A Tryst With Destiny ||Billionaire's Bride||

27. Baby steps

“Don't smoke, okay! Use the nicotine patch.” she instructed sternly. He sucked in a sharp breath and to her surprise nodded quietly. She was expecting a sarcastic retort. He's becoming smarter, she thought amusingly.

“And…”

“Shut up!” He heckled, glaring down at her as if she was a little child pestering him for candies. Her lips puckered in annoyance at his insolent attitude but before she could retaliate, he threatened her.

“One word from your mouth and you'll not like what's coming for you!” His expressions were grave, his brilliant blue eyes serious and challenging. After all, he has little patience that was already wearing out.

“I'm not scared of you.” she asserted strongly and as he took a step in her direction, she hid herself under the quilt. 

Quite a brave move! Her subconscious commented, awarding her with slow sarcastic claps. 

Releasing a defeated sigh, she closed her eyes and instantly opened them as Ani’s unconscious frame flashed before her again.

“I'll keep a watch on Ani.” she heard his reassurance, followed by an amateurish movement of his hand on her head, to put her to sleep. Slowly the pressure inside her started dissipating. Her heart trusted him with Ani. 

“Don't forget your juice.” she reminded him, removing the quilt from her face. His eyes rolled up in frustrated admiration. She heard him sigh loudly before he nodded at her with a resigned look on his face. 

Yeah, he's not getting rid of it and me, any time soon, she mused inwardly.

The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was his awkwardly gentle tapping on her head. 

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After sleeping for a good three hours she woke up, feeling better. The curtains were drawn out and the French window was half open letting the fresh air enter in. Aditya wasn't in the room. She clambered out of the couch and checked the washroom. It was unoccupied. He must be attending the meeting or he would have woken her up, she assumed tenderly. Aniket must be up by now. She rushed in to freshen up, to meet him sooner.

Reaching outside Aniket's room, she saw Aparna coming out. Her face was pale and expressions grim. A fear gripped Adira’s heart tightly. 

“Mom, what happened?” she strode towards her and held her arms. Aparna gazed at her daughter in the eye for a few seconds and mumbled in a measured tone, “Ani had a temperature in the morning. Doctor just left. He's better now.”

“Why didn't you wake me up?” she asked, upset for not being informed. She should have checked on him herself when she saw that bad dream, she blamed herself.

“It's alright Adi. Aditya was there and he did everything that you could have done. You weren't well last night. I didn't want you to get worked up. I'll get breakfast for Ani. He needs to take his medicine.”

Aparna left for the kitchen while Adira made her way to Aniket's room quickly and stopped short at the threshold. 

Her brother appeared so frail, leaning entirely on Aditya for support as they emerged from the washroom. 

“I'm fine now jiju. You fuss even more than di and mumma.” Aniket protested weakly when Aditya picked him up in his arms as if he weighed nothing and placed on the bed gently. 

“Not a word, young man. You're in enough trouble already. You both siblings are impossible and consider yourselves as some super humans but you are not, okay!” Aditya admonished, while pulling a blanket over Aniket. The latter pouted, upset for getting scolded by his beloved brother-in-law.