Pretend ~S2~Chapter 43

 

Pretend ~S2~Chapter 43

The hospital room, once dim and still, now pulsed with urgency. The rhythmic beeping of machines clashed with the chaos erupting within its walls.

"ABHI!" Annie's scream tore through the silence as she cradled the little boy’s limp body, his skin cold, his tiny chest barely rising.

Doctors rushed in. Meet staggered back, Ally’s trembling hand slipping from his grip as nurses tried to restrain her.

"Don’t let him go—please—he’s just a child!" Ally sobbed, struggling against the weakness in her body.

"Move! We're losing him!" one of the doctors barked, as Abhi was pulled from Annie’s arms and rushed into the adjacent emergency ward.

The doors slammed shut.

Inside, the light above the emergency room flickered—mocking the hope everyone desperately clung to.

Annie sank to the floor, her arms still folded around the echo of Abhi's warmth. Her breath hitched, her voice cracked. "He didn’t even cry when he collapsed... he just... stopped."

Outside the glass, Ally sat in her wheelchair, hands shaking, her chest heaving with sobs. Meet held her, wordless, helpless.

A nurse approached softly, placing her hand on Ally’s shoulder. "He was asking for her all morning. Refused breakfast. Didn't speak a word... he just waited."

"Waited for Geet..." Ally whispered, eyes red, hollow. "He was waiting for her to come back..."

---

Two Hours Later

The doctors emerged. Their faces were grim but not defeated.

"He's stable," one said. "But emotionally... he’s shut down. He’s not responding to any stimulus. We’re calling in a child trauma specialist."

Ally’s hands gripped the sides of her wheelchair. "Can I see him?"

The doctor nodded. "But please... be gentle. He may not speak."

She was wheeled inside. The sight shattered her: Abhi, lying still on the hospital bed, an IV in his arm, his eyes open but unblinking—like a window left open to a storm that had already passed and broken everything inside.

"Abhi..." she whispered.

He didn’t respond.

She reached for his hand. It was warm. Alive. But his fingers didn’t curl around hers.

A soft voice broke the silence—Annie.

"Let me try," she said, stepping forward. She sat beside him and gently brushed his hair back. “Hey, little warrior… you remember me, don’t you?”

His eyes flickered—barely.

"I have something for you,” Annie said, her voice shaking. She pulled out a little audio recorder. “Do you want to hear your Geet Mumma?”

The machine clicked. A voice filled the room—soft, warm, breaking under emotion.

"Abhi… my baby… I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye. I was afraid if I held you one more time, I would never be able to let go. But please, always remember… I love you. You’re my whole world."

Abhi blinked.

"I will always be with you, even when you can’t see me. Look up at the stars, and I’ll be one of them… whispering your name every night."

A tear rolled down Abhi’s cheek.

"I love you, Abhi. More than all the bedtime stories, more than all the lullabies, more than all the mornings we spent brushing our teeth together. You’re my heart outside my body."

He turned slowly—painfully—to face Annie. “Why… did she go?”

Annie broke down, unable to hold it in.

“She left because she loved you too much to make you choose. Because she believed Ally needed you back... and that you deserved peace.”

Abhi closed his eyes, his small lips trembled. “I… don’t want peace. I want her.”

---

Later That Night

Maan stood outside the hospital, staring at the night sky, unable to shake Geet’s voice from his mind. She had vanished—again. Without a word, without a goodbye.

Dev joined him, lighting a cigarette but not taking a drag. “It should’ve been me to stop her. Not let her bear this alone.”

“She was always the one to carry everyone's pain,” Maan muttered. “She never let us in long enough to carry hers.”

Dev glanced sideways. “He called her ‘Mumma,’ you know? Before the collapse.”

Maan didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His heart was caught somewhere between admiration and agony.

---

Back at the Rathore Mansion

Ally stood by the window, the letter clutched in her hand. The moonlight spilled across the floor like the ghost of Geet’s presence.

“Raise him with all the love in your heart,” Geet had written.

Ally turned to Meet. “But I can’t love him like she did…”

Meet stepped forward, cupping her cheek. “Then let’s not try to replace her. Let’s keep her alive... in every story we tell him, in every lullaby we hum, in every smile we give.”

Ally nodded, tears flowing freely. "We'll never be enough... but we'll be something."

---

Meanwhile, miles away...

Geet stood alone at an airport window, watching a plane disappear into the night sky. Her hand rested on her heart as though she could still feel Abhi’s tiny fingers wrapped around it.

She whispered, "I'm sorry, my love. Forgive me."

And as her flight was announced, Geet wiped her tears, squared her shoulders, and stepped into the unknown—carrying only memories, and the hope that someday, a small voice would call her again from afar.

"Mumma..."

Abhi’s tiny frame trembled in Annie’s arms, and the air felt heavier than ever before. His cries echoed in the sterile hospital corridor, not just a child’s sobs—but the sound of a heart breaking in half.

Inside the room, Ally clutched Geet’s letter to her chest like a lifeline, her breathing shallow as the weight of truth bore down upon her. Her fingers ran over the words again, pausing at the line:

"My name is not just a memory to him. It’s his lullaby. His comfort. His peace."

Tears blurred her vision. She looked up slowly to see Meet pacing, his jaw tight, the pain he tried so hard to mask etched across his face.

"Why didn’t she wait for me to wake up?" Ally whispered.

Meet stopped, unable to answer.

She turned her head toward the door. "Did Abhi... did he cry like this when I was gone?"

Anupama nodded silently.

A sharp sob rose from Ally’s throat. “When I first met him… I was pregnant. I’d placed a hand on my belly and smiled at him through the nursery glass. I’d said—‘One day, you’ll have a little brother or sister.’ I didn’t know back then… that I was already carrying him. That life would take everything away before I could hold him in my arms.”

She exhaled shakily, and her words cracked like porcelain. "I wasn’t there when he called out for me the first time. Or when he fell sick. Or learned to write his name. I was asleep in a bed, and someone else… someone with no ties to him, chose to give up her world to stay by his side."

Meet took her hand gently. "You’re his mother, Ally. That hasn’t changed."

"But it has," she said softly. “I woke up and found that the child I carried… already belongs to someone else.”

She looked out the window, eyes empty but alive with sorrow. "It hurts… in places I didn’t know could feel pain. Knowing that he doesn’t look for me when he falls, but calls out for someone else. But how do I blame him? He needed a mother, and I wasn't there."

She gripped the blanket tight. "And how do I blame her? Geet never claimed anything. She never took what wasn’t hers… but she gave everything like it was."

There was silence. A tear dropped onto her hand.

“I don’t want my son to grow up with guilt, Meet. I don’t want him to hide his tears or feel wrong for loving someone who gave him nothing but love. If I try to hold him back now, he will only learn to hate the parts of himself that miss her.”

Anupama gasped softly, understanding dawning.

"I won’t be a wall between them," Ally whispered. “I can’t give him what she gave. And if I love him... truly love him... I have to let him go.”

Just then, Annie entered, holding the still-shivering Abhi.

"Ally…" Annie's voice was barely audible. "He needs you. But he also… he misses her like breath."

Ally opened her arms without hesitation.

Abhi looked up slowly, hesitating, then slowly walked into her arms. But even there, his sobs didn’t stop.

She gently kissed his hair. “I’m so sorry, baby. So sorry that I wasn’t there when you needed me.”

Abhi cried harder. “I want Mumma… I want Geet Mumma…”

Ally’s lips trembled.

She cupped his face with both hands, her voice steady despite the storm inside her.

"You will have her, Abhi."

His crying paused for a beat.

"I want you to go to her, okay?" Ally said, smiling through her tears. “I will always be here. But she… she’s a part of your heart. And no one should have to live without a part of their heart.”

Abhi looked confused, but Annie whispered, “She’s saying it’s okay to love both.”

Ally nodded. “Yes. You can love us both. But right now, she needs to know that you're okay too. Just like you need her.”

Anupama stepped forward, her hands over her mouth in disbelief. “Ally…”

Ally smiled through the pain. “Sometimes, the greatest act of love… is letting go.”

She reached into the drawer beside the bed and pulled out Geet’s letter, folded neatly again.

“Give this to her,” she whispered to Annie. “And tell her… thank you. For being the mother I couldn’t be when he needed one.”

Abhi looked up again. “Can I go now with my Geet Mumma?”

Ally nodded, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Yes, baby. Go to your Mumma.”

The boy didn’t need to be told twice. Annie smiled at him but felt pain for Ally and Geet already left them. She will definitely give Geet the happiness she deserves, but she is leaving behind a mother who had given up everything just to put her son's heart back together.

Ally watched the happy face, her chest heaving with quiet sobs—but in her heart, something felt at peace.

She didn’t lose her son. She gave him a gift.

Love. Without condition. Without demand.

Just love.