Added Chapter 23: All The King's Men: PreRish - Page 90 - Page 30

This is interesting. Now please update soon😳.

Oh god i thought its update plz update na

Please update soon 

Interesting preview

Waiting for update

Why you are itching with this 😭Pls update soon. Thanks ,all the best for the upcoming update.

Here goes nothing.

If you like it, be sure to let me know. It's what keeps us pseudo writers going. And it's pretty annoying to write so many drafts and proof read and try and do a half-decent job for no reward. Give me a reward, I say.

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The skies had opened up and it was pouring as if Judgment Day were here. The evening news had forewarned them of a cyclone brewing off the coast of Orissa which was causing unprecedented rainfall in Kolkata and people were being advised to stay indoors. Prerna sat at the dining table, across her husband, waiting for Kuki to come in from the garden so they could begin their meal. Just as she opened her mouth to breach the silence, Kuki came hurtling through the garden doors, tears running down her face.

“What’s the matter! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rishabh asked worriedly, quickly putting his phone down on the table as she launched her small body at Prerna, throwing herself in her lap, wrapping her tiny arms around her.

“Tubby ran out!” she cried out.

“Ran out? Ran out of the house?” Prerna asked, rubbing Kuki’s back comfortingly, trying to make sense of the broken words. She had kept a watchful eye on Kuki who had been playing with Tubby on the expansive gazebo in the garden so when exactly had he slipped out?

“We were playing fetch and I threw the ball very hard. It got stuck in the tree and fell outside.” The sobs getting louder. “Tubby ran after it and slipped out through the back gate. ” she wailed, wiping her face on Prerna’s saree folds. “He ran outside the house! It’s raining!”

“We’ll get him back, babygirl. Dogs are very smart and Tubby is the smartest of them all. He'll come back home. No crying, abhi.” Rishabh laid on the white lies in a reassuring manner, trying to calm their child down.

Oh shit. Prerna thought. Tubby escaped? It was thundering and the city was drowning. If he had escaped, he could be anywhere in the city by now. Prerna’s mind immediately drew the worst possible conclusion. She took a steadying breath, pushing Kuki’s soft hair away from her tear-stained face.

“No more of that. Come, show me. Maybe he’s just by the fence.” She took Kuki’s hand, motioning for Rishabh to stay seated when he made a move to get up. The less they amplified the pet crisis the better. The gazebo’s light provided enough illumination to see the whole courtyard through the torrential downpour.

No signing of that squiggling fat pup. Crap.

Maybe he was just on the other side of the gate? She was going to have step out into the rain to make sure. Not wanting to waste few more seconds by changing into rain gear, Prerna decided to make a dash for the gate as is.

“Baboo,” Prerna crooned, pulling her daughter away from the canopy edge. “Stay inside, okay? I’ll get him back. Go find Papa and tell him Mama is just coming.” She ushered her further in toward the house before running out into the thundering night.

Dressed in dark pink ikat saree and house chappals, Prerna hurried towards the back entrance, signaling to the guard to open the gate. She had to find that dog or Kuki was going to be crushed, and the last thing she needed was to feel the pain of losing a loved one.

Prerna was drenched to the bone by the time she slipped out of the gate, hair plastered to her body. The back of their home opened into a one-way narrow residential street.  She started upward from the dead-end, steeling herself against the cold rain, but dreading the wind that was starting to pick up. She worried that Tubby would get hypothermic fast, he may have grown a lot in the last month or so but he was still a small puppy. The further down the street she walked, the more she was starting to panic.

“Tubby!” She called out as she crossed the street to the other side, the wind whipping her saree with a vengeance. She was getting colder by the second, and the longer she looked in desperation, the more her heart started to break. To give up now would mean that Tubby would die and she…

She didn’t know what came over her. She stood rooted at the spot. The back gate of her house very much in sight.

Panic seized her by the throat.

Tears started to mingle with the incessant rain.

Rishabh was going to be livid. And his anger was going to be directed at her for not being more attentive. But more than that, Kuki was going to be inconsolable and neither of them could bear to see that.

Either way, she couldn’t give up. She wouldn’t give up. She looked around frantically, seconds feeling like hours as the rain continued to pelt her.

“Tubby! TubTub!” she yelled, her voice hoarse, fully aware of how ridiculous she sounded yelling that name into the wind. She continued to shake the manicured bushes on the street sides, stumbling along in water logged roadway, feeling the kind of terror that makes your heart sink so low in your chest you don’t think it will ever rise again.

Please let me find him, please let him be okay.

She turned back to look through the line of bushes again when the street light caught a slight movement in the shrubbery. She thrust aside the soft leaves, heart thudding at the tiny yelp that came through.

“Prerna!”

Rishabh’s voice boomed across the street and she turned to see him jogging toward her, gigantic umbrella in hand.

“I found him!” She cried out in relief. “I found him! He’s okay!”

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She barely registered the short, huddled walk back to their home. Tubby was snuggled against her neck and she was bundled against Rishabh’s. She shivered wildly, trying to absorb some of his warmth, her wet saree billowing in the wind. He held the sturdy umbrella in one arm, the other one around her, guiding her through their garden and into the house.

“Papa!”  Kuki cried out, and Prerna managed to lift her head from Rishabh’s shoulder long enough to see Kuki break away from her nanny and run excitedly towards them. “Tubby! He’s okay!”  

“Where did you find him?” Kuki squealed with joy, wrapping herself against Prerna, wet clothes and all. Prerna wanted to join in the rejoicing but the numbness was starting to sink in, her extremities losing all sensation. Her teeth chattered as she watched Rishabh take off his slightly dampened coat and wrap Tubby in it, placing him in Alka’s arms, Kuki crouching beside him. Tubby’s tiny nose twitched, as if pleased at the ruckus he had caused.

Someone led her into the laundry room, even as Prerna silently protested at being extradited from the warm cocoon she was currently ensconced in. Wet clothes were pulled off her shivering, freezing body, replaced with a toasty fresh shirt and sweatpants. She barely noticed how the button-down blue shirt swam on her slim frame, only that it smelt like pine and strong coffee. She absently thanked the maid for wrapping a towel around her wet hair and stepped out into the living room, feeling disoriented and sluggish.

Her husband sat on the deep-seated cushioned chair, pouring steaming hot chocolate into a cup. He looked up sharply as she walked in and Prerna braced herself for the oncoming barrage.

“You shouldn’t have run off like that. What the f*ck were you thinking?”

Right on schedule. She didn’t respond, trying to find her fingers out of the overlarge shirt sleeves and accept the steaming mug he held out for her.

She didn’t notice the flare in his roaming eyes, nor the tightening of his full lips as he took in her attire.

His sharp words still hung in the air but he lifted his intense gaze off her face.

“Well?” he prodded. “You could have died out there. It's madness. The roads are flooded, the water is getting to be knee high. If you'd left the back street and gone any further, you could have gone down a gutter. ”

“It’s just a little rain.” Prerna’s voice was weak from exertion but she was stubborn.

He stared at her like she was a lunatic. “A little rain? How long would you have gone running for if you hadn’t found him so near to the house?”

“I wasn’t running.” She told him, which really had nothing to do with anything at all.

Rishabh didn't bother with a rejoinder, but his cool, dark eyes lingered on Prerna as if assessing her. He got up suddenly and threw a thick flannel blanket over her shoulders. Startled, she looked up at him.

"You were shivering," he said in explanation of his unusual act and moved away again.

"Thanks." She pulled the blanket around her, uncomfortable with the gesture, considerate though it was. She wished she could ignore her uneasiness about Rishabh, or atleast figure out why she was so hypersensitive to him. She had tried to hide her wariness and concentrate only on the role of being Kuki’s mother but ever since their fight on the night Kuki had fallen ill, their relationship had devolved into a sort of tensed uneasiness. Sometimes she felt as if they were in a silent battle no one else knew about, those rare times when their gazes would accidentally meet and distrust would be plain in hers, a slightly mocking awareness in his.

He never put a foot wrong, though, never did anything that would bring their discord into the open. His relationship with everyone around him was both easy and professional. With her, he was unfailingly polite and impersonal, and even that was a measure of his professionalism. Prerna knew that Rishabh wouldn’t do anything to disrupt the ever-strengthening bond between her and Kuki or endanger their own arrangement by openly antagonizing her. That should have reassured Prerna on some level-but it didn't.

She wished it had remained that way; keeping Rishabh at a distance, she thought, was the safest place for him.

He sat down, as relaxed and graceful as a cat. He seemed impervious to the cold, comfortable in a black turtleneck and fatigue pants as if he had some sort of internal furnace. What was it about him that made him burn so much hotter than the rest of the mortals that roamed the land?

“You're afraid of me.”

The comment, coming out of the blue, startled her more than it had when he put the blanket around her, but not enough that she lost her composure. His voice had been calm, as if he were discussing knitting. She gave him a cool look. “Cautious,” she corrected. If he thought she would hasten to deny her uneasiness, the way most people would do when cornered, he was mistaken.

Rishabh leaned his dark head back against the cushioned chair and drew one leg up, draping his arm loosely over his knee. Unreadable dark eyes studied her. “Cautious, then,” he conceded. “Why? I told you when we married that I wouldn’t harm you.”

She shrugged, her brain unable to focus much. “Let’s just say I feel an intuition in my uterus?”

He began to laugh. Laughter wasn't something she had associated with Rishabh Bajaj, but he did it easily, his dark head tilted back against the mahogany frame of the chair. The sound was genuinely amused, as if he couldn't help himself.

Prerna watched him, one eyebrow tilted as she waited for him to stop. She didn't feel the least impulse to join in his laughter, or even to smile. Her lack of filter around him was not funny. Her inexplicable reaction to his dimples was not funny. Her loss of control in his presence was definitely not funny.

“God,” he groaned, wiping his eyes. “All this because of a malfunctioning uterus?” A shade of incredulousness colored his tone.

Prerna gave him a stony look. “You make it sound as if I've been attacking you left and right.” Oddly, though, she wasn't intimidated. Part of her even relished this little showdown, getting their animosity out into the open and going one-on-one with him.

“No. But you’ve been avoiding me. I don’t want you afraid of me, Prerna.”

“What difference does it make?” She returned his cool look with one of her own. “Regardless of my feelings about you, I'm doing what you brought me here to do and keeping my mouth shut. Wouldn’t want to find myself thrown out and replaced within the month.” She finished sarcastically.

He grinned suddenly, surprising her. “Ah. So Mother Mary holds a grudge.” he quipped, pouring more hot chocolate into her empty cup.

And until that moment, Prerna hadn’t realized that she had been nursing a solid one.

“You were out of line that day. And I understood your fear at the time but I can’t believe you thought I would be careless with Kuki.” She retorted, a thread of indignation entering her tone.

“It wasn’t a good day, Prerna. I wasn’t at home and I wasn’t prepared for what happened."

“Huh? It was a VIRAL! Kids get sick all the time. These things happen, you can’t prepare for something like that!” She groaned in frustration. What a control freak.

“Yes, I can. By taking all precautions, by anticipating as many problems as I can and taking steps to counteract them.”

"You can't anticipate every eventuality, Rishabh."

"I try. That's why my hair is going gray, I sit up nights worrying."

She snorted at his straight-faced witticism. His sense of humor was wry, tending toward the ironic; and she wished he hadn't shown it to her, wished he had maintained the silence between them. Why hadn't he? Why now, of all times, had he suddenly breached the armed truce?

He got up and walked over until he stood close enough for her to see the evening lights dancing in the dark pools of his eyes. She involuntarily pushed back deeper into the sofa, wanting to escape the gravitational pull of his heat.

He sat down on the coffee table, at level with her, keeping her pinned in place with his probing gaze.

“Your body has finally stopped trembling. That's good. Devi is going to fix you something to eat and I want you to take a couple of paracetamols before you sleep. I’ll take care of Kuki tonight.” She nodded wordlessly, a weariness creeping through her bones. She was so tired.

“And Prerna? This is the first and last time you’ll pull a stunt like the one you pulled tonight.” He quietly ordered before his mouth curved into an upward smirk. “Don’t make me put a leash on Tubby and you.”

He winked at her and sauntered out of the room.

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At nine fifteen the next morning, Rishabh Bajaj knocked on the bedroom door and waited for a response that never came. After gently rapping for another couple of minutes, he surmised that the pills had worked better than expected and Prerna was simply too knocked out to hear any earthly sounds. He deftly turned the door handle and walked into the room to try and rouse her.  

Sitting by her side, he prodded her shoulder gently, hoping she’d atleast feel if not hear. No such luck. She simply swatted his finger away and turned on her side towards him and snuggled against his knee.

“Time to get up,” he murmured.

She fidgeted but kept her eyes closed. “Not yet.” She nestled closer, pressing her face further into his knee. No doubt she was completely unaware of what she was doing. 

“Prerna, wake up. Your mother and sister are waiting for you.” He shook her harder this time.

“What time is it?” She sighed drowsily, arching back into her pillow.

“9.20”

"Huh?"

"It's 9.20, Prerna."

“What the hell-? Kuki! Oh my god, Kuki’s school!" She shot out of bed like a cartoon, scrambling out of the sheets, nearly tripping over them.

“Relax, would you? Kuki has been going to school long before you walked into her life. I wouldn’t have woken you up but your mum and Shivani are asking for you."

"What? What the hell were you doing on the bed?!" She shrieked, looking like banshee with a bad hairdo. She was feeling so sluggish and lethargic, her bones creaking.

"Trying to wake you up. Snap out of it, okay? Your family is downstairs."

She blindly stumbled into the bathroom, clearly still groggy from the combination of medicine and sleep. “Oh. Hmm. Okay. Just lemme brush my teeth, I’ll be down in a minute.” 

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They chatted for over an hour over hot paranthas and chai. Rishabh’s rapport with her mother never failed to surprise her, even after months of marriage. While he was courteous to all of her family, there was a sliver of warmth when he spoke to Veena Sharma. And going by her mother’s answering enthusiasm, she felt a similar affection for her son-in-law. She had spent all of breakfast plaguing him with questions about his eating and drinking habits.

Shivani, on the other hand kept shooting Prerna knowing glances, her face mired in amusement. Prerna, for the life of her, couldn’t figure what was entertaining her sister so much. Even her mother had pursed her lips in embarrassment when Prerna had first come down the stairs to greet them. Soon after, a whole lot of throat-clearing and coughing had ensued when she told them how tired she had been the previous night and how deeply she had slept. They kept shooting quick glances at each other as Prerna cracked her aching bones, but she was too hungry to question their strange behavior.

Just as they were leaving, Shivani hung back, letting their mother walk ahead and out of earshot.

“Di, the boyfriend-look suits you.” She said impishly.

“Heh? What?” Holding a tea cup in her hand, Prerna’s head was beginning to pound.

“Yeah. Very sexy. I bet if you asked nicely, Jiju will let you wear his boxers too.”

That comment registered with startling clarity. “Shivani!” Prerna screeched.

But her bratty sister was already running away, leaving a mortified Prerna beside her husband who had naturally heard every word.

It took her seconds to realize that the oversized shirt and sweats that she’d cuddled up in and refused to change out of, were her husband’s.

She had slept in her husband’s clothes and then waltzed in embarrassingly late for breakfast in those same wrinkled clothes and then proceeded to talk about how tired and achy she was feeling.  

In front of her mother and sister. 

And from the thoroughly amused look on Rishabh’s face, he’d known exactly how risque' the situation looked and hadn’t made a peep to warn her.

Kill me now, please.

As soon as the front door closed, she pounced on him. “You’d better not say shit.” She poked a finger at his chest.

Rishabh arched an eyebrow and leaned in. “Hey, you’re the one who stole my shirt.”

She crossed her arms, her cheeks on fire. “If you ever want to see it again, you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

“Shivani’s right though. I could len—"

“Not. Another. Word.” She poked him harder. “I don’t want to hear one more word from you or I will take a pair of pruning shears to all of your suits. ”

His lips curled back into a smile that was annoyingly attractive. He had dimples. Mother-effing dimples.

“Maybe I’ll let you keep the shirt. It doesn’t look half-bad on you.” Then he turned around and began walking toward his study, still smirking as he disappeared from view.

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Best,

Sohaa

Ahahahha! The end, omg, hilarious🤣 I can imagine Prerna saying kal raat itna zyada thak gayi, poore shareer mein dard ho Raha hai, dhang se chal bhi nahi paa rahi Hoon! All while wearing Rishabh's clothes😂 and to her MOTHER 🤣 what must they be thinking! Damad ji ke bas baal safed hai, baki sab jawan🤣

Awesome 💗❤️💗❤️💗❤️💗

Originally posted by: SanyaEterna

Ahahahha! The end, omg, hilarious🤣 I can imagine Prerna saying kal raat itna zyada thak gayi, poore shareer mein dard ho Raha hai, dhang se chal bhi nahi paa rahi Hoon! All while wearing Rishabh's clothes😂 and to her MOTHER 🤣 what must they be thinking! Damad ji ke bas baal safed hai, baki sab jawan🤣

Awesome 💗❤️💗❤️💗❤️💗

Interesting update👏

The last past was hilarious🤣

What must be going on in Veena & Shivani's mind after listening tp Prerna's words about tiredness & lack of sleep🤣

Rishabh was aware of everything but was silent😆

Waiting for next

Brilliant update! I'll comment properly at leisure. I loved this update the best and this is one of the best I have read!