"Swara, please calm down. Everything is sorted over here." Sanskar was calming his panic-stricken wife over the phone call.

Half an hour back Sanskar, Ram, DP, Parineeta and Adarsh had brought unconscious Ragini to hospital. They had informed Laksh who was earlier on the way to his factory instantly turned his way towards the hospital.

At first, Swara urged her family members to accompany on their way to hospital, but Sanskar and Sujata's clear denial resulted in a change of  plans.

"Did the doctor's say anything about her? Is Laksh in the hospital?" Swara bombarded from the other side.

"Swara, doctors are checking her. She is in ICU. And Laksh is also here. Please don't panic." He was well aware that his wife's pregnancy hormones had taken full charge of her emotional balance.

"Sanskar, the police inspector is here." Swara heard her father in law's voice.

"Inspector? What happened, Sanskar?" Swara's frantic voice hit his eardrum.

"Swara, it's an attempt to suicide case, hospital authorities are just following procedure." He kept his calm.

"Are they going to make any arrest?" Swara huffed.

"No Swara, I said right, it's just a procedure. Don't worry. As soon as we hear something from the doctor, I will give you a call. For now, just stop worrying and take a rest. Stress is not good for your current situation." He spoke tenderly, fading a worried line from her forehead.

"Ok. I will wait for your call."

"Bye love." He hung up to type, 'Mom, please be with Swara, she is taking too much stress.' He quickly hit send before running to follow his father and Uncle who were facing a confrontation session with a team of police.

"We know Mr. Maheshwari, we will take care of it." Sanskar heard the inspector assuring his father. Being an influential family of Calcutta, it did not take much effort for Ram and Adarsh to convince the police inspector about the mishap.

"It's just a family matter. She is facing deep depression." Ram continued.

"Yes, it is a family matter, because your family is responsible for the condition of my granddaughter." Hostile tone from their back made everyone turn to find the source. It was none other than Parvati Gadodia.

"Inspector Sir, these people are responsible for the condition of my Laddoo." Parvati accused Maheshwari family members.

"Ma please. Chup rahiye." Shekhar silenced his mother, intervening. He requested the police, "Sir, please ignore my mother's world. You please continue with whatever is required."

"Shekhar?" Parvati tried to intervene but stopped looking at her son's wide hostile eyes. He took his mother aside and let Maheshwari men handle the situation.

"What are you doing, Ma?" Shekhar mumbled irritatingly. "You already know what had happened in the past. It's Ragini's luck that even after betraying this family, they are still letting her stay in their house. Your one more blunder will cost us Ragini's marriage. We should be indebted to Laksh that after Ragini's deeds he is still keeping promises of their marriage bond." Shekhar reminded his own daughter's deeds to his mother.

"Wasn't Ragini, fed up with the torture and humiliation of these people? These people are responsible for her today's condition. Their partial behaviour broke her." Conveniently Parvati forgot the misdeeds of her own blood.

"Please I am begging you Ma, please don't create any new chaos." Shekhar folded his hands in front of his mother. "Just keep your mouth shut."

Unwillingly Parvati maintained silence but her vicious brain was running in every direction to find justice for her granddaughter.

After a long wait of a few hours doctors came out with positive news about Ragini being out of danger resulting everyone to leave a sigh of relief.

"We will keep her under observation for the next two days." Doctor informed others, before leaving. "Mr. Laksh, please come with me, I need to discuss a few things with you."

"Doctor, I am her father, please allow me as well." Shekhar requested, which was accepted by the doctor.

"Sanskar, give a call to your Mom. They must be in tension." Ram suggested.

"Yes, sure Dad." Sanskar nodded his head in agreement.

As per his father's instructions Sanskar gave a call to his mother to inform about the current situation.

It was late evening when Sanskar and others returned back to their home where as Laksh decided to stay in the hospital along with Shekhar and Parvati to take care of Ragini. The Maheshwari family had a silent dinner before calling off for the day.

"Doctors have advised us to consult with a psychiatrist for Ragini's condition. So, Laksh and Shekhar Papa went to have a word with Dr. Arora, psychiatrist of the hospital. They discussed her history. Maybe in a day or two he will visit and have a session with Ragini to understand her mental health." Sanskar gave ideas about today's events to his wife.

"Psychiatrist? Why?" Swara asked.

"It's a procedure, Ragini had a bottle of sleeping pills. After knowing her history, doctors are presuming she might have developed suicidal tendancy. They want to take experts' opinions." Sanskar explained.

"History... means not being able to conceive?" Swara asked after a quick thought.

"Yes... as per doctor's initial thoughts that could be one of the major factors." He replied, shrugging his shoulders. "But not limited to that single factor, we all know Ragini's hard, overstrict upbringing, motherless childhood, her discontentment about anything and everything about her life, her insecurities, her jealousy factor over her own sister."

"Did you guys discuss all these things with the doctor?" Swara was astonished.

"No... I mean I am just speculating... Not sure what Laksh and Shekhar Papa informed doctors exactly. They were inside with the doctor." Sanskar confirmed.

"I hope she will feel better soon." Swara prayed looking at the stars.

Two days later, Laksh has went to hospital for Ragini's discharge. Whereas in Maheshwari House Swara had scheduled an appointment with her gynaecologist for a monthly check up. She and Sanskar were about to leave.

"Sanskar drive slowly." Sujata suggested being concerned.

"Mom, no worries, these days your Schumacher son drives a car at 30 KMPH." Swara teased, pressing her lips.

"Mom, your instructions should be for your beloved daughter in law... Ask her at what speed she drives the car?" Sanskar rebuked with annoyance.

"Why should I ask her? It's your mistake to allow her to drive." Sujata was infuriated with her own son.

"See I told you..." Swara spoke, widening her eyes to tease her husband.

Swara laughed wholeheartedly seeing his grumpy face.

But her pure, carefree laughter pierced someone's heart with thousands of swords.

"Parvati Kakisa." Sujata mumbled when she saw Parvati climbing down stairs along with a few other ladies and 2 police constables.

Swara and Sanskar also turned, hearing Sujata's baffled words.

Parvati threw death glares at Swara. Her beloved granddaughter was on the verge of dying where as this girl standing here was enjoying every moment of her life, just a thought irked Parvati.

"Please come. This is my Laddoo's in-laws house." Parvati asked the rest of the other ladies and inspector along with two constables inside Maheshwari house.

"Kakisaa, what is all this? Who are these people?" Words were out from Sujata even before she realised.

"Hi, my name is Vandana and these are my colleagues. We are from Naari Niketan Samaj, we work for women's welfare. Parvatiji complained to us that her grand-daughter who is also your daughter in law, is facing domestic violence from this family." One lady in her early 40's intervened, providing reason for their visit.

"Domestic violence? What rubbish is this?" Sanskar spoke unbelievingly. "Listen, Ms. Vandana you have some misconception..."

"Did you see how these people are reacting?" Parvati's anger filled voice boomed in the living hall of Maheshwari house. "From the day my Ragini got married in this family, they have harassed her mentally as well as physically. When they realised my Ragini cannot conceive and won't be able to give an heir to this family. They started torturing her. They kept her locked in the room, restricting any communication with us and the outside world."

"What are you saying Kakisa?" Annapurna along with the rest other Maheshwari join everyone at the living hall.

"This is Annapurna Maheshwari, she is my Ladoo's mother in law. Ask her if she was forcing her son Laksh, who is my grand-daughter's husband to throw my Ragini out of this house. Even being married to my Ragini, she was manipulating him to divorce my Ragini and get married to another girl." Parvati pointed out venting her frustrations.

"This is Swara, their other daughter in law, now that she is pregnant, these people are mistreating and humiliating my Ragini every day. My Ragini could not bear their daily taunts and harassment, their actions led my Laddoo to go into deep depression. Under depression, only she consumed those sleeping pills. And two days back, my beloved grand-daugther was lying unconsciously on a hospital bed fighting between life and death." Parvati started shedding crocodile tears.

"This is not the whole truth..." Annapurna tried to contradict.

"But did you ask Ragini to not join any family events or gatherings? Did you want Ragini to leave your son and this house?" Vandana, lead of the Women's welfare association asked.

"Yes I had asked." Annapurna replied.

"Just because she could not conceive due to her medical conditions. How narrow minded people are you? In this 21 century still you are blaming a woman for her incapability. Being a woman you should have understood her pain but no..." Vandana raised her voice.

"Excuse me, you don't know the full details. Every coin has another side. You are blaming us by hearing only one side." Sanskar tried to intervene. Even though he had some issues with his Badi Ma, he could never see her getting insulted by an outsider.

"Ha ha.. You will for sure take her side now. Now that your wife is pregnant, she is going to give the heir to this family. What do you think? Now you and your wife can snatch my Ladoo's rights on the legacy of this family." Parvati threw murderous glares at Swara.

"Are you hearing yourself, Dadi?" Swara criticised. "How can you say this?"

"Swara, calm down. You should not stress in this condition." Sujata pulled her daughter in law back.

"Mom is right, Swara. Mom, please take her upstairs." Sanskar suggested.

"Why? Why will she go upstairs? Why are you trying to hide her? She is equally responsible for my Laddoo's condition." Parvati pointed at Swara. She continued, "Ask her, even being a step sister, did she ever help my Ragini? She always interfered and tried to break my Laddoo's marriage, because she wanted to be a solitary voice in this house."

"What are you saying, Dadi?" tears started rolling over Swara's cheeks. Pregnancy hormones had made her emotional these days.

"For the last 6 months, my Laddoo was locked up in her room but this girl never cared for her but had continuously instigated other family members against her. My granddaughter had become a thorn in her way to own this legacy. I strongly feel she is the one who must have forced my Laddoo to consume those pills." Parvati was unstoppable today with her unnecessary blames.

But her every word was bringing fresh tears in Swara's eyes.

"Mrs. Parvati Gadodia, you are crossing your limits." Sanskars intimidating tone flinched.

Parvati's heart started thumping inside her rib cage seeing his bloodshot eyes. She knew she had crossed her limits this time.

"Have she told you how her beloved grand-daughter betrayed this entire family for nine months with her fake pregnancy?" Now Sanskar took charge of the situation. "Even though she was aware that she would never be able to conceive, with the help of one fraudulent doctor she faked her pregnancy for almost 9 months. If you need additional information for this.... go and ask SP Chatterjee, he was leading the case and he arrested the same doctor from our own house on the day when we were hosting her grand-daughter's baby shower function."

"Parvati ji is this true?" One of the women asked where Parvati tried to search for answers.

"These people are lying, they are using the power of their money and status to divert your attention." Parvati stammered.

Meanwhile Sanskar gave a call to SP Chatterjee and explained to him about the details.

"Trust me, these people are really harassing my grand-daughter. Please save her."

"Ma, what are you doing here?" Shekhar entered, he had gone to hospital to see his daughter when he saw his mother absence, he anticipated his mother's unexpected arrival at Maheshwari house. He and Sharmishtha instantly headed to stop their mother from creating new drama.

"Please, please ignore her. She is just stressed because of my daughter. My daughter is going through a rough patch of her life because of her own mistakes. Please... please leave us alone." Shekhar again folded his hands.

The next moment, there was a call on one of the constable's phone. After the call, both constables started leaving from the premises.

After some more convincing sessions, ladies from the women's welfare association started leaving.

"Please please wait.. Hear me out." Parvati ran behind them to stop but it was too late.

"Shekhar what was the need for your interference. I had told you to let me sort this out." Parvati berated. "Why? Why Shekhar? Do you want your daughter to spend her whole life craving for her own child? All her life, she suffocates inside while watching her sister enjoying the happiness of becoming a mother of two children. This is so wrong. One of your daughters is destined to have the sorrows of the whole world and the other one is destined to have every happiness at her footsteps. Is this even justice?"

Everyone standing in the living hall were stunned hearing Parvati's ridiculous arguments.

"This daughter of yours is a curse. A curse which had destroyed my family... First she killed my Janaki Bahu, then she took my son away from me, bringing her characterless mother into his life... My own husband has left me alone, breaking our marriage bond. It was not enough that she snatched happiness from my Ragini. I wish you would never get any happiness..."

"ENOUGH" Sanskar roared, flinching at everyone. "Not a word against my wife."

"Mom take Swara upstairs now." Sanskar spoke in a cold without moving his death glare from Parvati's scared face. "Swara please go with Mom."

"Sanskar" Swara could hardly speak, wiping her continuous tears. He closed his eyes for a moment before turning back to his wife. He turned to face his wife with requesting eyes.

"Swara please. You have my swear. Please go upstairs. Please... for us." He rubbed her shoulder with one hand and with the other he touched her stomach.

"Swara please listen to me, beta. I am sorry on behalf of Ma." Shekhar tried to control the situation. He had seen a glimpse of Sanskar's terror a few minutes back, his son in law was capable of bringing storm in his life within a blink. If any one can calm Sanskar down then it would be his daughter only.

"Swara Ple..." Sanskar was interrupted by his wife.

"Mom, let's go." She spoke hardly audibly for her husband and mother in law. She raised her teary eyes to meet her husband's concernedful, "Please come soon."

Her husband just nodded his head with the assured blink of an eye.

"Swara wait beta... Swara please.." Shekhar was calling his daughter who had turned her back to him.

"Mr. Shekhar Gadodia." It was a calm yet cold voice from Sanskar. For the first time he had addressed Shekhar with his name. "I have nothing to do with you or your mother or your other daughter or your family. But Swara, I love her... She is my life. I cannot bear a single tear in her eye. And everytime when your beloved daughter messes up something with her own life unnecessarily you and your family blames and hurt Swara. Always you make her cry... But not anymore... I don't want you or any one of your family members to keep any contact with Swara without my permission."

"Also, make your mother understand very well that if the next time she even took the name of Swara, her beloved Laddoo will be behind bars. I still have proof of your daughter's misdeeds like her confession of trying to kill Swara, faking her memory loss, faking pregnancy not only once but twice and the list is very long. It won't take any time for me to submit those proofs to the police which will automatically result in her arrest. And I will make sure she never sees the open sky in her life again." His words felt like icy water on everyone. Till today no one had seen ruthlessly Sanskar Maheshwari.

"How dare you Sanskar?" Parvati screamed her lungs out.

"You are very welcome to try me Mrs. Gadodia." His sarcasm has reached its peak.

"You can't do this." Shekhar mumbled unbelievingly.

"I can very well Mr. Gadodia... You don't know the real me." His voice was icy cold.

"Sanskar please...please don't do this. I am her mother." Sharmishtha requested when finally his words were processed by her mind.

"I wish you had realised this much earlier, Ma." Sanskar replied, shaking his head, "You are her mother, I cannot stop you from meeting her if she wants. But Ma, you had also hurt her in the past so please be careful in the future. One tear in her eye... I promise you will never be able so see her face. This time I will make sure of it." Saying this without waiting for anyone's comment he left for his room to his Swara.

When Sanskar came to his room, he stood at the doorstep to see his mother had embraced Swara in a motherly hug. His wife's eyes have turned void and she has closed herself in a shell.

"Swara" He called while entering.

"Look at her Sanskar, she has not spoken a single word." Sujata told him worriedly.

He pulled Swara to enveloped her in his secured embrace. She was not even crying but had turned blank. Recent episode of her life had again opened up old scars.

"I am here Swara. Please talk to me dear." Sanskar kept on caressing her hairs while speaking some soothing words. "See we all are here. You know how much I love you. How much Mom and Dad loves you... we are a family Swara..."

Soon Ram also joins his son and wife to see his daughter's state.  It took long efforts from all three of them to calm the erupting storm inside Swara.

"Please take me far far away from here Sanskar." This was the only sentence Swara spoke before slipping into deep slumber tiredly.

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