He saw her fallen off & lying down all Unconscious. Vatsalya's lifeless body on the accident spot flashed before his eyes! He couldn't understand that feel, He learnt the pain of seeing someone close to heart lying all lifeless through Vatsalya, but he suddenly started to feel the same pain, seeing her lying lifeless.
All the while whenever there was a talk abt Anami takes place in LM, all his reply was "I don't care", but now its completely differebt…Those few sweats newly formed on his forehead showed HE CARES, those sudden abnormal breathing showed HE CARES, those shivering hands & trembling legs showed that HE CARES. He came out of Vatsalya's accident incident when he was about to lose his balance&managed to stood straight by holding the railing & saw the reality of Anami lying all unconscious in front of him. He started to move, his steps got fasten in next few seconds & he started to ran at last
He goes on his knees nearer to her, asking his assistant to call for a doctor ASAP. He hold her chin and shook to check if she gets conscious, but No she didn't. That innocence in her face made him to feel something. WHAT IS IT? Sympathy? Care? Affection? or Guilt? He didn't know…he cares her face & clearly noticed it was pale. He took her in his arms & ran into LM
He didn't know what to do next? Whom to inform? Just a single face came to his mind & a single name came out of his mouth. "SATRUPA" he shouted making everyone in LM to get worried about the pain in his voice & the way he shouted. Especially Satrupa, since all in their life time she never heard him calling her like this. There was pain, helplessness, restlessness & even a slight of fear.
She ran down from their room to reach living hall, meanwhile all others in LM too reached the place. her steps got slow in the mid of the stairs & she stunned seeing Anami lifeless in his arms. "Anami" his trembling voice made her came out of few seconds frozen moment & she ran towards him, while dadi too get concerned seeing Anami like this.
"What happened to her?" she asked worriedly, while he stands there stunned. She shook his arms & asked again, making him came out his frightened world. "BALDEV….What happened?" she shouted, He shook his head all worried as if saying he don't know. Just then His assistant came & info that doc'll be there in few mins. "could be cz of her hunger strike" dadi says in a worried tone, while Baldev gave a surprised expression to know this & Satrupa gets worried. "Get her into the room & make her lie on the bed" dadi showed the way for the couple & they both reached the room nearer to them, followed by dadi & dhamo, while all others were confused & frozen by what all just happened.
With her dad on next to her head & mom on her feet & dadi watching her all concerned, Anami was lying on the bed. Doctor reached LM & gave some medicines after giving trips of glucose. He left asking them to give her something to eat when she gets conscious. Baldev quitely leaves from there and went straight to their room, ignoring all the questioning eyes in living area.
Dadi watched Satrupa caressing anami's head & silently crying for her daughter to look at her once. She hold her shoulder making her to feel the support & caresses it as if asking not to worry
Finally after few hours, when Anami finally gets to open her eyes, the picture her eyes captured was the image of her Matlabi Mataji, who is actually crying all alone in the room beside her. She never in her life might thought that she would get to see such headstrong, stubborn, superpower woman to cry infront of her like this. Whether she may accept it or not, It will always pricks a child's heart to see his/her mother cry. She suddenly felt as if her paglipanditaiyaan is sitting infront of her & crying over something which always pricks her heart, even sometimes irks her too.
She slowly goes on her elbow & tried to sit on her back, while Satrupa gets happy to see her getting conscious, she wipes her tears & don't know from where she wore that stubborn woman mask all of a sudden to hide her crybaby face. Anami slightly smirks at her change of expression, while satrupa holds her from moving further & helps her to sit on her back resting on the headrest.
She looks at her mother's face for few seconds, no matter how hard satrupa tried to mask her emotions, Anami can clearly see that how much scared & worried she was for her. All of sudden she forgot all the bitterness in between them & enjoyed all the attention she is having from her own mother, which she never tasted for past 17years in her life. Satrupa saw her looking at her all the while she was helping, a mother inside her feels the pain of being helpless & fear of about to lose her daughter converting into anger & can erupt at Anami in any moment. She wanna shout at her daughter, hug her tighter & give her a lil slap for doing all this stupidity, but neither she had the strength to do, nor Anami also had strength to hear her lectures. "Don't stress yourself. I'll ask Poonam to get something for you to eat. Please have something & take rest" she pleaded, but lil firmly. Reality hits Anami hard & she fumbles to cover up the suddenly grown affection in her heart. "Yo….u, yoou…you don't need to care about me this much Matlabi Mataji. I've lived my 17yrs of lifetime w/o you, I know how to take care of me" she slowly said in her low voice & shoved off her mother's hands which was on her shoulder.
Satrupa give a sad smile "I know you aged enough to can take care of yourself, but even though i wasn't there with you in past 17yrs, You still had a MOTHER to take care of you. If it was her, you might never able to do so. Likewise Im your mother, tho may be a matlabi as like you says, but still im YOUR MOTHER & I'll take care of you" She said, asking Poonam to bring some food through intercom. Dadi came in time along with poonam & stopped the fight to brew further, finally both convinced a weakened Anami to have some food & she finally gave up & ate for dadi sake (as she says, while a mother inside satrupa smiled at her daughter's lie)
Midnight ….Satrupa suddenly awake from her half sleep & noticed her daughter sleeping next to peacefully & remembered how she fall asleep, which checking on Anami after her dinner, to make sure she sleeps well. While adoring her sleeping daughter, her thoughts went back to all the incidents which happened from the morning. Something pricked her heart from the moment when she gotta see a frozen Baldev carrying a lifeless anami in his arms, but she ignored that feel since she was all scared/concerned about her daughter till then. But now something strange hits her heart/mind, which makes her to move slowly towards their room.
When she opened the doors of their room, all she could see was a broken/shattered baldev having his alcohol at a corner of their room, where he had set a bar for himself. "It was his daily routine to have drinks at night. Why is that bothering me all of a sudden? Not that he haven't get drunk before. But he stopped in between bcz of Vatsalya, but ever since he wasn't there in our life, he started having it again. But it was something different today.." she thought to herself & slowly reached him. She stopped him by holding his hand, while her another hand reached his shoulder.
"It's enough Baldev…" She requested, While he gave a sad smile… "As if you care Satrupa…" he puts the glass firmly & gets to leave, but she holds his hand without turning towards him, while he stood there silent, still waiting for her say to something/leave his hand. "Today you find Vatsalya in her right!" She asked directly in her trembling voice, which made him to gulp a lump in throat, trying to hide all those beautiful & painful memories of Vatsalya rushing all over in his mind/heart!
"Stop comparing her with MY VATSALYA, SATruppaaaa" he tried to sound firm but couldn't, while she turned back pulling him to turn towards her. "I saw you baldev. She just fainted due to her hunger strike, even I & Mumma got worried. But not panicked as like you did..The way you carried her, went all frozen, couldn't even able to found words to talk/say anything at that moment, it said something else" while he too remember the morning incident which flashed in front of him. "You felt Vatsalya in her right!" she asked again hoping him to open up
He shoved her hands off "stop this nonsense" he tried to move, but she wasn't ready to end this conversation abruptly as like every time they does. She got hold of his shirt above his chest & shook him "HOW LONG BALDEV….HOW LONG…." She asked helplessly, While he stands there looking at her sadly. "How long, you gonna hold on your emotions like this? How long you gonna suffocate yourself like this? Let it go & grieve over his death" She said in tears, "do you really think its that easy?" his voice trembles. "No, I didn't say its easy. Even im crying over his memories each & every moment, But you…you can't hold on everything into yourself like this & shows bitterness on rest of the world to mask over your sadness/empty life.
"Ever since he died, you're being something else. You aren't the same baldev whom I used to know, whom I got married to…Whom i.…L..Loved" her voice gets softened, while he looks on to find her tears filled eyes. "I get it, I get it you cldn't able to tolerate Vatsalya's absence in your life, even iam…but at the same time you can't stop your life over the time when he lived. Life has to move on Baldev" He gave a sad smile "Move on…".."Move on" & continued to give that sad smile which turned into sarcastic, "so that's why you bought this duplicate daughter from nowhere else to replace HIM in our life"
"I can't believe this….." she hold her forehead for a moment. "I seriously can't believe your stubbornness….Can't you really feel that she is our daughter? your daughter? Really Baldev? Now Stop acting like you don't..bcz I saw that fear in your eyes, when she was lying lifeless in your arms. You were frozen like you were about to lose your lifeline….so, Just stop acting.." She shouts, while he stands there silently agreeing on what all she said, yet egoistic to agree verbally towards her. "I know you never loved me, but please don't turn that bitterness of our relationship towards that poor kid as hatred for her & trust me for once!"
He lose his cool now. "I never loved you?" he asked while she looks on, "I NEVER LOVED YOU?" he raised his voice lil approaching her, while she moves back, since she already know what she said was wrong & will definitely hit the wrong nerve, but still her ego made her say that. He grabs an alcohol bottle which was in between them on the table & slammed it on the wall venting all his anger on it. "I NEVER LOVED YOU!" the question changed into a statement with sarcastic smile, while he started moving lil back from her & about to lose the balance, but she got hold of him & make him stand straight. "We had twins a twice & yet you're saying that I didn't loved you..?" he asked, while she turned her look aside, couldn't able to face him. "LOOK AT ME DAMN IT.." he moves closer, while she obeyed. "It wasn't just any heat of the moment or just any physical need. The moments which we spend together were the most precious in my life. It wasn't just SEX, but WE MADE LOVE YOU STUPID WOMAN" he said pulling her closer by arms, while she closed her eyes tight, squeezing her saree tryna hide her feelings & stands there like a statue.
He leaves her arms with a lil push & "why am I even trying to explain, when you can't even understand how I loved you!" he said while she raised her eyes to met his…"You'll never understand...But he did, Satrupa…Only he knows how much i loved you & him, how much you & him mattered to me in my life" Finally he started after a pause & poured his heart to her after so long, while she was all ears…"All I had was JUST HIM. The woman whom I loved cheated on me, my dad who literally disowned me, when I thought I had nothing in my life to live for & on the verge of losing hope on everything, all of a sudden i got a lifeline to live on.." he paused and raised his eyes to looks at her while lil does she knows he is talking about her. "got a new life & new hopes and I lost that too somewhere….it was just VATSALYA, Satrupa…it was him who made me felt alive in this LM & I lost him too…" he cried finally..she really felt bad to see him broken like this, Keeping all their bitterness aside, she came forwards holding his shoulder giving him some support to make him feel better.
He hold her hand which was on his shoulder, while she looks on. "You never trusted me, yet you're still asking me to trust you in this Anami's isue!" he asked, while she looks confused. "Yes…You never trusted me..when you were carrying Vatsalya, you gotta know about Narrottam & you thought that I betrayed you & didn't even cared to ask me/clear the MU with me for once." he started digging the main root for the bitterness in their life, While she got confused & stunned hearing this. "I didn't betrayed you Satrupa…I didn't, it was dad who hides about Narottam from you...Out of depression over Sudha's betrayal, I didn't had any idea about what was actually going on in my life..i thought he arranged this marriage by saying all the truth, But you were aware only half of the truth that Sudha was just an Ex & when I gotta know that he hides it from you, it was too late for everything & the fearing of losing you held me back from revealing it further. It wasn't really my intention to betray you" he puts her hands on his shoulder, pulling her closer by waist & hugged her tightly!
By burying his face on the crook of her neck, he stayed there to find some solace in his life after so long, while she stands there rooted to the place, all stunned didn't know what to do…The more he talked, the more his grip on her gets tightened, which clearly showed her that its not only her, who is leading a lonely life for past so many years, but also him. Subconsciously he too never wanted this support to be vanished like all other. "Ever since you gotta know about Narottam, you created a shield around you which was impossible for me to broke. Suddenly I was all alone though I had a family around…it was all empty, but Vatsalya filled that emptiness, made my life meaningful. Though the rift between us gets widen with the non-communication thing which goes on between us, Vatsalya made sure to make us hold on into relationship, at least just for him! But even I lost him now...AND HERE IM ALL ALONE AGAIN" he hissed in pain & frustration.
While She couldn't hold back her emotions further as she never saw him shattered like this in their life time. Seeing him crying like this made her heart broken, when she about to reciprocate his hug by caressing his hair/ neck, all his bitter words & him pointing at her character cz of Anami's entry stopped her from doing so. The battle between her mind & heart literally made her restless!
He slowly pulled back and holds her hands "You were right, when I saw that girl all unconscious in the morning, all that I could remember was Vatsalya..when I took her in my arms, I literally felt like touching him, having him in my arms again. but you know what, Im not ready for this! I don't want an another lose in my life again. Either she is my daughter or not, I don't want this relationship! I had enough….Sudha, Dad, You, Vatsalya, enough now…I can't make a place for this girl in my heart & all of a sudden she'll returns backs to her place in banaras/Patak family will ask for her, I may don't have the strength to hope up with this all over again. Its all emptiness which is what written in my fate, so let it be…I don't want any other relationship to make a hope & broke it into zillion piece again!" he slowly leaves her hand & retired from the room taking lil steps facing her with a sad smile, while she stands there rooted.