"Omg! Madhu! Omg!" Radha squealed and took her daughter in law in a bone crushing hug.
"I knew it! I knew it! I noticed some changes in you. You were glowing."
"She is always glowing, mom" Rishab said nonchalantly. Madhu blushed.
"Oh God! I can't believe I am going to have my first grandchild soon." Radha cried in joy ignoring her son's annoying interference.
"Only grandchild, mom" Rishab interjected. Madhu swiftly turned her head to his side from her mother in law's tight embrace but he was looking only at his mom so he didn't notice her disapproving look to his statement.
"And you are crushing her." He reminded his mother to let his wife go before she suffocates her.
"Oh I am sorry. I got so excited." Radha said. She couldnt contain her grin. She was literally jumping like a small kid waiting for candy.
"Oh God! I forgot to ask you, did you check her health condition with the doctor? How is the baby? What month she is going on now? Did you guys take a scan? Do you have a picture of it?" Radha kept rambling.
"Stop behaving like a weirdo, mom." Rishab said placing his hand on her shoulder to stop her jumping from foot to foot.
"Shut up, Rishab. You won't understand how it feels to become a grandma." Radha cupped her face in glee.
"Calm down, mom... I know I am also happy to become a daddy but you are just going out of control. You better stop making yourself a clown." He said embarrassed seeing his over dramatic mother.
"Stop talking to me like that. I am your mother." Radha smacked her son's head as if he was 4 years old getting offended with his words. She was just showing out her unexplainable happiness and what her expressionless son will understand? She took Madhu's hand in hers
"You come with me, Madhu. I will feed you sweets." Madhu smiled and before she could walk Radha dragged her to the kitchen.
"You don't know Madhu for how long I have been waiting to hear this good news." Madhu blushed slightly.
"Here" Radha thrust a huge ladoo into her mouth. Madhu covered her mouth and tried to swallow the ladoo.
"Mom, stop torturing her." Rishab chided when Radha took another ladoo to push into Madhu's already full mouth.
"Motichur ladoo with ghee is good for her health."
"I am sure she will throw up everything she had eaten for lunch if you keep feeding her too much. I want her to keep whatever little she ate."
"Okay. Then you eat." Radha shoved a much bigger ladoo into his mouth making him groan. He was never fond of sweets.
"Now, tell me what the doctor told?"
"Everything is normal, mom. Your grandchild is healthy. Oh I am actually 22 days pregnant so the doctor said it will be advisable to take the first scan after ten days."
"Oh! Just 22 days? It's too soon. I don't want you to tell anyone about your pregnancy and I want you to be careful. No stress. No strain. Okay?" Radha ordered strictly. Madhu nodded her head with a soft smile.
"Mom, stop scaring her. Madhu, you be normal. That will do. Women have been having babies since the beginning of time so you have nothing to worry and nothing is complicated. Everything is easy okay?" Rishab said to his wife placing his hand around her waist and drawing her closer to him. How can he be always calm and in control? Is there a time ever his controlled slipped away? May be when I was in hospital. She thought so amazed about her husband's cool side.
"You don't listen to him, Madhu. You listen to me. I have experience in this matter. You should be extra cautious now." Radha said glaring at her son. He rolled his eyes at her.
"Where is dad?" Rishab asked looking around. And then he looked at his wrist watch. They were getting late for her therapy session so he decided to make a move.
"Office. You guys are staying here till he comes right?" "No, mom..."
"Why? Rishab, I would suggest you both move in here with us so that I can take care of Madhu and the baby. I don't want her to do all the household chores and office works." Hearing her Madhu started laughing. Both Radha and Rishab gave her confused looks.
"Rishab does all the household chores, most of the days." She laughed more clutching her stomach. My poor mom in law might have thought I was doing every work at home and also taking care of her son. Aww... It's actually the reverse. She thought.
"So? What's funny about that? Can't a man be multitasking? Is it labeled only for women?" He asked not at all feeling ashamed he was doing household chores along with his official duty.
"Sorry." She tried to catch her breath as she rubbed her belly to ease her pain caused due to hard laughing.
"Mom, you don't worry. We will manage. If you wish you can come & visit us any day you feel like. May be on weekends we will stay with you here."
"Hmm... If you say so but once the baby is born you are going to let me babysit him daily when you both are busy with office work."
"Sure, mom." Madhu smiled. She felt so lucky to get such a sweet mom in law. She seemed to be so excited about the baby than herself and her husband.
"Mom, we are in a hurry now. We will see dad another day. Madhu, come."
"Where are you going? To meet Madhu's parents?"
"Tonight we will be going there..."
"Then why so hurry? Stay a little longer, meet your father, and give him the good news and later you both can go." Radha suggested.
"Mom, I have a therapy session." Madhu blurted out.
"Therapy? What therapy?" Radha asked worriedly.
"Psyc..."
"Physio... physiotherapy, mom." Rishab cuts in and subtly shook his head at Madhu asking her not to tell anything.
"She has some pain in her right hand... So I am taking her to her physiotherapist."
"Oh. Take care, Madhu. It's not only you now." Radha caressed Madhu's head lovingly.
"I will, mom. Bye." She hugged her.
"I am so happy for you both." Radha said placing one hand on her son's cheek and another on her daughter in law's cheek.
"Stay blessed." After hugging his mom and promising her to meet them soon he walked out of the house with Madhu tagging along holding his hand.
"Why you didn't tell your mother about the therapy?"
"What's the need to tell? It's our personal issue."
"But she is your mother and she is such a sweet woman. I know she won't take it wrong."
"I agree with you. My mom is very practical woman so she won't judge you and more over she adores you like anything... but when it comes to you and me she will always favour me as a mother. Say for instance, one day your mother accuses me for all the sufferings you had to endure because of me and my job that time my mom will bring in this matter just to give back to her that even her daughter is not perfect just like her son not even thinking that will hurt you. So, I suggest whatever it is it should be within us. No room for third party."
"I understand now and I agree with you" she smiled.
~~0~~
"Hi, Doc. Sam" Madhu greeted as she walked into his cabin ahead of Rishab as he was talking over the phone something work related.
"Joshi, I will be there in another two hours." Rishab said curtly and hung up the phone and shoved it in his pants pocket. Then he followed Madhu to the cabin.
"Congrats, Madhu." Sameer gave her a friendly hug congratulating her for her pregnancy.
"Thank you." Madhu smilingly hugged him back.
"Hey Sameera!" Rishab was the first one to notice Sameer's wife Sameera sitting on the couch and eating a huge tub full of ice cream. Madhu turned her head to her husband's side to chide him for calling his friend by a girl's name Sameera but then only she saw a beautiful lady.
"Hey, hero" Sameera stretched her hand out for Rishab to help her stand up as he was standing nearer to the couch. Rishab held her hand and she slowly stood up from the couch placing her free hand on her protruding belly.
"Sameera calls him 'Hero' because of his adventures job much to my dislike. She finds my job boring." Sameer snickered.
"Sameer and Sameera? Wow!" Madhu said in surprise. "What a perfect couple you both are?"
"I fell in love with her name first." Sameer said with a laugh.
"Samee, this is Madhu, Rishab's newly pregnant wife."
"Oh really? That's great. Congrats." Sameera awkwardly hugged Madhu with her pregnant belly poking her and Madhu warmly hugged her and congratulated Sameera too for the baby she was going to have in two weeks time.
"Where did you find your beautiful wife?"
"I didn't. My mom did. Ours is arranged marriage, Sameera"
"Too boring." She punched Rishab's gut.
"How are you?" Rishab asked a very pregnant Sameera.
"You tell that?" Sameera asked with a wink.
"You look gro..." He wanted to say "gross" but changed it too quickly to "...gorgeous, as ever." Rishab played safe as he didn't want to face the wrath of a pregnant woman.
"Aww... Wish my Sameer is so romantic and smart to know what to say to please women like you." Sameera leaned her head on Rishab's arm and said dreamily. Madhu almost burst out laughing hearing her say her husband 'romantic'. Rishab gave Madhu a smirk realizing what was going in her mind.
"That moron is too bad not at all getting me another tub of ice cream. He says I will grow fat." Sameera said with a pout.
"Samee, I will get you ice cream tomorrow. Now, you go home with the driver. I have business to deal with them." Sameer pulled Sameera from Rishab's hold.
"Rishab, Madhu I will just walk her to the car and will be back in a minute."
"Sure, take your time. We can wait." Madhu said politely. Then she hugged Sameera and Sameer walked her out holding her hands in his.
~~0~~
"Sameer, one sec." Rishab stopped him outside the room where the therapy session will be conducted.
"Madhu doesn't want me to be there with her."
"Oh. Why?"
"I don't know why but I am sure she has some reason behind it but still I want to know what you both are gonna talk so I will stay in the next room and watch you guys through the glass wall. I want you to keep this." He produced him a recorder.
"You just keep this in your pocket so Madhu won't see it and click the red button on when you start the session. Oh and do you have your Bluetooth?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay. I want you to stay connected. If needed I will ask you to ask her some questions from my side..."
"She is your wife, man. Don't doubt her this much. You should keep your police mind aside and..."
"I trust her implicitly, Sameer. I'm not doubting her intention to keep me away from this... It's just... I know she is worried to tell me something really serious. I don't know whether she thinks I can't handle to hear what she faced in her past or she doesn't want me to get hurt."
"Okay, Rishab, I will abide to your instruction."
"Thanks"
~~0~~
"Get comfortable, Madhu." Sameer said with a smile and Madhu leaned her back on the half propped up leather bed.
"I don't want you to stress yourself. You share with me whatever you remember which is haunting you in your dream."
Rishab folded his arms and watched them intently from the next room through the glass partition.
"Are you nervous?"
"Yeah, kind of" Madhu nervously smiled and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.
"Don't be, please. Now, I want you to close your eyes and answer to my questions."
"Okay" she nodded her head and closed her eyes. He gave her few minutes to settle down.
"What's your name?" Sameer asked softly.
"Madhu... Madhubala Rishab Kundra."
"Why you are here?"
"To find a solution for my nightmares and other phobias"
"When you started having these nightmares?"
"Since I was 7 years old."
"Is it constant? Do you wake up screaming night after night?"
"Initially yes, I had a horrible childhood... always screaming and crying... I couldn't go to school properly... I always hid myself in my room which suffocated me but slowly I came around. I suppressed my fears inside me and made friends... I acted normal. The frequency of my nightmares even got reduced and I was happy about that... but then recently... my past memories are rekindled. I couldn't sleep well. I'm so scared." Madhu said softly with her eyes closed.
"Do you have any happy memories of your childhood, Madhu?"
"Hmm... Fishes, yeah I love fishes." Rishab chuckled hearing that. Sameer turned to the glass wall and asked him 'What' through his eyes. Rishab just shook his head in nothing and asked him to carry on.
"There was this Marine Aquarium' right next to my school. I love to go there after school. One day, Ramu kaka, my driver came late to pick me up so I went to the aquarium. There only I saw the monster." She paused. Rishab moved closer to the glass wall and placed his hands on it. "He had a very cunning scary smile. He said he was my new driver and he was there to take me home. I went with him believing him but he didn't take me home."
"Where he took you?"
"I don't know. All I know is... it was a huge building and it was under construction. He dragged me to the fourth floor. I kept counting the floors we were climbing, all the way screaming and crying to take me home. He smacked my head and shouted at me asking me to shut my mouth. I cried louder. He dragged me to a narrow corridor from the hall way and entered into a room in the left side... There he pushed me down on the floor... That room... So familiar" Madhu stopped talking.
"Have you been there, Madhu?" Sameer asked.
"Yes... Party... Party night... Hotel Purple Orchid. Same room. Same place." Now Rishab understood why she forced him to leave the place once he found her sweating and panicked in the restroom. The horrible memories reverted seeing the place.
"Okay. So what he did?" Sameer asked realizing she was talking about the recent past incident because Purple Orchid Hotel was opened some ten years back but they were talking about the incident took place some 19 years back. He didn't want Madhu to get deviated and snap out of her past memory. "My knees hurt with the fall. I cried for my mama. I heard a whistle sound... The same sound I heard in the party, in the restroom. The bigger monster is back like he said. He said he will come back in my life to make it miserable. He is here. He will harm me. He will harm Rishab. He will harm our baby." She said frantically as her hands covered her lower abdomen. Her breath went erratic.
"Madhu, calm down please." Rishab said but she couldn't hear him as he was standing behind the glass wall.
"Sameer, stop her." Rishab instructed. They can continue this some other day. He didn't want her to risk her stressing herself.
"Madhu, relax." Sameer said soothingly.
"What they did to you?" Sameer proceeded.
"I said stop!" Rishab barked and was about to enter the room and stop the session when she continued "They scared me. The bigger monster said I was lucky to be born. He said I should have died in my mother's womb itself like how the other two babies of my parents died"
What the hell she is talking about? Her mother miscarried twice right? Or were the unborn babies killed by this guy? Did he cause the miscarriage? But why? What's the link between him and Madhu's family? Rishab's mind raced with questions.
"He said "I pitied you little shit." He laughed a devilish laugh. I squirmed and hugged my knees. "I got my sadistic pleasure seeing that bitch, your mother cry in pain... I put her twice in accident and killed her unborn babies. But then I took pity on her... I thought I tortured her beyond limits by snatching her babies so I let her have you. You born out of my mercy. Her precious darling girl and you turned out to be a lucky charm to that bas***d, your father. His company grew bigger and bigger. He got everything. Money. Fame. My lover as his wife. And you. You should have born to me. You should have been mine. But No! you are not. So I hate you. I f**king hate you but I need you to make money." He roared in anger. I curled up like a small ball and he kicked me hard on my ribs blocking the air from my lungs." She said as unknowingly she rubbed her left side rib where she got the kick.
"Do you know his name, Madhu? The bigger monster's name?"
"Yeah... Everyone called him "Boss"... He didn't say his name... Um... No, I heard his name once. Only once." She looked like she was rambling in her unconscious state. It was more like her subconscious mind speaking for her.
"Could you remember his name now?"
Madhu frowned and her eyeballs rolled under her eyelids.
"Balraj" Finally the word escaped from her mouth.
... To be continued!
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