Thief of my heart

chapter 7

"Woah, lady! Calm down. What exactly are you fretting over?" I asked her while tossing my keys onto the couch.

"Why exactly did he come here? Did he get to know about my adventures? So he came here to break my legs?" She gulped as she looked at me.

"That might be the case too!" I teased her as she stood up immediately.

"I am done for good. Don't disturb me. I am going to sleep to think of a solution. Also, he is in his room. Go and meet him. Once again I am warning you, dare you to rat me out." Saying this she made her way to her room while mumbling something to herself.

I shook my head while looking at her retreating figure in amazement. I still didn't understand why she fears her father-in-law a lot.

In front of everyone, she was a raucous woman, always loud and proud but when it comes in front of him, she behaves like a sanskari bahu.

I chuckled thinking of her warnings and made my way to his room. Once I was in front of his door, I went inside carefully and saw him sitting on the bed while arranging some documents.

Once he sensed someone's presence, he lifted his head to look and his stern eyes softened up a lot after noticing my sight. He smiled at me warmly and lifted his hand to gesture me to come near him.

Taking a cue, I jogged up to him and settled on the floor in front of him. Placing my head on his knees, I kissed his wrinkled hand as my eyes teared a little after noticing how weak he had become.

"Silly girl! Why are you crying? I am here, right in front of you only na." He cackled while brushing his hand over my hair as I smiled a little.

"Of course It's because of you only. You always make me worry. Why don't you come here and stay with us instead? I will move back with mom and you, and will look after you." I asked him while lifting my head to look at him as he wiped my tears.

"Really? But would your mom be okay with that fact? Mind me, she will whack you for proposing that ridiculous thing as she still thinks that I am unaware of her antics." He chuckled while saying so.

"Really? You know about it already? Geez!! And here she gloats on my face that she is so good at pretending. I really wanted to have a look at her face when she comes to know about it." I grinned and rested my head again on his knees.

"But seriously!! Why can't you come and live with us?" I asked again in a low voice as I heard him sigh.

"Ammu, listen! My presence is needed there for you both to live a peaceful life here." I thinned my lips after hearing him as I had a little understanding about the things happening in our village.

"Okay. I won't force you but you have to promise me that you will take of your health." I asked him in a worried tone as I knew no one could be trusted in that house except for Radha Athayya(paternal Aunt)

"Ha. I will. Actually, I came here for a reason. It might surprise you but hear me out first..okay?" He said and I looked up with a frown but nodded at him.

"But before saying it, let me tell you something. You must have heard about your great-grandma, Lakshmi..right? She was the only girl child in our family at that time in the past three generations. I don't know whether it's a curse or whatever. We rarely have any girl child born in our family and no one hadn't borne more than a son till now. Your great-grandma had my dad and my mom had me, I had your dad." He said and I scrunched my brows in confusion.

"But, what about Radha Athayya?" I asked him.

"She is adopted. Your grandma always wanted a girl child. So we adopted your aunts even before your dad was born."