Ishra FF ||A Contract Of Love|| Prologue ~ Chapter 24B - Page 44

Originally posted by: DilMereSuntaNhi

Thank You , I am so in Love with this Story

Hey everyone! Have the 13th chapter all ready! I am sorry for the late update, but my internet has been really messed up lately! I was supposed to post at 8pm IST last night before my school started here, but the internet didn't work. I apologize and will try to update sooner next time! Thanks for waiting patiently! So here is the update not proofread (of course!)...

Soon after he left, she saw Mrs. Bhalla enter the kitchen again. She carried Ruhi following her.

"Aunty, I will help out!"

"You're calling me aunty again?"

"Sorry, Mummyji. You sit with Ruhi and rest, I will do this."

"Not at all, you stay with Ruhi and get her ready for the guests. And Raman told me you needed to adjust some things in your room, so you do that. I will handle all this."

"Are you sure?"

"Totally! Just dress up my angel beautifully! And also for the dinner you need to make any sweet dish and that's all the kitchen work you need to do. "

She nodded and went into their room with Ruhi. She entered the room to find her suitcase had been moved to a small table by the cupboard. She shook her head at his actions and whispered to Ruhi.

"Look at your Papa's antics."

Ruhi smiled at her and she placed her in crib giving her a small toy to play with. She opened up her suitcase and slowly started to unpack her clothes placing them into hangers. She opened up the cupboard to find half of it empty for her. She slowly filled up the empty space in no time with her sarees and kurtis. She finished her unpacking and only left behind two sarees for the evening. She left them on the bed and went to the cupboard to take out Ruhi's things for her bath. She picked up Ruhi and sat down with her tired. After playing with her for a couple of minutes, she took her to the bathroom to get her dressed. As she was giving Ruhi a bath, her phone rang and she put it on speaker without checking since Ruhi was busy splashing water while playing with her toy...

"Hello!"

She heard his voice bringing a smile to her face...

"Hi! You called at this time?"

"I was free for a couple of minutes, and thought I'd call you. So what's happening?"

"Right now Papa's darling is being very naughty and not listening to me, right?!"

He realized he was on speaker and Ruhi was around so...

"Ruhi?! No, my Ruhi isn't naughty right?!"

Ruhi squealed loudly letting him know she agreed with him. Ishita tickled her making her smile & giggle. He smiled over the phone and asked Ishita seriously...

"Are you okay, is she giving you a hard time?"

"No, no I was just kidding."

"So what else is going on?"

"Not much. I put my clothes away like you had asked me to and now I'm getting Ruhi ready. Mummyji is working on lunch preparations and isn't letting me do a thing, probably because you told her not to."

"You cannot prove that."

"So it was you! I knew it!"

"Whatever! Anyways, I just want to warn you, Ma's friends are loud just like Ma herself, so if you can't handle them, tell mom and she will handle them for you. Or you could simply become louder than them which I doubt you will be."

"Thanks for the warning, but I think Mummyji is sweet and not loud."

"Buttering up your mother-in-law, nice!"

"I am not! I seriously like her."

"Whatever you say. Anyways now I have to go. So I will call you back if I get some time later on."

"Don't worry, just concentrate on your work! Bye!"

"Bye!"

She hung up the phone and took Ruhi back into the bedroom wrapped up in a towel. She dressed Ruhi up in cute yellow top and paired it with shorts knowing she felt hot quite often. As she finished dressing her up, she looked back at the sarees she had left out for herself and couldn't pick what to wear.

"What should I wear this evening? I can't understand anything." She talked to herself.

She looked at Ruhi who lay on the bed next to the clothes and playfully asked...

"Ruhi will you help me?"

Ruhi smiled at her and Ishita nuzzled her earning giggles from the infant.

She lifted up a blue saree and Ruhi cooed and smiled. Then she lifted up a red saree and Ruhi didn't react at all.

"So my baby likes blue! Okay then that's what I'll wear!"

She got ready quickly for the guests who were coming over and went outside to find Mrs. Bhalla had everything all done. As they both finished setting up the table, the doorbell started to ring and slowly everyone started to show up. She was introduced by his mother and all her friends seemed to have liked her so far. They all busily chatted away and she just kept to herself and played with Ruhi after feeding her. She stayed quiet most of the time, only nodding, smiling and giving a few word sentences when asked anything. The only time she really talked to anyone was when she helped serve the food to everyone and that was all. As she sat eating lunch, she got a text from him...

"Are you busy?"

"Mummyji's friends are here. By the way, you could have called."

"I could have, but that would have ended up in a lot of teasing from mom's friends. I told you they are a crazy bunch."

"Thanks then! And have you eaten yet?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm busy and didn't feel like it."

"That's why you're texting right now; so busy. Stop the texting and go eat."

"Fine whatever! Just don't act like mom."

"That's a nice way to say bye."

"I know right! Bye!"

"Bye."

She smiled looking down and her phone and the lady sitting next to her nudged her arms. She looked up to find everyone staring at her and giggling. And he was right! I am in for some long teasing sessions, she thought to herself and just looked down at her food and continued to eat. Half an hour and a lot of teasing later, Mrs. Bhalla's friends started to leave. They all left together blessing Ishita and Ruhi who were busy in their own world until their names were mentioned.

As they left, Ishita fed Ruhi again and then put her to sleep. She put her into the cradle placed in the living room for her as she headed to the kitchen. She offered help, but was told not to work much. So she focussed on what she needed to make. She asked her mother-in-law what Raman would like to eat for dessert to which she got a reply saying he doesn't like eating sweets and hardly ever eats desserts anymore. She was lost on what to make when Mrs. Bhalla quietly whispered to her...

"But he will give in if there is kheer on the table."

Ishita smiled at her and knew what she would make for him now. By the time she finished making kheer for him, it was only 3. So with the 3 hours she had to spare, she went into her room as Mrs. Bhalla took Ruhi with her to her room. She took out her laptop and looked through her emails from work. As she worked through all she had missed in the past few days, she didn't realize when she closed her eyes and dozed off.

He entered the house at 6; an hour earlier than planned to find it all quiet. He peeked into his mother's room to find her busy with a book as Ruhi slept on the bed. He asked about Ishita and was told she had been in her room for almost 3 hours. When not getting an answer when asked why, he became worried. He knew her enough to know she isn't someone who would listen to him and actually rest, so he rushed into their room to find her peacefully sleeping. He sighed relieved and went over to her. He put away her laptop and covered her with a blanket and quietly walked to the bathroom not disturbing her.

She woke up as she heard the door open. As she opened her eyes, she saw him walk out of the bathroom wearing his casual clothes. Seeing him home, she looked at the clock which read 6:30PM. She quickly sat up and went to the mirror to adjust her saree and hair. As she was doing that, she kept on muttering to herself and he didn't catch anything except.

"Sorry, I don't know when I fell asleep. You could have woken me up!"

"It's fine. You're finally doing what I want you to, so why would I wake you up?"

"This is just one time. Not every day. I do what I want."

"Okay then." He shrugged at her and walked out the room only to return with Ruhi in his hands.

She knew he was agreeing for namesake, but for sure wasn't going to let her do what she wanted. She brushed away the topic and turned her attention to Raman and Ruhi. He talked to Ruhi in an animated voice about his day and how he missed her. She also grabbed his shirt not wanting to leave him when he tried to put her down again, so he held onto her. Ishita couldn't help, but aww at the scene in front of her eyes. He looked up at her and smiled before walking out asking her to come as well since everyone was arriving.

She came outside after touching up her makeup and hair. As she came the doorbell rang and Raman opened the door to a group of people. Most of them were his relatives except a few were their neighbours. As she looked at everyone, there was only one face she recognized; Subbu's aunt! Anger filled her as she remembered Subbu, but controlled herself realized the time and place. This is not happening she thought to herself. Raman invited them all in, and introduced everyone to her. As he reached Subbu's aunt, Ishita lowered her eyes not wanting to make eye contact. Raman told her that she was an old neighbour of theirs and was gone to Chennai during their wedding.

"Hello Ishita! Sorry I couldn't attend your wedding. Actually my nephew was getting married on the same weekend."

Ishita just said hello and ignored the rest. She didn't care about what Subbu did and didn't do in his life. It didn't matter to her if he was married or not. She ignored her remark and continued to meet everyone else. Everything was going okay as no one said anything to her in Raman's presence. But unfortunately as dinner was being served, he had to receive an important call and went into the room. She was left alone on the dinner table with Subbu's aunt in front of her.

She saw her whisper in the ear of the lady next to her and the next moment, they both stared at her. She looked down and knew their gaze was still on her. She wanted to run away and hide from them. She knew she didn't care about what anyone else ever thought about her, but now they were say all kinds things about her to Raman and Mummyji and she would hate for them to hear such things about her. She was on the verge of tears when she saw him from the corner of her eyes come sit next to her. She felt horrible that he was around to hear everything they would say, so she quietly excused herself to go the kitchen. He hadn't failed to see the women whispering amongst themselves and knew something was up for sure and when she left, he asked them.

"Auntyji, what's all the whispering about?" he asked cheerfully.

"Nothing we were just talking about your wife."

"What about her?"

"Beta, I just thought your choice would be different."

"What do you mean by different?"

"I wasn't expecting you to get married with a girl who was with someone else a few months back."

"Until 3 months back, I was with a different woman as well. Does that make me a man unsuitable for marriage?"

"No beta, not at all. Whatever happened to you was just your destiny."

"Then this was her destiny. Aunty this happen in life and change your life. New relationships form and old ones breaks. You meet new people and stop meeting people you already knew. It happens and it's no one's fault. So we shouldn't blame Ishita right?"

They all stared at him speechlessly. All the women could do was nod at him and continue to eat. His mother smiled proudly while Ishita looked him gratefully as she had heard everything he said. He smiled at everyone and continued to eat. The rest of dinner was a quiet affair as no one had much left to say except small little chats started by Mrs. Bhalla here and there.

As dinner came to end, he excused himself and went inside taking Ruhi along with him. As everyone was starting to leave, she quietly slipped into the room. She found him changing Ruhi into more comfortable clothes and helped him with her quietly. She saw he was angry about something and she assumed it was what happened outside. But he was so calm and cool-headed then, so what happened to him now...

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"How can they say any nonsense about anybody? They don't even know you well enough to say anything!"

"Raman, you also don't know me so well, and you don't even know my past relationship, then why did you defend me & decide it's not my fault?"

"I know it's not. I have seen you when you talk about your ex. That pain in your eyes, it tells me everything. You were very hurt in this relationship, and if you were the one who called it off, I wouldn't blame you. He gave you a lot of pain didn't he?"

She only nodded and looked away as a tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered Subbu and everything he had done to her. Raman saw the tear and it hurt him to see her cry, and he wanted it to stop remembering what he had promised himself the other day.

"Hey...it's okay. He is the past now. The baby and Ruhi are our future. Just think about them." He said softly wanting her to stop crying.

"I hate him Raman, I hate him a lot. He wasn't courageous enough accept our child. He didn't care one bit about this child, forget me. And there is you, you do so much for us. You wouldn't let me get off the bed if it was in your control."

"I am just doing what any father would do for his baby."

"That's what you think, but not everyone is like you. You're different..."

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Chapter 14- Page 66