Chapter 65

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

It was all undecided, terribly unexpected for both Sanchi and Vihaan to be falling in love. Meeting due to odd circumstances and always staying at loggerheads with each other, they weren't supposed to fall in love.

It was only the innocence of their hearts and the purity of their minds that they had been gravely smitten by each other. Gravity wasn't at all responsible for their falling in love.

There was the Bundela lawn full of audiences and the two lovers had nearly forgotten that the crowd was watching them. Cupping Sanchi's chin gently, Vihaan leaned towards her to place his forehead against hers. "You're the only reason why I changed, Sanchi. I feel like I'm foreign to my own emotions."

As Sanchi continued weeping and breathing heavily, she murmured against the skin of his palm, "I'm incom-plete without you. I know I was do-ing a sin by push-ing you away but I had no cho-ice."

"So what if things are bothering you, we will figure out solutions together." Vihaan dried her wet cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "I want my alarm clock back in my life... I want my hickory to keep defeating my arrogance... I want my cupcake to argue with me for everything... The reason may be anything but the truth is that I just want to be with you, now and forever."

Wrapping her warm fingers round his wrists, she pressed her cheek against one of his palms. "I can't lea-ve you again, not after know-ing that I was the rea-son for all your suffer-ings."

"I love you..." Vihaan pecked the top of Sanchi's forehead after his direct confession, earning wide smiles from his family members and, one or two whistles from Shaurya and Dheeraj.

"I... I... love...love you too, Vih-aan." As Sanchi repeated, Vihaan instantly pulled her to his bosom, cocooning her into his protective shelter. It seemed as if there wasn't any hurdle to obstruct their relationship and they were only meant to be in each other's arms.

"I didn't know that the hotshot DCP was so very romantic!" Shaurya jumped out of his chair in amusement, pacing quickly towards the stage. "You can't keep stealing romances with my sister in public!"

Sanchi's face reddened the moment Shaurya wittily uttered in excitement and Vihaan smacked his head saying, "You are such an intruder, bro."

"But I'm not," Dheeraj followed behind Shaurya, landing on the stage next to them. "I'm the happiest person in the world for your reunion."

Shaurya laughed and Sanchi turned to him. "Are you still an-gry with me, Shay? For run-ning away like that and not contact-ing you all again?"

"If we were really mad at you, we wouldn't have planned all these." Shaurya pulled Sanchi into a comfortable hug, easing the guilt feeling out of her.

"May I know what's happening here?" Nidhi's loud voice erupted as she hurriedly ascended the stairs. "How can Vanya and Sanchi be the same person and I don't know it at all?"

"Because you have been an idiot all this time." Arjun's voice interrupted her as he strode his way towards them. "You couldn't even find out what your sister had been going through in all these months!"

"Can you stop accusing your wife in public?" Nidhi pinched him in the arm and he winced. "Is she the same veiled wife of Vihaan or does he have an another wife?"

Vihaan almost choked on his voice box and Shaurya answered on his behalf, "For now, Vay is the one and only."

Arjun rested his arm on Nidhi's shoulder, narrating the entire story to her. Vidya joined the group on the stage and embraced Sanchi merrily. Things were all smoothly sorted out among them and their hearts beamed in happiness.

"You shouldn't have hidden the truth from me, Vanya." Nidhi turned towards Sanchi, patting her shoulder. "I know you have always considered me to be on mom's side and you were afraid to share the truth with me. I can't even believe that someone like Vihaan, the angry DCP would fall for you."

Arjun wiggled his eyebrows together. "Then you even can't believe that Sanchi is the same person who has been my best friend all the while. Do you get why she mistakenly calls me Arjun instead of brother-in-law?"

As the entire group began conversing with one another, Sanchi pulled Vihaan aside and stared at him affectionately. The prim and proper Vihaan was missing in him and he looked so weary even in his expensive attire.

Gently rubbing his black blazer at the side of his chest, she murmured in a doleful voice, "Wh-ere is the tattoo, Vih-aan? You have-n't shown it in real."

Preventing her hand from grazing his blazer, he kissed the back of her palm. "It is something that belongs to you and only you have the right to see it in real."

"It must ha-ve bled so mu-ch!" Sanchi's lips trembled as she said, "Why did you thi-nk of such a thing?"

"I was out of my mind when you were fighting for life in that hospital. All I wanted was to keep you with me and never let you go. I met an old lady who was preserving her late husband's remembrances with her in the form of tattoos. I thought the same and took this decision of engraving your face inside me."

"Vih-aan!" Sanchi rested her head against his chest. "You are terri-fying me. It must have even cau-sed you so much pain."

"It may have but I didn't feel anything." Vihaan shrugged his shoulders. "I only had your memories playing inside my brain and the heart wrenching condition you were thrown into, my pain was nothing before yours."

Sanchi ran her finger gently along the folds of his blazer as she spoke, "I wa-nt to see how my fa-ce looks in it, Vih-aan."

Drawing in a cooler breath and smirking playfully, Vihaan murmured against the scent of her open silky hair, "I would like to definitely show it to you but not in front of others. You can see it when we get back to our room tonight."

"Our room?" Sanchi was gawking in surprise.

Vihaan nodded, responding diligently, "Yes, the second last room from the right on the first floor is mine. The inner walls are painted beige and it's balcony opens to the main road. You used to sleep on the bed with lights on and I on the couch. We used to argue every night and we did never share the bed like an ideal coupl..."

"I didn't me-an to ask the descrip-tion of your room. I alre-ady know it's loca-tion." Sanchi stuck her tongue out in annoyance. "Are we go-ing to stay toge-ther again?"

"Why can't we?" Vihaan's hands rested on his hips. "We are still a legally married husband and wife."

"You did-n't send in the pap-ers I know, but how can I... I mean we stay toge-ther like that? I me-an?"

Gripping her shoulders tightly, Vihaan moved closer to her. "Don't you want to stay with me, hickory? We have had enough of staying away from each other."

"I do wa-nt to stay with you but... I'm sca-red of what peo-ple and the fami-lies would think of us." Sanchi deadpanned. "It's not even an hour sin-ce we got back toge-ther."

The pit of Vihaan's stomach ached from laughing aloud, his face turning as red as cherry. "Do you believe I care what people may think about us staying together? You are asking as if I'm going to stay with someone who isn't my wife!"

"Vih-aan!" Sanchi pushed him lightly until he grabbed her by her waist. She stood annoyed. "This is a pub-lic place."

Releasing her out of his grip and standing only a couple of inches away from her, Vihaan whispered, "I had not guessed so far. You are more than that."

The repetition of her own age old dialogue for him troubled Sanchi as she asked, "Wh-at am I?"

Laughing playfully again, Vihaan replied in a witty tone, "Adamant!"

"Are you tak-ing revenge on me for call-ing you arro-gant on the very fir-st day we had met?"

"Not really but it's true, isn't it?" Vihaan wiggled his eyebrows with a little smirk over his face. "God of Arrogance and Goddess of Adamance will make the best pair!"

Sanchi's volunteered laughter spread across the entire place as Vihaan's response to her filled her perturbed heart with a better feeling of joy. All her pains were immediately forgotten and 'laughing heartily' was the only activity she wanted to perform whenever she was with him. "Vih-aan... You..." Sanchi continued laughing, her hands clutching her stomach. "Arro-gance.... Ada-mance... Oh Lord!"

"I was dying to see this smile of yours." Vihaan shot her a romantic look, his eyes twisting in intense affection for her as he muttered in a husky voice, "Have you ever been told that your smile and laughter, both are enough to win a man's heart?"

Emotions flooded inside her as the passionate words of Vihaan managed to impress her. With quivering lips, she nodded. "You are the on-ly one to say th-at to me."

"And I want to be the only one," saying so, he pulled her for an another tightly gripping hug, almost choking Sanchi on her breath. "I want to be the only one for you."

Sanchi had finally found her confined shelter in him as she mumbled against his jacket, "Does-n't it sound coinci-dental, you and I, we both had deci-ded to dis-close the truth of our marr-iage to your par-ents and to the people at the orpha-nage respect-ively by individual self? We were sca-red to face our loved ones wh-en we would tell them the tru-th. But as you see, I was the one who told your fat-her about it and you are the one who told the chil-dren and sister Maria. We inter-changed positions but luck-ily, we both earn-ed no hatred from th-em.“

"I know because our loved ones are as innocent like us. Now I don't want to discuss anything on the truth of our contractual marriage again. We are over with pretending everything." Vihaan sounded annoyed as he held Sanchi in his muscular grip.

Throwing a beautiful smile at him, Sanchi consented with what he had said, "Can we go ba-ck to our fam-ily? I even ne-ed to meet the chil-dren and sister Maria."

Intertwining his fingers with hers, Vihaan moved forward in a slower pace with Sanchi beside him. "You are free to do anything at the moment but... Don't forget that you are returning to our house...and my room, starting from tonight."

Pushing Vihaan away in an amused mood, Sanchi hopped back into the crowd on the stage. The family members were gathered together but her eyes fell on familiar persons at a considerable distance. Maahir and Kavita were seated side by side, refusing to talk to each other. But to her utter surprise, Jwala and Kunwar weren't in their original spots.

When Sanchi couldn't figure out where they were among a horde of audience, she turned to Vidya. "Where's grand-ma? I didn't see her sin-ce she had left with you. She was suppo-sed to return with you after tak-ing a stroll aro-und the house."

"No Vanya, granny didn't go to take a look at our house. She went to meet Vihaan because even she was included in the drama plan along with the rest." With Vidya's reply, Sanchi frowned, rolling her eyes.

"Grand-ma was involved too!" Sanchi's mouth widened, eyes bulging out. "Now can you tell me wh-ere she is? I need to meet her as soon as poss-ible."

"Why do you sound so fearful, Vanya? Is everything alright?" Vidya was trying to delve deeper into her eyes.

Vihaan, who was all the time concentrating on Sanchi and Vidya's conversation interrupted them, "Your grandmother is in my room, with the children and sister Maria. They were rehearsing the play in front of her before appearing on stage. Your grandmother played a pivotal role in this plan and strongly supported me."

"I'll go and fet-ch her here now. I will meet sis-ter and the chil-dren too. They did eno-ugh for me." Sanchi rushed into the house as quickly as she could, leaving Vidya and Vihaan gaping behind.

"Don't you think she's got awkward in her behavior all of a sudden?" Vidya asked Vihaan soon after.

Shaking his head in denial, Vihaan responded, "I think she's more than excited to share the news of our reunion with her grandmother and also meet the children who made this event successful."

*****

Everything seemed so favourable, the discovery of Vihaan's love for Sanchi added more to her newly found happiness. Finding someone who was truly and madly in love with her meant so much to her destined life, because success in relationships came rarely to people.

Her pretty gown fluttered behind her as she swept past their balcony to reach Vihaan's room, the room that now belonged to her again. The Bundela mansion seemed to be a fairytale palace to her, with she as it's queen. Vihaan being the only king of her life, she was now complete.

Voices of children drew closer to her the more she was nearing the room. A pleasant smile appeared on the curve of her lips the moment she entered the room and found the children munching on chocolates and cakes, yelling at one another in fun.

"Sanchi sis is here." The children grabbed her by her waist and arms when they noticed her.

"I'm over-whelmed with your perfor-mance, my chil-dren. Sending you to drama sch-ools and enroll-ing you for various cul-tural programmes fin-ally paid off. You mana-ged to even con-vince me with your skills." Sanchi hugged each one of them before pausing in front of Cyril and Tiara. "Small ver-sion of Vihaan and mine, how did you both man-age to imitate us in such a ten-der age?"

"Vihaan bro has taught us how to act like you both. Even the selection of all the scenes including the animations on the screen were done by him." Chetan pushed his way forward, lifting his head up to answer her.

"Where is my grand-ma? What was her role in this pl-an?" Sanchi enquired, rotating her eyes all around the room but there wasn't any sign of the old lady.

Sister Maria placed her palm against Sanchi's cheek, brushing it gently. "You always said you are unlucky, you don't have anyone who may truly love you but... As you look back in time and compare with the present, you have found so many good persons in your life to love you. You have the children and I to love you, you've got the Trivedi and the Bundela family, you have your own grandmother and most importantly, you possess Vihaan. If you ask what role your grandmother played in it, you must know that it was her idea to hammer the weakest corner of your heart to get you to confess."

"What do you me-an?" Sanchi bit her lower lip in nervousness.

"She was already aware of your intense love for Vihaan and she knew you won't be able to control yourself if you find out that you became the reason for Vihaan's miseries. You weren't ready to listen to Vihaan and was constantly pushing him away. Vihaan was also not agreeing to let you know about his sufferings because it could have hurt you. So we all came up with this master plan."

"You all... Id-ea?"

Sister Maria shook her head with a wide smile. "Vihaan came to Ujjain early in the morning yesterday and disclosed everything to us. He also told me what your grandmother had said about your adamant nature and he needed our help. When he saw the other children, he remembered their act on Valentines' day and came up with this idea. He wanted to show instead of telling you about how incomplete and lonely he was without you. The whole day and the whole night yesterday, the children rehearsed for the entire show and Vihaan prepared the visuals."

"I could-n't even ima-gine that the chil-dren love me so much," Sanchi said flickering her wet eyes, as the happiness in them was clearly visible.

"It was just a little tribute for you for whatever you have done for these children, Sanchi." Sister Maria threw her a hug, kissing the side of her cheek. "We all wish for your life ahead with Vihaan."

"Thank you... I wa-nt to meet my grand-ma, wh-ere is she?" Sanchi asked, losing her patience.

"She went out of the room a while ago, looking for you. She wanted to congratulate you for getting back together with Vihaan." As sister Maria let her know the truth, Sanchi sprinted out of the room in a hurry without answering her, leaving her in utter surprise.

*****

"Grand-ma! Grandma?" Sanchi roamed yelling along the corridor to Vihaan's house, her eyes in search of her grandmother. Upon not finding the old lady at the lawn earlier was giving her a hint of something unpredictable.

Hands formed in fists and a silent prayer on her lips, she was searching for her grandmother like any needy would yearn for a morsel of food. Above every individual in her life, her grandmother was her favorite companion since childhood.

"I was not agree-ing to fetch grand-ma here due to this rea-son. It was al-ready known to me th-at her life is at risk and it's none oth-er than but from my own par-ents. I had warn-ed her before and..." Sanchi's voice got lost in the empty corridor when she found herself reaching the other end of it.

As she looked around in haste, the place and the room before her seemed familiar to her. A lone figure of Kunwar came to her view, who was standing outside a metalled door as if he was guarding someone against something.

"Wh-at is my father do-ing here, in front of Vih-aan's work room?" Sanchi pressed her palms against her lips to prevent herself from becoming audible to him.

Sanchi wanted to step back and call for Vihaan then and there. But her urge of gathering people died down when she heard a very feeble voice of her grandmother coming from inside the work room.

"Leave me Jwala... You can't torture my granddaughters anymore..." Her grandmother's booming voice gave rollers to Sanchi's feet as she rushed in the matter of a few seconds to stand beside Kunwar.

"What are you do-ing to my grand-ma?" Sanchi demanded, the fire in her voice was ready to explode. Whatever her eyes could behold, she found her grandmother's hands and feet were being tied to a rope by Jwala. "Lea-ve her at on-ce or I will..."

Kunwar pulled Sanchi by her arm, ushering her inside the workroom and locking the door behind them. She winced in pain under his tight grip as his hard palm was slammed against her lips and the other hand holding both her wrists in place. "What are you doing in this remotest corner of the house, Vanya? We thought this place and this metalled room would be the safest to hide your grandmother till we departed for Gwalior."

"How cou-ld you stoop so low?" Sanchi's voice stiffened as she continued struggling to free herself. "You are betray-ing your own mother, your daugh-ters and... Why?"

Securing the grandmother's lips with an adhesive white tape after having tied her to her own satisfaction, Jwala slapped Sanchi with the back of her palm before hurling her to the floor. "You have grown wings I suppose. You've hidden the most important truth from us of having been married to the rude DCP."

Sanchi's eyes traversed towards her own clay statue covered in the velvet cloth before darting back at Jwala. Bringing her knees closer to the centre, she stood up on her limbs in one go. "What were you do-ing here? Why have you drag-ged my grand-ma all the way here? How did you ev-en enter this room, the room whi-ch is actually the safest in this en-tire house?"

"This room was luckily left open for us." Kunwar laughed evily.

Guilt arised inside Sanchi when she remembered that she was the one who had left the room unlocked in a hurry, after a hasty escape to confess her love for Vihaan. A little mistake from her side was enough to cause her the consequences and she needed to face it.

"So you both are hurt-ing my grandma for the pro-perties, to get her signa-ture on them," Sanchi asked angrily when she noticed some legal