Absolute stillness. It was so still that it seemed like everything was lifeless. The wind stopped blowing. Birds stopped chirping. Beautiful waterfalls around the pond were quietly shedding his unwashed tears.

His ears rang loudly with her anguish and bitter words, 'You don't deserve to be loved, I hate you, you have betrayed me, you have played with me.'

Again and again, her brutal words echoed in his ears. Her innocent, distanced eyes with an enormous grief-stricken face frequently appeared in front of his eyes. He could not close his eyes for long, just because he was terrified of seeing her vulnerable, tearful, but hateful sights, even in his thoughts.

The unbearable heartache, sadness, and feeling of emptiness were gradually killing him from inside. He knew he'd lost everything, so he decided not to shed his tears and keep bearing the pain. He wanted to punish himself. He wanted to punish her. he wanted to punish the entire world for his miserable and mournful state.

Millions of pessimistic thoughts captured his mind, 'How could she believe that I have deceived her? How could she even think like that? I have truly loved her. Because of her love only, I realized my heart's existence, which only beats for her. She taught me how to love and care, then why didn't she trust me? Why doesn't she have faith in me? Why doesn't she love me the way I do? I would rather die than see hatred for me in her eyes. Even after extreme hatred, my heart is crying for her. Only because of me, the entire harem was laughing at her. Oh god! Why life's so cruel? I can't take this pain anymore.'

His thoughts were little by little changing from sorrow to anger; anger at himself, anger at her, anger at the entire world. He didn't understand how to come out of this huge blow of emotions. He was losing all his senses.

His inner turmoil

'I have truly loved her, but she has deceived my trust. She has accused me without even allowing me to justify myself. I don't want to face her condemning eyes ever again. I will keep all my sorrows to myself and will never give her any explanation. She will receive the respect of being my special begum, but I will never try to pursue her. All of the queens, who were laughing at her, will soon realize that Jodha is not an ordinary queen, and I will make sure no one troubles her again. I will give her everything, but I would never show my love and deep longing for her. I knew it was my mistake, I didn't keep my promise, but I was helpless; I still don't know what happened to me last night. She was right; Trust is the base of all the relations; if she doesn't trust me, then this is the destiny of my love. She will stay in my heart forever, but I won't see her again.'

Repeatedly, he was having mixed thoughts, negative and positive. His inner turmoil was increasing gradually with time. His heart was crying profusely, but his eyes didn't shed any tears. Her fuming angry red eyes were giving him an intense burning sensation to the core. At last, his strength vanished, and he laid down on the sand, by the side of the shore, like a lifeless body. Then, with a low murmuring sound, he murmured- "Why Jodha? Why don't you trust me? Why did you do this to me?"

--------------------------------------------

Jodha and Abdul.

Abdul smiled and respectfully said, "Jodha begum, I have complete assurance that you will win my friend's heart."

With an angelic smile, Jodha requested, "Abdul, can you please quickly make arrangements for me to go out of the palace, and can you please inform Ammi Jaan and Reva that I am going to see Shahenshah? Also, please let them know not to tell anyone else where I am going."

Abdul attentively listened, nodded his head, and requested Jodha begum to walk towards the horse stable. Soon Jodha jumped over her preferred white horse, and within a few seconds, swiftly rode towards the pond and disappeared from the palace.

Jodha was on her way to the pond.

After realization, it occurred to her that she was utterly wrong. She accused Jalal ruthlessly and said terrible, painful, and stingy words to hurt him without even listening to him once. She wanted to see him instantly and apologize. She knew Jalal was in dreadful condition. She looked forward to taking away all his sorrows and make him happy. She craved for him, craved to love him, and craved to be loved by him.

The pond was not too far from the palace. It was a bright sunny, beautiful morning. Refreshing, bright colors of the sun rays were landing on her eyes. She heard the birds' melodious sound of chirping. The cool breeze was blowing on her face, which was giving her a soothing sensation. She saw the beautiful pond from far away and saw the big tree, the symbol of their love. Her heart started beating more and faster. She had mixed thoughts; she felt scared of his anger. She had experienced his anger earlier also, and she knew he could be very ruthless and violent when he is outraged and furious, but at the same time, she knew that he was going to forgive her. Finally, she reached near the tree and slowly walked towards him. She felt anxious, scared, and nervous; her heartbeat increased to an extreme.

At last, she saw him sitting under the tree with his closed eyes. For the first time, she hated her anklets for making unnecessary noise. She could feel his anxiety and the lines of stress on his forehead. She could feel his heart is throbbing profoundly because of her brutal accusations.

Slowly she went closer to him and called out his name cautiously, "Shahenshah. "

Her low tone reached his ears, but he ignored it, assuming it was just an illusion.

A few seconds later, she again called out his name but a little louder this time, in a vigilant tone, "Shahenshah."

With a sudden shock, he immediately opened his eyes. For a while, he couldn't believe his eyes that she was standing there in front of him. He stared at her with an odd stare trying to make sure it's not his delusion.

She again politely whispered, "Shahenshah."

This time Jalal completely awakened with the unexpected shock and revelation of her presence. He swiftly stood up and angrily growled, "Jodha!" His furry little by little lit up. He shouted at the top of his voice- "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???"

Jodha trembled, hearing the roar and extreme rage in his eyes.

When she didn't respond quickly enough, it enraged him further; once again, he yelled, "What you have done wasn't enough? or do you have some more accusations left? You have already tarnished me to your extreme. I won't tolerate any more of your ferocious and infidelity blames. GET OUT OF HERE, before my inner monster roused and hurts you." He rumbled with deadly fiery wrath while clutching his fists. His sharp devil eyes widened and burned with fuming red steam. His body shivered, and his chest was moved up and down.

Seeing his scorching fiery anger, Jodha got so terrified that she took two steps backward, away from him out of terror, and her entire body was shaking in fear. This was the first time she was indeed at fault; seeing his deadly state, she grasped the impact of her harsh and ruthless words; they had provoked intense hatred and bitterness inside him. After seeing his madness, she presumed, it was too dangerous to talk to him further. It could aggravate his suppressed violent fury. But at the same time, she knew she had hurt him a lot, and he was shattered from inside. She knew his own antagonism and inner turmoil would burn his soul. Even though she was scared, knew what the outcome could be, knew his inner state, she decided to take a dangerous step and not leave him in that condition and apologize to him, and if necessary, defy him.

"Shahenshah, I would like to talk to you." Her sound was too dim; fear was visible in her eyes and posture.

Jalal opened his fist while heavily panting, and his entire body was still shaking due to extreme fury. He grabbed her shoulders in his stealthy claws and pinned her to the tree harshly, then he roared once again, "What else is left to talk now? Why did you come here? I don't want to see your face ever again." His enraged gawk and grasp were so robust, harsh, and painful; tears pricked out from her eyes.

"Please leave me, Shahenshah; you are hurting me." She whimpered and pleaded.

His anger was at the peak; none of her words reached his ears. He widened his red eyes and tightened his grip, even more, seeing her tears. Her tears were making him weak and angrier.

"Ahhh...oooh... Shahenshah, please, you are hurting me!" Jodha winced out loudly in pain with sobbing tears.

All of a sudden, his senses awakened, he realized that he was hurting her. He pushed her away in anger and regretfully asked, "Why, Jodha? Why now? I am pleading; please leave me alone, please spare me. I have no strength left to face your hatred anymore." He sounded more distressed and frustrated than angry; her tears slightly melted his extreme fury, his violent anger turned into immense painful sorrow, and his suppressed constrained tears broke the confines. To mask his weak state and uncontrollable tears, he briskly turned towards the pond and rubbed off his tears angrily from his cheeks.

Her heart broke seeing his condition; his pain and tears were not hidden from her. She knew he needed her unconditional love and care to soothe his devastated soul.

Jodha walked towards him and hugged him tightly from his back; before he could react to it, she pleaded sadly, "Shahenshah, Please forgive me for my grave mistake."

"Jodha, I am pleading to you; please leave me alone. Everything is over, and I have realized that I am a devil, a monster, and a heartless king, and I don't deserve anyone's love or care. Leave and never come back here again." He mumbled in a vulnerable tone; once again, his tears betrayed him, and he let them fall freely.

Jodha could sense his enormous pain in his voice. She could feel his eyes were shedding tears, which he was trying to mask. She embraced him from his back, her hands gripped him tight, "Please forgive me, Shanhenshah. I can't bear this pain; it feels like my heart will burst. I can't see you in so much pain; it was just my anger. I didn't mean a single word I said."

Jalal was able to sense the honesty in her sound; his anger slightly mellowed, but still, he had a deep sting in his heart; he said in stern sound- "Leave me alone, Jodha." His wounds were still raw. Her words were still too heavy to dilute in his mind. His stubborn mind decided she didn't love him and was not ready to listen further.

His constant obstinate denial shook her; she retorted with fiery tone- "Leave you?? Is that what you really want? Ok then, you are free to go." She released him from her grip, then shouted, "I have relieved you forever. You have not bound to me anymore. If this is my punishment, then I accept it. If you are happy with it, then I am ready to suffer my entire life. But let me ask you something. When you are angry, you have the right to hurt me. You have the right to go to any other woman to make me feel jealous. You have the right to shout at me. You have the right to push me, slap me even, but what about me? Did you even think once how I wriggled the entire night?"

Hearing her agonizing retorts, Jalal swiftly turned back to see her.

She looked straight into his eyes and said in a feebly sad tone, "Shahenshah, I was waiting for you keenly the entire night. My eyes were stuck at the door with the hope of your arrival. My heart was strong, even till the middle of the night. But then I don't know how but negative thoughts took over my wits. I have died millions of times while waiting for you. You have no idea how much pain I have gone through. I had been waiting for you since the sunset. But you didn't come, nor did you send me any message of your late arrival. When you came in the morning, my heart was completely shattered, and my anger took over all my wits. I don't know why and how I said those bitter words to you. I was so angry I didn't even allow you to speak."

She took a brief break to breathe. Jalal was looking at her without a blink with enlarged eyes. Her words were filled with anger and pain. Everything happened so quickly he never got a chance to think from her side. His mind struggled to dilute her pain.

She continued in a low tone, "Shahenshah, I don't care whom you spend your night with, but I know one thing for sure you can never betray me."

Her anger turned into tears of guilt and remorse. At last, in a pleading tone, she said- "Shahenshah, please forgive your Jodha if you can. I have only one regret; if you had told me that you want to be with the queen Rukaiya, I would have agreed without questioning you even once. You didn't even bother to send me a message. You didn't even think once about me. How could you hurt me like this? Don't I have any right to get angry and in my stupid anger if I said few hurtful words, would you leave me forever; this is how your love is?"

After hearing her, Jalal realized that she truly trusts him. She doesn't really know anything; he walked close to her, cupped her face, and gently wiped her tears, "Jodha, you don't need to apologize, and your anger is justified, but do you know in your anger, you have hurt me to the core, I have never felt this much hurt and isolated in my life. Do you want to know why I wasn't there?"

She lifted her face and thick lashes; his gentle touch and sound soothed her deeply, "No, I don't want to know; Please don't, I am sure there must have been some reason that is why you were not able to make it." In a calm tone, She responded, but uncertainty and disappointment were evident in her eyes.

She already heard from other queens, and Rukaiya as well, why he had spent the night with her and was not ready to hear that it was custom and he had no choice but to spend the night with her. Even though it was hurtful and harsh, she accepted that she had no choice but to share him with his other queens. She just wanted to end the conversation and move on.

He regretfully said, "No Jodha, you need to know why I could not come or send any message. Before coming to you, I went to see queen Rukaiya. Usually, whenever I come back from a long journey, I spend my night with her, so she was expecting me, and that is why I decided to see her personally to inform her that I will not be able to spend the night with her. But when I was in her chamber with her, suddenly I felt everything was moving around, and my vision got fuzzier for a few seconds, and then I don't remember anything. I woke up in the morning, resting next to Rukaiya and realized all my dreams were shattered."

'Oh, god! He completely passed out,' her eyes widened in shock; she felt guilty for not listening to him.

They both looked at each other with eternal love. Both of them felt each other's pain; both of them had tears of regret and deep sorrow in their eyes. Slowly Jalal pulled her towards him and gently, with affection, kissed her forehead and embraced her in his arms with love. This gentle hug gave inner soothing calmness and washed away their sorrows.

"Jodha, never say that you hate me. I will kill myself; I can't explain in words how I felt; without you, nothing is left in my life."

She squeezed him tightly and inhaled deeply, "Shahenshah, you are my life; I can't stay away from you even for a second; never leave me again. I love you; I love you so much that I can't express it in words."

Finally, after the major storm of their life, they were melting in each other's arms.

"Jodha, the first time someone scolded me like this. None of my queens can dare to do this."

A smug smile kissed her lips; hearing his complaint, she grinned silently. While savoring the embrace, she murmured grumpily, "Shahenshah, I am starving."

He moved away slightly from her and replied teasingly- "I am very very hungry too." and winked at her.

She squinted her eyes and irritably responded, "Stop teasing me, I am really very hungry... I have not eaten anything since yesterday morning."

"What? Why? Jodha, I ordered Ameri food for both of us yesterday. Didn't they bring it?" A tinge of anger smeared his cheeks, he asked irritably.

She scowled at him exasperatingly. "They did serve the food, but I was not in the mood to eat at that time."

"What about lunch yesterday?" He asked stridently; his sharp eyes glared with disappointment; he rolled his hands in the hair.

Her chin deep down towards her chest, she replied in a dim tone regretfully, "I was so busy with all the preparations for the night, so I skipped lunch."

She is making me feel guilty. Every time something happens, she skips meals. I can't tolerate this.

Calmness disappeared quickly from his tone; without saying a word, she could feel his anger. "What about this morning? You usually eat breakfast after Kanah's prayer." He asked petulantly while controlling his wrath.

She didn't reply and lowered her head, acknowledging and stayed quiet.

Seeing her sad, he scolded her in a composing tone, "Jodha, How could you be so careless??? You didn't eat the whole day yesterday and even in the morning today, and on top of it, you came riding on the horse by yourself. What if you had felt dizzy while riding and slipped off? Why are you always testing my patience and putting me on the verge? Why do you do such acts which enrage me? You are not a kid anymore that someone needs to make you eat by spoon-feeding. You are Shahenshah Jalaluddin Mohammad's Queen; your life is very precious."

'Even though he is scolding me, why I feel a melody is playing in my ear, and butterflies in my heart. He looks so charming when he shows his anger and care at the same time.' Her face flushed timidly.

"Shahenshah, you are overreacting, and you are too dominating. You need an opportunity to scold me; see unnecessarily, you enjoy getting mad at me. You should be proud of your Rajvanshi queen, see nothing happened to me. I am perfectly fine." She defended herself with excuses, then after a pause, she continued proudly with a smug smile, "Well... when I can beat Jalaluddin Mohammad's anger, then what harm this hunger could bring to me?" She blinked her eyes innocently with a cute face.

Seeing her cute smug face and hearing her defensive arguments, Jalal couldn't help but smirk back at her. 'The way she is defying so sweetly, I can't stay angry at her; instead, she evoked my desire for her.'

He slithered his hand in her waist and pulled her closer, "Anyway, Abdul will come here with lunch in a few hours, but he is going to bring food for me only, and you do not eat non-vegetarian food, so let's go back to the palace and have lunch." he calmly detailed.

His soft possessive grip sent a weird sensation in her body.

"I don't want to go back to the palace; besides, Abdul knows that I am here with you." She replied with a little grin on her face.

"I instructed him not to tell anyone about my location, especially to you, and he told you!" A hint of disappointment blended in his tone, and his expression were somewhat stunned.

Jodha reacted before losing his temper once again, "No, Shahenshah, he has not broken his promise. He just told me that you were very upset and went to the place where you could get some peace, and I knew you would have come here."

'He silently admired Abdul for his wit and thanked him.'