23

Would be great if you guys could comment and vote for all the chapters as it encourages me to update faster! Feel free to voice your opinions and thoughts as constructive criticism is appreciated here:) Happy reading!

Thank youuu<3

🥹🫶🏼

.

.

.

.

"And this is the yard," grandpa showed everyone around their huge farm house in their village.

The whole family had arrived in Chandrapur in the evening with everyone tired because of the travelling.

"Baccho, you all have to share rooms as there are only 5 rooms in the house. I'm staying in one room, your parents in another and my friend in another," with this Dadaji left for his room.

Only two rooms were available making Rahul and Prem frown. Abhi looked confused as to why they were being like this.

"Leher and I don't have a problem with staying in a separate from y'all. Prem bhai and Rahul along with Meera bhabhi and Jharna can share a room," he said like it was the most convenient option.

"Accha, you and Leher bhabhi get privacy while the four of us suffer like this?" Rahul glared at his older brother making Abhi smile sarcastically after getting caught red handed.

"Fine, the ladies will share a room and we will stay together. Is that fine with all?" Prem solved the problem as soon as possible as he didn't want to deal with Rahul's PDA.

"Okay bhai. I'll just help Ramu get our luggage," Abhi left the lawn area to complete his task.

"And I'll check on the state of the rooms," Rahul chuckled and left while dragging Jharna with him.

"And if you excuse me, Leher. I'll take my wife on a little tour with me," Prem took Leher's approval while she laughed at his antics and pushed them out of the yard.

"Guess it's just me," Leher let out a sigh and started exploring the yard.

She ran to the end of the yard filled with different kinds of flowers that their dadi liked.

The pink and red mixed clouds that were spread across the blue sky during the sunset.

Leher quickly took out her phone to click a picture of the sky because of her obsession with different colours of the sky.

"Beautiful," Leher softly whispered with amusement filled eyes.

She lowered her eyes and continued walking in the lawn, exploring it.

She saw a wall with scribbles on it making her curious.

She walked towards it wondering what it could be and there she saw, it was the younger versions of her husband and brother-in-law's 'art work'.

She chuckled seeing how adorable they scribbled all over the wall. She slowly read all the writings on the wall with a huge smile was spread on her face.

'Baba loves me the most

-Abhinav'

'No he luws me

-Lahul'

"Still the same," she chuckled and continued reading.

'Star is me

-Prem Mukh'

'It's Prem Mukherjee. I didn't know how to spell it at that age. Hahaha'

Leher bursted our laughing at the sentence and fished out her phone to click and picture of that and tease her bhai later.

There were some random doodles here and there and stars with stick figures too but something in the corner of the wall caught Leher's attention.

She squinted her eyes to take a closer look and she was Abhi's hand writing.

'Aakriti Mukherjee, soon'

The huge smile that she had on her face dropped and she stumbled back.

Reality hit her back while she was trying to enjoy a life without remembering about her troubled marriage.

"She was such a huge part of his life," she remembered again.

"She was so important that he wrote her name on this wall along with his surname," she smiled sadly.

She kept staring at her name, remembering that she could never be her and she was nothing but a 'replacement'.

"Leher," Abhi's voice got her out of her trance.

He was standing in the start of the yard while she was in the corner of the ending.

"Come, we'll have dinner," he said out loud for her to hear him clearly.

"Yeah, coming," she softy whispered that she couldn't hear herself.

Not having the energy to speak any louder, she nodded her head and went for dinner.

"I kept your luggage in the room," he tried to create small talk with her but she just nodded her head and plastered a forced smile.

"You know, I used to water these plants myself?" He smiled brightly which was new to her making her smile back at him.

"That's nice," she whispered and looked back at the flowers.

A genuine smile made its way up to her face while imagining her husband watering those flowers.

She chuckled at the thought and continued listening to him explaining his childhood here.

'This is the first time he spoke so much to me' she thought.

~~~~~

"Walk?" Abhi popped his head into the room shared by the ladies in the farm house.

The huge bed had Meera and Jharna laying in the corner with Leher in the middle.

Three of them immediately looked at the door to see where the voice came from and a smug smile formed on Meera and Jharna's face.

"Chalo! Let's go," Jharna enthusiastically got up from the bed and tried to drag her sister-in-laws with her.

"Uhm Uhm," Abhi let out a fake cough to get their attention back to him.

"Actually, I want to go on walk with Leher, only." He said and looked down embarrassed.

A huge smile formed on Meera's face and pushed Leher off the bed.

"Bhabhi!" She said out loud while trying to balance herself.

"Jao Jao, hamare bhai sahab wait kare hein," Jharna nudged her shoulder and pushed her onto Abhi.

Leher's face landed into Abhi's chest and his instincts kicked him making him hold her close to him, helping her stand straight.

Jharna saw the scene and said, "Meine kuch nahi dekha!" And bit her tongue while immediately closing the door.

Leher immediately detached herself from Abhi and awkwardly looked around.

"Dekhne keliye kuch hona chahiye na pehle," she murmured under her breath while touching the nearby wall.

"Chalein?" Abhi tried to ease the situation while Leher just nodded her head.

"I'll show you the neighbourhood," he said softly while trying to make her comfortable.

"Yup," an awkward silence spread across them while they walked out of the house.

Abhi pointed at a tree in front of their house which made Leher look there too.

"You know, I and bhai used to bully Rahul into climbing that tree and he'd cry to Maa eventually," Abhi chuckled while reminiscing his childhood.

"That's so Rahul," she said and imagined how he'd climb the tree because of his brothers forcing him.

"Oh! You see that small house over there?" He pointed at a small house a little far from them.

"An old couple used to live there. We used to go to their house as kids and spend almost the whole day there," a huge smile was spread across his face.

"That's cute," Leher chuckled and imagined them doing that.

"This whole village was my summer for years. It's been almost 3 years since I came here though," sadly letting his words out, he sighed and looked down.

"It's okay. You can continue now," Leher said and looked towards him with a smile.

He nodded his head and returned the smile.

"Can I say something?" Abhi asked hesitantly.

Leher nodded as an approval making him continue his words.

"It's weird talking to you normally. Whenever we talk, it's always screaming at each other and me hurting you with my harsh words."

"So you want to go back to that road again?" Leher raised her eyebrows at his words.

"No, no. I'm not saying I miss that. I like this. I like talking to you calmly and comfortably. It makes me feel like someone cares for me and I have someone to care for," Abhi smiled shyly which was so not him.

"Getting too comfortable, aren't you?" Leher scoffed as a joke, liking his new side and walked ahead of him.

Abhi took big steps to catch up with her.

"Apni biwi ke saath comfortable hone mein kya sharam?" He slyly said and slid his palm into hers and intertwined their fingers together.

Leher felt her hand in his hold making her breath hitch and say, 'besharam aadmi' under her breath.