Chapter – 12 - I will make him come back

"Yes, Ragini you are absolutely correct Swara always got everything and you got nothing" Dida said while moving towards Ragini. 

"You know what she got the first thing which you never got? A tag of being illegitimate child when she was born." Dida said while looking at Swara. 

Swara has closed her eyes, and stream of tears have started falling on her cheeks. Annapurna and Sujata shivered hearing the words from Dida, they immediately went near Swara and hold her from shoulders. They both knew in Sanskar's absence Swara needs support from her mothers. Swara felt solace with their motherly care. 

"I guess you never got a chance to miss the first day of school like Swara, she used to miss it while giving some lame excuses, but I knew she wanted to avoid question 'Why Swara Sharmishtha Bose?' from her classmates. You never enjoyed sleepless nights right Ragini? Because you had your entire family your Janki Ma, baba, dada, dadi in your childhood, but my Shoru used to spend sleepless nights while crying because of her incomplete family. Ragini you must not have faced any problem in school while writing an essay on Father's day, right? like my Shoru. Even after your Janki ma's demise you never felt alone or away from mothers' lap since your dear baba brought a new mother for you, but my Shoru lost her own mother." Dida said with shaking voice, Swara's entire childhood was running in front of her eyes. 

"Your dadi made sure after your baba's remarriage that you will get all motherly love and care from your new Ma. And Sharmishtha being fool or selfish in her love for Shekhar agreed for this condition, she disowned her daughter, and loved you thinking one day your family will accept my Shoru." Dida was feeling ashamed on her own daughter. 

"Ma, I never disowned Swara, I love her. I wanted Swara to have her father's love, her dream of complete family" Sharmishtha said, she could not take the allegation by her mother. 

"Really Mrs. Shekhar Gadodia? I don't think so. If you were her real mother, you would have rejected Shekhar's proposal at the first place when he mentioned that Swara will not be a part of Gadodia family even after knowing Swara is his biological daughter. You wanted to remove a tag of characterless woman by marrying Shekhar, you were so blind in his love or should I say obsession that you forgot that you have one daughter which needs you badly. You wanted to give her father's love and family but you fool.... you snatched a mother from her in her tender age." Dida raised her voice in the end at Sharmishtha.

"Lucky" Sanskar called from room entrance, Laksh who was sitting on floor holding his knees with hands. 

He was crying bitterly. Sanskar and Adarsh ran to him and sat beside him holding him from his shoulders, his both brothers are right now his pillars who are trying to hold him from collapsing. "I married her Bhai, trusted her but she betrayed me. In all these three weeks of marriage I was thinking how I should move on; I am hurting her. I always knew Ragini had feelings for me, but I did not know that she is obsessed with me and for her obsession she will try to kill Swara. I was genuinely thinking to give a chance to this marriage, I was hoping everything will be fine. Me and Ragini will also have happy and normal married life just like you two have. But Ragini.... she destroyed everything, she broke my trust, I thought she is my best friend." Laksh was breaking step by step and Sanskar will not allow his little brother to bear this pain alone. 

"Lucky, I am sorry, this is all happen because of me and Swara" Sanskar was cut by Laksh. 

"No Bhai please don't blame yourself, there is no fault of yours or Swara, its all played by destiny. You or Swara did not provoke Ragini to do this heinous act. Ragini changed herself so much that I cannot believe she is the same girl whom I met 4 months back." Sanskar hugged him tightly whereas Adarsh was rubbing his back for assurance. 

"Laksh, Sanskar please control yourself, you both cannot break like this, we three brothers are pillar of MM, we need to be strong for our family." Adarsh spoke after some time of pause. 

"What do you want to do Laksh?" Adarsh asked him softly. 

"I don't know Adi Bhai, I took decision to marry Ragini without thinking but I don't want to take any decision hastily now. I have made one mistake, but I don't want to repeat my mistake." Laksh said while shaking his head.

"Swara you know na I love you, I have done all these just to get acceptance from Shekhar for you." Sharmishtha said while moving towards Swara. 

Annapurna move ahead and stand between Swara and Sharmishtha. 

"Sharmishtha ji, my daughter does not need any one's acceptance." Annapurna said while giving death glare to Sharmishtha and Shekhar. 

"Anu is absolutely correct, my beti has two protective fathers, two mothers who will give her all motherly love, a husband who loves her unconditionally beyond any limits, our full family is there with her who cares for her." DP said while standing besides Annapurna blocking Gadodia's way to Swara.

"But mhari Ladoo aapaki bahu hai DP ji, she is married to Laksh, Shadi byah koi khel nahi hota." Dadi said while folding her hands. 

"But Ragini made it a game of betrayal which is costing us Laksh life right now. And we Maheshwari's cannot bear a single scratch on our family member" Ram said while fisting his hands. 

"Ragini is also a Maheshawari" Dadi mumbled with teary eyes. 

"That will be decided by Laksh" Sujata said with anger filled voice. 

"What do you mean by this?" Dadi was shocked to think that her Ladoo's marriage might break due to recent revelation. 

"What do you expect Kakisa that my son will forgive and remain in this relation with a girl who betrayed him and tried to kill her own sister." Sujata continued. 

"No please no DP ji. What Sujata ji is saying?" Shekhar baffled with just a thought of broken marriage for his Ragini. 

"Sujata let Laksh decide for himself, it was his decision to marry Ragini." DP said with no emotions.

"Papa Laksh needs time to decide" Adarsh said while descending stairs. 

"Let me go and talk to him once Adarsh Bhaiya" Ragini said trying to go to her room. 

"No Ragini you have already hurt him a lot, please leave him alone" Adarsh said to Ragini stopping her to go to her room. 

"And I think you should go to badi with your parents, Laksh said he will reach out to you once he decides" Adarsh said.

It's been two weeks passed to Ragini's true face has been revealed in front of everyone. Shekhar and dadi brought lifeless Ragini back to the Badi. Ragini was not ready to leave MM, but DP and Ram stood behind their son's decision. They clearly said Laksh needs time,. 

Meanwhile in these two weeks Ragini tried her best to reach out to Laksh through phone calls, or sometimes tried to visit MM. But Laksh or any of the Maheshwari family member did not paid any heed to her actions. 

Day by day Ragini's hope for happy marriage is breaking and she was going in shell, she started cursing herself for her horrendous act, broken marriage of her Baba. Shekhar and Parvati made all their attempts to save their Laddoo's marriage but they were scared with the fact the thread of this pious relation is already broken due to Ragini's act.

Sharmishtha left Shekhar and moved to Bose house, Dida accepted her in house but clearly told her she will live here as stranger and not as her daughter. Dida words 'you became heartless mother for my Shoru but even though I want I cannot become one for you.' Keep on haunting Sharmishtha. Now she was realising her mistake for trusting Shekhar and keeping her hopes on him. Sharmishtha blamed herself for Swara's loneliness during her childhood. She started to work on trying to mend her relation, which is not possible at least in this life.

Maheshwari mansion once again turned into gloomy and tensed. Laksh would be thankful to his strong and loving family to provide him enormous emotional support in these difficult days. 

"Bhai, I thought a lot, from all sides, I won't be able to remain in this marriage. I mean, I will not be able to trust Ragini again and when there is no trust there is no relation. I want to break this marriage, but then our family will receive complete media attention which I don't want. I don't want your and Swara's name to be dragged in this." Laksh announced his decision worrying about media, all Maheshwari mens were sitting at study room of MM. 

"Laksh we respect your decision and don't worry we will handle media attention, for me my son's happiness is the most important. And I trust Sanskar he knows how to manipulate media. Swara's name will never be dragged into this. Do you want to proceed with police interference in this?" DP said while putting his hand on Laksh's shoulder. 

"No Papa, first thing if we will file a police case then it will be difficult to avoid media attention and also Ragini's loneliness and grief of losing me will be her biggest punishment." Laksh said while looking straight in DP's eyes. 

"Lucky, just forget it, try to move on don't worry we will clear all this mess. I know my little bro... he is strong." Sanskar said while giving encouraging smile to his little brother. 

"But will Ragini accept this? And her family?" Laksh was sceptical about Gadodia's reaction. He just wants to end this drama as soon as possible. 

"They have to Lucky; I will not allow them to hurt you more. We have proofs against Ragini, we will trade off for not proceeding with legal charges against her, but she needs to free you from this relation without any hassles. Her baba and dadi will make sure that she will sign divorce papers." Sanskar said with stern look and smirk. 

"Sanskar is right I don't think Gadodia's will allow to send their daughter to jail." Ram said while thinking and understanding Sanskar's point. 

"Sanskar you take Swara out of India for some weeks for vacations. She should be away from all this." Adarsh suggested for which everybody provided their consent. 

"Lucky why don't you go to South Africa your long last dream of wildlife photography, that will give you some peace and help you to move on. I want my dramebaaz Lucky back" Sanskar said while ruffling his hairs. 

"Yes, Sanskar is right you should go for this adventure trip" Adarsh said supporting Sanskar. 

"I will surely think, but Ma and Chachi will not agree as usual." Laksh said scrunching his nose. 

"Yes, convincing both of them will be hard. Actually, they just don't want to see one more monkey added to SA's jungle" Adarsh said while laughing loudly whereas received death glare from Laksh. And one more time MM was filled with laughter. 

DP and Ram had proud tears in their eyes looking at the bond of their sons.

"Namaste please come inside" Shekhar welcome DP, Ram and Annapurna to Gadodia house and continued 

"Please have a seat." There was dead silence in the Gadodia house. 

"Please DP ji, please allow Ragini to meet Laksh, let them sort out this and take decision." Dadi said while sitting next to Shekhar with folding hands and teary eyes. 

"Laksh has already taken a decision, he does not want to stay in this marriage, we have asked our lawyers to prepare divorce papers, within a week it will be ready. We wanted to give this news to your family personally so when you receive court orders then you will get Ragini's signature on it" DP said giving stern look to Gadodia family. 

"Please no Papaji, I really love Laksh, I won't be able to live without him" Ragini said bowing her head, she heard Shekhar's voice when he was welcoming them, she hurriedly came to listen her fate. 

"Ragini right now there is no use to discuss all these things, you had done whatever you want, but now we will not let our son suffer. Infact you should be thankful to Laksh & Sanskar that they are not proceeding with legal charges against you. He has already suffered a lot due to destiny and your betrayal; he is looking forward for his life in different manner." Ram said while trying his best for not bursting his frustration on her. 

"DP ji please it's a question of two lives. Both families will face embarrassment." Shekhar tried to convince Maheshwari family. 

"Shekhar Ji, you don't need to worry about our family's reputation. We will take care of it" DP said while standing up from sofa and continued "Our Lawyer will visit you soon once Laksh sign them, please ask Ragini to sign the papers and give it back to our lawyer. Anu and Ram we need to leave." Saying this DP started to move towards main door. 

"Ragini I wished you had a word with me before taking any steps, I would have appreciated your love towards my son. But you hurt him to the core, I cannot forgive you. Your chapter is closed for Maheshwari Family." Annapurna said while joining her hands while bidding final bye to Gadodia family.

"Why wildlife photography? He can take our family pictures, there are so many beautiful ladies in this house" Sujata said while scrunching her nose. 

It's been a 2 days Laksh and Ragini's divorce have been filed. Ragini signed divorce papers as pressurised by her baba and dadi. It was mutual agreement, court asked them whether they want to go under counselling, but Laksh lawyer denied this option. Laksh has conveyed his decision to go to SA to Maheshwari ladies. 

"Mom please" Sanskar tried to control his mother. 

"I will make him come back to home Badi Ma trust me." Sanskar said while sitting on his knees in front of Annapurna. 

"Badi ma we need to give him some time to overcome with all these mis happenings, it will be too difficult for him to move on if he stays here. He always wanted to go for wild photography but because of you and mom he supressed his dream. Let him live his dream this time and we will get our Lucky back" Sanskar said while holding Annapurna's hand. 

"I trust you, but please bring him back home, I want my all children in front of my eyes." Annapurna said while understanding Sanskar's point of view. He was right Laksh needs time.

"Sanskar, let's go outside its snowing. I will bring our jackets" Swara said excitedly and taking out their winter jackets from closet. 

"Shona wait, I am coming" Sanskar said while running behind her. They were in New York at their home. 

As suggested by Adarsh to keep Swara away, two weeks back they fled from India to Bahamas for their honeymoon which Sanskar kept it surprise for Swara. They spend one full week in Bahamas, warm weather, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, jungle trails, romantic dinners increased their closeness. They used to roam around daytime, used to try different cuisines, tried all water sports and at night they used to make endless love exploring each other strengths and weakness, and finally sleeping each other's embrace. 

One week back they came to New York at their home which they made together which had their memories. Sanskar came and hugged Swara from back. She had raised her palms to catch snow flex standing at the deck of backyard. 

"I love you Shona forever and ever and ever." Sanskar said while kissing her cheek from back. 

"I love you too Sanskar forever and ever and ever." Swara said while turning and hugging him. 

Sanskar cupped her face and kissed her with all his being. He loved her beyond her imagination. She loved him more than any one in his life.

Precap - Epilogue