Frozen - Shivika FF | ✓

Chapter 22 : Maelstrom

"Almost every summer vacation we used to go to a different place with Daadu. Omkara used to travel a lot with Daadu, even during school time. Daadu would never really deny any request Omkara made or for that matter any of our requests. And once it so happened that, when they were in Banaras..." Shivaay glanced at her and paused abruptly. In the mostly dark room, with the exeception of light of the table lamp, his gaze fell on her face. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing softly. She was fast asleep. He smiled, and gently turned his body by ninety degrees. 

His gaze remained fixated on her face. She must be tired with all the traveling. He let out a soft yawn. His fingers reaching her hair that lay sprawled on the pillow. He gently ran his fingers on those strands. So soft. Lost in his thoughts, he kept running his fingers to lazily straighten the ends of her hair.

It was all his fault. He should have asked her instead of blindly trusting Daksh's words. Like the saying went, believe only half of what you hear and none of what you see. 

"I am sorry, Anika. I am going to set everything right." He said softly and laid down on his back looking up at the ceiling. 

"You have no clue what I can do, Anika! Don't test my patience."

He squeezed his eyes shut. She was right, when he was angry he didn't really have control on himself. Maybe he should start working on not taking actions on impulses of anger.

What had he done? How was he going to set everything right? What could he do to redeem all his past actions?

But, wait, how was he wrong? Anika, meant a lot to him. Suddenly the thought of everything he knew about Anika was wrong made him mad, set him on fire. Maybe she'd never understand that.

He glanced at Anika. 

She was his wife. Perhaps Daadi was right, things changed after a marriage. There was no way to undo a marriage. 

He recollected the instances where time and again something or the other happened, avoiding him from getting married to Tia. 

He didn't believe in fate. But slowly everything that had happened in his life, off late, made him question in existence of a pre written destiny.

He let out a tired breath, maybe it was time to accept and move on. He was tired of being stuck in the past. He pulled up the comforter and turned to face Anika.  What did she think of it all? 

* * *

Anika stirred and shifted sides before finally waking up. She let out a soft long yawn and looked around as she stretched her arms. No signs of  Shivaay. Over the past few days she had gotten used to Shivaay waking her up. She sat on the bed, tying up her hair. She turned to the nightstand to check the time on her phone. Five minutes to nine. Her gaze caught the piece of paper. 

She picked it up. 

Good morning!

Out for a review meeting. I am assuming you'll be asleep until a little late today given that we slept late last night. Will be back at quarter to ten. Hopefully, you will be up and ready by then.

- Shivaay.

An unexpected smile bloomed on Anika's face. So formal, typical SSO. She stared at the piece of paper. His handwriting was actually nice. The letters were legible and perfectly made. She was sure if he ended up reading her writing he'd have a good laugh at it. 

Anika had stopped trying to groom her writing after a point in her schooling. Saahil also made fun of her handwriting. Another thing, where she and Mr. Shivaay Singh Oberoi were at extreme ends of spectrum.