Chapter 66

Three days passed  by and Aadhi and Rishi stayed home. Rishi took care of her and their excitement never died. For the time being they only let know Latha about the pregnancy and informed her to maintain that a secret until they reveal to their families.

At his office Manjari was completely in shock that Rishi and Aadhi never showed up to office. She called Rishi and he only informed her that Aadhi wasn’t feeling well and they were working from home.

Vimal was home working on a file when he received a call from his lawyer that all the documenation, registration has been done. He also confirmed that Vimal would receive the divorce agreement by end of day.

He huffed and closed his eyes, leaning back on the head rest he relaxed before he made the decision. Picking up his mobile he dialed his father who answered in the first ring since he was worried too much about his son lately especially after he got to see him limp.

Hari: Vimal, are you ok son ? Do you want me to come over ?

Vimal: Dad, I m fine. Lawyer called me just now. All the works are done and I will receive the papers today. I want you call everyone for lunch at home this Sunday. I don’t want any drama so I decided to reveal everything in the presence of her family. I hope their presence would end this without any fiasco.

Hari: Don’t worry, you have your family and you will be relieved from that hell of marriage on Sunday. How is your injury ?

Vimal: Not bad, I will be fine in few days.

Hari: Take care Vimal, I will talk to you mom and will do all arrangements to invite everyone on Sunday. You relax and take care of your health.

Vimal thanked his father and cut the call. He moved to his bedroom and laid on the bed with his arm over his eyes. A lone tear rolled down from the corner of his eyes and he felt his chest tighten over the grief he felt over his life. He had grown up under a strict parenting with lot of rules but that never stopped him from living his life nor he felt suffocated in the presence of his family. Deep down in his heart he knew his parents loved him and his baby sister despite being strict.

His sister was his world and there wasn’t a day they missed having fun and all their banters, bickerings only made their life a heaven. Only .. only if he was good enough to learn people and knew the facade they carried on their faces he wouldn’t have been suffering in a marriage which sucked out his soul and broke his heart into bits and pieces.

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Aadhi was watching a movie in the living when she recived a call from her father. She showed the screen to Rishi and answered it immediately.

Aadhi: Dad, how are you ?

Hari: I m fine Aadhi, how are you and how is Rishi ?

Rishi: We are fine uncle, hope you are doing good.

Hari: I called you to invite you both for lunch this Sunday. Its been a long time we met and I thought we shall plan a family day. I have invited your parents and grandapa too. Hope I’m not ruining any of your plans.

Rishi: Absolutely no uncle, infact me and Aadhi were thinking the same and thought of inviting everyone so the place doesn’t matter. Sure we will be there in the morning.

Aadhi: Thank you so much dad, I can’t wait for Sunday to meet everyone together.

Hari: Ofcourse Aadhi, take care both of you.

Aadhi cut the call and looked at Rishi who was lost in thoughts. She flicked his nose and raised her brows questioning him.

Rishi: Do you thing there could be some shock awaiting for us ? My instinct rings a bell so lets be prepared Aadhu.

Aadhi: What should we do now ? Should we cancel our plans ?

Rishi: Lets go with the flow and meet everyone. Lets wait for the day to end or until everyone would be ready to take their leave. If nothing happens then we shall share our happiness with them but if something else happens we shall wait for a better day.

Aadhi: Wish it would be only a family day and we could see the happiness on their faces when we reveal about our baby.

Rishi cupped her face and kissed her forehead and hugged as they continued with the movie.

Skip to Sunday:

Kavitha was busy looking after the food arrangements and Hari’s PA entered holding boxes of  favourite sweets of Aadhi and Vimal which Hari had especially ordered from their favourite sweet shop. Hari entered Vimal’s room and made sure it was cleaned and all the things that related to Manjari was removed. He had planned to let his son stay with him for a while until he feels better.

Aadhi and Rishi were first to arrive and her parents welcomed them with hugs and blessings. Aadhi squealed when Hari gave her favourite sweets. Aadhi picked one and fed Rishi and her parents who smiled on seeing her manage to share a single piece of sweet to the three of them and saving the rest for her.

Aadhi: Don’t tease me, this is my favourite one and I m not sharing with anyone. Mom, I need to hide this before bro arrives here. He will sure steal my sweets but I will not let him succeed today. Rishu, will you be a saviour to my sweets ?

Rishi: I will make sure to stock our home with your favourite sweets everyday so lets share with everyone. You know sharing is caring.

Aadhi: No, not my favourite sweets.

They were interrupted when Vimal and Manjari walked in. Aadhi immediately hid the sweet box behind her but quickly placed it on the teapoy and rushed to him on seeing him limp.

Aadhi: Bro, what happened to you leg ? Why do you limp ?

Vimal: Just a minor injury Aadhi, I m fine and injury has almost healed.

Aadhi held his arm as if he couldn’t walk and guided him to the couch. She crouched down and lift his leg to check the injury and gasped on seeing the wound.

Rishi: Vimal, injury looks so bad, how did this happen ?

Vimal: Just an accident, I m fine ok.

Aadhi who was still looking at his injury frowned on hearing Vimal speak with difficulty as if he had something stuffed in his mouth. Slowly she raised her head and saw Vimal holding the swet box and busy stuffing in his mouth. Aadhi’s lips wobbled and she looked her father, mother and Rishi who were holding back their laughter. She pinched Vimal’s hand and was about to leave but he stopped her and fed the last piece in her mouth. Aadhi watched him dust his hand and looking for a tissue to wipe his hand but he smirked and cleaned his palm with her pallu.

Aadhi knocked his head and saw his father pointing to more sweet boxes and signalled her to be quite. Rishi stood next to Manjari and pat her head with a smile.

Rishi: How are you Manju ?

Manjari: I m fine but what happened to you Aadhi ? Why did you both skip office ?

Everyone was shocked on hearing the news and looked at Aadhi who was looking at Rishi.

Rishi: Nothing serious, she had a mild fever and cold. She is fine now.

Everyone saw Raghavan, Vani and grandpa enter and welcomed them. They had a little chitchat until Kavitha invited them to have lunch. Aadhi smiled on seeing the entire family seated and prayed everything should be fine in all their lives.

After lunch they all got settled in the living and Hari made his way to his office and returned holding a file which he gave it to Vimal.

Vimal: Its good to see everyone here and actually it was my plan to invite everyone. I wanted to meet you all at the same place to discuss and reveal something important.

Aadhi immediately held Rishi’s hand who in turn squeezed her palm to comfort her. Manjari felt restless and her hands started trembling in fear.

Manjari: Vimal, I not feeling well so shall we leave now, please ?

Vimal: Just few minutes and I will be done and you could leave too.

Rishi: Manjari, we have met after a long time so lets speak and if Vimal has something important to discuss let us hear him.

Vimal: We are not happy in our marriage, I have tried with every ounce of patience in me to work this out but I couldn’t do this anymore. I want divorce.

Manjari: Vimal, you said there won’t be any divorce. I agreed to everything you said and infact you wanted us to live in a simple apartment and I moved in with you.

Raghavan: Vimal, tell us what happened and we shall talk and try to fix. Also what does she mean that you stay in a simple flat ?

Vimal: There wasn’t a day she let me live in peace. I endured everything she did and forgave her too many times. I did everything she asked for, I bought everything she asked for but what did I get in the end ? She wanted us to live separately and I bought a home for us but that turned out a hell for me.

Manjari: Stop portraying me as a villain, Vimal.

Vimal: She is the one who wanted divorce in the first place and I agreed to it. She wanted a secured life so she blackmailed me to give 50% of my wealth or she wouldn’t sign the divorce papers. Now I m ready to give her 50% of my wealth. I have the documents of what I own and she can choose what she wants as alimony.

Vani: Manjari, why would you do this ?

Manjari: Mom, he is lying. He has affair with Aadhi’s friend Chaitra and that is the reason he wants to divorce me.

Aadhi gasped in shock on hearing her words and rose to her feet. Rishi stood next to her and held her by shoulder.

Aadhi: Chaitra is my best friend and my brother is a gem. Please don’t pull them into this mess. If you are talking about the day bro brought her to your home then you know the reason. She was harrassed and he saved her that day.

Vimal: I knew you would bring this up. Have some conscience and don’t play dirty. I m trying my best to play decent and I definitely don’t want to stoop low as you.

Raghavan: Vimal, if you think a break would help fix things between you two then I will take Manjari with us. Take some time and think over the decision.

Hari: Vimal’s injury happened because of her.

Manjari: No, I just threw the bottle and he stepped over the shards, how would I responsible ?

Kavitha: Did you have to courtesy to aid his wound for the sake of the life you both lived together ? He did everything to you but you couldn’t spare a glance at his injury. I m not the same dominating mother in law and expect you to cook for him but you could alteast order food for him while you do for you.

Manjari: He pushed me away for months and everyone of you threw me out of your life.

Vimal: You killed my baby, if you had informed me about the accident we could have done something and saved the baby. You didn’t bleed until late night so there would have been high chances for the baby’s survival. You only wanted a chance to spoil my sister’s life and you did achieve in it. You constantly instigated Rishi against her. What do you expect from me after everything you did ? Still I made efforts to start fresh, I called you for counselling but you denied so I took sessions alone. It was going fine until you started avoiding me.

Rishi: Manju, why didn’t you join him for the sessions ? Things could have been better.

Vani: Vimal, would you give her chance ? We shall arrange for a psycologist and the temporary break might help both of you to heal from this.

Vimal: She is stubborn as hell and would never listen to anyone. She is sick to the core that she only want her happiness. I can’t do this anymore, I quit my job and dad has taken over the business. I sold the property I bought and now she pushed me to a point that I need a break in my life, I couldn’t focus in anything, I lost my peace.

Manjari: What is with your drama ?

Vimal: Do you want to know why I want the divorce ? Follow me…

Vimal walked to his room and Manjari followed him closing the door behind.

Vimal: No man in his sane mind would wish to live with a woman who moans a random man’s  name while she is being fucked by her husband.