Chapter 14

Chapter 14

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[NOCOPY]

Geet held Dadima’s palm in hers ``Dadima, bilkul apana nahi samajhti na mujhe. Sab meri hee galti hai''

“Nahi nahi bete. Once you have left us because it was so uncomfortable for you to live. Don’t want to take any chance”

“Dadima, I didn't leave for any discomfort. And if I left my house because of the discomfort, I really feel I have failed as Daughter in law of the house. I left for…”

Dadima caressed her cheek “You don’t need to say.. Go check on Advay”

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Geet went to the office, while Annie took the initiative to drop Advay. Everyone wanted to do everything for the little one. Ohh… the whole family is there, ready to shower love on her little one, what else could she ask. How had she snatched such wonderful moments from her son’s life? How selfish she had been? No, not anymore. For her son, she is going to forget how he hated her and how he had showered his hatred on her. She will only think for her son now, they were all ready to shower love to him and even her. How they are all apologetic to her, when she has left her duty as daughter-in-law and ran away from them without a word, not caring how much pain they would have been in. For one person, what right did she have to hurt the whole family who loved her more than their own blood. Not anymore, she will reciprocate their love and give them that love and more in return

Misty reached the office with hesitation but felt relieved when people were normal to her and only asked of her health. She was so thankful to Chetan who did not mention her marital status to anyone. Well, this is what she expected from Chetan, still she was very thankful.

After settling in the office, she went to Chetan’s office to thank him.

“Thanks for keeping the news to yourself”

“Of course Misty. You are my friend, I won’t leak any personal information of yours. It is between you and Mr.Khurana.”

When Misty returned, she found Advay was with his Dad. She knew how Advay was excited about his new playroom that Dad had got done for him.

“Geet, go freshen up dear, we will have tea in the garden”

“Sure Dadima”

After half an hour, Geet, Dadima and Annie were seated in the garden. Now it had been a week, and she, who till now was relieved that he was not showering anger on her and was keeping himself away, now was wondering about his complete absence.

Maybe he got his son, why would he need to come and trouble her. Anyways, why does she matter to him? Was her heart somewhere yearning to get his glimpse. Geet shrugged her thoughts when Annie asked for her day.

Maan was sitting and watching his son, playing with his toys. His eyes went out the window and he saw the three ladies seated in the garden, chatting.

How happy she looked. yes, of course far away from him. He dialed Dadima

“Dadima, if she is expecting Advay, you text me. He is busy playing but I will sweet talk him to leave” Savitri Devi received Maan’s text

“Okay, I will check” he texted back

Geet and Annie were busy talking. Both girls were enjoying each other's company.

“Geet, dear, Advay is playing in the outhouse, do you want him here?”

Geet could sense, it was Maan who must have checked. She was completely not able to understand this change in him. And more confused as how he had kept himself unseen.She has known by now that only Dadima and he resided here. So he must not have left Dadima alone in this Manor and himself reside in the outhouse. Then did he stay here in Manor and moved out because she is here? Why is he doing so much for her? No it cannot be her? It is his son. He cannot take a chance that she disappears with their son again and that is the reason he is taking all the care.

“It's fine. Only if he comes before dinner. I was planning to make his favorite cheese sandwich for dinner.”

“Sure “ and Dadima sent the message. Geet could sense, she was communicating with Maan. All this made her so curious, why was he being so submissive to her wishes ? Even for his son, but he was not the man to be scared of anyone, she being the last one on earth. She rejected her own idea of him being scared of her running. He has immense power to get hold of her. But then what was the matter?

“Nakul, drop kiddo to the manor”

“Okay sir, won’t Baba have dinner here”

Maan picked Advay and placed him in his lap and ruffled his hair

“Advay, Mumma is back from office. Don’t you want to run to her? She must be waiting for you”

“Mumma… Adhay wanna go to mumma. Daddy come to”

Maan signaled Nakul to wait outside. After Nakul left

“What did Daddy say? Daddy has so much work and everyone gets angry at Daddy for working late. You want to see all shout on Daddy”

Little kid immediately hugged his Dad. “No one scolding my Daddy.”

Maan kissed his forehead

“How can anyone scold dad when you are there. But they will be sad with Dad working all day.. Hmm”

“Hmmm” little kid had to agree after getting confused with dad’s reason of not going to the Manor

Maan sent Advay after reminding him of not talking about him to his Mom. He didn’t want Geet to anyway feel he was trying to influence Advay. Maan did not want to trouble Geet with his mention. He knew, even mentioning his name regularly can hurt her.

After sending Advay, Maan got busy in his work, in between smiling at the thought of how Geet must be feeding him and how Advay must be running around. Ohh boy, he cannot sit still. Annie and Geet must be having their BFF moments. Dadima, though herself old, will still be taking care of both the girls. Everything will happen, Geet’s life he will ensure, will be filled with love, care and family. Only he will not be part of it because he should not and because he is needed to stay away. He can give her happiness but cannot have the luck to see her smiling and laughing with others.

Manor had actually come alive with Geet, Advay, and pregnant Annie.

Maan was about to retire to bed. He knew sleep was not something that would come so easily, he was sipping his whiskey and lost in how the realization of love has hit him slowly but very hard. How his days, months and years had been barren, how he had felt like a fish caught from the sea and thrown in the desert to live in the world without water and die with restlessness.

How her continuous unavailability increased his yearning for her. His nights became restless. First it had been anger, and ego that she will be back one day. First two months, every night, he would be frustrated by her absence and with the start of the sunlight his endless wait for her to show up would start and continue till sunset.

Though, he would try keeping himself immensely busy but even the movement of wind made him check on the door.

Though his restlessness was immense, the first two months, his ego did not let him go search for her. She loved him madly and he was sure she cannot stay away from him. But that was only not the fact, he kept keen eyes on the effort that Dadima, Dev and Annie put in search of Geet. He, from the background, did have his men on mission as well.

But when nothing was found and as everyone around started losing hope, Maan’s restlessness increased. He started missing her every moment. He felt he needed a single glimpse of hers so that he could breathe properly. Nights definitely were sleepless, the room felt haunted. He was mostly found in the swimming pool all night and gym in the morning and daytime work like a workaholic. His hope that she will be back because she loved him was shattering. The facade of ego started falling.

They could clearly see the change in him. He started becoming the man with no words, no comment on what people did, how they acted, he internally started becoming the calm man she wished for. Maybe that would bring her back.. He was completely broken from within by then. At night in these months, his anger over her sudden disappearance vanished and turned into a plea.

“Please Geet aa jao. You know I need you, still you left me alone”

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Another night:

“I never accepted, but you knew I could not survive in this world without you, then how could you leave me alone”

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Further, another nights

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“Yeh dil dukhta hai Geet. Tumhare Maan ko dard ho raha hai, aa jao, aa jao na” slumped on the ground and stayed like that the whole night, sitting at the footboard of bed.

He had no idea when he slept and when woke up. Be it daylight, and he would immerse himself in work. Some mission was needed for him to survive.

More days passed. His search increased

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“These people are not able to find you but I know, you want your Maan to find you”

“Geet, I will go mad in this place without you. I will be a changed man, I promise. Aao jao.. Ek baar” He started missing his meals. Dev and Annie started getting their frustration on him. For the way he was devastated, for torturing Geet to the extent that she left him and now his madness. Maan started getting used to their blames, took them all without a word. He felt he needed those, deserved those. People's rudeness with him gave him the escape, the satisfaction. He wanted to be punished more and more and any bad treatment felt less to him.

He still remembers how suffocated life had been for him as each night he had begged her to be back.

Then, when the pain had become unbearable, he had left everything and set on to search for her, and didn't care if all knew he needed her back.

Maan was a man of extremes. In his anger he had tortured Geet to extreme and now when the consequences of his acts hit him, he wanted double triple torture for him. So Dev’s and Annie’s anger gave him satisfaction but were not enough. He was finding his own ways to punish himself.

He had frequent visits to unknown jungles, stayed days there and would be back after weeks.

No one knows, what happened in which trip of his, and in which obviously he didn’t care to take care of himself, that he developed an unknown symptoms of extreme fever with extreme body ache. Doctors are still working to find when this symptom first hit him, but Maan declined to answer. He has lost interest in getting better.

Maan, was still lost in his own journey after she left , going down the memory lane

“Knock Knock”, he turned to see Dadima at the door

“Dadima, You?? At this hour?”

“What do I do? I miss my grandson. You are staying alone here, I keep worrying about you.”

“Dadima, how am I alone? You all are here nearby. Advay keeps entertaining me and rest I have my work. I am completely fine. And Annie and Geet are there with you, I know they will be available for you more than I can ever be”

They settled on the sofa. Maan asked Nakul to get Green tea for Dadima as he sipped his whisky

“Maan, now she is here. I know how you have yearned for her. Why don’t you go and talk to her? Just talk and tell her how you have realized your mistake, how you have realized her importance in your life, how you have searched for her and how much you love her”

“No Dadima, you know my going in front of her can disturb her. And when I am out of her life now, when she has moved on beyond me, why should I tell her my story and make things complicated for her. She is just here so that she stays between you all. What I have felt for her or feel for her, does not matter at all. I do not matter, Dadima. It’s about her and Advay. Please let be that way”

Dadmia came and settled beside him.

“Maan, maybe she is waiting to know you feel love towards her, that your heart beats only for her. Maybe this will give her the happiness that is missing from her life”

Maan gave a small laugh

“Dadima, are you joking with me? I am that person, seeing whom she landed in the hospital and you think she is waiting to know I feel for. I know Dadima, you love me but accept the fact that I do not exist in her world and rightly so. Why would she have any feelings for a person who was nothing but a monster of her life. Please don’t be selfish. Dadima, if you love her, you would not want me in her life. I love her and that is why I do not want monster like me in her life”

“Okay, leave it” Dadima gave up for the time being. He would not listen

“No, promise me, you will not bring up this topic again. “

“Okay, I won’t.” Dadima left it there. She will let the time decide, if their love is stronger enough to take over his guilt and her hurt and pain.

Geet lay beside Advay to make him sleep. She read him the story and the excited boy has now calmed down and given himself to sleep. She could see the content in his face and that brought content on her face. He does not have to be awake till late night to wait for his Mom. He has the whole world here to take care of him. If she is not there, he has his Dad to run to, then Dadima and Annie. Jenny definitely was there but she had her own family, this was definitely different than that. He has his family always here for him, she cannot get over this feeling.

Seeing Advay like that she was lost in how she had brought him into this world. Ohh that night…. And how it had been now or never. How hard it had been for her to decide to go far away from him, imagine a life without him, take his child away from him. But the fear of what he could do in his anger was so huge that it had overpowered every factor. She can bear anything but cannot bear to have her child snatched away from her.

No, not today. She doesn't want to erase this beautiful feeling with the memories of those painful days.

A month passed, Geet got busy in Geetanjali Dreams. Meera informed her that the project was in fact in her name and she was boss of it. Geet wondered how and why? She can not in any case take it seriously. Meera is just trying to advocate for her Veerji. But why did he name it Geetanjali, her old name on papers. But did he even know her official name? Did she ever matter to him to that extent? No, there must be entirely different reasons or just a consequence.

Two more months passed and Geet received love and pampering from all ends - Dev, Meera, Annie, Dadima, Arjun and Chetan at the office end. They had a get-together, people specially flew from India to be with Advay and her, they went for movies, picnics etc. The thing that overwhelmed her was, they gave her work and her needs the most priority and others would adjust accordingly. This was her family, Geet would absorb the feel of it.

But in all this Maan was never there. She never had guts to ask about him and they preferred to keep his subject away. He was workaholic and mostly away on tours. Geet had no idea, that was his way to get Geet all happiness without him being any near. But one thing she knew, wherever he would be, one call from his son and he would leave everything to attend even the silliest wish of the little boy.

In all this luxury and pampering, Geet’s heart would Start wondering about Maan. Something seemed off and anything off with Maan made her uneasy and restless.

It was one such Monday morning. Arjun had taken his pregnant wife for a small tour to Switzerland. Dadima suddenly was not well. Geet had a very important meeting but still she was ready to cancel

“Dadima, I will cancel the meeting”

“No Dear, I am not that unwell. Also Nakul is there on his toes.”

Geet got a call from Chetan “Misty, This is again a big client. Will you be able to come?” he sounded nervous

“Bete, you go. Attend the meeting and come in the afternoon. I will be fine, you go”

“Okay Dadima. It is important for Chetan. I will just attend the meetings and be back in afternoon”

Geet attended the meeting. They have to do the presentation. She got free by noon.

“Chetan, I will rush, Dadima is not well. No one is at home to look after her”

“Misty, I am so happy, you are talking of family now.” “I’ll rush” and she left

Geet reached Manor by 1pm. She placed her purse, washed her hands and ran to Dadima’s room. She was entering the room in momentum when there was a sudden halt in her speed.

Maan - he was seated beside Dadima. Seeing him after so many days, at last she got to see him. So much curiosity she had piled up for him, his well being, that a relief ran through her seeing him. When had she thought that seeing him would give her any relief? Why was she not feeling scared of his presence, instead all her thoughts were directed on his well being.

“Geet bete” called out Dadima. Maan looked at Geet. After so many days he is getting this closer glimpse of her. But he soon got hold of himself. Gave a faint smile to her and looked at Dadima

“Dadima, take care. I have some work, will catch up with that” He was talking to Dadima and Geet’s eyes were fixed on him.

Maan caressed dadima’s forehead and with complete down to earth posture left the room. Their path crossed, he did not meet his eyes with hers but signaled from hand to let her in.

Geet’s heart got a jolt seeing him this time. Not for her but for him. Physically he looked fine, but she could sense the lines of torn in him. He looked broken and defeated. Something pierced in Geet’s heart as he left the room.

Author's Note - Thank you dear reader for your participation. Trust me, it means so much and gives me immense happiness. Again, I have placed effort to bring emotions in this update. Please please come out and tell me how it was. Please dear readers.

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