"Hey baby, how are you?" He held my hand in his and sat on the bed pulling me onto his lap. I sat sideways wrapping my arms around his neck. "Even though you're showing a strong front, I know how vulnerable you are feeling after the messages and after talking about the past." I just shrugged and played with the button on his kurta. "Talk to me." He placed a finger on my chin and raised my head to meet his eyes.
"That's always how I dealt with situations like this. I either run away from my problems or try to make humour out of it. You must have noticed it by now." I mumbled.
"I did, you ran from situations you don't want to deal with. You ran away after I skipped dinner, you ran away after you saw Mahira in the mall. And you tried to run away from the situation in the club when you went dancing, instead of confronting these situations head on." My eyebrows almost reached my hairline as I released a slow breath.
"You noticed." My voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Why won't I? I noticed each and everything about you and I said this so many times." He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "Why do you think I was angry on the day you left the mall to go to Sakhsi's house, I was pissed that instead of talking to me you left with her." He sighed.
"From now onwards I don't want you to run away from problems or anything that's bothering you. I want you to come talk to me if something is bothering you. If you don't want to talk right away, take some time and when you are ready, I'll always be there for you, Okay?" I nodded leaning forward and captured his lips with mine and kissed him with slowly.
His hands tightened on my waist. We were kissing when my stomach growled loudly. Oh god. I turned crimson and my ears felt hot. I quickly got up from his lap. He chuckled. We didn't eat anything, not even breakfast except for prashad. "Come on baby, let's feed you and calm that monster down." He stood up. I was embarrassed.
Jeez Anika way to embarrass yourself.
"Do you know something is going on in my mind since the call with my brother?" I said to Avy as we walked out of our room. He held my hand and we started going down the stairs.
"Kya baat hai?" He asked.
(what is it?)
"While I was talking to Sakshi in the temple she said something along the lines of 'she will solve everything even if she has to talk to that person after three years' and then boom bhai calls you. Why didn't she talk to my brother for three years. But they always are cordial and talk normal with each other."
"There must be something going on, baby we don't want to interfere."
"But they are my brother and best friend right, why hide it from me? I don't understand what is actually going on." I sighed, we reached downstairs and started walking towards the dining hall.
"Anika, Kartavya come here." Komal Dadi. I groaned internally now I have to interact with people. I don't think I can handle human interaction and small talk well with an empty stomach.
"Avy, I don't think I can handle them well with an empty stomach." I whispered to him low. He chuckled, squeezing my hand.
"Yes, Dadi." Avy said.
"Come sit here." she pointed to the armchair beside her. We sat down, me closer where Dadi is sitting and Avy beside me. "Yeh hai humare Kartavya ki biwi Anika, hain na kitni pyaari. Aur Anika yeh hai Sachin ke sasural valle.'' She started introducing each one of them to me and by the time she was finished my cheeks were from all the smiling I was doing.
(Everyone this is Kartavya's wife, isn't she lovely? And Anika, they are Sachin's in-laws.)
"How are you, Kartavya?" The lady, whose name I got to know is Divya, asked with melancholy. Avy stiffened beside me. I looked at him watching her with a cold expression.
"I'm good." He gave a curt reply. She gulped and nodded looking away.
"Who is she?" I whispered. He looked down at me.
"Mahira's mom." I nodded. I looked around and did not see her or any of the youngsters around.
"Oh, she looked sad while looking at you. Maybe you shouldn't have been so curt."
"Oh really, do you want me to go talk to Mahira also since she looked at me with a sad expression." He taunted. I huffed pursing my lips.
"Don't be an asshole, I was just being nice." I scowled.
"Well don't be, I don't want any interaction with that family. I know if I give them an inch they will take a mile. So it is best if I nip it at the bud." He replied sternly. God he can really be cold to people and let go of them without feeling any guilt at all. "Forget about them, aren't you hungry." I nodded pouting. He slowly snaked his right hand around my waist, I don't know how he managed to get it there without anyone noticing it.
"I am hungry but it will be rude if we walk away like that. I like Komal Dadi and I don't want her to think badly about me." I said trying to avoid his wandering hands that were on my waist. I looked at him with wide eyes but he just smirked.
"Acha ji, itne good—" Maa interrupted him.
"Anika, Kartavya bus tum dono ne hi breakfast nahi kiya, chalo nasta karne chalo." Maa said. I smiled and quickly stood up as his hand fell from my waist. Oh, I'm hungry.
(Only you guys haven't had your breakfast yet, come on and have breakfast.)
"Okay Maa." We stood up and moved towards the dining room. Avy pulled my chair out.
"Ma'am after you." He said.
"Why thank you kind sir." He winked at me and sat down next to me. Maa told the help to get the breakfast and sat down on the head of the table next to Avy. her eyes bounced between me and Avy as if she was waiting for us to say something , what I don't know. So I just kept staring and Avy did the same.
"Ah! Why are you both staring at me like that, start talking." She said annoyed. Avy chuckled.
"Maa, why are you so annoyed? And is this why you asked us to have breakfast to interrogate us?"
"Because koi mujhe aur Dadi ko bataya nahi ki woh yaha ane wali hai." She frowned. "Imagine our surprise when we saw her and family here. Do you know how much we freaked out about how Anika would feel and think? And now look at her, she doesn't have a care in the world." She looked at me like I betrayed her. I just smiled. "See she doesn't even care about that girl being here." Avy chuckled.
(no one told me and your grandma about her being here.)
"Maa relax, I knew she was coming. I would have freaked out if I felt insecure in my relationship with my husband, and I would freak out if I doubted my husband, but I don't feel any of those. I am not insecure in my relationship and I completely trust him." Maa had a big smile on her face, she stood up and came towards me and hugged me tight.
"God bless you Anika, I'm so happy it's you who is in Kartavya's life. I made the right decision in forcing him to marry." She kissed my forehead.
"Yes Maa forcing me to marry was the best emotional blackmail you ever did, otherwise she would have been in my life." He looked at me with so much adoration and tenderness, I just wanted to kiss him senselessly.
Maa lightly hit his shoulders while going back to her seat. "I did not emotionally blackmail you. And what are you saying, how can you say that in front of her."
"Sure Maa sure and chill she knows you don't have to worry about her." He entwined our fingers and kissed the back of my hand. The house help came and placed the dishes on the table and were about to serve us but maa stopped and took the dishes from them.
"I want to serve you your breakfast today. I'm so happy." She squealed like a kid who got her favourite toy. I shook my head but a smile was playing on my lips. I don't know why but for the first time I felt lighter since coming here. I was expecting the same behaviour from everyone in the Raichand family because they felt guilty about Mahira. But Maa proved me wrong. They are not clouded by their guilt, they were worried about me.
"What are you thinking, baby?" Avy whispered low. I shook my head and grinned at him. He nodded and we started eating. We were half way through our breakfast when Avni Bhabhi, Kavya and Mahira came into the dining room.
"Avni, Kavya, where were you guys, you didn't even have your breakfast and where are the others?" Maa asked and she passed a closed lip smile to Mahira.
"Maa, we were just showing Mahira around the palace. Raj and Karthik are with Aarav, he wanted to visit the stables and they already had breakfast Maa and we wanted to eat after showing her around." Avni Bhabhi informed.
"Okay sit down and have your breakfast." They nodded and sat opposite to us.
"There are horses here?" I asked excitedly to Avy. He looked at me and nodded. "Can we go see them after breakfast, Please."
"Okay baby, we will go." Someone cleared their throat announcing their presence. We turned to look at who it was, It was Andrew. "Yes, Andrew, what is it?" He was being so rude to him.
Andrew cleared his throat again and forwarded his phone to Avy. "Its Mr. Rajvansh sir" Avy frowned.
"Why is he calling you guys and not me directly?" Avy took the phone. "You can call me directly Rajvansh or do you not have my number?" I shook my head at him. Avy listened to what Bhaiya was saying and looked at me, I held my breath, what happened now? "Okay, call me directly next time." Avy listened to what Bhaiya said, then snapped. "Then fucking take my number from Daniel. Stop bothering my staff." He stood, hanging up the phone and gave it back to Andrew.
"Andrew, you are fired, there is no need to come to work from tomorrow." I gasped, standing up.
"Avy, what! it's not his fault." I held his forearm and made him look at me. "You can't do that, please let it go for now." I pleaded. Avy shook his head. "Avy please."
"Fine." He snapped. "This is your final warning, let shit like this happen. I won't tolerate it, do you understand it." he warned. Andrew nodded his head.
"I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again. Thank you Mrs. Raichand." He left from there. I released a sigh of breath. We sat back down, Avy released a breath and took his phone out of his pocket.
"What is happening, Kartavya. Andrew has been working for you for years. How can you just fire him like that?" Bhabhi said in disapproval.
"He should be thankful I didn't ruin his fucking life." He muttered looking at his phone.
"Hey, stop it, it's over." I frowned. He forwarded his phone towards me.
"Do you know him?" My eyes widened, I looked at Avy and nodded. "He was the one."
"They caught him? That's Prateek." He nodded. "But Avy I thought it was someone named Risabh, how can it be him, he is one of the janitors in my company? I see him regularly, he is a very nice guy. He never behaved suspiciously."
"It's always the one you least suspect, baby." He sighed.
"Can one of you tell what is going on?" Maa snapped. Shit!
"Someone from Anika's work was stalking and threatening her." Everyone around the table gasped. "You don't have to worry now Maa, he is caught. Utkarsh and Daniel are taking care of him."
"Are you okay, Anika?" Maa asked with concern.
"Yes Maa I'm fine, i was a bit shaken but I'm fine now he is caught." I reassured her.
"I hope you are fine Anika." Mahira said with sympathy.
"I'm fine, thank you." I replied to her politely. I looked at Avy's plate. It was empty. "Chalein kya stables mein?" He looked at my plate then at me and shook his head.
(Shall we go to the stables)
"Finish your food first." He pointed at my plate.
"No, I'm not hungry."
"Ani, at least finish the half eaten paratha and the juice, you haven't eaten anything." I know he won't budge unless I finish eating. I begrudgingly started eating.
"So girls and Kartavya since tomorrow is the Roka so your Kamal Dadi has called a stylish and she wants you to select the dress for tomorrow from them. Even though I told her we already have dresses for tomorrow but she still insisted, so please don't refuse her, your Dadi told us not to upset her." Maa informed us.
"But Badi maa, how can we do that? There won't be accessories to match and we won't have time to shop either." Kavya whined.
"You don't have to worry about anything, she has it all covered, okay?" We all nodded.
"I'm done, can we go now, please." He looked at the juice pointed. "Come on, I promise I'll eat later, I'm not hungry right now." He sighed and finally nodded.
"Maa we are done, Ani wants to go see the horses, we will be back before the stylish comes." Maa nodded and we stood up to leave.
"Bhai wait, we are coming too." The three of them stood up and followed us. We all reached the stables, the sky stretched above like a vibrant canvas of blue, dotted with fluffy white clouds that lazily drifted by. The air was crisp and invigorating, carrying the fragrance of blooming flowers and the faint scent of fresh grass. I could hear Aarav's laughter, it made me even more excited.
"You look excited." Avy pulled me closer by my shoulders.
"Oh I am, I love horses. I used to go horseback riding with Bhaiya and Dadu all the time." Soon we reached the stables and there were four horses. My attention immediately went to a majestic brown horse with white mane. I have never seen such a beautiful horse before I was awestruck.. "Wow." I breathed. I was about to go near it but Avy pulled me back.
"No one is allowed to go near the horse." He held my hand , lead me towards the chestnut coloured horse.
"Why not, it's so beautiful." I just sighed. "Hi guys." I greeted Aviraj bhai, Karthik and Aarav, as we neared them. I went near the chestnut horse and smell my hands first.
"Hi, Anika, Kartavya." Bhai greeted us. "Do you know how to ride a horse, Anika?" I nodded,
"Yes bhai I do." I gently started petting the horse on its nose. "Avy, do you know how to ride horse."
"Yes, I do."
"Then we should definitely race sometime." He nodded and I went around petting all the horses. "Can we just go look at it from afar please as we reached the corner stable with a brown horse?" He nodded and we went to the horse.
"What happened, why are you quiet?" I asked when we were at distance from the rest of them.
"Have they talked to you at all since the bar debacle?" There were some carrots in the bucket, I picked a few and from a distance tried to feed the horse.
"Bhabhi and Kavya?" He nodded, stepping closer to me while I forwarded the carrot to the horse.
"No they haven't but it's not like I tried talking to them either."
"Anika you are not at fault, the fact that they still haven't realised their mistake is what makes me mad. They are still glued to her and are behaving like you don't exist." I just shrugged. I don't have anything to say.
"Don't get me wrong but I'm not going to beg for their attention, if they want to talk to me I will gladly, but if they don't want to talk so be it." I shrugged. He sighed.
"Who allowed you in here?" A booming voice came from behind us.
******
Hey guys,
Hope you enjoy reading.
Let me know what you think of this chapter.
Don't forget Vote, Comment and share.
A❤️☺️