Secret

After a long sleep of 28 hours, Kartik woke with the noise of knock on the door of his flat. He checked the time it was 8 in the morning. There was no chance of anyone coming to his place at that time and he knew that Aarti wouldn’t come. It is two days that Aarti moved out of this flat. Kartik and Aarti were in relation for four years. They started dating in the first year of their college and had become goals for others. No arguments, no fights, no abuses, it was only love that surrounded their relationship.

 After two years of their relation the decided to live together in one flat. Everything was good until a month ago. Rihan an old admirer of Aarti texted her. He was jealous of their relation always wanted to force his love on her. She ignored the first message which said he had something important to talk about. He was missing from past six months ,not that his absence bothered her but his appearance after six months was surprising as she had finally believed that he might have actually forgotten about her. The next day he texted saying she was in loss if she ignore him this time. She ignored this too and all messages that he sent later until on fifth day he said its something about Kartik , that she got worried and agreed to meet him thinking she will meet and end his nonsense once and for all. 

They met in a café where Rihan told her that Kartik is cheating on her. Hearing this she thought there is no need to talk further and with giving a frown she got up and walked out. A week passed the thought of Kartik cheating her had occurred to her mind but she knew that is not possible. He loved her like the moon likes the moonlight and she knows that. Exactly after two weeks of meeting Rihan, she got a dream of Kartik walking hand in hand with another girl looking straight in eyes, she woke up scared wet in her own sweat. The next morning she asked Kartik more out of foolishness if he has someone else in his life. He said he might have with sarcasm. She got the sarcasm right and hugged him tightly.

Four days after her dream she got a message from Rihan. It was a picture of Kartik sitting on his knees in front of a pretty girl who was sitting on a chair smiling brightly while Kartik was kissing her forehead. The moment she saw the picture hot tears emerged from her eyes. She avoided Kartik the whole day but later in the evening when she was cooking Kartik grabbed her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder landing a kiss on her cheek from behind he noticed that her cheeks were full of tears. He confusingly turned her and asked her the reason. She flashed the phone to him with that picture. He took the phone in his hand and glanced at Aarti as she fell on her knees now crying loudly. He picked her and wiping her tears said it's not what she is seeing. She threw his hand away and asked what it if not what she sees ?. Hesitantly he said it’s a secret and he cannot tell her. she couldn’t believe what he said and out of anger and aghast she packed all her bags, even after all the pleadings form Kartik she left the flat as she was expecting an explanation and not pleading

Not able to take the pain of breakup Kartik bathed himself in the pool of alcohol and passed out near four and woke up after 28 hours with a knock. He went to open the door and found no one. He thought the one must have gone thinking there was no one at home. Little did he know that he had not locked the door last time and how the door got locked. He went back inside and was taking a shower when someone rang the bell of his house, he wrapped a towel around him and went to open the door.

To his surprise, there was a really beautiful lady standing in front of his flat. He asked her to wait and went back and returned dressed in a tee and shorts, there was a guy with that lady now equally handsome…they both were in their twenties. He opened the door and asked them to come in and apologized for making them wait. They all settled on the sofa when Kartik asked them to introduce them. They glanced at each other and then the girl spoke:” I’m Liza and he is Zaid, and let's not waste time in further introduction and lets come straight to the point".

Kartik gave them a how-do-you-know-me glance 

“See we know whatever happened between you and Aarti, that shouldn’t have happened, and it's painful for us to see any story end this way so we want to know your secret as we already know that you don’t have affair as we kept an eye on you since Aarti left" Liza Spoke.

“But why? Why did you keep eye on me? Who are you and why should I tell you?” Kartik spoke.

“Because that’s the only way to save your relation,” Liza said.

Kartik looked confused. None spoke for a minute after which Kartik said: “ok fine however there is no point hiding it anyway as the relation is no more".

They both looked at each other as if saying they didn’t expect it this early but are happy.

“Yes tell us, “Liza said

“The girl in that picture which Aarti saw is my…is my cousin Ramya. We are too close .it was 5 years back that she met an accident while coming to a party at my place. She lost the functioning of her limbs. She was shattered but optimistic. She believed she will soon be able to walk. But she cut out all the links to the outside world. I visit her every 3 months and she surprise me with her positivity….” he breathed

“Why don’t Aarti know about her? “Liza asked.

“Because Ramya had extracted a promise from me to not tell Aarti about her. She wanted to stand on her feet first and then welcome Aarti I to our lives herself…but Ramya knows everything about Aarti. “Kartik said 

“You could have saved your relationship. Aarti thinks…”Liza said

“I know but I couldn’t break the promise.. I just couldn’t, “Kartik said looking down.

“Look Kartik everyone has secrets, even we have but it's just how do we handle them…sometimes it becomes necessary to break secrets and promises to save thunders in our lives…you have to choice Kartik “ Liza said looking at Kartik hopefully. 

“I can't break the promise but I need Aarti, “Kartik said now sobbing. 

“Close your eyes, there is a way Kartik…think Kartik thinks…”Liza said

Kartik closed his eyes and after a few minutes opened it and knew what he has to do. He took the keys of his car and asked them to join him. He drove to Ramya’s place. It was a 3-hour drive but none spoke a word. Kartik went into the house alone and came out after some time smiling and getting free from the promise. He told this to Liza and Zaid they two were as happy as him.

They drove back to his flat. On the way, he told everything to Aarti and just as proof she wanted to meet Ramya. She was about to reach in an hour. Liza and Zain waited in the drawing-room while he went and got fresh. He returned with a tray with some snacks which they refused politely.

Kartik thanked them for helping. 

“It was our duty and pleasure to help you," Zaid said

“But why? “asked Kartik 

“It simply was dear," Liza said

There something struck Kartik...he asked:” by the way how did you know about this and what is your secret??”

“You definitely not be pleased to hear about our secret.,” Liza said

“I didn’t even know you and I shared mine and as you say you know me so don’t I deserve to know your secret too??”

“You do. Listen…two months back, it was my engagement to a guy I didn’t want to, I had loved Zaid with all my heart but my family didn’t approve if our love and wanted to get me married fast. The marriage was two days after engagement.

We had to days to run. we decided we will elope one day before marriage…everything was ready .i went from the back gate and sat into Zaid's car We had just started to drive when a car came in front of our car. It was my fiance. He parked his car in front of ours and walked to me. He dragged me out by pulling me by my hair and before I could say anything he slapped me, I fell on the floor. Seeing this Zaid took a stick from the road and hit on his head. He was slowly getting unconscious when we rushed to the car and started the car before we could drive he came in front of our car to stop but we didn’t and the car banged him and he fell far on the road with blood all around him. I went to him to find he was dead. I was dumbstruck. I froze there. Zaid came to me and took me in the car. He consoled me and said to me that this has to be our secret., Whatever happened was an accident and no one should know about it. After some time I got convinced and this became out secret”….” this was one “Liza said.

Kartik was shocked, had his hands on his mouth said:” so you have more?”

“Yes," liza said

Kartik gave a tell-me-fast look

“We made this accident or murder or whatever our secret and decided to not tell anyone but who can hide anything from Karma. They knew it and we got it back..”

“What? What did you get back? “looking straight at them.

“An hour after the accident we were on the highway when a truck came and dashed into our car. The car flipped twice and caught fire and we were burnt alive”. Liza said

Kartik’s face turned red.”so…y…you….are" he chocked on his voice

“Yes we are not alive…but don’t worry we don’t harm. We had seen your love story end this way and we knew the pain of it so we tried to help you…and will help everyone who is in such situations…”

Kartik couldn’t speak, he wanted to run but couldn’t, he was frozen. 

The bell rang. It was Aarti. Kartik wanted to open the door but couldn’t move.

“Listen Kartik don’t worry just forget about us now …this is why we said don’t listen to our story….now go, go open the door and welcome your love back in your life…”Liza said.

Kartik stood up looking straight at them and went to open the door he turned to open door when he heard “All the best and have a happy life Kartik...and don't tell anyone about us make us a secret of yours"... he opened the door abruptly for Aarti to come in and as he turned back to see them he found no one in the room.