My baby, Niyati smiled as the grainy black and white image appeared on the monitor.

As usual, Kaveri Devi and she had come a sophisticated private Ob-Gy clinic of Jaipur in the after-hours for her weekly appointment. The famous lady doctor and one of her trusted staff were present to attend them as usual too. Kaveri Devi Rajvansh had maintained the highest level of privacy while getting her baby the best care locally until they could fly to London. Everything had been settled on that front between the Rajvanshs, Anthony uncle and herself. Their need for utter discretion in order to pass this baby off as Uday Rajvansh's was understandable and the higher standards of medical care abroad were, of course, a good thing.

Her pregnancy, thankfully, had been progressing in a textbook fashion with no hiccups. She was in her nineteenth week now and the doctor had proposed to do sonography today just to make sure everything was fine before they flew to London in four days. While there was no big baby bump yet, her stomach was swelling at a steady rate now and it would be impossible to hide her pregnancy from any discerning eye pretty soon.

Looking at the monitor, she could make two little feet and a round head of curled up baby. Automatically her head turned towards Kaveri Devi who was present in the room. She, too, was grinning at the baby's image. Both women shared an affectionate smile.

The scan seemed to go on for ages. The staff technician and the doctor kept taking turns while measuring the baby's statistics all the while talking in medical jargon. Kaveri Devi kept up an entertaining monologue as well, betting to herself if it was a boy or a girl. Niyati, though very happy to see her baby, was getting uncomfortable lying down on her back due to the pain in her lower back that had been ailing her for the last two days.

"How much longer, doctor?" she finally asked.

The doctor faced her properly in that darkened room for the first time since the scan had started. Niyati came out of her own euphoria and realized that her face was looking grim.

"Mrs. Rajvansh, we cannot find a heartbeat."

Niyati anxiously looked at Kaveri Devi who demanded, "What do you mean you cannot find a heartbeat?"

"Just that, Mrs. Rajvansh. There is no heartbeat. The baby is measuring a week smaller too."

"What does that mean?"

"The baby has stopped growing, Mrs. Rajvansh."

There was an undeniable thread of fear in Kaveri Devi's voice when she furiously denied, "That can't be so! Look properly."

It occurred to Niyati that she was having trouble breathing. Cold sweat had broken out all over her body. Everything around her was getting hazy fast, all the voices around her were nothing more than a buzzing blur. My baby, my baby, my baby!

The doctor noticed the anxiety attack and jumped into action. Kaveri Devi too rushed to Niyati's side. A cold cloth was put on her forehead and ice-cold water was pushed to her lips. By the time her attack receded, Kaveri Devi was hugging her, soothingly caressing her back while the doctor and the technician were hovering over her awkwardly. She, herself, was weeping uncontrollably.

"It can't be true," she accused the doctor as soon as she could speak. "Everything was fine until last week. I saw my baby move. You said all was good too! CHECK AGAIN!"

"Okay, Mrs. Rajvansh. Please calm down and lie down. I'll check again," the doctor instantly agreed. These were some very high profile clients and she would've hated to be labeled as inhuman by the obviously worried family.

Niyati laid back again but held on to Kaveri Devi's hand in a deathly grip.

This time the doctor explicitly walked them through each step, and with each passing minute, their hopes dwindled. Now, they could see the baby was not moving. It occurred to both women that the doctor had not once offered to make them hear the sound of the baby's heartbeat today, a regular thing otherwise. That the wait to feel the baby kick inside her would just be that now, an unending wait. But there it was, her baby on the screen, she could see it. How could she believe that it was dead? There must be something that could be done to revive her baby? Anything?

The doctor's face had a shadow of pity on it as she replied, "I am sorry Mrs. Rajvansh. Nothing could be medically done to save a fetus until the pregnancy crosses twenty-eight-week mark."

"There are hormonal injections, aren't there? To stop miscarriage?" Kaveri Devi butted in.

"Progesterone shots, yes. They help avert chances of miscarriage but they cannot make the fetus's heart beat again."

"But what is the harm? Can we not just try it?" Kaveri Devi insisted.

"There is a dead fetus inside her body, Mrs. Rajvansh. Ethically and medically, I am not comfortable doing it.'

"What if I sign a waiver?" Niyati intercepted urgently. "I don't mind the side effects. I just want my baby."

The doctor sighed, looking at the two desperate women sitting in front of her, clutching each other like a lifeline. "The baby stopped growing sometime in the last week. The lower body aches you say you've been experiencing since the last two days is in all probability your body preparing to expel the inviable fetus, Mrs, Rajvansh. I am sorry I cannot do anything at this point but if it helps this is not uncommon."

Like hell, it helped! "But I have no bleeding," Niyati cried.

"It is just a matter of time, Mrs. Rajvansh. And even then, I would advise not to wait for it and get a D&C done. Keeping the inviable fetus in the body will harm you."

"I don't care. I am not letting you remove my baby from my body," Niyati said stubbornly. She looked at her mother-in-law and demanded, "I want a second opinion."

It was a long night. In spite of being in shock herself, Kaveri Devi took charge. While Niyati laid there praying and sobbing, Uday Rajvansh was summoned, and so were two other high-risk specialists - one from Delhi and one from Mumbai via chartered choppers. Within three hours both the doctors arrived, in Jaipur and to the same conclusion. Nothing could be done given fetus had no heartbeat. They repeated Niyati's original doctor's diagnosis that the baby died sometime in the last week and bleeding or no bleeding, Niyati had, in fact, miscarried.

Now numb with grief, the only question Niyati asked all three doctors was if stress could be the cause of... this? The answer was negative. Not at this stage. Stress could not affect the baby at this stage, only the mother, and mother was alright in this case. It was probably a chromosomal abnormality but more could only be said after an autopsy report. Even that was not always conclusive.

At four am the next morning, the dreaded bleeding commenced. Niyati was inconsolable. Kaveri Devi was deathly quiet. Uday Rajvansh was helpless. Nature had decided its course and there was nothing anyone could do.

Niyati entered the next day with an empty womb and a heart full of anguish. Her blood pressure shot up dangerously and so a sedative was administered. As her eyelids drooped she heard Uday Rajvansh pleading with his mother to take some rest. Kaveri Devi who had steadfastly sat beside Niyati all through the night, declined again.

A few moments later, one black empty vacuum absorbed the rest of her awareness.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Three days later, Niyati sat beside Anthony uncle on the couch in Rajvansh Vilas's living room. Uday Rajvansh and Kaveri Devi sat on a couch opposite them. Both the women were dealing with their respective griefs in silence as the men talked. 

"It was God's will," Anthony D'silva said.

Niyati blinked back tears furiously. Kaveri Devi looked away despondently. Uday Rajvansh somberly replied, "Yes."

"I am glad though that Niyati is fine," Anthony D'silva continued.

Something savage flickered in Uday Rajvansh's eyes. The women missed it, but Anthony didn't. That made his decision for him. He was not leaving Niyati behind. She was going with him.

Diplomatically he proceeded, "Of course, psychologically it is a different story. It is hardest on the mother to lose her child."

Kaveri Devi sniffled emotionally at that. However, Anthony could see the wheels in Uday Rajvansh's brain starting to churn. Astute as the young politician was, he could see what Anthony was trying to get to.

"It would be better for Niyati if she accompanies me back to Delhi. There she can recapture emotionally and physically among family."

Niyati looked up gratefully at her honorary father, for she too had been wondering where to go, what to do now,  in between her mind-numbing weeping sessions.

"Are you suggesting a divorce, Mr. D'silva?" Uday Rajvansh started in a deadly tone.

"That is one option down the line. What else is binding her here now? However, right now I am only suggesting that she visits my family. For an extended period of time."

"What do you think, Mr. D'silva, are me and my mother? Your puppets? You dump her on our heads when you want respectability for her. You cart her away when that respectability is no more her concern. Do you think the sole aim of our life is to dance to your whims and fancies?"

"You never wanted to get married, Mr. Rajvansh. We are just offering you an out."

"When elections are less than seven months away? When my wedding immediately after my brother's death had been the talk of the town for weeks? I am thrilled, Mr. D'silva."

"Your wedding was so talked about because of the scandal your brother left behind, Mr. Rajvansh. In our country, the private life of politicians is not sensationalized by the media otherwise!"

"In case you have forgotten, this blasted wedding took place only because my notorious brother left a baby behind too."

"The baby is no more."

"My political career, unfortunately, hasn't died with it. I still have an election to contest and I prefer to it without dubious clouds shrouding my private life anymore. Niyati got what she wanted when she wanted. Too bad her meal ticket didn't see fruition. But as per the deal I'd to cut for her, under duress at that time mind you, she still gets almost five crore rupees in compensation from our pocket even if she did not produce a baby. What do we get out of all this? Nothing. Nada."

Niyati closed her eyes to shut the pain of those callous words out.

Kaveri Devi silently put a restraining hand on her son's sleeve at that point.

"I don't need your compensation," Niyati spoke for the first time. She had agreed to the money for her baby. He didn't have to pay up for her stupidity of falling into his brother's trap.

Uday Rajvansh sneered, "A very noble thought. But don't tell this to me, tell it to your keeper."

Anthony D'silva's mouth thinned. "I say we are digressing, Mr. Rajvansh. To even ask for that compensation back from the girl whom your brother used and abused is beneath you. And as far as Niyati's leaving here is concerned, there is nothing legally you can do to make her stay here. I am sure we can reach some understanding where she will make appropriate appearances for your campaign."

"My rivals are speculating day and night about why I got married in such haste! One misstep could malign my image irrevocably. And I don't need her as a prop for my campaign but her staying here makes a world of difference if anyone is snooping around. I don't believe it is too much to ask her to stay put and see this charade through the elections with all the money she is getting from us!"

At that point, Kaveri Devi joined the conversation. She pleaded to Niyati, "Niyati, please stay. Until the elections. Not for the money, but for me? Just because my Uday doesn't complain doesn't mean he hasn't been through the hell with the rest of us. That baby was his nephew as well. He has worked so hard for the past five years. I won't ask any more of you."

Nephew. It had been a boy, they had come to know through autopsy. The reason for miscarriage had indeed been chromosomal abnormalities. Nobody could have done anything to save her pregnancy she had been told. Now Niyati didn't give a fig about Uday Rajvansh's political aspirations but Kaveri Devi was another question altogether. She had come to respect and love the old woman dearly during her stay in her house. She had been nothing but nice to her and she had appealed to the singular thing she had to offer to these rich people, her goodwill.

Anthony D'silva intervened, "Let's not emotionally pressurize the grieving girl, Mrs. Rajvansh."

"Wow, the pot is calling the kettle black," Uday Rajvansh sarcastically rejoindered.

Kaveri Devi ignored them both and kept appealingly look at Niyati, "Please, Niyati?"

Niyati felt torn. She wanted to leave from here but she wasn't altogether ready to leave. She knew Uday Rajvansh disliked her immensely, but pathetically she wanted to hang on to his mother for some more time. She wanted to mourn her baby with someone who was equally affected with the loss and this woman was the only one who shared her pain in the true sense. For once she didn't want to fight her demons alone. She had no energy left. Not right away. Not with her wounds so raw, so fresh.

But she also knew Kaveri Devi was thinking about her son now, and not her. She knew Uday Rajvansh wouldn't thank her for her co-operation for he considered it services rendered for the payment made. She knew Anthony uncle had the best intention in his heart as he tried to take her away from this place. He was the only person who was solely thinking about her.

She didn't belong with these people, not without her baby. But it would be ungrateful to leave them in a lurch, open to public ridicule after they had been so kind towards her. At least, Kaveri Devi. Uday Rajvansh, too in a way, had come to heel when it was her hour of need. Hadn't he? Her misguided search for love and his brother's philandering ways, both weren't on his head. But that's just where they had rested in the end. He had made compromises too, she knew now. And she wasn't ruthless enough to leave them floundering after raking up the storm in their lives. Only taking and no giving, her Catholic upbringing wouldn't allow her to live with herself peacefully afterward.

"I'll stay," she said at last.

Anthony uncle gaped at her as if she had lost her mind.

And she probably had.

.

Press Follow for update alerts.

And don't forget to Vote!!

Also, visit the News and Notes section for story related announcements and posts (spoilers, playlists, trivia, etc.) and update status related announcements.