The next morning she was making breakfast when armaan emerged from his new bedroom.
"Hey monster!"
He laughed, rubbing his eyes, "where Dad?"
pia sighed, "he's not here chicken. Do you want some breakfast?"
When he nodded she lifted him up to the table and placed a bowl of porridge and some juice in front of him. Sitting opposite she picked at her toast, her appetite was poor, she felt sick, everything was just so foreign.
She didn't mind the flat, it was small, but she'd not been brought up in the opulence she'd lived in the last few years, so materialistic things were no real issue to her. But even when they'd been arguing, her marriage to abhay had been both fiery and passionate, she'd felt loved, cherished, abhay was her best friend. Now as she looked at the day ahead, there was a huge void in her world, and if she'd didn't have armaan, she knew she'd really struggle to get through this. She looked at his whizzing a toy airplane around his head. His blond curls covered his eyes as he swooped the plane down to land next to his breakfast. His cherubic smile, his twinkling blue eyes, her heart broke at the thought of the disruption ahead of them.
A knock on the door dragged her attention back to the here and now, with feet as heavy as her heart, she made to the door.
A beaming kabir stood there, arms filled with packages, "You ok?"
She nodded, "didn't sleep much, but think that's going to be a problem for a while." She tried to smile. "You had breakfast?"
kabir nodded, "I have, but I could murder a cup of coffee!"
"Hey armaan!" he hi-fived the three year old who giggled uncontrollably. "Look what I've got!"
armaan chuckled and clapped as a new, bigger Buzz Light year came out of a Disney Store bag. "To Infinity..."
armaan reached for the toy shouting, "...AND BEYOND!"
As they watched the little boy running around with his new toys, pia poured them both a coffee.
"So what now?" kabir asked. "Are you going to stay here?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. I want to stay close, armaan loves him, I don't want to drag them apart. But he's angry, he's not the man I remember anymore...I don't need grief from him."
kabir nodded, and she knew he was worried about the business. She'd started renovating this building when she'd met kabir, his company did all the work, and when there were a few issues and things got out of hand, he became a partner. A lot of the quirkiness that made the restaurant a success was due to his ideas. pia in a fit of independence had wanted to separate this from abhay entirely, and she felt so much happier knowing that it was hers. Especially now.
"I'm not going to leave you in the lurch kabir, I promise."
Shrugging he drank his coffee, "I enjoy this part of my life, away from construction. It's like a breath of fresh air!"
"An expensive breath!"
He laughed, "we made a profit last month!"
Gathering the dishes, she headed to the sink, "and I do honestly believe that'll be the way forward."
"I know, I really wouldn't have come into this if I thought I'd be throwing good money after bad."
After an hour of playing with armaan, kabir announced he really had to get back to work. As he was retrieving his coat, and his cement covered boots, there was another knock at the door.
pia pulled open the door and stepped back, it was abhay. For that first moment she drank him in, he looked tired, there were bags under his usually sparkling blue eyes, and five o'clock shadow was a gross underestimated description of his jaw line, even his blonde hair was lank.
"How did you find me?"
He laughed, "where else would you be? This bloody restaurant took over your life!" He kicked a doorframe, "in fact you wanted it to succeed more than you wanted my baby!"
She gasped, "abhay, please, that's not true!"
Leaning closer to her, he hissed through gritted teeth, "isn't it?"
"I got pregnant at the wrong time, I had a lot on. And yes I did say that it was a bit inconvenient. That was wrong! It was a shock." She squared up to him, nose-to-nose, "I NEVER wanted anything to happen to that baby. I loved it the second I found out!"
His laugh was more aggravating, more destabilizing to her control than any insult, "I want to see my son!"
She nodded, completely off balance by his accusations, leading him up the stairs.
armaan squealed "Daddy!" as soon as he saw abhay, running into his arms. As he swung his son around in a full circle, abhay's expression changed from pleasure, relief, to anger.
"What's he doing here?"
pia frowned, "he's my friend and my business partner. And you have NO right to question anything I do!"
Leaning close so that armaan wouldn't pick up on the tension, he snarled, "my son will NOT be spending time with him! The other man in our marriage!"
kabir sensed the tension, even though he was across the room, "I'll speak to you later pia...abhay" he nodded to the other man, then waved to armaan.
Once she'd heard the door shut behind kabir, she turned on her husband, "you honestly think that blaming everyone else will make this right? Absolve you?" She shook her head, "you with another woman, and instead of admitting it, apologizing even, you treated me like a mug...but no! It's kabir's fault, the restaurant's fault...even MY fault!"
He was flushed with anger, but struggled to control it, "I won't argue with you now, not here."
She smiled sweetly, "that sounds perfect, I have no intention of having a conversation with you unless I really have to!"
Shrugging, he scooped armaan back into his arms, "well we're going out. Where's his coat?"
"Where are you taking him?" she asked as she found a coat, some shoes for armaan.
"Who knows?" He looked at the little boy and smiled, "where do you want to go mate?"
"Zoo!" he announced, "I LOVE Elephants!"
abhay turned back to her, "looks like we're off to the zoo."
"When will you be back?" pia felt bereft at the thought of him running away with armaan.
"I won't take him from you, I know he needs you more than me...but I'll bring him back when we're ready. And there's no reason you can deny us."
Within seconds they were gone.
It was a long day. pia spent a few hours in the restaurant office organizing the accounts, then she had a meeting with the head chef to discuss promotions and menus for the coming season. In the afternoon she found no music, television or book would amuse her, drag her from her depression. The weather was grim, rain pelting the windows. The beautiful view from the lounge over the sea and endless sky became the worst, most exposed place when the weather was bad, like it was today, ironically.
She was curled up on the sofa, finding more sleep than she had in days, when a hammering at the door disturbed her. Making her way sleepily downstairs, she pulled open the door to reveal abhay, a sleeping armaan over his shoulder.
"I'll put him straight into bed?" he asked marching past her. Nodding she followed him upstairs, and watched him tuck armaan into his bed. Standing back up, he turned to her, "I'll just get his things."
Dumping the bags in the hall, he was gone before she had chance to say another word. She didn't know what was worse, his anger, his animosity...or nothing!
She'd always aroused emotions in abhay, she remembered the day when passion, emotion, and that was part of why she'd fallen for him, so hard!
They'd been touring the US for four months; she felt like a mother controlling four stroppy teenagers, if you threw in the road crew, then she was basically a school teacher controlling her rabble. Whilst she was there, the latest performed the title track..."Sinful Thoughts." It was an International hit, virtually overnight, and the band went from wannabes to something cataclysmic. Suddenly everyone wanted a piece of them, and her job went from busy to hectic, chaotic.
One evening during a stop in Washington State, she managed to catch up with pia an old college mate. Her and her friends were meeting up at a cheap night club, pia decided to take a rare night off and enjoy herself.
She'd been in the bar for a few hours, and amar one of juli's work acquaintances had been paying her a lot of attention, and she felt flattered, that was until she felt eyes burning into her shoulder blades. Turning she spotted abhay perched on a bar stool with some friends. He was always there watching everything she did, and back then she was defensive of that, not realizing that she should've been flattered instead.
some time later she left club. The street was quiet; there was an absence of any people and taxi's.
she looking for taxi .then some one pulled her into his arms.it was amar. before she know what was happening he try to kiss .she was nervose ."Get off!" she tried to shout trying to escape herself from his grasp several times, . She started to pummel his shoulders, dig her fingers into his ribs, do anything to free herself. But he was huge, and very strong.
She started to panic; he was leading her to a side lane, a dark unlit alleyway that obviously led to the rear of the club.
"NO!" she shouted .
He chuckled, "why are you fighting me?".
"Please just let me go!" She again pummeled his back and shoulders.
Seeing a chance she tried to run away, but he grabbed her and wrestled her to the floor in the dark dirty alley. she screamedfor help.
Then he was thrown against the opposite wall, falling to the floor. Stood over him with snarling lips and an angry face was abhay, and she'd never been happier to see him. He shouted expletives at amar, threatening to call the police, before turning back to pia. She lay in the dirt . But as abhay looked down at her, she could see only concern. Helping her to his feet, he silently slid out of his jacket, wrapping her in it and zipping it over her.
They were silent all the way back to the hotel, and it wasn't until they got to her room that she realized how angry he was. She headed straight into the shower, eventually emerging to see him still pacing. Wrapped in a clean robe, lemon shower wash she felt respectable. She handed him his coat and he'd snatched it before turning on her.
"You are a bloody fool! What if I hadn't come along? He would have finished the job, raped you, beaten you...shit he could have killed you."
"No danger with you as my stalker though!" she snapped angrily, trying to counteract her fear, the realization of the danger with bravado.
"I am not bloody stalking you! But maybe I should start!" his voice was full shout by now. "How else are you going to stay safe? How else will I sleep for worrying about your reckless behavior?"
She tried to shout back, to retaliate, but at that moment the shock seemed to hit her, and she started to shake, dropping onto the edge of the bed, she felt tears fill her eyes. She ducked her head to hide them from abhay, but he saw. Pulling her to her feet, he wrapped his arms around her, but still couldn't stop her shaking. The only way he managed to calm her was to pull them both into bed under the thick duvet and cuddle her until sleep claimed her.
She'd woken the next morning to an empty bed and wished the previous night had been a bad dream, but abhay turned up later to check on her, and all too soon they had formed a friendship.
scroll down...
Hindi TV Shows
Bigg Boss 19
