Akhri Mohabbat (Last Love)

Summary: Registaan jaise logon ko barsaat ki intezaar hoti hai, chaand ki nahi.
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Huzenabadh is an hour's ride away. Amrit falls asleep in between, Veer isn't certain if it was deliberate or not but her head rests on his shoulder and her arm is tucked into the crook of his elbow, hand splayed over his arm.

Veer tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear and places his palm cupping her cheek. Amrit snuggles against him.

"Shravan Singh," he calls the man driving on the front after a thought. "You will take care of her."

"Ji Chote hukum."

"Ziddi hai. Apni mann ki karti hai. Tumhe inki baaton mein nahi aana hai. I expect you to do a better job than today. She shouldn't have come here today."

For a moment Shravan Singh doesn't reply.

"Hum mafi chahte hai, Chote hukum." He says slowly, but there is a tilt to his voice, a hint of pride that makes Veer think that he is not sorry at all.

No, instead this man is wrapped around Amrit's little finger and would dance to her tunes with no resistance. Veer sighs. She will not make this easy.

His arm around her tightens reflexively at the thought of making distance.

Veer basks in the knowledge of having someone fight for him, to be with him even against his express wishes. It had never happened to him before and it makes this, what he had with Amrit, and Amrit herself all the more precious.

"Jaan," he mutters into her hair, filling his lungs with a breath scented with her sweet fragrance.

"Jitni mushkil tum se door rehena hai, usse kahi mushkil tumhe khona honga. Humare jeena aazaan kar dijiye. Yeh zidd chhod dijiye."

"Nahi," Amrit replies sleepily, her fingers clench on his arm, her brows frown. "Nahi chhod sakthi..."

Huzenabadh is lit on their wake. The news of events from the evening had travelled home before they did and so had Hedar and Omar along with the Nawab.

While the Siddiquies united, (Farida exclaiming at both Anwar and Veer's injuries) Veer carries a still asleep Amrit inside.

She is waking up, as he climbs the stairs, Veer knows from her changed breathing.

"Sleep," he tells her. "Raat bohut ho chuki."

Amrit blinks into wakefulness and presses her cheek against his heart, looking up at him with a thoughtful curiosity. 

In the shadows and random pools of amber light in the passageway, her eyes shine golden. There is a look in those eyes that makes his breath catch. She looks at him as if the moment consists only of him. Him and nothing else. Veer could swear he had never been looked at like that.

His throat tightens, his heart swells. Why did it have to be like this?

"Aise matt dekho," he tells her, as he gently lowers her onto the bed. Her arms encircleing his neck refuses to let go.

He could taste her exhale on his lips, Amrit doesn't allow him to pull back.

"Kaise?" She asks. "Jaise aap se aankein bhar ni ho, aise? Jaise nazar hatane ka mann na katra ho aise?" 

"Bohut ziddi ho tum."

"Aap se seekhi hoon."

"Biwi sahab."

"Kuwar sahab."

Veer sighs loudly, Amrit smiles sleepily. Pulling away her arms to cup his face with her soft, cold hands.

"Ek hi kamra hai, kaha jaaonge?"

For a moment her wickedly victorious smile looks so tempting that Veer almost kisses it off those luscious lips. It takes every last fibre of his resolve not to.

Somewhere outside a clock chimes twelve. Veer clasps his hands over hers on his face and pulls them away.

"Tumhari ek din katam."

He steps back as her eyes begin to water. But Amrit doesn't give up that easily. She follows him and closes the door before he manages to leave. With her back to the now closed door, Amrit raises her chin at him defiantly, tucking the key at her waistline.

"Nahi jaa rahein aap."

Veer slams a hand on the door right next to her head, Amrit jumps a little at the sound but does not move even an inch. He draws closer, bracing himself on that hand.

"Aaj badi hukum chala rahi ho?"

His eyes narrow, a hint of annoyance in them as he bores into her face.

Amrit bunches a hand on his collar and claps the other over his heart.

"Haq jata rahi hoon...hukum nahi."

"Oh really?" His voice drops and so does his eyes, a heated look he brushes over her lips and down her throat.

"Hum bhi jata lein?" He dips his head and traces the curve of her neck with his exhale. "Toda haq?"

Rough fingers trail along her midriff, Amrit's eyes flutter close, and her lips part in a sigh. Against her throat Veer smiles, rather bitterly. If only she knows how alluring she looks just then. He untucks the key and pulling Amrit into his arms unlocks the door single handedly.

"You've learned well," he hums against her ear as he pulls back. Her eyes flicker up to meet his, unable to help himself Veer presses a kiss on her forehead.

"But darling you learned from me."

He hands her the key, closes her fingers around it.

"Darwaza lock kar ke so jaiye," he says just as he slips through the half open door.

"I know you don't sleep well in unfamiliar places."

And he is gone, without bidding her a good night, without offering her one last look. Her heart burns at being left like that, and at those hurtful words, "tumhara ek din katam."

"No," Amrit mutters to herself. "It won't end like this! It can't -!"

Shaking her head, and still determined Amrit marches out after him. The corridor with its pools of golden lights ends with double doors. Veer pushes them open and turns to close them after him.

Amrit places a stubborn hand on one carved panel, holding it back. Had Veer been any less observant he would have shut the door on her fingers.

His hand covers over hers a moment before that painful impact would have come. His face contrites at the sudden flash of pain, yet he removes her unscathed hand with all heartbreaking gentleness.

Amrit's lips tremble and her eyes burn. The urge to cry is overwhelming.

"I have work to do," he says rather nonchalantly, and all she could see is his hand, with a faint bruise now forming against tanned skin.

"And things to discuss with Nawab Sahab."

"I'll wait," she mutters. Trying but failing not to feel hurt.

"Even if you don't want me to, I will wait. You are hurting me Veer. I want you to know that. You are hurting me by hurting yourself. Zaroori nahi har zakm jism par ho. Zaroori nahi ke har dard ka nishaan ho. Zaroori nahi ke duzron ko kushi kudh ko luta kar diya jaaye. Waqt rehete samajh jaiye baat ko, aap mujhe apna bana kar chhod denge, isse bada dard koi de hi nahi sakta. Aap kudh par yun zulm karein isse bada zakm koi de hi nahi sakta. Main intezaar karlungi, magar aaiyenga zaroor, kya pata zindagi mujh par meherbaan ho ya na ho? Aur intezaar kar te kar te main Kahi mar na -"

His fingers press against her lips, forcing those words back into her mouth. Her gaze reddened with unshed tears flickers up to hold his bloodshot eyes.

"Mujhe bhi aisa hi dard hoti hai, jab aap door jaane ki baat karte ho."

With that she turns away and walks off. Instead of going back into the room which was down the hallway, she settles on a couch in the waiting area, arranged facing the study and folds her hands. Veer sighs, closing the door against her unwavering gaze.
And thus the night of torment begins. 

*

Dinner at Siddiquies' estate is always too crowded that the family has made a custom of joining once more for a round of spiced tea and light snacks before they bade each other a good night.

Even if the children sometimes bailed out citing exhaustion or too much excitement, the Nawab and his Begam never went to bed without a round of spice tea in their study.

Veer has been counting on that, to catch them while they had their spice tea. But he had not counted his mind to be decidedly elsewhere.

Amrit had fallen asleep where she sat earlier, her arms wrapped around her and her chin tucked into her shoulder.

He kept glancing at her through the gaps in the curtains standing by the window, hardly keeping a track of the conversation inside.

Farida Begam is arranging heavy volumes of law reports on the bookshelf behind the Nawab's high chair. Her lips are pressed together into a particular displeased expression.

Nawab Usman Hussein Siddiquie adjusts his glasses and looks at Veer. The kuwar isn't there to see him as one royal would another, but as a son would call on his father's old friend and adviser.

The Nawab unlike his several other counterparts in the area, was a well qualified barrister who had put behind him some twenty odd years of a career after completing his education in England.

Mahendra and Usman had met on foreign soil; one pursuing a political science major and the other at law school and had bonded the way locals did when they were across the ocean.

Usman was older, Mahendra of sharper wit. The same intelligence shimmered through Veer, endearing him to the Nawab.

Usman is still resentful towards Nalini about Veer not getting the Eton, Oxford education that Mahendra had and Veer too undoubtedly deserved.

With effort he pulls back his thoughts to the present just as Farida addresses Veer.

"Aap dono ke beech kya hogaya Veer?" Farida has always been a straightforward woman. She makes no attempt to hide her displeasure.

Veer jerks at the sound of her voice and turns to them, dragging his eyes away from that gap in the curtain with effort.

"Kuch nahi hua hai Begam Sahiba. I just wanted to give myself some time."

Farida's eyes narrow further.

"Are you giving yourself time or denying yourself - both of you - the time that fate has granted? Uss bachchi ke saat aap ka bartao teek nahi hai, bata rahein hai hum. Bechari waha pata nahi kabse beithi hai. She hasn't even gone to check on her own brother. Aap ko itna chahthi hai - aur ek aap hai - kudh yahaan beithe choro ki tarah apne hi biwi ko chup chup ke dekh rahein hai!"

Usman gently holds Farida's wrist, the action, a silent communication between them brings her rant to an end.

Veer says nothing. He knows he deserves every word, perhaps more. Nothing would make the burden on his shoulders lighter.

"What does your solicitor in Delhi say?" Usman asks him instead. "Apart from the fact that Naradh Sha has inquired about the promise of marriage contract?"

Veer shakes his head.

"Nothing."

Farida comes to sit on one of the low chairs in the corner of the study.

"It's a promise. Not a marriage contract. It's not like Naradh Sha could go to court and get an order demanding Veer to marry Anaita when he is already married!"

"Veer could marry again," Usman says cautiously.

"Not in this lifetime. No." Veer says finitely. "Dada sahab had stopped the practice of polygamy. I have no intention of changing his ways."

Farida doesn't sound convinced.

"Says the man who is hiding from his wife in here," she says rather cruelly. "Anaita aap ke bachpan ki pyaar hai. Peheli mohabbat hai..."

"Aur Amrit humari aakhri mohabbat hai. Patni hai. She will never have to share her place with anyone. No. I will not allow that. Na hum unhe kissi aur ke saat bardaash kar sakthe hai, na unki jaga mein kissi aur ko."

Farida smiles finally, satisfied. She pats the seat next to her indicating Veer to sit down. Veer does, still agitated, his shoulders still tense. 

"I never liked her," Farida waves a hand dismissing all the encounters with that haughty girl, who barely managed to string together two words of Hindi.

"Anaita." She adds as an explanation. "Sahi nahi thi aap ke liye. Registaan jaise logon ko barsaat ki intezaar hoti hai, chaand ki nahi."

"Ek barsaat se registaan hara nahi hojaata, Begam Sahiba. Rain is wasted on desert. Isse behetar woh registaan aaye hi na."

Farida meets his gaze, reads the regret and pain there but her voice doesn't falter.

"Yeh faisla barsaat ko karne dijiye. Ke usse kaha barasni hai, kiss pe barasni hai. Registaan ka koi haq nahi banta barsaat ko rokhne ki."

Usman clears his throat.

"Aap dono ki shayari katham hogayi ho toh...?"

Both Farida and Veer turns to him, his expression is troubled, it bleeds into both Veer and Farida's expressions as well.

"I can't say anything clearly until I see the document for myself Veer," Usman begins.

"So my first piece of advice is to ask your solicitor and have that contract brought over. In the worst case scenario where Natadh Sha does take you to court, deciding you are worth his honour being dragged through gossip fodder - you might end up paying them a huge sum."

"Not like Veer doesn't have money..."

Veer doesn't reply to that immediately. Usman watches those cold eyes gleaming with a vengeful intent. But it is Farida who reads him aloud.

"Oh you knew this already did you not?" She asks him. "You are planning to cut yourself off Shrighar so that he cannot touch the royal treasury through you."

"My ancestors don't have to pay up for his daughter getting jilted," Veer shrugs. There isn't a shred of emotion as he refers to Anaita.

"You are sly," Farida says rather approvingly.

"Like your father," Usman comments. "Aur Amrit? How much of this does she know?"

"Amrit doesn't deserve to suffer for my mistakes either," Veer replies. "I was hoping to get her away from this before the storm hits."

"Nahi maanengi woh."

"Hum mana lenge."

Farida snorts but says nothing.

"Usse maan ni hongi. Because I will not have her at the edge of anyone's blade."

"Veer - sach sach bataiye,"  Farida turns to him and takes his hand in both of hers. "Irada kya hai aap ka?"

Veer bites his lip. It is an unconscious action that he often does when he is thoughtful.
"Ek paap karne wale hai hum. Jiski shayad kabhi koi maafi nahi hongi."

**
How are you doing #teambiwisahab and #teamkuwarsahab?
I'm so tired after my day at the office and unfortunately developing a backache. Hopefully you are here to lift up my mood?

3rd chapter of #5for25Party!
I'm trying to balance the bitterness of this separation track with sweetness of their love for each other. Have I managed to? Tell me in the comments, would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for reading! Please vote if you liked the chapter.