A Chance to Love

Chapter 41

Preeti

It's been a year, a year of our blissful married life. Someone has said true, 'time flies when we are happy'. The year went by so fast that we didn't even get a chance to blink. Although time went by was filled with happiness, there were some moments of despair as well; but that's life, so no complaints.

Today is our marriage anniversary. We were supposed to enjoy this day but here I am stuck miles away from my home, my family. I was out of town for a case from my NGO. Nothing major, but I had to travel to help some people in need and now when I was travelling back, where my whole family have gathered especially to celebrate our special day, I got stuck here due to landslide. It seems, I won't be able to reach back before evening, just hope that I reach in time for the party the kids have arranged at home.

A lot changed during the course of past one year. I completed my postgraduate and decided to go for doctorate. I also got qualified as an assistant professor and start teaching at SSL in place of Jiji soon. Although it seemed impossible to her, Jiji rejoined SSL after a few months with our support and the students' persuasion. After the newspapers and different NGO's efforts towards recognition of Marital Rapes reported the court case in Law, everyone learnt what happened with Jiji, many from the college visited her, and all their support motivated her to restart her career as a teacher. Seeing as how she was still rattled, I was assigned as a student help to her to assist her in all her classes. This not only earned me extra credit, which helped me top, this also paved way for my career choice. Now I am going to take over her role at SSL since she is no longer here. I am still sad that I didn't get much time to spend with her. That surprise client that crashed our wedding turned out to be her old friend from her college and since she was residing at the Banquet Hall during the time of his brother's wedding, they not only rekindled their friendship but also developed a beautiful bond of love and trust. Although Devarji had to get help from a renowned wedding planner to arrange that wedding, it paid in kind by giving Jiji a second chance at life, so it was all worth it.

It took some time for Mr. Pratham to convince Jiji for marrying him since she was worried about her daughter, but now they are happily married and are about to move abroad to his place. Pratham Jiju loves Prutha just as much as Jiji. He even adopted her legally and registered his name as her father. They just stayed to attend today's party. They will leave in a couple of days.

Apart from this, my kids are growing well and happily. Aman was always mature, but now he is growing independent as well. Most of the credit for this goes to Devarji and him. They gave him their time and became good role models that inspired him to put more efforts to his studies and skills so he can grow up to be successful and good humans like them. Earlier I was the one lacking time to give him, now he himself is quite busy. He doesn't even accompany me home anymore when I can't stay over with him. My Ammu has really grown up and so has our Bitto.

The awful incident that happened a few months back was soul wrenching. However, it brought Kiran and Suraj close. Bitto was so shaken up after that incident that even her brother and I were unable to help bring back her smile. Nevertheless, Suraj invested all his time into it and finally after a lot of efforts, he was able to bring back her smile and shine. It took some time but now it's like nothing bad ever happened. They are progressing very well. They have become really good friends and even though they don't get to meet as much since Suraj joined his family business, but I know they keep contact. From what I have seen the last couple of times Suraj came over to visit, they are already on their way to become more than just friends. Though I'm happy that their relationship started from friendship since it's the purest of bonds and will help them overcome any and every hurdle that might come in their way.

I was so lost in memories that I didn't realise how time passed away and soon I was on my way home.

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