Before my first movie was even released, we got married. We lived happily and i got multiple movie offers one after another.
Obero suddenly cut in. "You're hiding something."
Aasia blinked. "Why do you say that?"
"I can see it on your face," he said calmly.
"What would it be?" she asked.
"It has to be something that happened after your marriage and before the new movie offers."
She narrowed her eyes. "Why do you need to know that? Isn't it obvious?"
He replied, "The real meaning in a tale is sometimes hidden in the obvious things we usually ignore."
Aasia sighed, half amused. "Your words sound funny, but fine. I guess I can't escape from you."
She took a slow breath, then continued.
"At first, our married life was difficult. Dravid avoided me. When I finally confronted him, he admitted that he still saw me as a kid.
That made it hard for me to face him. Because of that, we didn't have sex for weeks. I stayed a virgin even after marriage.
When we finally tried, I got scared before we even began. Seeing that, he stopped everything, left the room, and didn't return that night. Our first attempt was a disaster.
A month later, we tried again. No matter how painful it felt, I endured it and we finally became one. But I ended up hospitalized for a week.
No one understood why. The doctors didn't. I didn't. And Dravid… he was devastated. Even after I was discharged, he kept avoiding me, convinced that he had hurt me.
Our marriage began to slip back into that distant awkwardness. But this time, I refused to let it stay that way. I didn't want him believing he caused my suffering.
So one night, while he was asleep, I tied him to the bed. After preparing myself, I woke him and took the lead to… fix things. To prove that my hospitalization had nothing to do with him.
The next morning, I was energetic as usual. After a long conversation, he finally believed me. And that was when our real married life began."
She paused.
Obero frowned. "That's it? That's what you were hiding? I was expecting something different."
Aasia's cheeks flushed. "What!? That's it!? I forced myself on my own husband, I nearly raped him, and you say, that's it!?"
Before Obero could reply, Isha's fist landed squarely on his stomach. He folded over with a groan.
Isha sighed. "Ignore him. He says he's intelligent but he doesn't have a single functioning brain cell. Continue your tale."
Aasia calmed herself by looking down at the lotus in her hands, then resumed.
"My first movie was a huge success. I became popular almost overnight. The moment it released, I received two more offers, and both of those films were massive hits as well. Before long, I became the top young actress in the kingdom and was given the title 'Angel of Noida.'
"With three consecutive successes, with fame, and with a loving husband, I felt blissful. I didn't need anything else. I didn't even dare to wish for anything more.
But still, I received another gift.
One day on set, I suddenly collapsed. When Dravid arrived, he threw a fit at the staff, thinking they overworked me. But the moment the doctors told us I was pregnant, his anger evaporated. He nearly kissed the director out of sheer joy.
Maybe he felt guilty for acting out, because the next day he came back and apologized to every staff member individually, asking them to look after me.
After I became pregnant, Dravid changed completely. Not in the way my father had changed. This was different.
The mature Dravid became even more mature. Even cooler. Kinder. Gentler. He wouldn't let me lift anything heavier than a spoon. He treated me like I was in my ninth month even though I was only in the third. He rarely let me stand for more than a few minutes. And no matter how exhausted he was, he always found a way to make me smile.
Most of the time, Dravid used to tease me softly, saying, "A kid is giving birth to a kid."But when he said it, the words never sounded like mockery. They felt warm, gentle, caring. Or maybe they felt that way simply because he was the one saying them. Inside, I glowed with happiness every time. Outside, I always acted annoyed so he wouldn't stop teasing me.
In the fourth month of pregnancy, I collapsed again. This time, it was far worse.
When I woke, I was in a hospital bed. Two whole days had passed. They told me Dravid had found me on the kitchen floor, unconscious, blood pooling around me. The doctors didn't know the cause, but they said the baby was still healthy.
When I finally saw Dravid, I could barely recognize him. In just two days, he had become thin, pale, hollow-eyed. His usual calm maturity had vanished. He looked shattered.
For a week, he refused to leave my side. He followed me everywhere. Everywhere. He even tried to follow me into the bathroom. When I scolded him for that, he waited outside the door like a guard dog.
But one week later, I collapsed again.
When I woke, the doctors told me I had lost the pregnancy. They also said I would never conceive again.
I cried until I couldn't breathe, and when Dravid saw me cry, he broke down too. We cried together, held each other, and spent an entire month wrapped in gloom. Slowly though, painfully, we began returning to our usual selves. Within two months, we learned to live again. Just the two of us. Together. With no sadness in that fact. Only comfort.
We chose to live a peaceful life, just us, planning a quiet future hand in hand.
Around that time, I got another major hit, my fourth successful film. Dravid quit his job the same month and started writing a book.
He wouldn't let me read a single line. He hid the manuscript with military precision. Whenever I tried peeking or clinging to him until he gave in, he only said, "I'll give it to you on your twenty-fifth birthday."
I was desperate to read it. But I waited. Seven long weeks, I waited. A week before my birthday, he picked me up from the set and told me he had only one page left to finish the novel.
Hearing that, I was over the moon. I made him promise to let me star in the film adaptation, with him as the director. He smiled, kissed my forehead, and said, "You should be this happy always."
I had no answer. I just sat quietly beside him as he took me out for dinner. It was also the last day of shooting for my fifth film.
It rained heavily when we finished our meal, so we waited. When it didn't stop, we went to a small theatre nearby. I tried to buy tickets for my movie, but Dravid sighed. Seeing that, I bought tickets for another film instead.
Whenever he watched my movies, he always fell asleep, claiming he saw me act all day long anyway. But that night, while watching a film starring a completely different actress, he didn't sleep at all. His eyes stayed glued on the screen, on her.
It annoyed me. I scolded him and left the theatre before the climax.
He ran behind me, apologizing repeatedly, pleading with this pitiful face he only showed me. And although my anger vanished instantly, his pleading felt warm and satisfying… so I pretended to still be angry.
Even after we got into the car. Even while driving. He kept apologizing, and I kept pretending to pout. But halfway home, I started feeling guilty. I decided to kiss him as a peace offering.
I turned toward him.
But his expression had changed completely.
He was staring out the window toward the dark woods, eyes narrowed, listening intently. Curious, I looked outside too. At first, I heard nothing. Then, faintly, an animal's wail echoed from the trees. It faded quickly, but Dravid kept watching the woods like something was pulling at him.
A strange tension crawled up my spine. I looked forward—
A small deer stood in the middle of the road. Right in our path.
Startled, I screamed.
Dravid snapped his head forward. The moment he saw the deer, he jerked the wheel. The car swerved and missed it by inches.
My heart nearly burst out of my chest, but when I confirmed the deer was unharmed, relief washed through me. Dravid straightened the car and continued driving.
But as we went on, the wet road grew worse. Stones, mud, and uprooted plants littered the path, washed down from the steep hill beside us. The tires slipped. The rainwater made everything look unstable, dangerous.
I started worrying about the deer. Maybe it got stuck somewhere. Maybe it was hurt. Dravid must have sensed my worry.
He stopped the car. "Do you want to pet it?"
I nodded immediately.
He smiled and turned the car around.
We drove back to where we saw the deer—no sign of it. My heart sank. Dravid drove on a little farther.
That was when we saw it.
A small baby, completely naked, crawling in the middle of the road.
Dravid braked instantly.
While I stared in confusion, he smiled gently and said, "Maybe we can't have a pet anymore, but do you want to adopt a baby?"
Before I could respond, he had already jumped out of the car. By the time I stepped out, he was lifting the baby into the air, playing with him. His smile was brighter than it had been in months.
Seeing that, I shouted, "Yes!"
Dravid turned to me and laughed even brighter.
He was showing the baby to me, both of us smiling at each other like fools, when suddenly a woman stepped out of the woods.
She was naked except for leaves tied around her chest and hips. The moment her eyes found the baby, she sprinted toward Dravid, grabbed the child from his arms, and cried loudly while clutching him to her chest.
Seeing the woman snatch the baby so suddenly, every image I had imagined while watching Dravid's bright smile shattered in an instant.
A thin trail of tears slipped from my eyes, but the rain began to fall just then, hiding them.Still, Dravid knew.
He always knew.
He walked to me immediately, bringing the mother and baby along. Gently, he placed the child in my arms, and the woman nodded, smiling softly as if giving me permission to hold him.
I caressed the baby's tiny cheek, but soon the drizzle turned into a heavy downpour. When the raindrops struck the baby's face and he began to cry, I quickly handed him back to her. The woman clutched him to her chest and hurried toward the woods.
Meanwhile, Dravid turned to me and said, with that warm half-scolding voice of his,"Thank the rain for hiding your tears. But next time, don't do that. And remember our promise."
Those were the last words he ever said to me.
Just after speaking them, his eyes suddenly widened in shock as he looked past me toward the steep hill behind. Before I could turn to see what he saw, he sprinted away. Faster than I had ever seen him move.
By the time I turned, he had already reached the woman.
And then I saw it.
A massive boulder—twenty times bigger than him—rolling down the hill straight toward them.
"Run!" Dravid shouted.
The boulder slammed into him with all its weight and momentum, but he pushed against it, straining, somehow slowing it for a moment—just long enough for the woman to escape deeper into the trees.
The soil beneath the boulder shifted. The earth slid. And the enormous rock lurched forward again.
This time, it swallowed Dravid.
It crushed him.
In mere seconds, right before my eyes, Dravid was reduced beneath its weight.His face… it no longer looked like a face.His body… nothing but torn flesh and blood.
I couldn't accept it. I refused to accept it.
I walked past the mangled remains, wandering down the road, calling his name again and again. A part of me already knew the truth, but my heart couldn't accept it. I knew that if I let myself believe he was gone, my heart would stop beating entirely.
I kept searching.
And then a car speeding uphill didn't see me and hit me.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital bed. Beside me, Dravid lay in the next bed, sleeping peacefully. My heart surged with so much joy I almost burst into tears.
But just as my eyes filled, he opened his eyes and muttered,
"I don't see a camera anywhere near me."
My tears froze.I smiled.He smiled back.
And as I looked at his smiling face… he faded.Slowly.Then completely.He vanished from my sight.
When I was discharged, I tried returning to our home. But every corner, every wall, every room, tore me apart. I couldn't hold back my tears in that house. So I bought this RV—the one Dravid and I once dreamed of living in, traveling together forever.
Even here, though, the tears never left me.
So I buried myself in acting. I chose roles opposite to my nature, layered and difficult, roles that demanded endless practice—anything to exhaust my mind. Sometimes I accepted parts filled with crying scenes, just so I could stop forcing back the tears.
I stopped reading scripts.Stopped listening to advisors.Stopped caring whether a film succeeded or failed.
And eventually, I had seven disasters in a row.People mocked me, called me "the worst actress ever."The kingdom forgot me.
Two years ago, I quit lead roles altogether. Supporting roles kept me busier; I could act in multiple films at once. It helped numb the pain.
But last month, my sponsors forced me into a lead role again. Thankfully, the character cries a lot, so I accepted. Now I am acting in one film, living alone in this RV.
"And this is me," Aasia said softly. "From the beginning to the end."
A moment later, Obero rose from the bed and gestured for Isha to stand. When they stood, he gently lifted the glass box from Aasia's lap, admiring the lotus inside.
Aasia spoke quietly. "As I said before, this flower is the one Mom gave me on my birthday. The strange thing is, it never dries. It looks exactly the same as it did fifteen years ago. Because it reminds me of Mom ... and of Dad, Dravid made this glass box for it and gifted it to me on my birthday."
Obero smiled. "A gift that became a gift again."He placed the lotus back on the table, turned to Aasia, and looked into her eyes.
"Do you have a wish," he asked gently, "one that only the creator of everything could grant?"
Aasia blinked slowly, as if quietly answering yes.
Isha stepped forward and placed a crystal knight chess piece into Aasia's hand. "Keep it close to you," she said. "You will get a chance to make your wish."
As soon as Aasia touched it, the knight glowed with a soft pale light. When she raised her head, both Obero and Isha had already walked out. Before she could turn toward the door again, they were gone.
Aasia closed the door of the RV and looked outside for them, but the road was empty. After locking the door, she returned to the bed. She closed all the window blinds, placed the glowing chess piece beside the lotus box, and then began stripping off her clothes, which were still soaked in the fake blood from before.
When she was fully undressed, she walked slowly into the small bathroom and closed the door behind her.
End of Piece