Chapter 35

Rishi got down from his car and looked at his home running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Rishi: Aadhu, wish I stayed our home and spent my talking to you. I m not ready to meet them, not until I reveal the trutht about Manjari and prove you. Today is going to be different Aadhu, I m not gonna be the Rishi they have seen all these years. Thanks to you my love, I m gonna stand up for me, for us. Lets rock baby.

He walked into the living and saw his father and grandpa in a deep conversation. His mother was instructing the maids to place the food on the table.

Rishi: Hello everyone ! how are you ?

Raghavan: Hello Rishi, where is your wife ?

Rishi: She is busy dad and I didn’t want her to be distracted with anything that you have planed to discuss today. Also its not like she is trusted in the first place and welcomed with open hands.

Raghavan: Let me also make it clear that we aren’t accusing her for no reason. She did commit a sin.

Rishi: If you have called me here to belittle my wife then I m sorry, I will take my leave.

Vani: Rishi, what is with your attitude towards your father ?

Rishi: Mom, its not attitude, I m standing for my wife. Why do you expect me to sit back and listen to something what my wife is not ? Now can we start with the discussion ?

Raghavan: Rishi, I know you are worried that Aadhi is left all alone and I have a solution for this. I could speak to her father to forgive her.

Rishi: And ?

Raghavan: We too are ready to forgive her and things will go back to how it was before.

Rishi: And ?

Raghavan: You will take over her father’s business. We shall merge both the company and offer a position to Vimal.

Rishi: Did you check with Manjari if she is ok with your plan ? What if she doesn’t want me to take over a business which belongs to Vimal rightfully after his father ?

Raghavan: She will not have a problem and its not like we are abandoning Vimal. We shall give shares to both Vimal and Manjari.

Rishi: I expected you would be planning something like this but I m sorry dad, I m not interested in this merge. If you think I m worried about you all, including her parents abandoning her then you are wrong. She has me and I m more than enough to give her all the happiness in this world.

Vani: Rishi, what have you decided about planning for a child ?

Rishi sighed in irritation and rose to his feet with hands in the pockets of his slacks. He looked at everyone in a composed state and spoke with a smile.

Rishi: Me and Aadhira have decided to take a break for 6 months.

Everyone was shocked to hear the information and unknown to them they were standing before Rishi shock evident in their face.

Vani: What do you mean by a break ? Where is Aadhi ?

Rishi: She is safe in a place and I have given her the much needed time to forgive me for what I did to her.

Raghavan: What does she think of herself ? How dare she leave her husband and live on her alone ?

Rishi: I revealed this to you all as a information. No one has a say in what happens in our life. It is our decision and I m not looking for any opinion or discussion over it.

Raghavan: You speak as if you and your wife don’t belong to this family anymore.

Rishi: Do we belong dad ?  You wouldn’t have blamed her in the first place if you ever treated her as family.  You all are in a bubble that Manjari is the victim and Aadhira pushed her of the stairs but sorry burst it. Manjari lost the baby even before she fell on her own from the stairs and she trapped Aadhira to escape all your wrath. She provoked me against Aadhira and tried to ruin my relationship with my wife, she never missed a chance to taunt Aadhira. Manjari is the one whom you should be punishing and I least care about what you do with her.

Everyone heard gasp and saw Manjari standing with tears.

Rishi: She is here and I hope you will be satisfied with whatever justification she has for blaming Aadhira and the 6 months time is much needed for me too, to become the better person Aadhira deserve in her life. Now I know you wouldn’t be happy with me so I will take my leave.

Rishi sent a message to Vimal inviting him to his penthouse and received a positive response in return. Rishi arrived home and threw the key on the couch before he rushed to the kitchen to pick a water bottle from the refrigerator.

Rishi: I guessed it Aadhu, I had an idea that my father would be planning something. Its better I revealed everything to them.

Rishi heard the door bell and placed the glass on the kitchen island before rushing out.

Rishi: I think your brother is here Aadhu, I will talk to you later. I need to confess everything to him. He deserves to know all the truth.

Rishi opened the door and welcomed Vimal inside who looked for his sister. They got seated in the living and Rishi took a deep breathe before he confessed the break that Aadhi and him had taken for their life.

Vimal: Where is she now ? Why didn’t you call me ?

Rishi: She is safe and even if you wish I will not allow her to stay with you. She is better away from both our family in the present situation. She is my wife and nothing changes just because we stay away from each other. I thought you deserve to know and may be you could visit her but let her stay where she is now. Go meet her anytime and I have something else that you need to know.

Vimal waited and Rishi took an exaggerated breathe before he revealed the truth about Manjari.

Vimal: Good your decided to reveal now but I knew it already earlier today. Aadhi stopped you from revealing this to me earlier, didn’t she ?

Rishi bobed his head and Vimal rose to his feet boiling in anger.

Vimal: I hate myself for choosing your sister in my life. She ruined me and my sister. I won’t forgive her for what she did to me, my sister and my baby.

Vimal walked out and Rishi leaned back on the head rest and closed his eyes.

Rishi: She did commit a mistake Aadhu and I couldn’t request Vimal to forgive her but somewhere both the families including me were the reason behind all her mistakes. Atleast she could have changed herself after she was married to Vimal, he took good care of her. May be a little punishment is all she needs to realize everything. What say Aadhu ? By the way how are you doing baby, do you miss me ?

With a smile he returned to the bedroom and laid on the bed. Proped on his elbow, he touched the pillow Aadhi slept the night before she left the penthouse.

At Malini’s home Aadhi sat in the balcony with her legs pulled to her chest and watched the moon.

Aadhi: How are you Rishu ? I miss you a lot Rishu and I don’t know if you miss me but I m sure you will miss the milk coffee a lot. Will you come back to me on our anniversary ? Are you still being grumpy and lashing out on everyone ?

Malini entered the balcony with two bowls of ice cream and passed one to Aadhi before she plopped next to her.

Malini: Were you seeking help from the moon to send a  message to your crushy baby ?

Aadhi: Nah, just admiring its beauty.

Malini: Lair, I heard everything and I have an idea. How about we send a letter to your crushy baby through a pigeon ? You are the queen Aadhira and he is the great king Rishikesh. Imagine you both dressed like a king and queen and seated on a throne.

Aadhi smiled on imagining the image in her mind and felt a nudge on her shoulder. Malini was teasing her and they were laughing until Aadhi’s mobile blared with call from Vani.

Malini: Why would she call you now ?

Aadhi shrugged and answered the call immediately. But before Aadhi could greet, Vani started the conversation.

Vani: Aadhira, meet me at the cafe near by your college tomorrow evening.

Aadhi: Is everything ok aunty ?

Vani: Nothing is ok and now I need to fix everything before its too late.

Aadhi guessed she might have got to know about her leaving Rishi.

Aadhi: Sure, I will meet you aunty.

Vani cut the call and once again before she could inform Malini they heard a knock and Malini rushed to check. She opened the door and was surprised to see Vimal.

Malini: Aadhi, Vimal bro is here.

Aadhi placed the bowl and rushed to the room and jumped into Vimal’s embrace. Vimal wiped his own tears and pat her back gently on hearing her sobs. Vimal pulled back from the hug and wiped the tears and together they settled on the couch in the balcony.

Vimal: Rishi called me to his penthouse this evening and revealed everything to me. You thought I m not worth to know your pain ? I would have fought our parents and taken you with me to our home.

Aadhi: There isn’t a place that I could call as my home bro but that doesn’t mean we have fallen apart too.

Vimal: Aadhi, I m sorry. I m the only reason we are suffering today. Only if I hadn’t fallen in love with Manjari then all these would have not happened in our life. We both spared her too much for everything she did to you but not anymore. I have decided something Aadhi. Lets leave everything and everyone, we don’t need to endure all these. Lets go somewhere away from this place and I will take care of you.

Aadhi was shocked on hearing his words and shook her head.

Aadhi: How could you say this bro ? Manjari is your wife and she needs you now, you can’t leave her.

Vimal: Did you forget everything she did to you ? Only if she wasn’t greedy then we would have not lost our baby.

Aadhi: She did make a mistake but I believe she must be regreting everything. she did trouble me because she was possessive of you and she wanted all your attention on her. About the baby, I can understand your pain but she is in pain too and she didn’t do anything intentionally. She might have been scared of facing everyone and blamed me. You love her and we don’t leave the person whom we love truly based on few mistakes.

Vimal: Then why did you leave Rishi ?

Aadhi: I haven’t left him bro. I have given him the time to decide if he wants me in his life.

Vimal: What if he doesn’t want you in his life at the end of this break ?

Aadhi: Despite everything that happened in our life there is a hope still lingering in the corner of my heart that Rishi is my destiny but if he decides to walk out of our marriage then I will never stop him and at the same time I will never return to dad and mom. I will stand on my own in my life and may be I will leave this place forever. Mine and Rishi’s life is entirely different whereas you and Manjari got married out of love so don’t give up easily. Try for the sake of your love, give her a chance. She might be jealous but she is not brave enough to live a life on her own.

Vimal: You are too good for this world Aadhi. I m not sure if I can forgive her but I will try and sure I need time.

Aadhi: Thank you bro, I m sure you will find your happily ever after.

Vimal smiled at her and pulled out a stack of money and passed it to Aadhi but she refused to accept it from him.

Aadhi: Bro, I have sufficient money for my expense.

Vimal: Did Rishi give you money ?

Aadhi: No, but the money you left in my college bag was so much and in fact I thought of returning some cash to you. Why do you leave so much money ?

Vimal: Aadhi, I never placed any money in your college bag. The only money I gave you was the day we packed your belongings.

Aadhi rushed to the closet and returned with a stack of money and showed it to Vimal.

Aadhi: These money bro, you might have forgotten.

Vimal: No Aadhi, I gave you money in exchanges of 100s since you will need to eat snacks but these are all exchanges of 500s.

Aadhi Mv: Rishi ? Did he place all these money for me ?

Aadhi: I think Rishi placed these money, let it be, I will talk to him when we meet.

Vimal: Aadhi, I will leave now but please call me if you need anything and I will keep visiting you frequently.

Aadhi bobed her head and Vimal took his leave not before thanking Malini and her parents for taking care of Aadhi.

Malini and Aadhi laid on the bed and Aadhi informed her about Vani’s call to meet her at the cafe.

Malini: Aadhi, I don’t think she would do any good to you so better be careful in handling her. Don’t give up so easily, it should be you and your crushy baby to decide your life.

Aadhi bobed her head and closed her eyes already knowing what was awaiting for her the next day.