MaNan ~Inevitably Together~

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After Manik and Meira took off to have their bonding time, Kanika and Shivraj excused themselves to the kitchen on the pretext of setting up the dinner table for all of them. Cabir walked out to speak over his phone on which Navya was calling him. With everyone gone, Nandini decided to take a careful look on the photo frames that were a bit far to be visible from the couch.

There was one big frame that occupied most of the space on that wall with Shivraj and Kanika hugging Meira who stood between them. The smiles on their face gave away how happy they were. She didn't know if what she did by abruptly bringing Manik in altogether was even right or not but she was sure that her man deserved every bit of happiness that these three in front of her had on their faces even if it was on a picture.

There were a lot of small frames with Meira's childhood pictures but there were two frames that caught Nandini's eye. Those two frames are slightly bigger than the other frames but smaller than the first photo. One of the two frames had a picture of a big family that Nandini guessed to be the entire Agarwal clan and since Shivraj looked very young, it meant that it was a very old picture. A woman with exceptional beauty and grace had held Nandini's gaze also because she held a baby in her arms and a little boy stood close to the lady holding onto the drape of that woman's saree. It did not take much time for Nandini to figure it out that that woman was Manik's mother and the man hugging her from side was Manik's father. They looked equally happy that made her heart crumble at everything that was taken away from Manik.

The other picture was of the same four people whom she just concluded to be Manik, Meira and their parents thus confirming it for her as well. What a beautiful family! She couldn't even imagine how it must have felt to lose everything in a night. She was always at loggerheads with her parents but atleast she had them, here all that Manik had were blurred memories of his actual family. That thought made her feel so guilty for talking rudely to her father just the other night even if that was not how she intended it to sound.

She spoke to Manik about how all this was going to bring up all sorts of feelings but in reality it was the same for her too. Things related to family always stirred her insides no matter how trivial they were.

“What happened, dear? Why are you crying?” Nandini was startled hearing someone from beside. She turned to find Kanika standing just at a feet's distance from where she was standing. It was then she realised that she had been shedding silent tears. She couldn't really put a reason behind all those tears but she could say that she was hurting.

“Nothing aunty! I guess, I'm just overwhelmed for Manik. I'll be okay. Can I help you?” Nandini questioned in the end wiping away her years as she noticed Kanika holding a bunch of plates in her hand.

“Firstly, call me chachi since that is our relationship. I'm so grateful to you, that I cannot express in words. Shivraj says that he stopped looking for Manik after a while but I knew that he did his best to locate Manik for so long and was only forced to give up after years had passed. I have to thank-you for reuniting Manik with his chachu and sister.” Kanika expressed truthfully.

“It was just fate, aun.... Chachi! Besides, Manik is my family and I'd do anything to get him the happiness that he deserves. So there's really nothing much for you to be grateful to me. I'm a lot younger than you so you shouldn't thank me and instead just ask me to help you in your chores like carrying these dishes to the dining table for you.” Nandini said and that made Kanika chuckle. She happily handed out the dishes to Nandini as she put her hands out for her to place them.

“You're really sweet and I'm glad you are a part of this family now.” Kanika said leading their way to the dining table with a beautiful smile. Nandini could literally feel the happiness bubbling inside her at the words Kanika said to her.