The Stigma Called Love - Chapter 47

“What?”

Aparna looked at his shock expression and instantly lowered her eyes. Right now, looking into his eyes would be highly disturbing. She turned away from him and clutched the bed post hard. Closing her eyes, she tried to control the turbulent emotions within her.

What if he said yes?

Was she ready to let go?

Nishant looked at her stiff back and frowned. He could understand her apprehensions but they were no reason for giving all this up. At least he was not willing to do that. Slowly, he came and stood behind her, resting his body against her back. When she did not turn towards him, he circled his arms around her and pressed his lips to her ear.

“I need you.”

She closed her eyes the moment she heard his whispered plea. But, her mind reminded her to be strong. One mistake and she had lost her parents. She won’t let him make that mistake. She shrugged off his arms and moved away from him.

“Go back to them,” she said turning towards him.

Nishant looked at Aparna and found her slowly getting into that defensive mode, which he hated the most. He took one step towards her and saw her step back.

“Nishant, please don’t. Call this off.”

He was taken aback by the vehemence in her tone. His shock turned into anger as he saw her picking up her things and stuffing them in her bag.

Aparna picked up the bag and stepped out of the room. She was thankful that he hadn’t stopped her. Biting her lip, she tried to control the tears threatening to escape. Slowly, she crossed the sofa and neared the main door.

Don’t look behind. Just don’t look behind. Let it go.

“Stop!”

His commanding voice hit like a nail in her head and her feet automatically froze.

Nishant walked up to her and turned Aparna towards him. Clutching her arms with tightly, he forced her to look at him.

“You are not going anywhere,” he said with passionate anger.

At first Aparna was a little scared but as she looked in his eyes, she suddenly remembered this was Nishant and he would never do anything to hurt her. But right now, she had to be strong for both of them and this was not the time to be emotional. Her resolve became firm as she remembered the look of distress in his eyes when he had talked about his childhood.

“You cannot stop me,” she said looking straight into his eyes with determination.

“Aparna...”

“Nishant, I will not let you destroy everything like this. I am going and you cannot do anything to stop me. Now, let me go.”

When he did not let her go, she forcibly took his hands off her. She turned away from him not wanting to look at him for once.

As she moved away, his eyes narrowed with displeasure. Why was she being so stubborn?

Calm down, Nishant. If you have to stop her then you need to control your anger, his heart told him.

But somehow these words did not register in his head. His mind swirled with every single thing that had happened since morning. Nishant was slowly losing his patience. He turned and placed his hands on the dining table. Closing his eyes, he tried hard to pacify his growing fury.

Aparna looked at his turned stiff back and a small part of her wanted him to stop her. But then she reminded herself why she was doing this. Slowly she turned the door knob and opened the main door.

Nishant’s eyes flashed open as he heard the click of the door lock sliding off its hinges.

Stop her, dammit. She is leaving, his heart screamed.

But his mind was still raging with the events of the day. Suddenly his gaze fell on the bowl of green chillies lying on the table that he had bought for her because she never ate her food without them. He crossed and picked up one chilli from the bowl.

Of all the people, he had expected Aparna to understand everything. He had believed that she will stand by him in all this. But maybe he was wrong. There was only one way of knowing. He looked at her as he opened his mouth and shoved the chilli inside.

Let’s see if I can stop you or not.

He bit the chilli and chewed hard, and its heat exploded inside his mouth burning each and every tissue. Without taking his eyes off her, he picked one more and chewed it off. Then one more and one after another he kept on eating them till he started coughing.

Hearing him coughing so hard, Aparna looked behind and saw him eating chillies. Her eyes widened with urgency as he saw his face, which was completely red with their heat.

“What the hell?” she shouted as she rushed towards him.

He was about to eat one more but she just took it from him and threw it away.

“Are you insane?”

As he sat down on the chair breathing and coughing real hard trying not choke, she rushed to the kitchen and took out some cold milk from the refrigerator and quickly poured it in a glass.

By the time she reached him, he was holding his head in agony as the burning heat increased inside him.

“Drink this,” she commanded holding his face up.

Nishant looked at her blinking away his tears. By the look of it she was not going anywhere. Like an obedient child, he drank the cold milk. He sighed with relief as it calmed the inferno inside his mouth.

“When you know you can’t have chillies then why did you?” Aparna asked him as he finished the milk.

He smiled as he saw her angry face. Standing up, he said coughing a little, “You are not going anywhere.”

“But....” she stopped at moment he placed his finger against her lips.

“Shhhh! I can fight the whole world but not without you. You are my strength. I am nothing without you.”

“But, they are your family.”

“I know and that is the reason they need to understand all this. They should be the ones standing with us and not against us.”

She rested her head against his chest and clutched him hard to her. As her arms tightened around him, she felt him pressing her body fully into his.

Even though Aparna felt him to be calm but, his quickened heartbeat clearly indicated the onset of an approaching storm. 

Copyright © Paromita Majumder. All Rights Reserved.