her, He really wanted to disappear or goes back to the past and correct all his mistakes. 

"And you know who gave the idea to proceed with the DNA test? It's none other than me. I know about the rest result will prove my innocence to them. I thought I can't prove my love by signing those papers, At least, I can prove to them that naina is your baby. It was easy before that. We both lived in the hell which you can't even imagine it in your imagination."-  She said, The last few sentences turned into a whisper when she left with no energy.  

"I started it. I am the fu*king responsible one." - He whispered back. 

"You're not the one who was responsible. It's my fate responsible for it." - She said in a rage of emotions pouring out like a volcano. 

"And you may ask. What happened suddenly to get the divorce from you out of sudden after Arush's birth."- She asked. He raised his eyes and looked at her with guilt. 

"When I sensed my life replicating to my daughter, I have decided. I won't be staying like my mom but stay with her daughter and be with her like a support system that never existed in my life. Even I tried sending her with Chaitra to Delhi. But I couldn't do that. My mom is a survivor. Don't know how much she had gone through in her life in my absence and even she didn't a chance to see me once before she dies. What will happen if I die like her one day leaving my naina alone in this cruel world? Like me. I know my mom didn't rest in peace yet because of me."

"You know my father didn't exist in my memory, Because he never there for me as a father ever. I didn't even cry in his funeral. And you know what, Naina looked at your photo and asked me who's this in gesture when she was just two because most of the time she buries her face in my lap whenever you cross, She used to recognize you with your footstep and rushes to me.  I felt like glancing my childhood in her. I know, You are way better than my father. But she yearned for your love, and I couldn't replace your love in any way." 

"When it reached a particular point, I begged my grandfather to relieve me from that bond. He said, He supports me to get a divorce from you But asked me to get re-married for a grandson. I thought, It better to be with you than anyone else. And Arush was born as hope and I finally got relieved from that bond. And I got divorced from you. I got divorced from you not because I don't love you or I gave up on you. It's because I don't want my hell-like life to get repeated to my daughter. She deserves to be happy." 

"I know, You didn't do anything on purpose, But we both suffered a lot indirectly by you. If naina starts to get the love from you which she yearned for years and I started to feel some sort of happiness, Why are you so keen in dig out the past? Everyone did mistakes, I don't want to suffer or even remember it again. Leave it, leave everything. Doing something now won't change the past."-  She asked, Wiping off her uncontrollably flowing tears. 

He left with no energy to respond to anything to her not even to face her. He badly wanted to disappear from her life and didn't appear at any moment in her life. He stayed silent. His silence scared her. Over then, She recalled her words which were spoken out of her control. She didn't want to speak anything about that. But she spelled it out. He thudded down in the bench beside him in shock. 

"Shivaay." - She kneeled down to him. 

"It all happens because of me." - He whispered looking at her with welled up eyes. She cupped his face in that instant. 

"It's the situation, Shivaay. Not you." - She said cupping his face. 

"You are my everything, Not recently, It's from the spark happened when I met you in your house for the first time. I wasn't close to naina because I blamed her for your condition on that day when you're fighting for life. I never thought that baseless reasons would impact both of your life like this. It's all because of me." - He whispered without meeting her eyes. She tried to match his eyelids but he wasn't ready to meet her eyes. 

"Look at me, Shivaay. Please once." - Anika asked him but he continued to whisper. 

"My child didn't recognize me. She used to get scared hearing my footsteps. How cruel I am? Do I deserve to be a father?" - He continued.

"Shivaay, Please stop, You're scaring me. I didn't mean to say anything to you." - She tried to get his consciousness. But he continued to speak on his own. 

"Who am i? I tried to cover up my mistakes blaming my wife and my innocent child. She started to feel hell in her own house. I never loved her. I never loved her." - He spoke loosing his conscious state. 

"It's an Obsession. I never loved her, She's right." - He whispered. 

"What?" - She asked him again cupping his face. 

"She's right." - He whispered again. 

"Shivaay. I am scared. Please stop." - She begged but none of those reached his ears.

"She's right." - He again whispered. 

"What?"- She asked him again. 

"It's better to die than live without her." - He whispered, She was shaking in fear hearing that. She nodded no, Continuously. 

"SHIVAAY. I DIDN'T SAY THAT. WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? LOOK AT ME FOR THE GOD SAKE." - She shouted but he wasn't ready to look at her. And continued to say the same words again and again. 

"NO. NO. NO." - She said slightly slapping him in his cheek but he didn't respond. Her mind didn't work. Her whole world started to shatter after hearing those words from him. She smashed her lips with his lips when he didn't respond to any of her words. He didn't kiss her back but stopped murmuring. She broke her kiss when he closed his eyes.

"Look, You are the person whom I love more than anyone in the world. I moved on from my mom's death. But I can't live without you. You're my courage, You're my strength, You're my only Solace. I am not supposed to loose you. Do you want to hurt me more?" - She asked him choking. She was weeping. He nodded no without opening his eyes, Cupping her face with his palms. She got her breath back, She didn't wait for a while to kiss him back and he reciprocated the kiss. After all, It's life, Atlast.

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