Chapter 25
It was as if Sham has heard Aaru’s aching heart and gave her a hint through Adarsh. It was all destined.
That night Aaru again wrote to her Sham like every single night...
My dearest Sham,
Just when I was giving up all hope, you gave me a clue today. Can’t describe in words how happy I am. Seven years seemed like seven painful births without you. My heart yearns to meet you. Your love, your paintings, and your songs keep me alive along with our princess Sharu. You will adore her for how sensible she has become and the way she takes care of mamma. We pray for you every day and have full faith we will reunite soon.
You know Adarsh admitted today of all that he did to you. I am not able to believe him till now. I always thought he was a very sober man ideal for our Riya. Now, I will never find it easy to trust anyone. He has given me a deep scar for life. Though his repentance is evident a little envy of his had cost us so many precious years of our lives my love. I can never forgive him for what he did. He was angry with Riya but we got trapped in the punishment.
I worry for Riya too. What life has she weaved for herself? I find her so detached from Adarsh always. It is so difficult to understand what she wishes for life. Though I am extremely grateful to her to help me so selflessly in these seven years, now I feel she may like to be reunited with Adarsh. I am not sure. Will surely talk to her about this.
But right now you are the one on my mind. Tomorrow I start for Nainital with Sharu. Now on we will live there until we find you. Wait for me love, I am coming to find you. I need to find you at all costs and I will. Whatever it is that has stopped you from contacting me in the past seven years, I am going to pull down that wall.
Yours
Radha
Aaradhya had made up her mind. She wanted Adarsh and me to accompany her for some time as Adarsh can show her the exact place where the incident took place years ago. She had already informed her parents who were waiting for their only daughter to arrive home after years of what seemed like an exile to them. Though no one other than Aaru believed that a man went missing seven years ago and searched by the ablest cops and search parties could be traced now, Aaru’s faith was our faith too. We trusted her completely and blindly. Adarsh had sworn to help her until his last breath and only sit peacefully after apologizing to Shamit. The kind-hearted Aaru hadn’t involved the cops lest they took Adarsh in custody under the charge of attempt to murder.
In Nainital, Adarsh drove Aaru to the exact spot from where he had thrown down Shamit. The place was secluded, a little far from Nainital in very dense jungles with hardly anyone in view. They went down and searched all around the place they presumed he could have fallen for hours but found no trace at all. It was covered in thick green bushes and trees and there was hardly anyone there to whom they can ask questions. It started turning dark so they came back.
Back in her room where we had grown up, she studied the map of the place she had just been to, on her laptop, making a list of all the nearby villages. She then sipped some lemongrass tea and listened to her favorite playlist with Sharu lying with her head on her lap all engrossed in a book. She like I told you was my little Aaru, an exact replica of her mom. She was so happy to be at her nanu's place.
The next day, Aaru’s dad asked their local household Jatru kaka(who thereafter accompanied us every day as he knew their regional language pretty well) to come with us three, Aaru, Adarsh, and me, as we scanned that part of the valley yet again from a fresh perspective.
We asked as many inhabitants as we could from the nearby villages if they had heard about a person falling from the cliff seven years ago. The chances were remote because if anything like this would have come to the notice, the case would have been surely registered by the Police.
Weeks passed, I and Adarsh sort of gave up but Aaru kept searching every day with Jatru kaka. God knows from where she constantly got all the strength and focus not to deviate from her goals under any circumstances.
Whenever she went to that place, her heart always told her her Sham was near, very near. She would feel she just needed to run right into his arms and be with him forever, but in what direction should she run, was the question, she needed to find out an answer to, at the soonest.
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