Chapter 37 #2
“I was petrified when I saw him,” Sabrina said.
“JD is dangerous. He had armed men following him in the stadium. I saw him and realized how fragile my reality is. That simply by being with me, you were at risk. In my concern for you, I broke up with you without giving you a choice. I was also worried that you may reject me after I told you about my past. But I was wrong. I should have confided in you first, and for that I’m truly sorry. ”
He shook his head. “I understand everything better now, Sabrina. But I want to hear the rest of your story. What happened after you ran away from JD’s den?”
“I was worried that either the police would come after me, or JD’s men or Dorab.
So, I climbed onto the first bus that was leaving, not caring where it was going.
I just wanted to get out of there.” She paused, swallowing hard at the memory.
“The bus stopped at the train station, and I got down. I knew I couldn’t go back to Rishikesh—Dorab had made sure of that.
He told me if I ever returned, he’d be waiting…
and that he’d kill my brothers and me. And I believed him.
I was terrified. I couldn’t let anything happen to my brothers.
So, I looked for the first train leaving the station.
There was one going to Mumbai. And I sat in it.
I knew I had to disappear completely, and the first step was to change my name. ”
“Fuck, this is insane!” Aditya sounded shocked. “What happened next?”
“When I reached Mumbai, the city felt like it would swallow me whole. The noise, the crowds, the pace… it was such a sensory overload. And I was only eighteen; I’d never been anywhere by myself before. It was all so damn scary. But I knew I had to survive and for that I needed to work.”
She smiled. “I heard people on the train talking about how the restaurants near the station couldn’t retain their cooks.
They were desperate. I knew how to cook.
I used to work in the kitchens in the orphanage.
So, I walked into a small café next to the CST station in Mumbai and asked if they needed help.
That’s where I started—washing dishes, chopping vegetables, doing whatever they’d let me.
I worked hard, I learned from others, and bettered myself.
I found a small rundown, dilapidated apartment…
” She shuddered at the memory. “Looking back, I can’t even imagine staying at such an awful place.
I squatted there for days, hiding so that no one knew I was there.
It was scary, but I survived. And from there, I just kept moving, from one place to another.
Job after job, six months of scrambling, of surviving, of dodging advances from unsavory men. ”
She tipped her head to the side table and at the knife Mihir had given her. “I can’t tell you the number of times that knife has come in handy. Thanks to all the self-defense that Mihir taught me and that knife, I survived against all odds.”
“God, you’re so brave,” he said.
Her gaze lifted to meet his. “Finally, I found myself in my mother-in-law’s café.
That’s where everything changed. She had a decent café in a nice locality.
Her cook had left all of a sudden, and there I was, asking for a job.
She hired me on a trial basis, but soon I was solely in charge of the kitchen.
I met Aisha the first day I joined. She was almost the same age as me, and we hit it off immediately.
Aisha was my only friend at that time. Thanks to Ajay’s mother, I could finally afford a better place to live in, a safer place. ”
“And I suppose that’s how you met Ajay,” Aditya concluded.
“Ajay was a womanizer, quite untamed in his ways. He was always moving from one business idea to the next, never succeeding in any. Two years after I began working at the restaurant, his mother proposed a marriage between Ajay and me. She knew I had no family, and she thought that marrying me would give him stability. It was also a way for her to keep her future daughter-in-law under her control. Ajay, of course, was open to the idea. He used to flirt with me, but I had rejected his advances. Like his mother, he also knew I was alone, needy, and desperate, and marrying me would give him the freedom he’d never get had he married a girl with a respectable family background. ”
She shrugged. “To be honest, I didn’t want to marry him; I knew how he was.
But rejecting him meant I’d lose my job; I’d lose Aisha too.
So, I accepted. Marrying him gave me stability more than it did to him.
I could finally stop looking over my shoulder.
I had a family again. I could get a college degree.
And then, Ahaan came along.” She smiled.
“He was the best thing that had ever happened to me.”
“And Ajay? What about him?” Aditya asked, his brows creased. “Did he change after the marriage?”
She sighed. “I entered the marriage with my eyes open. I knew he wouldn’t be faithful to me.
He was neither a good husband nor a good father.
Although his mother portrayed to the world that he ran the restaurant alongside her, he was hardly involved.
He was too busy in his own life, trying to find the next get rich scheme.
After our marriage, he refused to let me work in the restaurant.
He knew I was a good cook, yet he prohibited me from working there.
And so, I was tasked with running the household, looking after Ahaan and trying to get through college.
And then he got into poker. He started playing first on the computer, but soon he moved to playing in real time.
His mother, as always, was oblivious to it all.
On the days he lost, he was awful. He had a bad temper, which, of course, he directed towards me.
He never physically abused me, but he was mean and unkind. ”
“Mental abuse is equally bad, Sabrina,” Aditya said sharply. “Why didn’t you do something about it?”
“Honestly, I had nowhere to go, and I had Ahaan to think of. Tired of his ways, I finally raised a huge ruckus about his poker addiction. I confided in Aisha about this, and the two of us had decided to tell his mother as well. Ajay and I had a huge fight about it, but eventually, he agreed to give up gambling. And I believed him. Ahaan was four then. Things were alright for a few days. He still came home late, but each time I asked, he promised he wasn’t gambling anymore.
Like a fool, I continued to believe him.
One day, a few weeks later, his mother forced Ajay to take Aisha to her friend’s reception that was being held a few hours away from the city.
He had one too many drinks there and fought with her to drive.
On the way back, he kept blaming me and her for ruining his life.
They met with an accident that night, thanks to his reckless and drunk driving. Aisha survived but he… he died.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “The days after that were unbearable. Aisha was in the hospital, wounded and battling severe PTSD. I was grieving Ajay, and still had Ahaan to look after. My mother-in-law… she couldn’t cope.
Ajay was everything to her, and losing him broke her.
She blamed Aisha for his death and refused to even see her in the hospital.
She lost all interest in the restaurant, and in life itself.
I had no choice but to step in and keep it running, because how else were we to survive? ”
She blinked through the blur of tears. Sniffing, she saw Aditya’s jaw was tight, his eyes dark with pain and anger. His hand closed around hers, his thumb brushing gently over her knuckles.
She continued, “I found out much later that Ajay had never stopped gambling. He’d lied to me and had in fact amassed a huge debt.
I had no choice but to put the restaurant up as collateral for a bank loan just to cover what he owed.
But keeping up with the installments quickly became impossible.
I didn’t know how I was going to manage.
My mother-in-law refused to sell the café, clinging to it as a memory of her son, uncaring how I’d make ends meet.
Those days were so Goddamn hard. But then Aisha got engaged to Rithwik, and… and I suppose you know the rest.”
He gave a small smile. “I was there all through Rithwik’s contract engagement with Aisha.
I witnessed them fall in love and get married.
I heard how Raashi bought the café from you and gave you a job at one of her restaurants.
I never thought of it much back then, but now I understand everything.
How did you even convince your mother-in-law to agree to sell?
From what I’ve seen of her, she’s very difficult. ”
“She was worse in those days. She refused to forgive Aisha, and they had a very strained relationship for two years, until Aisha finally stood up to her and made her realize the error of her ways. Since then, they at least talk, but my mother-in-law never really changed much. She continued to keep Ajay on a pedestal. She was mostly cold to Aisha and me, and she became sort of obsessed with Ahaan.”
“Yes, I remember you mentioning she’d stopped talking to you because of me. Is that the status quo even now?”
Sabrina smiled. “Things are better now, actually. My mother-in-law and I… we’ve finally sorted our differences. And she’s been talking to Aisha too.”
Surprise flickered in his eyes, but he stayed quiet. Sabrina took his hand in hers and kissed it before giving him all the details of that conversation with her mother-in-law.
“That night, when I finally stood up to her, something shifted between us. She now accepts how much you mean to me. She realized how happy I was with you, and how much happier Ahaan became with you in his life. That made her realize how wrong she’d been, and she confessed she didn’t want to hold us back from having a better life anymore.
She was even upset when I told her I’d broken up with you because of my past. Even though I never confided in either Aisha or her about my past, they both encouraged me to be with you and to tell you everything…
to let you decide what you wanted to do about our relationship after you heard it all. ”
He grinned. “I’m happy to hear that. Is that what you wanted to talk to me about at Mom’s birthday?”
“Yes.”
“What about Ahaan? How does he feel about us?”
“He’s delighted. He joined Aisha and my mother-in-law in convincing me to take a chance on you.” She smiled. “He misses you.”
“You know,” Aditya began slowly. “When you broke up with me, that’s when it really hit me that I hadn’t just lost you, but Ahaan too.
It dawned on me that I was missing him so much because I love him too.
He’s wonderful. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with your son as much as I fell in love with you.
And I want to be part of his life. I want him to be mine.
I want to share my world with him and watch him shine. ”
Hearing Aditya speak of her son with so much affection made her heart swell with happiness.
Her lips quivered and tears fell down her face.
Aditya pulled her into his arms. She rested her head against his chest and heard his heartbeat roar in her ears.
She loved him so much. She looked up, the words ready on her lips.
His phone beeped. Picking it up, he checked his messages and smiled.
“Armaan wants to know when I’m bringing you to Dubai.” Aditya smiled. “Shall I tell him we’ll be there tomorrow?”
She nodded.
“You’ve been so brave, Sabrina,” Aditya said. “You sacrificed your own happiness to build a stable life for yourself and your son. But now, you don’t need to worry about anything. I will keep you safe always.”
“And I’m going to see my brothers!” She grinned. “I can’t wait. Tell me about them—” Something struck her mind. “Wait. You told me that my brothers are involved with Rajiv’s sisters, correct?”
“Yes.”
She put her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing. “Are these the same sisters who had a crush on you?”
His eyes sparkled as he laughed. “Reina and Navya.”
She shot him a dark look. “You seem far too pleased about it.”
“You’re adorable when you’re jealous,” he said, his grin turning wicked. “And for the record, making your brothers jealous was even better.”
“I am not jealous,” she huffed.
He stepped closer. “You were jealous of Kanika at Mom’s party. And you’re jealous now of Reina and Navya. Admit it, beautiful. The thought of me with anyone else makes you crazy.”
He crowded her back against the wall, making her breath hitch.
“It does make me crazy,” she whispered. “You’re mine, Adi.”
His answering smile was slow and hungry. “And you’re mine too. Never forget that.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Remind me again how it feels to be yours.”
Laughing, he carried her back to the bed.