Long chapter ahead....Enjoy reading....
Siddarth's POV
I was freaking out by now as Riya was nowhere to be found and I was damn tensed. My inner conscious suddenly started a battle of its own:
She must have run away like her sister....
No dude! She is not like her sister......
How do you know?
She is so sweet and caring as she heard your harsh words and still stayed at this house...if she had to run, she could have done it long back
But we can't trust her, right?
STOPPP!!!!!!!!!
After checking every corner of my house through CCTV camera's I sat on my bed frustrated and banged my hand on the side table and a yellow sticky not fell down on the floor.
It stated "I am going to dad's place, will be back by noon................PS: Don't freak out" and my lips curved upwards and I am sure if anybody saw The Siddarth Roy smiling after reading a sticky note will definitely not believe his eyes.
I am smiling at the fact that she knew that I will freak out even after knowing me for a day or two. I could even have ignored that the fact that she is not home as if it's no big deal but she has guessed my behaviour well and I am pretty happy with this fact.
Tired with my over emotional and dramatic life I went to do my morning business and went to the living room to turn on the TV and enjoy my Sunday which I rarely get to spend at home that too alone. Oh, come on I am a business man and the stunt that Neha pulled on the wedding day and then suddenly me getting married to a famous stranger has taken a toll on me and I am not going to leave this opportunity of living my old self. If Jiya and Diya would have been home I would have definitely enjoyed a movie marathon (in my home theatre) with them but today I will just watch any random movie on the living room TV.
Around 2 pm I had already completed watching a movie and the second one was going on and I had already eaten half of my snacks and my complete focus was on the movie. Don't judge me this soon guys, I am a fitness freak but I like to skip my diet schedule when I am enjoying my rare holiday.
Soon I started hearing some noises of two people specifically two girls fighting. With every passing minute the voices started getting louder and I could sense that only one lady was shouting and the other was maybe crying???
Suddenly the bell ringed and a servant opened the door revealing Riya and veena. Riya was crying and as soon as she saw me, she wiped her tears immediately and without sparing me a single glance she started to climb the stairs to our room and veena shouted "Please don't repeat the same thing every time Riya.... Stop right there......You had no fault dear......Please don't punish yourself......Stop please" in an extremely loud tone. My heart was already paining to see her cry and now after listening to veena's words I was sure that something very serious must have taken place because I have never seen her cry. She did not cry even after being insulted by me and my sisters but she is crying and moreover I don't get good vibes from her father. I just wanted to go and hug her tightly and console her. A loud thud was heard of Riya banging the door of our room. The bubble of tension started rising in me but I stood rooted at my place lost in her thoughts. The sound of someone continuously thumping the door brought me out of my trance and I started running upstairs. As I reached our room, I saw a worried Veena continuously smacking the door and shouting on Riya to open the door. I went towards her and asked
"What happened? Why has Riya locked the room? Why was she crying?"
"I can't tell you what happened but can you please arrange the spare key of this room?" she answered in a low voice. Understanding the depth of the situation I did not question her further and called the butler to come up with the key immediately.
We opened the door to find the room empty and Veena immediately rushed to the washroom as we heard the voice of the shower.
"Please don't punish yourself Riya......It wasn't your fault......Open the door for your Di" Veena cried.
This multiplied my stress level twenty times more. After all Riya is my responsibility and I can't let anything happen to her.
"How will she punish herself and why? What are you talking about?" I asked in an extremely worried tone.
"She knows that she can't stand cold shower for a long time and it will result in her falling seriously ill. She intentionally does this every time when she fights or disobeys Mr. Shekhawat" she replied looking at the closed door of the washroom.
Seriously??? Is she crazy? Who hurts herself intentionally on such trivial matters?
"WHAT THE HELL? How can somebody knowingly fall ill? Has she gone crazy or what?" I nearly shouted and started banging the door loudly.
"Riya has done this since she was 16 years old. I try to stop her every time but she never listens to me. Now I know exactly what will happen next" Veena exclaimed holding her head between her hands.
"Riya, stop your childish behaviour and come out at once" I shouted but received just the voice of shower from the other end. I was hell worried and after threatening her to open the door the voice of shower stopped after two minutes.
"Can you please go out of the room for some time?" Veena asked me and I reluctantly nodded.
Before I went out, I could hear the voice of the washroom door clicking. I waited outside the room for some time and then I went inside the room when I heard Veena shouting. As I entered, I saw Riya lying on the bed covered with a duvet, listening to Veena's scolding's with a blank face as if lost in her own world. As Veena said she was suffering from high fever and was looking pale. Veena was holding thermometer in her hand which was showing 104 degree and shouting
"How many times will you repeat this way of punishing yourself? You know I get scared to death after hearing what the doctor said the third time you did this? Do you remember he said that the fever can send your sister to coma? What if something happens to you. Why can't you take care of yourself?" she said and stormed out of the room. After hearing veena's words fear gripped me and I was shocked would be an understatement.
I can't even imagine her in pain and she is doing such silly stunts with her life. I like the bond between Riya and Veena. The way she cares for her and understands her just by looking at her. This is the exact reason why she brought her to this place.
I went near her and sat down at the chair kept beside the bed and she started looking away.
"Why are you behaving like this? Why are you risking your health?" I asked as softly I could. You know at the office people die to hear me talk sweetly once and here this girl is looking away.
"Why do you care? I live or die, does it matter? No of course nobody cares except veena" she shouted suddenly and muttered the last part to herself but I heard it. She is making me angry now.
'Why do you care?' my mind mocked.
'Yes, why should I care?'
'Of course, I care because she is my wife, dumb head'
'When did you accept her as your wife? You were the one who was shouting on her and blaming her and now she is you wife'
'I have accepted this relation now and also apologised from her so I care for her'
With this last argument my mind settled on the fact that I care for her more than she can imagine. I got up furiously and spoke
"You're my wife and of course I care if something happens to you. I will call the doctor immediately and now don't ever say that again"
She looked at me shocked and I was satisfied as I spoke exactly what my heart says and my mother has taught me to use my heart when it comes to relationships. She quickly turned her face away from me like a sweet innocent girl who has been scolded by her mother. I smiled at that thought and by mistake it slipped out of my tongue "so cute ", she saw that and looked at me angrily but I went out to call the doctor.
Doctor arrived and checked her and after examining her she said "she needs proper rest and here are some medicines that should be given to her two time a day for three days". I nodded and got the medicines delivered on priority basis. I sat beside her and helped her to sit down. The servant came with the soup that Veena prepared for her and I will tell you a newly found fact that today Veena got so angry that she almost ordered me that I should take care of her sister as she won't come to help her today. She got really fed up by her behaviour but now she is sending soup instead of coming to meet her. These sisters are really calm but when they get angry, they wreak havoc. I really didn't mind Veena ordering me due to two reasons:
First, she was ordering me as an elder sister not as a servant though I don't like people ordering me but today the case was different as it was her right to get angry.
Secondly, I was going to take care of her even if she did not order me or more specifically shout at me.
I tried to feed her the soup but as I said 'tried', she did not open her mouth and instead looked away and said "Call Veena, I don't like to bother others" and I was not even a bit surprised. I answered her in my rude tone "She is upset, she won't come so keep quiet and have this soup". Then she insisted on having it on her own. I scolded her a bit for her own benefit and she obeyed and had her soup.
I left the room to fetch her the jug of water and returned to see her talking on the phone with her manager. She held the phone with difficulty due to weakness but still continued to talk.
Damn this girl...
I really wish mom was at home and then she would have not even let her move an inch and her phone would have been thrown out of the window. I am telling this with my own experience.
She said "Handle the work for one more day and by tomorrow or day after tomorrow I will be coming to office and yes keep mailing me the progress reports every day. One more thing if dad calls you don't tell him that I didn't come to the office or anything related to work" in her professional tone.
This girl is like a maze and I am definitely going to get lost in it one day. I walked in and she immediately cut the call and kept her phone on the side table. I liked that she feared me and obeyed me. After all, I was concerned about her. She told me to sleep and she will take care of herself. I made her lay down and dipped a cloth into water and kept it on her forehead to reduce the fever.
She shouted "Can't you listen, why don't you go and sleep. I am not a kid".
"Shut up and try to sleep" I answered in a no-nonsense tone and she understood that I wasn't going to budge. I put her to sleep and I don't know when I dozed off to sleep at night.
In the morning I got up as I could sense someone trying to snatch my soft pillow.
Wait! I slept on a chair so how come I was sleeping on a soft pillow? Moreover, the room is locked so and I suddenly realised the pillow is moving. I opened my eyes to see that I was sleeping in the sitting position with my head on Riya's hand. I have to admit that her hand is like a soft pillow. Then I saw Riya raising her eyebrows and looking at my hand. Realisation hit me and I left her hand. I suddenly missed the warmth and I admit it. She tried to get up and I helped her sit down and then I glanced at the clock and it was just 5 in the morning. I looked at her and asked "Why are you up so early? Where are you trying to go?". She answered "It's my regular time to get up and I was going for my workout earlier but now I will freshen up and study the progress reports and then go to office."
She gets up really early and I didn't even notice it. Come on, we have been married for two days only. But wait she is ill and she wants to check progress reports. She is even more workaholic than me and I have realised it in just two days. I got up and checked her temperature and the thermometer showed 100 degrees. The fever was reduced but not gone so she can't work, she has to rest. She started to get down from the bed and I stopped her by holding her shoulders. She tried to say something but I beat her into it and said "You are not going to work today and yes you go and freshen up but you have to take complete rest today." She tried to speak again but my one glare was enough to shut her up. She went to the washroom and came back after bathing and changing into her comfy white lower and a blue (or sea green/blue...I can't understand the colour so please do the honours) top. She looks amazing in whatever she wears.
(Riya's Outfit is shown above)
I helped her settle on the bed again and she started studying some files kept on the bed. I snatched the file from her and she looked at me with a raised brow.
"Are you mad or are some screws in your mind missing?" I shouted and she huffed and looked away. I made her lie down again and asked her to not go to office today. I was waiting for her to protest but she just nodded and I know that something is fishy.
I went down to get her breakfast and suddenly I heard the doorbell ring and then my phone also started ringing. I picked up my phone and it was an unknown number. After a lot of contemplation, I picked up the call and suddenly a familiar female voice was heard on the other side.
"Hello Siddarth sir, is it you on the line?" she asked or most probably veena asked.
"Yes" I answered and she said "I am veena speaking, I got your number from the butler. Is Riya around?".
"No" I answered and she said "sir, please do me a favour. When you open the door, you will see Riya's manager enter the house with a lot of files. Kindly send him away. She always tries to drown herself under workload when she is in stress. Don't let her work as she is ill".
I am damn sure that there will be her manager on the door because veena knows too much about Riya. I answered in a yes and she cut the call. I went and opened the door and was greeted by tall, handsome man who was holding two bags full of folders and papers. He greeted me and asked
"I am here to meet Riya ma'am. Can you call her?"
I shook my head in a no and said "Please head back because she is not well and take these files along"
"Sir is ma'am----" he started to speak but I cut him off and said "Please leave" and he left at once. I went back to my room to see Riya shouting on the poor manager for not bringing the files yet and this time she looked so angry that she did not cut the call even after my arrival. She kept on shouting and I had to snatch the phone after waiting patiently for 5 long minutes. I took the phone and said "I will tell your ma'am your side of the story" and hung up on him. Then I turned to Riya and said "He came home but I sent him away as you're not well and you don't stress yourself with work." she clearly looked annoyed but said "I can understand your concern."
She is too much understanding for a normal girl since day one and I can't help but admire her this exceptional quality. Her sister is not even a bit like her.
"I am getting bored and I can't sit like this for the whole day. I can't even sleep now" she said and now I can understand that she is a workaholic and she can't sit like this for too long so I suggested her "Let's watch some movie then" and her answer surprised me.
"I have never watched any movie except one when I was 5 years old. It was some barbie and something which I don't remember" she said narrowing her eyes.
I looked at her agape and thought 'Does she ever enjoy or only work. Is she really a girl or belonged to a different species?'. After a whole lot of thinking I said "Then you can watch one today".
She nodded and said "As long as the television can keep me entertained, I don't mind" and I played the movie which I was watching yesterday which was left due to her stupid stunt. She sat there like a bot as if someone was forcing her to watch her. It was more like she was staring blankly on the screen and I was the who was completely focused on the movie till yesterday but today I was just looking at her angelic expressionless face. Her behaviour made sure that she is the weirdest person on this earth. After wasting an hour, she switched off the TV annoyed and asked me to bring a pen and paper.
I did that without thinking twice and mind me that I am really regretting it now. She started drawing a beautiful design on that paper and I looked at her and then at the paper trying to understand what is she drawing. Before you ask that don't I have any work to do, I must tell you that I ditched my complete schedule of the day to make sure she rests because my sweet little heart can't see her ill.
Ok...Ok I admit that I am not sweet at all but I don't know why I am behaving very sweetly around her and I can't leave her alone especially when she is ill. After staring at her for 10 minutes I got to know that she was making a beautiful design of a dress which looked more than perfect. In short, she was working again. I don't know how am I going to handle this workaholic wife of mine for the rest of the day. I have no problem in her working instead I am proud of her but she can't work when she is not well. She loves her work too much for my liking. My family taunts me to be workaholic but she is even worse. Oh god please help me.......
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Dear Readers
Sorry for not updating early so as a compensation I have written a long chapter. I hope it's not too boring for you and you enjoy it. Keep voting, commenting and motivating me to give you frequent updates. I really liked your comments on the previous chapter so keep sharing your views and yes only the content written in Italics is what the people or the characters speak and the rest is either the inner conscience of the character speaking or the situation is being described so don't get confused. Press the star button to motivate me.
Thanks for reading
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