Shadows of Yesterday - The Concluding Part

The point was did he want to answer? She thought "Life is weird enough to bring old wounds open again", but she would not budge to the situation, she told herself. A week went by and she did not hear from Arjun all this while. Somewhere deep inside she wanted him to come by so she could ask him all the questions that made her go crazy. Till then, she'll have to wait. It was on a Friday evening,during a business dinner that Arjun met the guy he envied the most. "Hey! How you doing?", he greeted Yug with a smile. "Oh!Ahem....Am good. Please forgive me I am bad with remembering people. Have we met before?", Yug was trying to recall when did he meet the guy shaking hands with him. "Ha Ha. Well, I do remember you, Yug. I am Arjun, Sia's best friend. We met in a restaurant some 4 yrs back. Did I make it any easier for you now?", he winked with a manly laughter. "Yeah! man. I am so sorry. I am just too bad at it.", Yug tried to hide his embarassment with a smile. "How come you are here in the city? Sia told me you are out of town for a long time.", Arjun asked. "Did she? Well, seems you got it all wrong. I haven't met Sia for let's say 4 yrs now. We are hardly in touch. There seems to be a confusion here, I think", he scratched his brows with his thumb in a deep-thinker's way. "But...But...You got married, right?", Arjun could not believe it. "Nopes. We did not marry. Sia declined my proposal the very next day, on a lunch date. Frankly, I think she did the right thing, she deserves to be happy and I am not the one she would be happy with.", he spoke with a serious tone in his voice. "Ah!...well...have a great time tonite. I got some business so I'll take your leave now.Nice to meet you after such a long time", Arjun wanted to run to get his answers from her. "Sure, man.Say my hello to Sia when you see her", Yug shook hands with him. She slept over a business magazine and a thundering knock at her door woke her up. "Damn. These guys have not fixed the doorbell yet", she mumbled as she got up from the couch. Rubbing her eyes, she answered the door and her heart started pounding."This is a bad dream. Okay. Enough", she rubbed her eyes hard now. "This is no bad dream, honey. This is ME.Can I come in?", Arjun said with a grin that made her so uncomfortable. She looked so beautiful, just out of the sleep. Her hair ruffled, her eyes half-open in a way that could make any man go weak, her lips still lingered with the balm she would have used before falling asleep. She was bare-feet and no wonder, she had beautiful feet,uhuh! legs! WTF am I thinking about? Arjun brought himself back to reality. "So, what brings you here?", she asked irritatingly "Thought, would meet Yug.Long time, you see" "I told you, he is not in town" "Is it? He asked me to say hello to you. I met him tonite at the business dinner.Why did you lie to me?", he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her closer. "I..I...umm...How does it make a difference to you? Leave me alone", she held back tears again. "It DOES make a difference to me. I thought you married him. Why the hell did you have to lie?" "Please leave. I am not answerable to you" "So, you are. Do you have any idea what these 4 years have been for me, you crazy?" "For you?? Huh! I don't want to talk about anything to you anymore. Why did you come back in my life again?" "I did not come back to your life. I myself did not know that AJ is marrying your best friend. I had no idea, I would bump into you that night. It was not easy for me too, Sia. Trust me. I searched for you everywhere after you left the city. You left no contacts, no details. Nothing. Where would have I searched for you? And now one day I see you right there in front of me and I did not know what to say. Why did you leave me, Sia?" "Me?. I left you. I never thought I'd be saying this but now when we are talking about this. I never left you anywhere, you left me in the middle of all that was going on. What do you expect from me? Watch you getting closer to someone else, every day of my life. I could not do that. I simply could not." "What are you talking about?" "For god's sake. What do you want?" "I want my answers. Why did you lie to me?" "Coz I loved you", she pushed him aside and tears fell down her face. "Yes. I loved you and I could not see you getting married to Neha, so I left" "WTF", he swore to himself."It's all my fault. I..I... should have not done that to you. I am sorry, Sia. I never married Neha. I never loved her. Its just that, seeing you getting so close to someone else in front of me, made me furious, jealous...watever you may call it and I did it in a fit of anger" "This does not matter now.You never loved me anyways. I am fine with it." "I did. I do. I do love you, Sia more than anyone in this world. Just that...", he moved away from her now and faced the window while he spoke. "I always knew how much you loved babies, I mean you always told me that you wanted to be a mother and deep inside, I knew I would not be able to ever be a part of your happiness. I had an accident some 8 years back and due to the injuries inflicted I was told that I could never father any babies and one of my kidneys also got affected apart from the scars I have on my back. I did not want to ruin it for you, Sia. I know how much you loved waving at kids, playing with them and being a mom. How could I even think about ruining it all for you, just because of my injury? You mean a lot to me, Sia. I did not have the courage to say it all to you. I tried many a times but I could not. I could see US falling in love and the only resort I had was to move away from you and I knew it would mean breaking your heart. I did break your heart and I know no words can ever make up for that but Sia, I just want you to know that I have only loved you and I will always love you." "Why did you do this to me?", Sia grabbed the front of his shirt and cried. "I love you for who you are and I will always love you for that. Do you think I would have left when you told me about it?. Why did you let us suffer? Why did not you tell me 4 yrs back? You mean more than anyone in this world, more than even my dream of being a mom. We could have done any sane thing like adoption and all. Why did not you just let me know? How did you manage to suffer all this while, you moron?" "Sia...Sia...Please listen to me. I never wanted you to give up your dream coz of me. I still don't want you to ever give up any of your dreams coz of me. I want you to see more dreams and we will realize them together. Trust me. I will always be there for you", he kissed her forehead and hugged her. "No dreams mean more than you, Arjun. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Enough of staying away from each other." "I love you too, Sia and your love is the reason I got strength and will-power to undergo the surgery." "Surgery?" "Yes. You remember my friend Jose?? He is the one who is responsible for my treatment. I am still undergoing one and he is sure almost all injuries can be reversed now except that I may not be a dad ever" "We will pay our thanks to him, once we are in the city" "Yeah! sure. You can pay him your thanks once he is in the city for our marriage. Let's get married.", he picked her up in his hands and kissed her with passion yet softly. "Mmmm....Let's get married", Sia whispered in his ears.