I won’t let it happen again.

“What the hell. You think you are scary. But mister, I can be scarier and don’t you think you have those rights”, yelled Shonaya as she slapped him hard for playing a prank with Tania.

Shonaya and Vihaan were college companions and had been in love for five delightful years before finally getting married. Vihaan had secured a well-paying job with an MNC and Shonaya was working with a reputed Bank.

After their honeymoon period was over, Shonaya started remaining depressed because in spite of repeated attempts she failed to start the second innings in their life in the role of a mother. Seven years passed by but this joy seemed to be a distant dream.

Shonaya started alienating herself from her relatives and friends.

That evening was a disaster in her life. She still remembers, how Vihaan had entered the house with a heavy heart when he came back from his office that day.

With so much love and passion, he had embraced her only to break that bad news to her.

He kissed her nearly a hundred times before he broke the news to her. Their reports had come, and he had been informed about the problem by the consultant when he went to see him on his way back home.

“Shonaya, we don’t need children, do we. We are there for each other and don’t you think that’s enough for us”, said he caressing her locks.

She couldn’t comprehend a word of what he was trying to say.

Finally, he broke the news to her, ” Darling, you cannot be a mother, there’s no hope. The ova don’t mature.”

Shonaya broke down, the skies seemed to have fallen on her. But Vihaan, with his love, brought her out of this situation.

After regaining her senses to reason out she tried discussing with him about IVF and ovum donation but, Vihaan was strictly against it.

He was very clear that he wouldn’t let her bring up a child if it wasn’t hers. Though depressed, Shonaya always felt fortunate for having Vihaan in her life, the way he showered his love, especially after they came to know about Shonaya’s problem.

One evening Shonaya came up with an idea of adoption but the fear of society didn’t let him approve the decision. Discussions led to the idea of embryo donation and surrogacy.

Vihaan himself had come up with this idea as he felt that it was better than adoption and this way he also wouldn’t feel that the baby wasn’t hers.

Besides, no one would ever know that the baby wasn’t genetically theirs.

Happily, they moved to another city, had a long vacation, were cut off from the rest of the world and returned with a beautiful boy.

Time flew for Shonaya, she resigned from her job to give her hundred per cent to the baby.

It wasn’t long before her ordeal started. Vihaan was a changed man, his behaviour, his love for her, his respect towards her, everything changed. He found faults in everything she did.

That she couldn’t give him the happiness he wanted, was an allegation she got to hear from him a thousand times every day.

Slowly his attitude towards the baby also changed. He wouldn’t mind beating the poor little soul for no fault. The baby had bruises all over and so had Shonaya. She tried discussing several times what was wrong but couldn’t get to any conclusion.

One day, while visiting her doctor for the baby’s routine check-up, she discussed her problem with him. She confided that if somehow she could manage to conceive, maybe it would put an end to their problems.

The doctor referred her to a well-known Gynaecologist who after a thorough examination found her perfectly normal to conceive a baby.

After a thorough check-up, Shonaya couldn’t understand those contradictory reports that Vihaan had conveyed to her.

 Her doctor asked her to bring those reports for an opinion. A happy Shonaya went home and broke the news to Vihaan.

Vihaan was so happy to hear about it that he immediately agreed to meet the specialist after he returned from an official foreign trip.

Days went by, but Vihaan had some or the other reason for not seeing the doctor with her.

He even argued that her reports were all negative and there was no chance of her becoming a mother at any cost and the doctor was just fooling her to shell out money. At times when she would force him, the beast in him would awaken, only to make matters worse for the mother and the child.

Shonaya on the pretext of taking her child for a check-up went to the specialist to discuss her problem, who asked her to get those previous reports.

Reports, now it occurred to her, she had never seen those reports, she didn’t know anything about them. Vihaan was out of station on an official tour for two days and this was the perfect time to find out the overlooked truth.

Shonaya searched desperately all over and finally found them in his bad memories chest. This name he had given to that chest and had never let her touch it, explaining that he used to lock all his bad memories in it, never to see them again.

She was aghast on seeing those reports. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

Sperm count zero. Vihaan was impotent.

And to her disbelief, Vihaan knew it right from the beginning of their relationship days. At least the reports suggested it that way.

The next day she visited the doctor, who confirmed her doubts.

After listening to her, about Vihaan’s behavioural patterns, she was sure that he also suffered from Bipolar disorder and could harm them if he came to know about the truth.

Hence Shonaya decided to quietly quit.

She didn’t mention all this to anybody & applied for a job in a different city and stealthily moved out of Vihaan’s life along with her son. She put him in a good hostel so that Vihaan could never locate them together.

Her son Vaishnav, after graduating from a prestigious medical college, was appointed as a cardiologist in a reputed hospital.

Today as she entered the room, she saw her daughter-in-law Tania in tears and Vaishnav begging for her forgiveness.

On asking the reason, she came to know that Tania had missed her periods and Vaishnav had checked her pregnancy result on the home kit, but just to tease her, he declared that she wasn’t pregnant and some reports indicated a serious problem with her.

Though it was a mere prank played by Vaishnav but those words reverberated in her ears. Her past flashed before her as if repeating itself.

And in a fit of rage, she slapped Vaishnav……..

I won’t let it happen again!!!