Only Yours - THE VOW | ✓

Chapter - 27

In the silence of darkness, several men entered the gate, walking in a poised and trained manner towards the open door of the guesthouse. The lights were lit dimly, as if waiting for them Bhuvan was standing outside the door quietly, cautiously looking at the group of men and the entrance to the estate’s gate being locked back behind them.

Morning sun rays seeped in through the thin red curtains turning it vibrant, casting an orangish hue into the ice-cold room. Feeling irritated with the light turning up brighter, Maithili turned her back towards the window and snuggled closer to the broad chest, instinctively hiding her face in it.

She used to feel suffocated even if someone touched her in her sleep before, now she couldn't fall asleep peacefully as long as the two familiar masculine hands weren't wrapped around her.

Maithili would have laughed at it had someone said that her life and herself would change so much in just a span of one year.

The weather was exceptionally good and favorably calming outside. A disturbed sleep at six in the morning wasn't.

“Nikshit, the doorbell.”

Nikshit was sleeping like a log. There wasn't even a twitch in the muscle of his eyes on being shaken. He could sense it though, the slap on his bicep to move away his arm which was pressing upon her hair followed by incoherent words gritted out of her mouth. “Move! It hurts.”

The movement of Maithili pushing away his other hand which was squeezing loosely over her belly and getting down the bed. Her barefoot running around to pick up her clothes to wear and muttering something he couldn't really make sense of in his sleep was muted after a while.

Maithili rolled her hair up in a bun, threw the long cotton scarf around her shoulders and pulled at the sides of her kurti. A frown itched on her face while looking at the ripped gray t-shirt lying on the ground, which was perfectly fine before going to bed last night. The shameless husband was actually a tamed wild animal who was slowly escaping the shackles of reticence.

It took her barely fifteen minutes to get dressed, clean her face and wipe off the water on her way downstairs on the loose end of her scarf. Not at all in a mental state of guessing who it might be, Maithili sprinted downstairs in a daze. She has always been a morning person but today she felt immensely tired and lazy.

She was greeted by a woman, a girl and eight men standing patiently at the door. Confused, she could only vaguely guess the woman was the cook Nikshit had been talking about yesterday. She was completely clueless about the rest of them.

“I’m Sarla, you can call me tai. I'm the cook, I actually look after the kitchen as a whole. This is Dhwani. She comes on the days I can't.” Sarla tai, Kaushiki used to talk a lot about her. She has been working here for about as long as they've been living in this villa, it was apparent how familial she has become with Vidhart and Kaushiki. On the days when Kaushiki was pregnant, Sarla tai had even insisted on staying in a guest house outside and she did, stayed for as long as Kaushiki was here.

“I’m the caretaker, Bhuvan. I look after the house, cleanliness and the garden outside. I live in a small building outside on the same campus. You can ask for assistance anytime. I'm always available here.” The man with a thin face and silver hair spoke next. There was a thick crimson tilak in between his eyebrows and a smile on his face when he took a step forward from behind Sarla, finally bringing the pet male cat into vision. “And this is Santra.”

Maithili looked at the orange cat cautiously when Bhuvan forwarded Santra to her. Eventually, the surprisingly cooperative cat very easily allowed her to hold him. She has seen a lot of pictures of Santra and heard about him from Kaushiki. Apparently the five year old Santra likes to act spoiled on some days and very elderly on some.