Made For Each Other BeHir FF Ch4: The Missing Wifey Updated on 4th Dec - Page 2

CHAPTER 4: THE MISSING WIFEY

Mahir woke up in the middle of the night to find Bella missing from the bed. He assumed that she had gone to the bathroom but then her overcoat was still lying on the floor. Then he realised. Why would she need an overcoat inside the bathroom? He shook his. Bella was so weird. She had insisted on putting on her clothes as soon as they were done. Her excuse was that she would feel cold at night without her clothes. He had offered to let her cuddle very close to him but even then she had put on her gown.

He waited for her come out of the bathroom. But as minutes ticked by and there was still no sign of Bella he got up and went to the bathroom, wondering if she had fallen asleep there or what? The door to the bathroom was ajar and there was no light there either. He cautiously entered the bathroom to find it empty.

Where the hell was Bella? He thought maybe she had gone out for some fresh air or something and even he stepped out of the room to look for her. The outside corridor was completely deserted. He went to the kitchen to see if she was there but even the kitchen was empty. Now he was almost convinced that Bella was playing a prank on him. 'Well, she could continue to play pranks on him. He would sleep,' he thought as he went back to bed.

Mahir’s morning routine began at 5:00 AM. As usual, he woke up and began to freshen up. Bella was still missing from the room. Now he was very worried about her. He was also feeling guilty for having slept instead of looking for her. He decided to wait till after his bath. If she had still not returned to the room, he would go and wake up Sumitra. He hurried inside the bathroom and had a quick shower. He came out hoping that Bella would have come back to the room. But no such luck.

With nothing else left to do, he went to Andy and Sumitra’s room and loudly knocked on the door. They both were just waking up and were surprised to hear knocking on the door so early in the morning. They were even more surprised to see a panicked Mahir standing outside the door.

"Ma, Bella is missing from our room. She is nowhere to be found... I don’t know what to do..." Mahir told Sumitra frantically.

"Mahir, calm down. Take a deep breath and now tell me what’s wrong?' Sumitra's soothing voice calmed him to some extent.

"Ma, Bella is not in our room," Mahir told her again.

"Okay, did you check the bathroom?" Sumitra asked him.

"Of course ma. I took a bath there. She is not there." Mahir replied impatiently.

"What? That girl is missing? Now the media will have filed day smearing our name. First Yuvi ran away and now even Bella is missing. We got to handle the media Mahir. No one can know about this." Andy told him worriedly.

"How can you be worried about this dad? My wife is missing!" Mahir asked his father angrily.

"What? I am worried about her too but more than that I am worried about my reputation." Andy's casual stance was infuriating an already worried Mahir. Andy was not usually this insensitive but Yuvi eloping with his ex had already delivered a huge blow to him. And now if Bella had indeed disappeared because she was regretting getting married to Mahir then, the Sehgals would be blamed for it as Andy very well knew. Old scandals would get dugout and that was never pleasant.

Mahir ignored his dad and turned to Sumitra, "Ma, we will have to look for her. Shall I call the police?"

"Whoa!!! No police Mahir. Didn’t I just say that no one should know about this?" Andy interjected quickly.

"But dad..." Mahir began arguing but Sumitra quickly interrupted them.

"It is too early to contact the police but if it came to that we will do it okay?" she told Mahir. To Andy she added, "But I don’t it will come to that." Tuning back to Mahir she asked him,"Did you check Yuvi’s room?"

"But why would she go there?" Mahir asked her puzzled and somewhat hurt.

"Mahir, you will have to remember that she had come to this house planning to marry him. He ran away and so she married you. It is not so easy to forget about your first love. I know she will be annoyed with him but it will not be so easy to forget him. Let’s go and check his room first." Sumitra explained gently. Although the words hurt him like a physical wound, Mahir nodded his head.

They all proceeded towards Yuvi’s room only to find it empty except for Bella’s bags. Mahir was relieved. Although he understood what Sumitra was trying to explain, he was not sure how he would have handled the situation had he found his wife crying over his brother's betrayal.

"Did you check her father’s room? He is ill and maybe she got worried for him and went to sleep with him? It is worth trying." Sumitra suggested, trying to curb her fears.

"No ma I didn’t," Mahir admitted."But how will I face him if she is not there? That is why I was avoiding going there. He is as it is not well and on top of that this. He will think that I did something that made her run away." Mahir finally voiced out his fears.

'Maybe I shouldn't have taken our relationship to the next level. I mean, yes she initiated it but I should have shown some restraint... Maybe everything was just too much for her and that's she ran away..." he thought to himself.

Just then his sister Kuhu came there and interrupted his chain of thoughts.

"Offo bahi! Aren’t you being overdramatic? Runaway and all. Maybe she is just in the garden for some fresh air," she reasoned.

Kuhu's husband, RJ joined them.

"Waise Mahir bahi, what did you do huh?? Were you so wild last night that she thought she will not be able to handle it?" Although he didn't mean it that way, his comment hit a raw nerve and Mahir snapped at him.

"Shut up RJ. I am not in the mood for your stupid jokes." Turning ti Kuhu Mahir asked her, "Who told you Kuhu?"

"Dad came and woke us all up." Kuhu replied somewhat disgruntled that her morning sleep was disturbed. "Even nautanki is on her way here. I don’t know why you tolerate her in your home ma." Kuhu told Sumitra. She was referring to Polo. Although Kuhu had long since made peace with her father's second wife, she could not tolerate Polo for more than a few minutes at a time. This was not because Polo was Andy's second wife but because Polo was exactly opposite of Kuhu personalitywise.

"Kuhu baby, relax. Don’t stress otherwise you will get dark circles and stress lines." RJ tried to calm his temperamental wife.

Just then Poloumi came there with Pratham and Suhani.

"Jaan," she called out to Andy and Kuhu rolled her eyes.

"Mahir bahi, did you find Bella?" Suhani asked him worriedly.

"No..." Mahir replied.

"Mahir bhai we will split up and look for her okay?" Pratham suggested.

Mahir nodded his head and went to check out the grounds. In half an hour everyone gathered in the living room. They had all been unable to find Bella. Mahir had even asked the night duty watchman whether he had seen Bella going out but he had said that he had not seen Bella at all that night. Mahir was really worried now. Where could she be? She not there anywhere in the house.

"Aree, everyone is up? Why didn’t anyone come to wake me up?" Hearing Bella's father's voice everyone jumped and looked at each other guiltily.

Mahir quickly went and touched his feet.

"God bless you beta. Where is Bella? Is she still sleeping? I will go and wake her up," he said noticing that only Bella was missing.

"No uncl.. .I mean baba. Don’t worry she is taking a bath and will be here soon. Let’s all have breakfast while we are here. You are supposed to take your medicines so let’s eat something." Mahir quickly led him to the dining table.

Sumitra looked at Mahir and he signalled her that it’s okay. She nodded her head and called the maid to set out the breakfast table for them. Bella’s father was protesting.

"But how can we have breakfast without Bella. She is the daughter-in-law of this house. She must understand her responsibilities now. I will go and call her..." he protested.

"Mr Sharma please understand. She must be tired after last night. Let her take her time..." Polo quickly said and Bella's father looked embarrassed but nodded his head.

Sumitra gave Polo a half exasperated half grateful look and Polo winked at her. Sumitra smiled to herself. 'Trust Polo to defuse the tension in the most unique way,' Sumitra thought.

Bella's father reluctantly agreed to have his breakfast. All through the breakfast, Mahir kept looking at the door hoping that Bella would miraculously come but she didn’t. After the breakfast, Mahir gently broke the news of Bella being missing since mid-night to her father.

"I swear baba I will look for her. I don’t know where she is but I will call the police immediately and..." Mahir began guiltily but stopped when he saw that Bella's father was smiling softly.

"Before you do that come with me. I think I know where she is," he said.

"You do?" Mahir asked him surprised.

He nodded and led everyone to Mahir’s room.

"Please don’t make any noise," he cautioned them and everyone nodded their heads.

He quietly went to the bed and raised the bed sheet covered the bed, it was hanging loose from all the sides of the bed. There sleeping peacefully curled up like a cat was Bella. Everyone gasped in surprise and he led them all out again.

"I am sorry, I forgot to mention and she has a habit of rolling around in her sleep. With both of them sleeping on the single bed she must have rolled off the bed at night," he explained.

Everyone laughed at that. Mahir entered the room quietly and wriggled under the bed and gently caressed her face and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

She opened her eyes slowly at Mahir's gentle touch and saw that Mahir was nearly on top of her.

"What are you doing Mahir?" she asked him sleepily.

"Trying to wake you up. Come out carefully now. You are under the bed." Mahir explained.

"Oh shit!" Bella exclaimed.

They both wriggled out from under the bed to find the entire family waiting for them outside the room. Bella blushed deeply at the sight of them. Sumitra ushered everyone away to spare Bella the embarrassment.

"Were you worried?" Bella asked Mahir.

"I had panicked," Mahir confessed. "But I did not know that you had the habit of sleeping under the bed. It’s a nice idea, one we might try sometime. So intimate and close. What do you say?" Mahir asked her mischievously.

Bella’s response was a deep blush and a radiant smile.