10

JHARNA POV

"RAHULLL" I screamed on top of my lungs early in the morning. I have been trying to wake him up since 2 hours but he's still stuck on "5 minutes, demon". Demon? Seriously?

"What happened? Huh? What? What?" He woke up in a panic struck face. "Finally, idiot. What time did you sleep yesterday, huh? It's 9 o'clock." I asked him with annoyance clearly in my voice. "What time..? Huh. Let me think. I don't know, Jaan" he replied grinning like a golden retriever. "Idiot" I mumbled under my breath and smacked his head. "Come here, please." He said while extending his hands forward and pulling me by my waist.

"Leave me" I started whining because his grip was very tight. "Nope" he looked up at me with a smiley face. "Fine...go freshen up, idiot. We have to go to the office." "Hmm okay but did bhabhi come back home?" He asked me making my mood go down. "Nahi, she's not home yet." He let out a loud sigh listening to my reply. "Okay...I'll go take a shower." I nodded my head and he left to the washroom.

It's been a whole week since bhabhi left and I couldn't help but wonder why. I called her several times and whenever I ask her to come back, all she says is "Time lagega, Jharna. I'll be back. I don't know if I'll be back as your bhabhi or not but I'll always be there for you." That whole day I was on a call with her and kept crying thinking of her situation. She's going through so much and still Prem bhai is not doing anything.

I let out a loud sigh and went out of our room only to see a crying Leher bhabhi. I ran towards her and tried my best to comfort her but nothing was helping. She swung her arms around my shoulder and continued crying her heart out which broke my heart. "Bhabhi, please don't cry like this." I said while tears were threatening to fall down from my eyes. I didn't ask her the reason because I know what it is and I didn't want to make her more uncomfortable. "It'll all be okay, bhabhi. Have trust in the universe."

After some time her sobs were not heard making me calm down a bit. I slowly rubbed her back and pulled away from her grip. "Are you okay now?" I asked her while wiping her tear stained face. She nodded her head, not looking into my eyes. "Thanks, Jharna. I'm sorry for keeping you in this position." She said with an apologetic tone. "Ayee bhabhi! Aren't you my sister? If sisters don't help each other who will?" I said in a sarcastic strict tone making her chuckle. Thank god she's okay now.

"Okay now I have to leave for office. Will you be okay alone? With Abhi bhai?" His mention made her go a little wide. Shit! She doesn't know that Abhi bhai is working from for 1 week? "What do you mean with Abhi?" I'm fucked up now. "Well...the thing is that..." I hesitated to give her the answer. "Spit. It. Out." She said in a strict tone making me give up in a second. "The thing is that Abhi bhai's room in the office is under renovation so he has to work from home for at least a week. It could take ten days too." I spit it out without a break and closed my eyes scared for her reaction. "Wow...okay." That's all she said and left after patting my head.

"Guess my day is going to be bad today." I said while leaving for office with Rahul.

LEHER POV

My day started out with the worst argument me and Abhi ever had. I had woken up with a bad headache which made me accidentally spill a glass of water on Abhi's important files which made him burst out like all the time. "Leher can you not behave properly for once?" "Abhi, please. I'm sorry. I'll clean it. I'm having a really bad headache and I can't handle myself right now. Sorry." I tried explaining to him but he was not ready to hear anything.

"Oh yeah sure. An excuse for doing something wrong. Wow. Own up to your mistakes, Leher Mukherjee. Why are you escaping from them? Huh? Like you always escape from problems in your life?" Wow. How could he just spit out those words like that? I could suddenly see a pang of guilt hit him. "Leher I-  "Don't even try." I showed him my palm while saying those words and left the room immediately. "Leher, please." I could hear him call for me but I couldn't care less.

I went into the balcony outside our room and tried to keep my tears inside my eyes but they flowed out without any warning. I cried my heart out. I know what he meant by those words. The time when my mom was warming someone else's bed and my dad was busy getting warmed in someone's bed I left my home. I escaped from their toxic nature. And after a year I helped my siblings too. Our families were family friends but my family was all pretend. I trusted Abhi with that secret but he just used it against me. Coward. A fucking coward. Though I have not cut tie with my parents, I maintain my distance from their judgy behaviour.

I calmed down a little with the help of Jharna but she broke another news to me. Abhi is going to stay home 24/7 for a week or ten days. Great. I'll have to suffer more. I have to mentally prepare myself. I went down to get myself a cup of water and help myself calm down a little.

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After spending sometime in the hall alone as everyone had gone for work or to run some errands. I decided to go back to our room and get ready to go to a hospital to get my headache checked because I don't think this will go away soon.

I entered our room and saw an emotion less Abhi but he lifted his face as soon as he heard the door close. "Leher, can we talk?" He asked but I was not in the state of talking. "There's nothing to talk about." I said with a cold voice making him get up from the bed and come near me. "Leher, please. I want to apologise." He tried again but I was not ready. "Apologise? For what? For hurting me with your words like that? Using my insecurity against me?" I gave him a reply with the best attitude I could. He was a bit taken aback but still spoke "Leher, you know that I didn't mean it."

"You didn't mean it? If I used your insecurity against you in a silly argument for a silly thing and then later I apologised, would you have forgiven me?" He looked down at my reply and shook his head as a no. "But you and I are different." He said making me more offended. "Different? Yes. Very different. I at least don't treat my husband like shit and make them go through things a women doesn't deserve." I know I was going too far but he deserves it. "Leher, don't." He looked at me with a stern look but I couldn't control myself anymore.

"All I wanted to do was help you Abhi. That's all I wanted to do. I only expected love and respect from you. Yes, I was there before her, during her but I never wanted to be after her or be her. Trust me. I never wanted to replace her." I said as tears rolled down my face. He came near me and tried to hold me but I stepped back. "Don't give me fake hopes by doing such things, Abhi. You always do this in the moment but act like nothing ever happened. You hurt me so much." Angry and upset tears were still streaming down from my eyes making his eyes go numb. He successfully hugged me tight and said "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, Leher. Please don't do this." He whispered near my ears making me weak.

"Don't do what, Abhi? I begged you to let me help you but you pushed me away. Do you think it's easy for me to see the love of my life this weak in life?" I questioned him making his grip tighter around my shoulders. I didn't hear any answer from him so I continued. "Why can't we always be like this? Hugging and comforting and communicating with proper words? Why can't we have this?" I questioned him while he patted my back. "You know we can't, Leher. The universe doesn't want it. You deserve so much better. We are not meant to be together." He gave a silly reason for our state which made me cry harder.

"You. Are. So. Mean, Mr. Abhinav Mukherjee." I said while poking his chest with my index and my head rested on his shoulder. He let me do whatever I want. "You are so mean to think we don't belong together. You are so mean for not giving us a chance. You are so mean for thinking the universe is at fault. You are so mean for pushing me away. You are so mean for punishing yourself and thinking you don't deserve love anymore." I was hitting his chest for every sentence and he wasn't even budging a little. My eyes were still not giving up with the tears. I saw his eyes getting sad with each sentence I said which made me happy knowing that he still has emotions left in his soul. He's a human after all. But not my human.

"I want to help you, Abhi. Let me help you. Please. Let me make you feel better. I want to be there for you. As your support. Please. I don't want to give up on you, on us." I said while sobbing loudly in his chest while kissed my forehead making me grip his shirt tight. "I'm sorry for making you suffer so much, Leher. I really am." He kissed my forehead again and released me from his hug. "Don't leave." I said while looking at his eyes with my red ones. "I have to." He said while looking at the ground and just left.

Left me alone in that room once again. Like always. I was again alone.

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Oh my goddd! I think this is the best chapter so far!!! I just love the vulnerability in this one! Hope you guys liked it too.