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Second Chance Love For The First Time
The sun was setting in the horizon. I watched it and wondered should I walk towards it or wait back for Kunal to return.

He promised that we both will elope today before my bauji (father) forced me to marry a guy, Karanjeet of his pind.

The fact was that I never fell in love with anyone except Kunal Shikhawat. He and I met on a dating application exactly two months ago.

So, I had been living a lonely life in Mumbai for past one year, and when he matched with me, everything changed.

After a very long time, I felt maybe I was heard and understood. Then we met on the lunch and dinner dates. And he never initiated that he was only in a relationship for physical benefits with me.

I mean, c'mon, we kissed after we had been dating for three weeks. He had been patient with me and he let me take decisions about this relationship.

Then my bauji was like the evil force my nature as he got to know about my affair from a cousin who must have seen me in Mumbai with Kunal.

The next day, a week ago, he landed from Punjab to Mumbai and forced a relationship on me which I wasnt even ready for.

I was stubborn that I haven't seen that guy's face yet. I vented everything out to Kunal and now we planned to elope to his dream house in Nasik with a steady job as well.

But, guys, I have been waiting for two and half hours already. I have been calling him constantly, and there is no response.

I couldn't even go back home as I left my home with a letter so bashful that my parents would have instantly disowned me.

With no option to think of, tears became my support while I kept calling Kunal. I even called his office and they told me he has resigned a week before.

He never told me that.

And at that moment, I realised, I never exactly knew where he lived and the people in his office had no idea about his current address, as he was planning to leave the city.

I was devasted with all my luggage and phone ringing with a similar number I was trying to avoid.

But in a hurry, I accepted a call from Bauji, and heard him cry for the first time in life.

"What kind of joke is this Bittu? Where are you? Do you have any idea what is happening to us? How the hell can you leave us behind, beta? Please tell us where you are beta (kid), we are all dying to know your location. Please come back home!!"

He kept crying and I cried along too without saying any other word except, "Bauji...!!"

"Haan beta, mein ithe hi aa, (yes kid, I am here), tell me where are you? I am on my way with your brothers to pick you up. Talk to us once, please, we can settle this up, baccha (kid), please do not cry. we are coming yo get you."

"No bauji... I am not a good daughter. And I don't want to marry that Karanjeet or anyone else ever!! "

"Beta, fine, but please tell us your location. Please....!!!"

I disconnected his call and switched off my cell phone. I was heart broken and ashamed of myself. I didn't know where to go and was unable to find a reason to live thereon.

The sea was glistening in front of me and the sun was dipping slow into the horizon, watching me cry, vent, and slowly succumb in new darkness.

After a while, I started to feel numb and my steps woke me up to walk straight into the sea and realise the depth of the same and forget everything that had hurt me in this world.

My mind was rushing me to take the drastic step because nothing was left in this world for me. I was ashamed of my only being. I let a boy ruin my happiness and then destroy my image in front of my family.

I was ready to leave everything behind for someone who didn't have balls to standup for me. I was thinking about all the insult my family was going to face or was already facing because of me.

Then succumbing into the deep sea felt like the easiest choice to end it all at once. To get a breather, to shut my brain, and to revind the time or stop it once and for all.

You can say I was behaving like an escapist; a coward indeed as the steps moved forward and I felt the coolness brushing against my sun-kissed skin.

"I am sorry Bauji."

I spoke those words with the last breath and allowed my body to drown, in seconds and minutes.

The process to take my life away was slow, painful, and torturous and as soon as I felt I was done for, I felt my body flow.

It was the new high, but I already had lost consciousness by then.

The only way my soul slapped my mind to wake up was when I saw someone punch my chest and blow air into my mouth.

I ended up coughing and vomiting on that rough face.

"Are you crazy?? Why did you do that??"

The stranger with the soft bluest eyes asked me after he slapped me straight.

"Who are you to slap me and order me like that?? Mind your own business."

"I am your husband! So you are my business!!"

"What nonsense is that?? Get away from me."

"Preeti, please give me a chance to explain."

The stranger knew my name with a familiar lilt in his tone. But I never met him till date. And the way he proposed that I was his wife seemed nothing but lunatic to me. Or maybe, I woke up in a different world, my mind thought of that for a second before I heard someone else shouting my name.

I turned around and saw my Bauji with my brothers. So, that confirmed I was not dead, yet. But another worst feeling - remorse - tucked inside my belly playing a game of tug of war.

I vomited again and this time not on the stranger's clothes.

"Preeti puttar (kid), are you okay? where were you ??? we were looking for you all over the city."

"Bauji... I am sorry!!"
I cried like a baby and hugged my dad and he kept pleading me to never do such a shitty mistake again.

I nodded but my head felt heavy and the stranger never went away.

"Thanks Karan puttar, you saved her life."

Dad rubbed his hands and patted his shoulders afterward.

"No need for thanks, bauji. She's my wife, and I can't hide the fact from her anymore. I can't let her risk her life like a teenage."

"We understand that, son. We made a mistake, and for that we are sorry."

They kept talking as if I was not there on the sandy beach with the sun almost disappearing like its intention to make me suffer has ended for the day.

But I was not done. This felt like a game or a ploy. But I needed to confirm before I started to go crazy without even recovering from Kunal's deceit.

"Bauji, what the hell is going on? I don't know this guy, how can he be my husband? What nonsense is that bauji??"

By the time I was questioning everyone around me, my little brother, Kunwar brought me towels and water bottles, while the elder, Deewan, brought the same for my...stranger.

I was irritated with the situation and no one was interested to help me figure the missing piece in life out.

They all suggested we went back home and then sit and talk like a corporate meeting. I started to hyperventilate and shouted at all of them, maybe the agitation was backed by the anger that the love of my life dumped me and I decided to give up my life because of him.

The stranger who saved my life deemed me to his wife as a payment for his deed. It was so pathetic but everyone around us was looking at me and then I ended up crying like baby on the beach while crouching on my knees after washing my dirt away.

Karan, the stranger, tried to come close to me to soothe my misery away, but I refused his selfish help. Becuase god knows what he would have claimed that time if I asked something more from his end.

So, I decided to keep quiet after crying and letting fatigue join my pity party in my Bauji's embrace.

****

They drove me home and I was mostly silent almost fainted twice on the way. I never looked at anyone while climbing the stairs of my apartment.

Thankfully my mother didnt come out of her and neither did my sister in law. I was already feeling helpless. But Karan's reality gave me a purpose to lead the conversation ahead.

"Give me proof."

"Preeti..."

My elder brother Deewan commented and I gave him a look that shut him up. I never raised a voice in front of my elder brother. And neither did I intend to on that day as well.

So, my eyes spoke for me and he understood my advocacy. He backed off, and Karan came into view while my father went inside with my younger brother.

"Who else knows about it?"

"listen, please wait," Karan spoke to defend my family and maybe himself too, and I interevened before they could mellow my frustration, "Who else knew? I am asking you. Answer me that."

"Umm...," He looked at Deewan veerji(elder bro), and received a regrettable glare from his end.

"Answer me Karan... I need to know."

"Everyone."

"Everyone in my family or yours?"

His eyes spoke to me pleading not to ask that question. When I didn't blink, he responded quietly that felt like Earth was giving me signal to really choose death over life, "Both."

****

I never forgave him, my family, and his for hiding the biggest truth of my life: I married the love of my life already 5 years ago and met an accident 2 years ago.

For a long time, I blamed everyone for playing with my life and my reality. I was led on to believe that I never was in love with anyone in my life and ended meeting a wrong person to die for.

I could have died. I almost died, without knowing the reality of giving someone a second chance for the first time.

Karanjeet waited another few months. He kept messaging me the pictures he had saved somewhere in his gallery.

He went to every single appointment with the Psychologist to know about my brain's recovery.

With time, he started to become a friend and I forgot about Kunal within 6 months. I was difficult to forget the day of that sweet yet sorching sunset where my past and present clashed to save my future.

As a coping mechanism, I grew trust issues with everyone. I worked from home because I couldn't tolerate others judging me or telling me on my face how dare I forget my husband.

Suffice to say, I was beginning to gain normalcy in the midst miseries I had to deal.

****

After an year passed, Karanjeet brought me to his home in Ludhiana, Punjabz where we both lived.

As soon as I stepped into the driveway, I cried.

As soon as I entered the door and saw everything from my eyes to be as it is as I lived here last time, I cracked open like meeting with an accient and breaking every bone in your body.

This was my home. I and my husband had built it. This home had been waiting for me to return. It felt like a baby to me.

And the memories started pouring behind my eyesight like negative frame of camera.

Somewhere in the middle of that moment, Karan held me tight and I could hear his heartbeat singing along with me.

"Karan..."

"Yup, I am here."

I whispered and so did he. I was hearing voices one by one like a fast forward and the voices befor my initial accident had occurred erupted, and I screamed, body shivering and my voic stuttering.

"Karan!!!"

"Shh, baby, I am here."

"No. no. no. Karan!! Karan!! Please god, no.!!!"

"Preeti, baby, shhh... listen to my heartbeat for once. I am here, you are okay and so am I!''

I looked at him after opening my eyes after a long time. I couldn't believe he was alive in front of me.

And then another stream of memories transpired where I lived my life without knowing anything about him.

"Oh no...Karan, you were in coma. Oh my god, I remember now, they said you might never wake up again. No!"

My head aches with that confirmatuon but and he clutched my whole body and gave a slight kiss on my lips.

My eyes were watching him kiss me and I knew he did that to help me divide the past and present. I clutched his taut arms and began kissing him back.

Thankfully, within minutes, I began breathing again as he continued to caress my lips with his soft kisses as we both cried like lost soulmates who found their way to each other again after decades.

"Oh, Karan, I am sorry I forgot you. I lost my senses when they told me about you. I was rushing outside to find semblance. I was angry and then I didn't see that truck who hit me."

"Shh, baby, I never forgot you, Preeti. I was always there near you. It broke my heart, my I was always somewhere around, watching over you living, breathing, and existing without me. When I knew that guy was using you, I couldn't hold back anymore. I am sorry I should have come to you sooner, baby."

"No... I am sorry, I have been a bad wife. I am sorry Karan, please forgive me."

He kissed me again and again. That day, he never stopped kissing me inside the home we sincerely build for our kids in future. He let me take control over him, and it was not easy.

I kept crying and venting and blaming. He took it all, and in return, he just wanted me near him and in his arms.

We slept crying, kissing, and hugging naked after making the sweetest love in the history of romance on the naked floor of the dusted house who brought my memories back so I could find the first time to trust my love, my husband, my soulmate again.

And surprisingly, the sun was still setting in the horizon when we arrived and I let the sunlight break in, kiss our skin, as we kissed each other.

♥️♥️🌺🌺♥️♥️🌺🌺

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