***part 8***
Next day morning, Virat woke up to find both his kids sleeping on him. He smiled and got up carefully without disturbing them. It was Sunday, he took a quick shower and walked out with his laptop and phone. He had a lot of work to catch up with. He sat down to set up his work station and quickly got immersed in answering his mailbox which was full with panicky unanswered mails. After a bit, he needed coffee, he looked around for Manvi, she wasn't around. He walked into the kitchen looking around and saw her packing some stuff. There were boxes on the floor of the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Manvi looked at him without any expression and went back to doing her work.
"I told you that I have hired people to do this."
"I sent them away."
"What? Manvi!"
"What? Its my house and this is my stuff, I want them packed in a certain way. Deal with it. If you have to go back soon, you can go ahead. I will join you with the kids later."
"Manvi, I told you hundred times, I am not going anywhere without my children. And I told you if I am leaving, I will take them with me."
"Fine"
"What do you mean fine."
"Take them with you."
"Take them with me? You are suddenly fine with that?"
"Yes, I am fine with that."
"Well, maybe I will."
"Well, maybe you should."
Virat stood there looking at her, not knowing what to do next, with a confused expression.
"Mommy, show me again..." Ria came in sleepily, holding a pink tutu.
Manvi looked at Ria and suppressed a smile. "Ask daddy bunny, he is the one going to take care of you for the next few days." She replied looking at Virat. "Show her how to Virat, your daughter doesn't even brush her teeth without wearing that."
"What? That is so silly." He muttered silently to Manvi. He looked at Ria who was giving him the a pinky flowery skirt like thing with a sad face. She looked like she was going to cry.
"Flash news for you. Kids are silly." Whispered Manvi.
"Ok, no problem sweetheart, when daddy is here, not to fear." He kneeled in front of her and took it from her. "Where does this go?" he asked Ria and looked at Manvi.
Manvi simply shrugged.
While Virat was struggling to figure it out with Ria. Nikki came out, he looked really worried "Mommy I can't find Mr. Wiggles."
Everyday Manvi would be so annoyed with Nikki for hanging on to his soft toy but today she couldn't be any more glad "Ask daddy Nikki." She said with a straight face.
"Abhi yeh wiggles kya hai? Aur this is so tacky, I don't know what to do with this." He looked towards Manvi for help. But Manvi ignored him.
Both kids were having an-about-to-cry expression.
"Manvi, come'on yaar help me out here. I don't know how to do all this yet."
"Ohh yaaa??" she smirked raising her eye-brows.
Virat looked at her. She was calmly packing all the cutlery carefully, one-by-one ignoring everything else. Both Nikki and Ria started crying on the other side. He didn't know what to do. He stood there helplessly trying to pacify them, but the more he tried to pacify, the more they cried. They went and stood tugging Manvi's apron. But Manvi just looked at Virat signaling him to take them. "There are your problem now." She said.
"Fine, I get it, you are playing me. And you don't even care that they are crying??? What kind of a mother are you." He flipped out.
"A good one. A mother without whom my kids can't live Mr. Vadhera."
"You know what, FINE, I can't see MY kids crying, you win. Just give them whatever they are asking for."
Manvi smiled smugly and gave a pink pig to Nikki and helped Ria to put her tutu on. She had a big grin on her face.
"Stop gloating!!! This wouldn't have happened if you did not take them away from me all these years. I would have known all these things. So stop grinning like an idiot."
"What did you call me?"
"An idiot and I hate you." Virat stormed out angrily into the balcony and closed the door behind him.
He didn't know anything about his own children, their likes, dislikes, their food, toys, hobbies, school, activities, nothing. He realized he wouldn't be able to take care of them without Manvi. His threats of taking them away are not going to work anymore. The truth was that he wanted Manvi and his kids to come with him. Even thought he was unimaginably angry with his wife, he still loved her more than anything in this world. When he saw how much she was struggling alone, with kids, with her job, with the house work. It really pained him. He was one of the richest people on the planet and his family deserved nothing less than a royal treatment. He wanted to get them the best in everything. But, here, she wasn't ready to take anything from him.
Nikki came out and stood beside him in the balcony with Mr. Wiggles. He looked at Virat and into the empty sky at which Virat was painfully looking at. Nikki pulled his fingers and then Virat noticed he wasn't alone in there.
"Nice pink pig." Virat said eyeing the pig with resentment.
"Mr. Wiggles." Nikki corrected him.
"Beta, why are you playing with that thing? Chalo I will get you a spiderman yaa cars yaa kuch train vain..yaa Ninja fighters??" He tried to convince him.
Nikki hugged Mr.Wiggles tightly and moved back from Virat.
"Beta, ladke pink teddybears se nahi kelte. It's a girls color. Sab dekke hasenge." He gently tried to pull Mr. Wiggles away.
Nikki shrieked "Mommy'" and ran inside.
"do do ladkiya pal rahi hai.." Virat went behind him muttering curses.
~~~
Vanshika mom had asked all of them for lunch that afternoon and Virat took them all there. Manvi didn't let anybody else know of their still existing differences. She didn't want anymore lectures or them unnecessarily worrying about her and Virat. Virat's dad was not at all happy with Virat's behavior towards Manvi the other day. Further, Manvi's family were only going to sent her if their differences were amicably resolved. So keeping this all in view, they had decided to paint a happy picture. They told everyone that things were all sorted out and everything was fine now. Since they were packing up everything, Vanshika wanted them to stay at their place until they left for New York.
After lunch Manvi went back to the house to finish up packing. Virat insisted on helping her, now that she wasn't taking any professional help.
It was almost evening time and they were still working while having small tiffs and sometimes small-talking. "Manvi, you don't have to take anything more than you need. We have everything there. Our old house still has all your stuff. I didn't even move a single thing." Virat said.
"You don't live in it now?"
"No. I moved into another place. But, I am getting it cleaned up for us, I thought you might be more comfortable there. If you don't want to stay there, I can get us something else of your choice later."
"Please don't worry about me. I will be alright anywhere." But secretly, she didn't want to go back to their old house. It would be very painful for her.
A couple of hours later, they were finishing up. Manvi was trying to bring out some of the boxes from the attic. "These have all the baby stuff." She said lovingly.
"Manvi, get down, what are you trying to do?" She had climbed up onto a chair and was trying to get the big box out.
"Manvi, Why am I here? I will get those boxes down, step down." Virat ordered.
"No thanks, I am fine. She was standing on her toes to reach up and in the process she slipped, the box fell down from her hand. In all this chaos, she lost her balance and fell back, into Virat's arms. In a shock, due to all the noise, she curled upto his chest and held onto his shirt like a small kid.
"Manvi, why don't you listen to anything I say?? You could have fallen and broken your leg. Itna zid teek nahi hai Manvi." He put her down on her feet and scolded. His hand was still around her waist protectively.
She looked down and she slowly let go of his shirt without looking up at him. For a second, she didn't want to move. It felt so right. Her breath got heavy and however hard she tried, she could not control her feelings. She blushed, gently trying to move away. But his hand was gripped around her so tightly, she could not. She looked up and he was looking down at her with an unwavering gaze. He pushed her hair back behind her ear. As his fingers touched her skin, she trembled and her heart began racing. His touch felt like a jolt of electricity passing through her body.
All he felt was raging anger, that she doesn't listen to a thing he says. She would have badly hurt herself if he wasn't standing behind the chair to catch her when she fell back. But when he put her down on the floor, he noticed that her head was on his chest and she was scared. She held on to his shirt like she always did- when used to sleep beside him, when she was scared. He looked at her slowly removing her hand and her face was red in color and she was trembling while trying to move away. He still had the same affect on her. Manvi, how long are we going to fight? I cannot be angry with you for long. You know that. He tucked her hair behind her ear and lifted up her chin.
"You look so much more beautiful." he said in a husky voice, looking into her big wide sparkly eyes. He stood there like that for long time, trying to search for her love, her love for him. It was definitely there, hidden, but there.
Manvi was trying to do get a grip over her emotions. Inspite of his very apparent feelings, she couldn't forget what he did, how he chose some other girl over him. She could not trust him again. Not yet. "Virat'" she pushed him away "''let me go."
"Manvi'" he held her hand and stood before her. "You know I love you right? It scares me to think about how much I love you Manvi."
"Virat'" Manvi looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"We have lost so much time already, I am ready to forget everything Manvi. We need to think about the future. We cannot keep living in the past. Wipe out everything Manvi, let's start with a clean slate."
"Please don't do this Virat. Our relationship is beyond repair. I cannot forget what had happened."
"What had happened? You are still fixated to that? Manvi, I never touched anyone else when I was with you. I swear, I swear on our kids."
"VIRAT!!!!!!!!!!!"
"I am sorry but I don't know how else to convince you. My blood boils when you say that you don't trust me. It's me Manvi. Your Virat. I thought you loved me."
"But, I cannot get that image out of my head Virat." She cried loudly and turned away.
He turned her back to face him. "Look at me Manvi, look into my eyes. You won't see anything but pure unconditional love for you. Only.for.you. I need you Manvi, I am broken and shattered and so many other things. I need you to fix me baby." He pleaded.
"Please don't say all these things to me." she pleaded back.
"I am dying every second without you Manvi. Open your eyes and look at me dammit." He shook her. Manvi looked at him. He was breaking down. He had held himself together so well until now. But, this is the reality, he was broken without her. And she was broken without him. How much ever they tried, they were lost without each other.
"'Do you know what I am going through right here? You are right in front of me but you act as if you don't care about me. You say that you don't love me anymore. It drives me crazy Manvi. I swear, I want to hurt you so much when you talk like this. I want to slap you left and right and put some sense into your stupid brain." His voice was filled with so much anger and rage.
"'. But, the very next minute, I want to hug you tightly and cry my heart out." His voice became mellow and soft instantly. "'why are you doing this to me baby?" Tears were rolling down his eyes.
"Virat'please'don't.." she begged.
He came close to her. There was no holding back today. "I want to kiss you Manvi. I want to love you, like before. Do you know how difficult it is for me to stand in front of you and not touch you?" He extended his palm to cup her face. His hand was trembling and so were her lips. Tears were flowing from her eyes. How could she resist him? She closed her eyes shut and turned her face away. He rolled his fingers into a fist angrily and pushed the shelf that was beside them angrily. Everything that was in it fell onto the floor.
"'.THIS is thousand times worse than not knowing what had happened to you. Atleast, then I knew that wherever you were, you loved me."
"NOW you hate me. How can I live with that Manvi?"
"I don't hate you Virat."
"Do you still love me?"
"I still love you."
"You don't trust me?"
"I don't."
"Do know how much I love you?"
"I know. But, what I saw that day, makes me question that."
"Then give us a chance. Give me chance to prove whatever you saw was false. Give me some time, I will try to find out what you might have seen. But, come back to me. Atleast try. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. I just want you back, as my wife. Please."
"Virat, it won't be like before."
"I don't care."
"What would you have done if you had seen me in bed with someone else?"
"I would have killed you, right there."
"Exactly."
"But, I didn't see you like that and neither did you see me."
"Virat, we are going in circles."
~~~
Next day, they had finished all the packing and were going to leave, in a few minutes.
"Virat, please eat something, you have not eaten anything since yesterday."
"I have survived for three years without you Manvi, I have gotten used to it. Please don't worry about me."
"Virat please, Ma bura maan jayegi."
"Right. Come here please." She walked to him and he held her hand and turned her to face him. "Please don't ever take it off." He slipped their engagement ring back on her hand and left. He had found it while emptying one of the shelves the before day. She could handle an angry Virat, but a heart-broken Virat? She was really beginning to doubt what she saw that day. If he was really into other women, why would he come back for her? Why would he feel so happy on seeing her? Why would he feel so hurt that he was kept in the dark about his kids? He had poured his heart out to her and she couldn't do anything about it. She was feeling very restless, guilty and helpless.
They had a very warm send-off. "Beta, Virat tumse bohot pyaar karta hain, I know you haven't forgiven him yet. But, only I know what he had gone through after you disappeared. Please try to understand him and no matter what, please remember that there is nobody more important in his life than you. He had gone over to the dark side, please try to bring us back our sweet Virat." Vanshika ma's words reverberated in her ears.
~~~
<<<part 7
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Anupamaa
