35 She Ran Away

But before I could propose you I heard you rejecting me."

"You said I should have the guts to listen to you. But nothing too scary....

Before she could complete Rishi delivered a India's famous and favourite dialogue

"The movie is not over yet."

"What is remaining?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to forgive me by just being sympathetic. I want to you to forgive me with your whole heart. Aliya I again ask you, will you forgive me? Will you let me free from the clutches of guilt? I adjure you to let go everything that happened between us in the past. Let us have a new beginning. Please forgive me. Please. Please."

As Rishi was pleading her, he joined his hands with teary eyes. He had no patience now. Reliving his old memories was very painful for him. Aliya couldn't see this. Even she failed to resist to cry. She finally released her tears and they rolled down on her cheeks. She couldn't believe herself that she was so ignorant not even realizing the pain he had in his eyes. Even if Rishi didn't reveal everything to her, she was aware of everything he has done for her. The person she knew as Rishikesh hadto suffer a lot. If she could have known this before, she would have forgave him. She was in deep regret. His repentance was genuine.

'How can I make a mistake in judging someone correctly? Was my ego so big that I couldn't even see his remorse? Oh God! What have I done? Although I knew everything beforehand, I still made him to speak everything. I forcefully made him to revisit everything he wanted to bury deep in his heart. Directly or indirectly, I made his day as worst as possible. How can I face myself now? How will I face him? What if he comes to know that I deliberately hurt him? How will he react? What if he misunderstands me?'

In all this process of self-questioning, Aliya didn't realize that Rishi had clenched her hands. Seeing her sob, he thought that she might be in a conflict to forgive me or not. Before he could calm her, Aliya did something unexpected.

She ran away. She. Ran. Away.

For Rishi, he never expected this would happen. Has he really scared her? When Aliya was screaming to open the door as it was locked, one of the guards helped her to move out. Without even turning back to Rishi she ran as if she had done some big crime. She couldn't see Rishi's eyes wide opened. He was in despair. No clue of what to do.

'So she also thinks that I was..... I am insane. She is also in fear. Like others. Then why I thought that she will understand me? Gaurav was right. I shouldn't have told her. What if I had told her the whole truth? Is it that difficult for her to forgive me? Can't she even forgive me? Are my pains, guilt, less than what she suffered?'

Meanwhile, everyone around the car where clueless about what to do. There were no instructions to follow that lady or to reach the location, so the guards had no choice but to stay puzzled. Chauffeur's legs were trembling as he was imagining what could have happened inside. He had encountered this sight for the first time. A girl suddenly running away weeping, his boss giving no instructions to leave and on top of that, what were they doing inside for 2 hours? As he was busy evaluating the whole scenario, he suddenly heard a high pitched, hoarse voice.

"LEAVE FOR THE LOCATION. I AM LATE."

"Yes,sir."

Soon the car left.

____________________________________________

ALIYA'S HOTEL ROOM

*weep*

*sob*

*weep*

As it was midnight, she didn't face any stares except some employees who were confused whether to help her or letting her go. She came running to her room and banged the door shut. She kept crying and talking to herself.

"O-OH God! Please forgive me for I have deliberately hurt someone. I dug that wound which had recently started filling up. H-How? Why I did thi-this? My parents always imbibed good values in me. One of them was to forgive and forget. I couldn't even do either. I held my nose so high that I didn't see someone pleading me. He approached me for a quite few times. Even on that day when he told me about Amrita, I refused to listen to him further. He kept calling from behind but I... I.....

I RAN AWAY. YES. I DID THIS EVEN TODAY. What will he think? He must have thought that I believe he is not capable to be forgiven. Wh-What should I do? How to say him?"