A man is sitting in the middle of the room in the dark, but his eyes are sparkling with happiness. There is no source of light in that room, even though everything is very quiet. Also, nothing is worth listening to except for the sound of the clock. But that ticking sound also gives him immense peace because this voice is his biggest companion right now. He is constantly moving around the room while sitting on the ground so that he can see each and every photo very well.

Some pictures are hanging around him. He is just looking at those pictures with his shining dreamy eyes. He is examining each photo as if it holds a piece of his own life. As his eyes move from one photo to another, the smile on his face also increases. He sees these photos every day in exactly the same way, but he never feels bored. He looked at the photo as if it were his first time today. He immediately gets up from the ground, walks towards the photo he received a while ago, and mumbles softly as he traces her beautiful eyes with the pad of his fingers.

"Beautiful..."

He sits down on the floor and rests his arms on his knees while looking at the same photo with a smile, then he averts his gaze on some, and with a broad smile, he looks at the screen in front and picks up the remote from a nearby table, then starts the screen. He is very comfortable sitting in front of the screen. Here he plays a video of a mall, where everybody is busy shopping. But it doesn't matter what other people are doing; he places his palm under his chin and sits in a very attentive position.

He is exclusively watching a particular girl who is smiling and sorting some girls' clothes. He is being seen without blinking his eyelids; the way he is looking at that girl, it is clear that only he wants to see her in such a crowd. He looks at her as if she's the only person left in the world he wants to see. After selecting some dresses, the girl picks them up and goes to the trial room. After about 20 minutes, the girl emerges from the trial room; she selects only two pieces from the clothes and, with a beautiful smile on her face, hands the other piece back to the salesgirl. He mumbles here.

"Beautiful... As always, your beautiful smile inspires me to live life to the fullest. I'm not sure how many days I've been observing you closely, but we'll be meeting again in a few days. I will be able to see you closely. You know that day is very beautiful for me; the day I see you very closely... It's like a new life for me..."

As he speaks, the man picks up a packet from the floor near him. He then takes the clothes from the packet, which the girl had tried on before leaving them on the counter. He smiles and touches those clothes like he is touching her. That man sniffs those clothes deeply, inhaling her fragrance from them and at last starting to kiss them again and again with so much passion. He hugs the same dress like he is hugging that girl and lies down on the floor with the dress on his chest and says,

"You are mine… you are always mine…. I love you, Jaan…. I love you, angel... My ALAKH... I love you so much..."

*************************

She is holding her dress quite well and is constantly running barefoot on rocky ground. She can easily hear the sound of shoes running after her, very comfortable, and like he is just behind her. Every time she looks back, she increases her speed and tries to run faster; her bare feet are completely covered with her blood, but she is not stopping for a minute. Tears well up in her eyes due to the pain, but staying there would be tantamount to calling it quits. The faster she is running from there, the more the sound of shoes coming after her is also increasing with her speed. Her breath is getting very uneven. She is about to reach the highway when someone holds her in his arms from behind with a loud laugh and closes her mouth with his hand so hard that her voice cannot come out even a little bit. He drags her back into the same darkness she had just emerged from.

And with this, she gets up from her sleep with a great jerk, she is breathing heavily and rubs her face which is bathed with her sweat, she sits on her bed. She looks around and finds that she is currently sitting on her bed in her room. She looks at herself, and checks her foot one by one, and says loudly.

"What a bad dream... damn, I am so scared..."

She quickly let out a deep, cold breath and placed her hands on her chest because of that terrible dream. Her breath is heavy due to her ongoing fear of the dream; she gently presses her hands to her chest and speaks.

"I was so scared that it felt like this had actually happened to me." Thank God this is only a bad dream... God... never such a bad dream will come true."

She turned her face to the clock and looked at the time, then quickly jumped from her bed, threw her cover to the other corner of the room, and ran towards the washroom. She is doing everything in a hurry so that instead of everything being settled, things are getting worse.

"Damn, what is happening here?"

She swiftly applies the paste to her brush, begins cleaning her teeth, and speaks loudly to herself.

"Alakh, you are late again today. Yuvv will definitely kill you; do it fast... You lazy ass…. That wild, angry bull will prick his horn on you today… do it fast, you damn girl."

CHAUHAN VILLA

All the servants are running around to complete their work on time, as Mr. Raghav Chauhan is very punctual. He needs all his work on time. He likes to be punctual with everything, whether it's in his office or for any other household work. Raghav Chauhan never likes that anyone goes against his words or does something that he does not like at all. He cares about his name more than his family. He does not care about what people think about him. If he likes something even if it requires him to do something that is not right in the eyes of the world. He wants to see his name—his fame, which is at a height where no one has the courage to look into his eyes..

Vikram quickly descends from the stairs and sits on his seat before his father arrives at the dining table. Vikram does not listen to his father's words, nor does he like to follow any of his rules, but if he does not act according to them, then because of him, his sister gets scolded by their father and his stepmother, which is totally unbearable for him.

He sees back on the stairs Alakh is coming down from there while holding her belongings with difficulty, He immediately rushes towards her and along with her belongings, he picks her up in his arms like a baby and quickly brings her to the dining table and makes her sit on the chair next to him. And they both speak together.

"Thank God, today we are on time."

Vikram tries to ruffle her hair, but she grabs his hand, and then they both laugh together. Vikram looks around and lightly whispers in her ear.

"Where is Shakal right now?"

Alakh clears her throat, and like a good newsreader, she immediately tells her brother while holding a glass like a mic.

"9:00 bajana mein main abhi ek minute baki hai 9:00 ke sath hi aapka Shakal aapke samaksh khada hoga."

(You have one minute remaining at 9 a.m. Your Shakal will be standing in front of you at exactly 9:00 a.m.

Then the gong starts and indicates it's exactly 9:00 a.m. They both turn their faces towards the stairs in slow motion and see that Raghav is coming down from the stairs. Vikram shows his thumbs up to Alakh, and she just shrugs off her shoulder and smiles. Vikram quickly glances behind his father and inquires with his sister.

"Inki pativrata patni dikhai nahi de rahi hai."(His husband's devoted wife is nowhere to be seen.)

Alakh nods, and Vikram takes the first morsel of breakfast and mumbles it to Alakh.

"Any idea about her…."

"100% sure she would come behind him while apologizing to him... Sorry... Oh, sorry..."

Alakh returns to him with the same whispering sound. Raghav arrives, sits quietly, and begins his breakfast. Both Vikram and Alakh speak to him in a perfect pitch of voice.

"Good morning, Dad."

Raghav responds to their good morning just by gently nodding his head. Then Ashwani comes down from the stairs while running towards him.

"I am so sorry, darling; oh, really sorry... I apologize once more for being late today; as you are well aware, I stayed late at the club last night and consequently did not wake up early in the morning. I am so sorry, darling."

She quickly says all this while sitting on the seat next to Raghav, which he wants to ignore totally. Both Vikram and Alakh are having their breakfast while hiding their smiles. Here is the daily drama that these two get to see every day; with this, these people start their day. When Ashwani does not get any kind of reply from Raghav, she again looks at him and says,

"Darling I am talking to you .... "

"So, what do you want? What kind of answer do I give you? It's your daily routine and a very normal thing for me now."

Raghav replies to her in a very irritating tone because he doesn't like to answer her and more importantly he doesn't want to waste his time. But Ashwani is not ready to leave everything that easily so she immediately says.

"I am sorry nah, I try not to do you like this but it's not in my hands ….. I cannot do all this as you want. "

"When you know very well that you cannot follow my rules and regulations, you can't live according to me; then why do you talk about the same topic every day?"

Ashwani looks towards Vikram and Alakh, who are quietly having their breakfast with a slight smile on their faces. Ever since Ashwani has come here, she has not liked these two at all; she considers both to be the biggest burden of her life. She bitterly replies to Raghav.

"Why do you always want to humiliate me in front of your children?"

After hearing this from Ashwini, Vikram and Alakh skipped breakfast. Raghav also leaves his spoon and looks at her without any emotion and tells her.

"Both are your children too."

Ashwini can never become a mother, but in spite of that, she never considered Vikram and Alakh as her children. But for Raghav, these two children are the steps to climb the stairs of success coming forward. No matter how much he makes his children sad with his words, he always tries to support both of them in front of Ashwini. But Ashwini never likes this; she shouts loudly.

"No, they are not..."

With this, Vikram picks up all the belongings of Alakh without wasting a second, then holds her hand and immediately leaves. Raghav looks at them leaving and starts his breakfast again.