Chapter 25

"How is your health? Why do you look so weak and low? Is the work very hectic?" questioned Sushma as she caressed her daughter's head lying in her lap. Her mother's blissful touch evoked so many emotions in the already unstable mind of hers. She felt swinging between euphoria and depression just as her mother cradled her head gently, like she did through her childhood.

"Huh? Is it that hectic that you don't want to talk about? Let me go give a piece of mind to your boss!" exclaimed Sushma, beginning to move when Jyotsna clutched her tightly, refusing her the freedom to move.

"It's not the work, Maa, I just missed you so much. It has been almost a year, right? I wish you were with me through this," replied Jyotsna, agony choking her throat as she struggled to voice herself in the most veiled way, she could voice her inner turmoil. Revealing her pregnancy and the contract would break their house apart and unwilling her mother would distance herself from her beloved son.

"My poor child! I missed you dearly, but you never gave us an address to even visit you. Whenever I asked, you said that it was a highly confidential work so you could not share the details. Your boss is here anyways, shall I request permission to stay with you? At least for some days, because they are extending this contract beyond what was informed?" asked Sushma, unaware of the unforeseen consequences which resulted in the extension of the contract and reminding her daughter of the pain once again as she swung directly into the vortex of depression, free from the warm clutch of euphoria.

"No, he can't do anything about this, Maa. It was not his fault and I will come meet you more often, but I don't think you should come there. You love this place, born and brought up in the village, lived in this village, I know you can't leave this place, I will be fine," she assured her mother but she knew that it was as false as her smile.

"You seem to defend your boss a lot? Do you happen to like him?" questioned Sushma, looking straight into her eyes.

If she had been posed the question months back, when everything seemed to be well, she would have answered in affirmative. Her heart throbbed in admiration and respect for him for everything he had done for her but everything spiraled into nothingness when, on the devious and unfortunate night, she had her miscarriage.

She had stopped acquainting with every feeling associated with happiness and she could not help but curse the man who was the reason behind her condition; the man who wanted to avoid restraints in the name of marriage and trapped her in the constraints of a surrogacy contract. It was his clause in the contract which gave her hope that she will have another child like the one she had lost but as cruel as the destiny was, he refused to adhere to the one clause which she was desperate for. Was it his ego which prevented him from listening to her demand or was it to evade the sense of responsibility?

Little did she know that the truth was beyond what she had fathomed; far from the dark reasoning she had assumed, for it was splayed by the feelings of affection and ardor.

"Nothing like that, it is a purely professional relationship. I don't think we are meant to have anything beyond that because we are two different worlds, who don't match," she replied, her serious tone convincing her mother but unknowingly for her or maybe as a subconscious decision, she was loud enough to be heard across the walls into the next room where the man in question was seated with her brother.

"Two different worlds you say, but isn't it always like that? Love is the merging of two worlds into one, most beautiful when they are as different as chalk and cheese. Because desert and riverbed, as different they are, when they come together, they bring in a burst of life. In reality, they might never come together but a river is all that a desert needs and a desert is all that a river needs to feel fulfilled. But beware, sometimes it can yield devastating results and either of them can lose their existence," advised Sushma, years of experience spelling out the words of wisdom.

She had seen the tension between her daughter and her boss and it was evident from the way he looked at her that he had taken more than a fancy for her as he seemed to be positively enchanted by her but there were streaks of pain in the intense ambers as they eyed Jyotsna intently.

Jyotsna lost herself into thought as she pondered over her mother's words. She was the devastated desert, lost every life dear to her, scorched by the toughness of the beautiful life and bereaved by the all-quenching stream of love but was Arjun Ranawat, the savior, the riverbed?

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In the Car,

"So how do you feel now? I mean, after meeting your mother. No wonder you love her and admire her so deeply, she is a very loving and affectionate mother," said Arjun, trying to strike a conversation with her as they were struck in the traffic and it did not seem like it would clear up soon.

"I feel better, thank you," she replied, her conversation with her mother playing in her mind over and over again.

"Good," he remarked, awkwardly as the silence filled in the atmosphere. He had heard her words to her mother and her words pierced his heart like a arrow hitting bullseye, right through the most sensitive spot and her coldness had only managed to twist the dagger which she pierced, making him experience pain which he had not known to exist; the pain of heartbreak.

He had not expected her to accept him as their needs and demands were completely different, but he had not prepared himself for her rejection either. It felt like waking up for an urgent and life changing meeting on a Sunday, only to face backlash.

"What if we had met in different circumstances, with no restraints or constraints, with no obligations or customs? Would it have been any different?" she wondered aloud, looking at him in a way reminiscent of the old Jyotsna he had painfully lost.

"Maybe then we would have accepted that it should not have been you or I but us and that we belong together."