Part 8

                                    

                                          
The next morning, Omkara stood leaning against the wall of the room with his arms crossed at his chest. While Suman Mittal was feeding Gauri her breakfast, Janhvi had gone ahead to complete all the hospital formalities. The doctor had declared Gauri fit enough to go home, and the joy of finally leaving the hospital was clear on her face as she sat there, eating dal-khichdi with pickle, while coddling her little baby in her lap.
Suman Mittal spared a glance at Omkara, when Gauri kept looking at him between each morsel she ate, while Om said nothing as he stared at the colourful mosaic tiles of the hospital floor. Last evening, when he had walked into the hospital with a firm resolve written on his face to tell Gauri the whole truth, Suman had been seated on the chair beside the bed where Gauri was asleep under the effect of the painkilling drugs.


--- Last evening ---
"You're right, Gauri needs to know the truth" Omkara spoke, looking at Gauri's sleeping face, knowing that once she woke up and learnt about him being the reason she was no longer able to recall her life with her husband, whom incidentally he had killed in the very same accident which she lost her memory, she would hate him with all her heart. Suman nodded without looking at Omkara, agreeing. But a moment later, he had heard her sigh in regret.
"I tried to tell Gauri the truth earlier, Omkara" Suman admitted with a painful guilt, as Omkara looked at her, now a small frown forming on his face. "But..?" he asked, urging her to go on, knowing that there was something more to it.
"I began by telling her that she was not your wife, and that you two did not share your lives together. The moment I told her this, Gauri became hysterical. She started panicking and the doctors had to calm her down with sedatives. As soon as she woke up after the drug-effects started to wear off, Gauri asked to speak with you. She refused to talk to any of us. Your mother tried to call you up to ask you to come to the hospital so we could tell her something to pacify her, but then you were probably busy" Omkara swallowed the lump in his throat – he had been mourning Ishana's loss with her parents at the Patel's residence.
"Anyway, your mother, being excellent in spinning stories, told Gauri that she misinterpreted what I wanted to say to her. Your mother told her that since she does not have her memories of the past anymore, she is someone who is a stranger to her own self, which is why she is no longer the same girl who married you, and who is no longer your same wife. After constant cajoling, Gauri seemed to believe it and calmed down..." 
Looking at Omkara, Suman continued, "I would be the happiest if Gauri remembers the truth on her own. No one would ever be at peace seeing their family giving the place of her dead son to his murderer!" Omkara had stood quietly, staring at Gauri's sleeping face, who lay there oblivious to the chaos around her.
Then, when Gauri had woken up late at night, she had burst into sobs seeing Omkara there, and unknown to the tensed discomfort and uneasy exchange of glances between Suman and Omkara, Gauri had clung tight to him in his embrace, making him promise her he was not going to go anywhere without telling her., and that he would always be there for her, come what may. She had even insisted on Suman going back home, convincing her that Omkara would stay the night. Of course, Suman had been adamant to stay back, but when the nurse walked into the room at night, asking them to avoid stressing the patient up, Suman had unwillingly agreed to go, and Omkara had helplessly agreed to stay.
However, Gauri had been up for a while, refusing to sleep, and had wanted to talk to him sbout random things of their life. But Om knew he could not lie, if she would ask him anything about "their marriage" or "their marital life". So he avoided any talk by staying busy on his phone, under the pretext of completing some office work. Gauri, of course, had dozed off soon, aprtly due to boredom and partly due to the medicine effects. And then, Omkara had rested on the sofa with his feet perched on the coffee table, while Ruhi slept on the bed. Thankfully, the child was a heavy-sleeper and slept through the night after Suman had put her to sleep before leaving.