Hello! I am back with another update.
Thank you all for all the lovely comments.
Read on...
Part 2
Ria knew Amit needed time to think about how much he wants to share with her family. She had tried to tell him it wouldn't make a difference to her family, but he didn't want to take the chance. He didn't care for himself, but he didn't want to hurt Gopi.
"Mamiji, Gopi was not yet ready for us to reveal her relationship to Amit. She didn't want to complicate things for Amit with his parents." Ria felt really sad for Gopi. Initially she thought Gopi didn't like her, but found out Gopi stayed away because Amit's mom wouldn't approve. Amit and Ria didn't give Gopi a choice and finally she started to spend time with Ria.
"Ria forget all that for now and tell us why Amit and his parents have kept Gopi hidden all this time." Ria's father, Balraj Patel, spoke up from the other side of the room. He walked over to them and stood in front of them with a disapproving expression. "May be I should call your in laws here so we could clear this up."
Amit's head snapped up and he shook his head. "No Uncle please don't call my parents, it will only complicate things. I will tell you everything and then speak to my parents later."
Ahem thought it was odd that parents would try to hide their own child. What could be so bad about Gopi that her parents would disown her? He waited for Amit to explain, but he had a feeling that whatever he revealed would complicate things for his family also.
Amit looked around at all the expectant faces and thought where to start. It is best to start at the beginning so he can leave some things out. "Gopi is four years younger than me, she and I were both brought up by my father's mother mostly. After I was born my mother at least stayed home with me for a year but when Gopi came along she refused to take unnecessary time off from work." Amit felt Ria's hand on his leg and felt relief at her support.
"My grandmother and mother never got along but it got worst after Gopi was born. My grandmother did not like the fact that my mother ignored Gopi. When Gopi was three my younger sister Avni was born and mom decided to quit her job and raise Avni herself. So my grandmother decided to take Gopi and go live with my dad's older sister who was not married. Dad also agreed since he was tired of all the arguments all the time." Amit stood up and moved to the window to get his thoughts in order.
He turned back towards his in laws and could see the disbelief on their faces. He knew he made the right decision about keeping the truth from them. "My grandmother wanted to take me also, but mom refused to let me go. Gopi and I have always been close and I also begged mom to let me go but mom wouldn't budge. My aunt didn't live too far from us so I still got to spend time with them after school and on weekends."
It was thanks to his dad that he had been able to stay close to Gopi and his grandmother. "Gopi graduates from nursing school when she was twenty one. My aunt had married and moved away so Gopi continued to stay with my grandmother. Just before Gopi was to start her first job grandmother passed away." He needed to get this part out quickly but it had to be believable.
"My grandmother had a will made year before she died leaving everything to Gopi. This upset my mother and she decided to contest the will. When it was all said and done the distance between my mother and sister was unbridgeable, not that they ever achieved the closeness that a mother and daughter should have, even before my grandmother died." Amit closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He, at least, had known what it is to have a mother and a father but Gopi was deprived of both of her parents love.
"I had never intended to hide anything from you, I just needed time to convince Gopi to be part of the wedding. She doesn't want to upset my parents and ruin the happy day for Ria and me." He looked at Ria's parent apologetically.
Everyone had listened to Amit silently but now no one knew how to react. "Would it help if we made the request to both your parents and Gopi?" Ria's mother asked.
Amit wished it was that easy and he could say yes. "No mom because Amit's mom does not want Gopi at the wedding at all. Only way she would agree to let her come is to just attend the wedding but not participate in any of the rituals." Ria saved Amit from answering.
Amit needed to leave from there and check on Gopi then go talk to his parents to let them know his in laws know about Gopi, but not everything.
He took everyone's leave and pulled out his phone to call Gopi, unaware of Ahem who had followed him out the door. Amit cursed when her phone went straight to voicemail. He dialed Rashi's number next.
"Rashi, this is Amit. Where is Gopi?" Amit didn't even greet Rashi.
Amit closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he listened to Rashi tell him that Gopi went into work. "She was supposed to be off today. Why can't she relax for one day?" Amit felt his frustration rise when Rashi told him why Gopi went to work. "Okay Rashi I will come see her tomorrow." He put the phone in his pocket and clenched his hands.
"Is everything alright?" Amit blanked his expression before turning towards Ahem. "Yeah everything is fine."
Ahem knew Amit was lying but let it go for now. "Amit I am really sorry about earlier. We didn't want Ria to be hurt, and I should have talked to you instead of going along with Jigar." Amit nodded. "It's okay Ahem, I should have told your family everything from the moment Ria and I decided to marry. None of this would have happened if I had been honest." Ahem could see Amit genuinely regretted not saying anything in the first place.
Ahem went back inside after Amit left and could see that Ria was still upset. He went to sit beside her and she glared at him. "Ria please don't be upset, we were just worried about you. We didn't know because neither you nor Amit mentioned another sister." Ria just shook her head. "That is no excuse, you should have talked to me first." Ria stood up and blinked back the tears. How can she make them understand what Gopi and Amit were going thru. It took her long time to gain Amit's trust and then Gopi's but now because of her overprotective cousins Gopi is going to cut contact with her.
"Ria what is it? Why are you so upset?" Ria turned towards her Ahem Bhai, her most perceptive cousin. She couldn't believe he behaved the way he had earlier. Ahem is kind, gentle and loving, and until about three years ago very happy. He changed so much in three years; he stopped living and withdrew into himself. Now days he hardly spends time at home, instead moved from one place to another. Traveling to one hotel site to next. He would be the one person to understand her dilemma if she could share the secret that Amit had shared with her.
Ria smiled at her cousin. "It's nothing Bhai, just hope Gopi is okay." Ahem frowned. "So why don't you call her?"
Ria sighed. "I did, but I only got her voicemail. She is probably at work." Ahem wished he had thought before acting. "Ria is there anything I can do to make up for what I did earlier?"
Ria sat next to her cousin she knew he would feel guilty unless she reassured him. Her Ahembhai didn't like to hurt anyone intentionally. "Don't worry Bhai, I will go talk to her tomorrow."
Ahem hesitated for a moment but he needed to do this. "I am going back to Denver tomorrow, but I would like to apologize to her before I leave. Do you think I can come with you?"
Ria was taken back by the request. He didn't meet her eyes when she looked at him. She was about to ask him why he wanted to apologize to Gopi but her mami entered the living room and interrupted them.
"Ahem, did I hear you say you are leaving tomorrow?" Ria watched her cousin stiffen and completely close off when his mom spoke to him. Why Ahembhai? What happened to make you withdraw from the one person you love most in this world?
Ahem turned towards his mom but didn't look at her and missed the flicker of pain in his mom's eyes. "Yes mom I am going back to Denver tomorrow." He needed time to think and decide what he was going to do next and he couldn't do that at home. He stood up and looked at his cousin. "Are you meeting Amit tomorrow?" When she bobbed her head up and down to indicate a yes, he also nodded his head. "Okay you can come with me and Jigar then you can come back with Amit. My flight is at noon, but we should leave from here at nine." He turned to go to his room but his mom's voice stopped him again.
"Ahem dinner will be ready in an hour, finish your packing and come down to spend time with the family. Who knows how long you will be gone this time." Ahem flinched, why can't they understand he wanted to be left alone? Isn't it enough that he gave into their demands and pressure once and has been paying the price for it for more than three years now? He left without answering his mom.
He went up to his room and went straight to his walk-in closet to take out his clothes for packing. Just as he turned to go back in his room his eyes landed on the shoebox on the top shelf. He tightened his hand on the hangers to keep from reaching for the box, but in the end he couldn't resist, not today. He reached for the box and took it with him out in the room. He placed all his clothes on the bed and sat down on the bed with the box.
He clenched the box tightly in his hands to stop his hands from trembling. He slowly placed the box on the bed and reached for the lid to open the box. Memories of the time spent collecting the items and the face of the person whom he collected the items in the box with flashed thru his mind, brining the pain and regret to surface.
He slammed the lid back on the box to slam the memories of her from his mind also. He is not yet ready to face the past. He put the box back in its place in the closet. He packed his bag and put it aside. He picked up his wallet and opened it. He pulled out the picture from the hidden compartment and stared at it for a long time. He felt the wetness on his cheek and whispered softly, "I am so sorry, please forgive me." He put the picture back in its place and quickly wiped his face when he heard someone knock on his door.
Gopi entered the house silently at half past midnight. Her shift had been long and hard today, but it had kept her from thinking about the events that took place earlier in the day. The house was silent and she breathed a sigh of relief to know that Rashi hadn't waited up for her. She was not yet ready to share her feelings with anyone, not even her best friend, whom she shared everything with.
She slowly walked up to her room and closed the door quietly. She went straight to the bathroom to freshen up. Forty-five minutes later she lay on bed unable to sleep. She hoped everything was okay with Ria and her bhai; she didn't want to be the cause of any problems between them. She had avoided them successfully today, but knew it won't last long. One or both will show up first thing in the morning and she needed to be prepared to convince them to drop the idea of her participation in the wedding.
She had been trying to avoid an official introduction to Ria's family and knew Ria was not going to give up, but she never expected to meet three of her cousins the way she did. She said a quick prayer to Kanaji to give her strength to get thru the next few weeks, because from tomorrow on, she knew she would not be able to avoid the inevitable.
Next morning Gopi went down to the kitchen and was surprised to see Rashi up and dressed already. She was standing by the kitchen sink staring out the window, lost in thoughts. "Good morning, you are up early this morning."
Rashi came out of the thoughts and studied her friend. She knew Gopi had needed the time to gather herself yesterday, but she needed to tell her best friend something and knew this was going to further stress her. Before she could say anything Gopi spoke up. "I know you are upset with me for leaving yesterday when you wanted to talk, but you know I needed that overtime, I hope you understand."
Rashi took Gopi's hand and walked out of the kitchen and straight to the sofa in their small living room. "Gopi don't apologize for anything, and yes I do know you needed the overtime. I am not upset about that, but there is something I have to tell you that might upset you."
Gopi looked at her in concern. "Are you okay? You sound so serious." Rashi couldn't meet her eyes. She knew she was about to cause her friend more pain by revealing her secret. "Gopi, Ria's other cousin Jigar Modi, he is my boss and he and I have been dating each other for few weeks now."
Gopi was shocked; she hadn't known Rashi was seeing anyone. "Actually Jigar's father and my father are friends, and thought it would be nice if Jigar and I got to know each other." Rashi glanced her friend and saw the surprise on her face. "You know how my mom is, once she heard about it she was relentless, so I said I would meet him outside of work to see if we are compatible and it turns out we do have many things in common. He is a bit arrogant, temperamental and doesn't trust easily, but underneath it all he is very caring and gentle." Rashi hope this doesn't upset Gopi.
Gopi felt as though she was sliding down the mountain without anyway to stop. Things couldn't get any worse than this, but she couldn't worry about that, if Rashi is happy with this then she needed to stand by her friend. Rashi has always been there for Gopi, now it was her turn to stand by her friend. "Rashi why didn't you tell me this before? It's great that you like him so much. How does he feel?"
Rashi hesitated before answering; she wanted to make sure this was not going to cause more pain for her friend. "He also likes me and wants me to meet his family, except for his father no one knows about us, not even Ria." Gopi smiled at Rashi. "You know she is going to be upset with you for hiding your connection to her cousin."
Rashi rolled her eyes and laughed. "I will have to claim to not know that they are related." Gopi also laughed, and knew Ria won't be easily convinced. She hugged Rashi, "I am very happy for you my friend." She sat back and asked, "So when do you meet the family?"
Rashi cleared her throat. "Soon, but we are not making anything official yet. There are other issues to deal with first." Gopi looked at her questioningly so Rashi continued. "His older cousin is not yet married and refuses to marry and family is still trying to convince him." They both fell silent and became engrossed in their own thoughts about the reason for the older cousins refusal to marry.
Gopi stood up and broke the silence. "I am sure it will all work out Rashi, don't worry. Come on I am in the mood for gobi parathas today for breakfast." Rashi also stood up. "Okay, you go start I want to call my parents quickly." They both went in the separate direction.
Gopi turned on the stereo in the kitchen and started gathering things to make the parathas. She was so involved in cooking that she didn't hear the doorbell ring over the music coming from the stereo. She jumped when she heard her soon to be sister in law's delighted voice. "Gopi, how did you know I was coming first things this morning? You are making my favorite food." Gopi turned with a smile on her face but froze when she saw the two other people enter behind Ria.
While she couldn't read anything on one brother's face, the obvious distrust on the other brother's face was easy to read. She glanced at Rashi who had also stepped in behind Ria's cousins then back at Ria. She realized everyone was waiting for her reply. "Hi Ria," Gopi glanced down at her hands and turned to the sink to wash them quickly. She flickered the stereo off and counted to five before turning back around.
Before anyone could say anything the doorbell rang again. "I will get at it, Rashi take everyone to the dinning room, I will make tea after I see who is at the door." Gopi escaped before anyone could say anything. Once she got to the front door, she paused to collect herself and stop the tremors in her hands. She opened the door to see her brother's angry face staring back at her.
He stepped in and closed the door firmly. "Why did you go to work yesterday? On your only day off." Gopi was taken back by his attack. "Hello to you too bhai, and my boss called to ask if I was available and I said yes and went to work."
"Gopi…" She interrupted him before he could go on. "Not now bhai, we have company." Amit followed her to the dinning room and was surprised to see Ria and her cousins at the table.
Ria jumped up from her chair and hugged Amit. He greeted everyone and pulled out a chair beside Ria to sit. Gopi went back to the kitchen without saying anything. Rashi followed her.
Amit looked at the Modi brothers. "What are you guys doing here?" He noticed Jigar did not look happy to be there, and Ahem seemed tense. "We just wanted to apologize to your sister for yesterday." Amit nodded watching Ahem closely.
They all looked up when Rashi and Gopi came out of the kitchen with tea and the Parathas. Gopi placed the tea tray on the table along with milk and sugar bowls. Rashi went back to get other things for breakfast.
Once she passed the tea to everyone she had no choice but to take the sit next to Ria and a right angle from Ahem. Gopi had felt his eyes studying her from the moment she stepped out of the kitchen, and felt her nervousness increase. She didn't know why she was letting him intimidate her like this. And more importantly why were Ria's cousins here, at her house?
Ria saw the slight trembling of Gopi's hand and frowned, she looked up to see Ahem staring at Gopi intently and wondered what had gotten into her cousin. She glanced at her other cousin and was surprised to see the hostility in Jigar's eyes as he looked at Gopi. She cleared her throat. "I am sorry I didn't call before showing up here first thing in the morning, but Ahembhai is leaving to go to Denver and he wanted to apologize to you before he left." She glanced at Ahem to let him know the ball was now in his court.
Gopi flickered a glance at Ahem but looked away quickly. "It's okay Ria, and no apology necessary for yesterday. I am glad you cleared up the misunderstanding."
Ahem firmed his mouth and noticed Gopi was unable to even look at him. He frowned when he noticed her grip her coffee cup tightly. "Actually it is necessary, I am sorry about what happened yesterday, we didn't know you were Amit's sister, but still, it didn't give us a right to confront him out in the open and in the process insult you too. I hope you can forgive us."
Gopi turned and looked at him and nodded before looking down. "It's okay, I understand." Once again everyone became silent and Gopi noticed no one had touched breakfast. "Ria I thought you wanted the Parathas, and I had a feeling you would come by today that's why I made them." This broke the silence and after a while everyone relaxed and ate breakfast. Gopi noticed Jigar avoided looking at Rashi and didn't touch the food either. She frowned and hoped everything was fine.
Fifteen minutes later Jigar reminded Ahem they need to leave so he can check in before it's too late. Ahem agreed, he turned to Gopi once again. "Once again I am sorry and I hope you won't hold it against us. Thank you for the breakfast and the tea." Gopi nodded but didn't say anything. He glanced at her one more time before following Jigar to the front door. Ria walked them out.
*~+~*
Thanks Everyone.😊
It was the song, not the scenes.
Cricket
Kumkum Bhagya
Tum Se Tum Tak
Sampoorna
Jhanak
