chapter 56

Chapters 57 - 59 are updated on ScrollStack.

Chapter start

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" Why are you punishing me for a mistake that I didn't commit ?" These are Neil's words to Aaira, which he says to her while kneeling in front of her, where she is sitting in front of him on the couch in the garden.

" I am not punishing you, Papa." Aaira tells him holding her tears.

" If this is not a punishment then what is? Being the reason for your tears is my biggest punishment, today I failed as a father." He says this while looking at her, his eyes also become moist and his saying this hurts Aaira's heart too.

But Aaira is unable to say that he hasn't failed as a father," when Neil continues...

" Trust me I didn't do this to separate you from him." he says to which Aaira looks at him

" Papa, it's ok, but please no more of these lies and yes I want to tell you one thing which I had said earlier also...I will do whatever you say, he is not more important than you." She says, which Neil listens to quietly.

" Yes, I admit I was adamant that day but despite all my adamantness, if you had told me that very day that I should not stay with him, so it would take me time but I would keep a distance from him for you, because you are important to me, I don't like hurting you every day for some reason or the other." She says just adding to the burden on Neil's chest but Neil decides to listen to her first

" And now I will do the same, I will do what you always wanted, I will not have any boyfriend." She completes her words by saying this which brings a sad smile on Neil's lips

" And do you think your father is so selfish that he would make his Mannat cry for his own happiness ?" He says to which she sees him

" Like I said, I have already failed as a father today, by causing these tears of yours but not anymore..." says Neil to which Aaira looks at him

" And as you have said your part, now I am telling you my part, trust me, I have no problem with you both being together." he says at which Aaira sees him

" Yes I agree, in the beginning I really pretended but now I really have no problem with the relationship between you two, I am really happy." He says that but she still doesn't believe it.

" No, you are still lying for my happiness." She says

" Well I will not say much because obviously you have inherited this disease of over thinking from your parents...." he says to which she sees him

" But I swear on my life my Avni, that I am telling the truth. Do you need more proof of my truthfulness than this?" He says to which she gets shocked, he is telling the truth, he really has no problem with Reyansh and her relationship?

The way he has proved his truthfulness, there is no room for doubt after that.

" What I did was only because you know Papa can't live without you, two months were not less for me, I couldn't stay away from you, and that was the only reason I got you an internship here." He says to which she looks at him

" But I have realized that it was wrong of me to do this. I did not know that doing this would make you so sad, but now I will correct my mistake...I will get things done as they were, you go with him to Delhi." he says making her shocked again

" Because it is better to be happy with him than to stay and cry with me, Papa doesn't want anything more than your happiness." He says to which she gets shocked and before he can say anything else, she says

" And, you swear to me, you will not do anything like this, I will not go anywhere leaving you." She says to which he smiles

" I won't do this unless you agree to one thing I say." He says to which she looks at him.

" Call him and say sorry to him..." he says which shocks her

Well, Neil had heard all the conversations between her and Reyansh on the phone, means he only heard Aaira's side.

Neil came here to talk to Aaira when he saw her sitting here but when he comes here and hears her talking on the phone, his steps stops and he, who was already full of guilt, becomes more guilty when he hears that his daughter is sacrificing her happiness for him and when he hears her last line that she has responsibilities towards her parents then Neil decides that now he should stop her and make her understand that no, she has no such responsibility, she does not need to sacrifice her happiness.

" I think it's too late, he doesn't pick up my call, I made him sad." Aaira says looking down at which Neil sees her

" The relationship between you two: will it break on such a small matter? Is this love, that you say something and he will agree to it?" he asks her: on which she looks at him

" And yes, if you don't call and don't apologize then I will do what I said, I will send you to Delhi and then both of you can keep fighting there." He says, which she gets shocked to hear.

" And yes, today for the first and last time I am giving you a warning, don't you dare break my son's heart..." Aaira gets shocked hearing his words, his son?

And there Neil reads her shocked expression and says further

" There is no need to be shocked, he is my son...yes I agree that I am strict with him but only because I wanted to see his patience level and he passed this exam with top marks." He says, to which she looks at him

" And yes as I said, don't break his heart ever and if you do that then I will get really angry with you and won't talk to you and like the father in old movies, I will forcefully married you to him." Aaira's mouth hangs open, is this her father sitting in front of her who's speaking all this ? Will he be angry with her for him ? No, no, this is a dream.

"Papa, I am dreaming, right?" she asks him

" No and now come out of the dream, and call him, say sorry to him and if needed meet him and say sorry but make things right." Neil says and Aaira is once again surprised how her father can really be so good and selfless.

She misunderstood him, he had to swear on his wife to prove his truth and yet so much selfless love for her?

" Why are you so green flag Papa, I don't deserve so much love from you." Suddenly this question comes out of her mouth which brings a sad smile on Neil's face

" You deserve much more love than this and yes I am not green but red flag Papa, the one who made his daughter cry cannot be green flag." He says to which Aaira looks at him

"It is not like that, I was not crying papa,

But I really feel bad about making one person happy and making the other person sad. I love both of you very much and I want to be with both of you forever, I don't want to choose anyone." She finally says this

" So who is asking you to choose, I know I have made some mistakes but Papa never had the intention to make you unhappy, But still I did it but yes now you be happy with him, keep him happy." He says, on which she looks at him

" And yes, this time for real, don't waste time anymore, call him and says sorry to him." Saying this he gets up from his knees and after caressing her head, he leaves her there to talk with Reyansh, upon which she looks at him.

But on the other side, where the conversation between these father and daughter ends, Reyansh from the other side of the phone disconnects the call.

Yes, he was on the other line of the phone till now, he heard the whole conversation between this father and daughter, because when Neil called Aaira's name from behind and Aaira removed the phone from her ear, Reyansh felt like disconnecting the call but after some thought, he did not do that and yes, he knew that it is a wrong thing to listen to someone but still he decided to listen to them today.

And while Reyansh's heart swelled with joy after hearing Neil call him his son, his heart is still sad because of Aaira's words, He knows it was not her fault but she did not do the right thing, she cannot always do this to him because of her over thinking.

No, he will not forgive her this time.

Whereas after Neil leaves, Aaira looks at her phone and at this time she is filled with many kinds of guilt, first of all the guilt of hurting Reyansh again with her stupid thoughts,

The other one is to force her father to swear on her mother to prove his truthfulness.

Why is she like this? She asks herself this question.

Why doesn't she listen to things earlier, she had decided that she will come home and talk to her father and reach some conclusion, but once again she spoiled everything because of her over thinking and this time she spoiled things in such a way that she is not able to understand how to call Reyansh now.

She broke his heart just a few minutes ago, will he forgive her?

she thinks looking at her phone.

🦋🦋

On the other hand, Neil is about to enter the house after talking to Aaira but as always Avni was standing at the door and watching the conversation between the father and daughter from a distance and just when Neil is about to enter the house, he stops seeing her at the door.

Their eyes meet and Neil doesn't say anything further but just gives her a smile and is about to go inside but Avni stops him by holding his hand, upon which he looks at her.

Their eyes meet again where Avni can clearly see fear and pain of something in his eyes and she also knows what is causing him this fear and pain.

" Are you okay now?" She asks him to which Neil looks at her and then at Aaira who's sitting in the garden outside the house.

" Now, I am fine." He says to which she looks at him

" You know today I was very afraid of losing her, today I felt as if I had lost her, But she gave me a chance to correct my mistakes by talking to me." He says, to which, she looks at him, she has really never seen a person who blames himself for everything even when he is not wrong.

What wrong did he do? Only that he did what was possible for him, It was possible for him to keep his daughter with him and stop her from going away. And that is exactly what he did. Now if someone misunderstands him, what is his fault in that?

He has no need to prove anything he has done.

" Avni, I will not repeat the mistake I made today. I will not interfere in her life because doing this will take me away from her, and I can't stay away from her; I won't be able to bear the pain of losing her, that is why from now on I will keep my emotions under control." He says this to which Avni looks at him silently.

" I know I am a little.... he stops saying as he realizes that this is not a word because obviously the word a little is not in his dictionary

" Not a little, I am very possessive about both of you, about my loved ones..." he says

" But today I have understood that over attachment sometimes takes us away from our relationships and today perhaps the same thing happened with me...Today she was angry with me but was not showing it and her love for us was so much that she decided to sacrifice her happiness, She decided to end her relationship with Reyansh for me." Neil says and hearing this Avni gets a bit shocked.

" Avni I am not that selfish, yes I had my own reasons for not getting her married but now I have realized that things don't always happen the way we want them to.... whether we accept it or not she has grown up, she has her own feelings, her own life and as parents, at this stage we can only guide her, We can only tell her right and wrong and we're here to protect her but we cannot control her and maybe that's where I was making a mistake, I was controlling her... Neil says

" That's not the case, you never imposed any restrictions on her except for one thing, which wasn't wrong from your pov at one point and you never tried to controlled her, the kind of freedom you gave her where she could share every small and big thing with you, not every father can do that..." Avni says this to him

" Still, I have failed as a father today." he says and before Avni can say anything to him on this, Neil continues.

" But now I will try to become her that father again whom she trusted and whose words never seemed like a lie to her." He says to which Avni looks at him.

" And I will be able to do these things because I have you, who always stands by me in my right and wrong." He says, to which she looks at him

" You are never wrong." She says while looking at him with her eyes full of love to which he gives her a smile.

" And the credit for this also goes to you, you show me the right path before I make any mistake, the entire credit for my positive thoughts for Reyansh goes to you." He said this to her to which she slightly smiles

" Praise me a little more na, I am feeling good..." she says in a dramatic tone on hearing his praise to which he smiles

" That was all the praise, but yes if you want love then tell me, I can give you a lot of love." He tells her with a mischievous smile to which she smiles.

" Hmm, I want both love and praise..." she says making him smile and then he cups her face and kisses her forehead.

" I love you, Always be with me like this." He says after kissing her forehead to which she looks at him

" I love you too, You also don't try to change yourself, I like my Neil like this, always smiling." She says to which he smiles.

Well, a big reason behind her saying this is that she has noticed how sad he is these days, he is slowly changing himself too.

And by connecting some links with his today's talk she understands his behavior, She understands his behavior last night and why he did not meet Aaira even after waiting for her.

He might lose Aaira because of his over attachment and possessiveness, so he's chaing some of his habits.

She suddenly realizes from the things of the past few days that Neil is actually making some distance from Aaira.

He doesn't let it show but he doesn't spend time with Aaira like before, nor does he ask for her time.

Both of them are not spending time like before where Aaira used to share her entire day's events with her father everyday.

And somewhere this misunderstanding between them happened due to the distance between them, where Aaira knowingly or unknowingly misunderstood her father.

If both of them had talked about things openly earlier then all this that happened between them today would not have happened.

If Aaira had doubts about her father whether he still likes Reyansh or not she would have clarified it but no she did not do so.

But somewhere now Neil's decision is also right, if due to him there is a problem between Aaira and Reyansh, so in such a situation it would be better for him to maintain distance from their matter so that no further misunderstanding arises between them.

And this time Avni thinks that she will also not say anything to Aaira, she will let her realize this change in her father.

If she pays attention then it is very good, otherwise things are fine anyway.

🦋🦋

On the other hand, Reyansh is sitting at his study table, as usual he opens his diary which has all the good as well as bitter memories related to Aaira.

And today, looking at the next blank page of the diary, he is wondering what should he write there today, should he write "the end"?

Well he overhears the conversation between Neil and Aaira and comes to know from that that this is not the end of their story but he is really hurt and angry with Aaira's decision today.

The way she behaved in the beginning, fought with everyone for him, he thought that she would never leave him but today...

Well, he also knows that she will not choose him in front of her father and he has no problem with this.

He respects this nature of hers very much.

But still he doesn't understand why he is feeling hurt today.

He really doesn't know if he will talk to her or not if she comes to talk to him.

He takes a deep breath, picks up his pen and is about to write something on the next page of the diary, but suddenly his hands stop when his phone rings:

He sees that he is getting a call from Aaira.

He sighs and lets the phone ring, Neither does he pick up the phone, nor does he put it on silent, nor does he disconnect it.

He stares at his phone screen until the call gets disconnected.

And like this he gets 3 calls from her but he doesn't answer even one of her calls.

And then suddenly he receives a message which says "Please pick up the phone, I need to talk to you."

He does not react even after reading her message but definitely closes his diary and comes straight and lies down on the bed and covers himself with the quilt.

🦋🦋

Next morning

The bright rays of the sun enter Aaira's room and fall directly on her bed and face, disturbing her sleep.

" Mumma please close the curtains." Aaira says just like every day.

Well it is 9 in the morning, and the reason why she is still sleeping is that she slept late last night or she doesn't even know when she slept, She spent the entire night trying to find a way to talk to Reyansh, calling and messaging him but he would not respond at all and then, lost in his memories, she did not know when she fell asleep.

At this moment she turns on the bed as the rays of the sun tease her and when her mother does not close the curtains despite repeated requests, She sits up and sees that today her mother is not in the room to wake her up.

She takes a breath and then looks at the clock, where it is about to be 9:30. She is shocked that her mother let her sleep for so long today and did not come to wake her up even once.

While she is thinking this, another thought of Reyansh comes to her mind and she quickly takes out her phone and checks if he has answered any of her calls or messages and here she gets another disappointment that Reyansh has also not given any reply.

She thinks something and gets up from the bed and before going anywhere she first goes to the washroom to get ready for her day.

🦋🦋

Avni is sitting alone in the hall and is drinking coffee while lost in some deep thoughts but she comes out of her thoughts when Aaira comes there and sits next to her.

" Good morning mumma." Aaira wishes her sitting next to her

"Good morning." Avni wish her back.

" Why didn't you wake me up today, I got late." Avni smiles at her complaint

" You had a day off today, so I let you sleep." She replies to her, to which Aaira still looks at her in a bit of surprise, because she had had many such holidays but never before had her mother been so kind to her and her sleep.

" Where is Papa?" she asks further

"It is his office time so he is obviously in the office." Avni replies to her

"He left without meeting me?"

" You were sleeping, how could he meet you?" she asks

" But yes, he did his work, he went to the office after seeing you but like always, he didn't disturb his princess' sleep." She replies to which Aaira looks at her, thinking something

"Are you angry with me?" She finally expresses her doubts

" And why would I be angry with you?" Avni asks her

" Because I made you sad yesterday, I know you can forgive all my mistakes but not the ones that hurt Papa." Avni smiles at her words.

" When your father is not angry with you, when everything is fine between both of you then why should I come between you two, why should I be angry with my Aairu..." Avni speaks while holding her chin and Aaira gets a little emotional.

" I behaved very strangely yesterday, made everyone angry, Papa and him... Papa still talkinh to me but he is not talking." Avni smiles at this statement of her.

" So what are you waiting for, for him to go to Delhi? Go and convince him and spend whatever little time is left with him." Avni tells him which makes her heart skip a beat realizing that she really has only 3 days, after 3 days he will leave for Delhi and she will stay here.

🦋🦋

On the other hand, Reyansh who is a morning person is still sleeping today, he is still in his quilt, Well he is not asleep but he is not awake either, Priyal has come several times to wake him up but he is not getting up, making excuses again and again, Priyal is worried about this strange behavior of her son but at the same time she is not disturbing him much by giving him his space.

Priyal thinks that her son is sad only because of going to Delhi away from Aaira.

Meanwhile, the doorbell of Singhania house rings and Priyal opens the door by chance and she gets a little surprised to see Aaira, that too alone, without Avni.

Aaira is dressed in a comfortable blue denim below and an oversized black hoodie on top, Her hair is tied in a ponytail.

Aaira gives a smile to Priyal and Priyal also smiles.

" Wow, what a pleasant surprise...come inside." Priyal says while hugging her and then brings her inside.

Coming inside, Aaira looks around the house, her eyes are only searching for Reyansh.

And Priyal does not ask her many questions about how and why she is here today? And why has she come alone? Because it is obvious that she would not have come here to spend time with her, if she has come without Avni then it is obvious that she would have come to meet Reyansh.

And understanding this, Priyal does not wait for her to speak and says

" By the way, the person you have come to meet is still asleep." Aaira is a little shocked as to how Priyal knows everything.

But at the same time, hearing her words, Aaira starts thinking that he is still asleep, but why? Is he okay?

But before she could say anything, Priyal speaks further.

" But yes, he did not wake up when I woke him up, but now his sleep will definitely be broken, You go to his room." Priyal says and Aaira feels a little awkward about how she can go to Reyansh's room alone in front of her. She knows she's a really cool mom, but some things still seem awkward doing in front of her.

And sensing this hesitation on her face, Priyal smiles...

" Aaira, there is no need to hesitate here, and I will not judge you in any way, you go to Reyansh room without any second thoughts. Ok?" Hearing Priyal's words, Aaira smiles

"And yes, I'll tell you a secret, I'm not at all grumpy like your father, I don't have any problem with you two spending time alone together." Priyal tells her mischievously

" Aunty, now even Papa has no problem." Aaira says clearly on which Priyal's eyes widen a bit in surprise

" Well if that is the case then it is good." Priyal says to which Aaira smiles.

" But what is this, aunty? I told you not to say this, right?" She says this while pretending to be angry, to which Aaira bites her tongue for her mistake.

" Oops sorry, maa." Aaira tells her to which Priyal smiles

"Don't make this mistake again or else I will become a grumpy mother-in-law." Priyal says to which Aaira smiles

" Ok, now go, I won't take much of your time." Priyal tells her and then takes her to Reyansh's room.

" Now go inside yourself, I can accompany you till here." Come till outside Reyansh's room, Priyal tells Aaira and then leaves from there.

And here suddenly Aaira's heart beats faster, she still doesn't know how she will apologize to him, why did she create such a situation between them.

Till yesterday her heart was beating fast in getting closer to him because of their first kiss but now her heart is beating fast because of the awkward situation created by her.

She takes a deep breath and thinks of knocking on the door but her hands stop after thinking of something.

She thinks why shouldn't she surprise him? Anyway he is asleep so why should she disturb his sleep by knocking and what will be better than this that he opens his eyes and she is in front of him

And with this thought in mind, she opens the door without knocking, which luckily was unlocked.

But as soon as she opens the door and goes inside, her eyes widen at the condition in which she finds Reyansh in front of her.

To be continued.........