48. Vihaan-Aarchi

ONE YEARS LATER

"Aaru" Kaira called for Aarchi who was once again busy in solving her 1000 pieces puzzle. She came running down to listen to her mother who was calling for her constantly.

"Yeah?" She bounced herself on the last step.

"You've got a gift" Kaira said asking her to look at her right side. Aarchi looked in the direction Kaira pointed, and her eyes immediately brightened up seeing the gift.

"Veena" She rushed to her favorite musical instrument and let her fingers feel the body of veena. She positioned herself to hold the veena and noticed how well it fit in her arms. It was in a long time her family saw a genuine smile on her face and were happy. Her heart welled up in happiness seeing her name written on the body of the veena.

"Take my pictures Aryu bhayu" She gave him her phone and asked him to click many pictures of her.

She placed the veena down cautiously and looked at Rishav, Aryaman and Aviraj happily.

"Who got me the best gift?" She looked at them excitedly.

"You got me?" She looked at Rishav curiously with happiness reflecting in her eyes. Rishav who was extremely happy seeing his daughter be happy finally refused half-heartedly.

"You?" Her smile flattered slightly but quickly pulled up as she asked her twin brothers who again refused her. She looked at the veena with confusion.

"Did you both get me?" She asked Maitri and Nidhi who also refused. Maitri and Nidhi looked at their spouses worriedly knowing exactly who sent her the gift and why they sent the gift. Aarchi had been home since two weeks and they missed their friend and crime-partner Aarchi who had locked herself in her room and talked only when necessary.

"It has a note baby" Kaira held the note in her hand and gave it to her. Aarchi opened the note with excitement.

Aarchi's smile disappeared after reading the note which everyone in the room noticed. They slowly had started getting the ideas of what was going on and were waiting for her to tell them everything by herself even if meant a small piece of information. She called for a delivery man.

"What happened Aaru?" Rishav took the risk and asked.

"Nothing. Let me handle this my way" She stood at the door waiting for a delivery truck to come and pick the package.

"You have a pen?" She looked at all of them and asked for a pen. Aryaman gave her his pen. She sat down on the sofa and folded the note and wrote on its backside and waited impatiently.

Soon the delivery people came and she handed them the note and the veena and gave them the address to where it was supposed to be delivered.

Everyone in the hall looked at each other tensed and confused and not knowing what to do next since Aarchi kept them in dark and neither could they ask Vihaan for the details as it would present a wrong image of Aarchi infront of him.

Aarchi walked back to her room angrily. All of them sat on the sofa and looked at her walk her way back to her room.

"We need to now seriously know what is going on with her" Maitri said worried about Aarchi.

"I think its time we use our Brahmastra" Rishav said knowing how his thunderstorm is all silent. He hated every second of seeing his baby girl sad.

"I'll call him and ask him to talk to her" Aviraj stood up dialing the number. Within a few minutes, soft violin tunes were heard from Aarchi's room.

"Something is seriously off if she is playing violin" Aryaman said and stood up to talk to her himself.

"Let him talk to her first. You know she won't open to us" Aviraj stopped him reminding him that at such times she never opened to any of the family member except one.

Within a few minutes Rishav saw his Brahmastra standing at the entrance looking in a mess.

"What happened?" He asked them worriedly. Before they could say anything else, Aarchi played another sad symphony. Saaransh understood the point and ran to her room.

After an hour or so everyone who sat downstairs heard her loud sobs and couldn't control themselves.

"That's it Vihaan is going to pay for making her cry" Aryaman and Aviraj stood up together and were ready to rush out of the door but their wives stopped them.

"It is their personal issue. We can't intrude until they allow us to intrude" Nidhi stopped them.

"My girl is crying because of that bastard and you want me to stay silent. Don't you feel the pain in her each sob? I've never let her cry in my life and in 1 year Vihaan has managed to make my daughter cry. I am not going to leave that bastard" Rishav walked to the cabinet and got his revolver and checked whether it was loaded or not.

"It is Aaru's decision Rish, please" Kaira lowered his revolver. The men paced around in the living room in anger and worry. On the other hand Saaransh held Aarchi securely in his arms as she kept crying until she fell asleep while crying. He adjusted her onto the bed and covered her with the duvet and rushed down to meet everyone and end Vihaan's life.

"This is sincerely worse than the one with Surya. Whatever that bastard has done needs to be rectified quickly. She held onto me so tightly as if she feared she'll shatter into pieces. She's too hurt this time. I've never seen her cry this badly. Vihaan needs to clean up his mess asap or else he will die by my hands" Saaransh roared in anger as he walked down the stairs. The men stopped him and explained him what their wives explained him.

"Stay here tonight" Rishav suggested knowing that last time when his daughter cried for a man she hadn't stopped crying for two days. As soon as she would wake she would start crying and also sleep crying.

"What went so wrong in last 6 months that it reached this stage?" Kaira said worriedly. Her heart pierced knowing that her daughter was crying and she couldn't do anything to help lessen the pain.

Maitri held Aryaman's hand and rubbed her thumb on his hand asking him to calm down while Nidhi did the same to Aviraj.

____________

NEXT DAY

"Aarchi please" Vihaan stood at her door, pleading her to talk to him.

"No, there's nothing more to talk about" She only knew how she held herself strong in front of him.

"Aari one last time, please hear me out" Vihaan took a step inside the house refusing to go away without talking to her. Maitri and Nidhi came out of the kitchen running hearing the commotion. Kaira who was at home also rushed out with Nidhi and Maitri worried at what happened.

"Vihaan leave or I'll have the guards escort you out" She crossed her hands at her chest. The ladies wanted to intrude but remained silent.

"Am not leaving until you listen to me" They heard Vihaan speak with determination. Maitri was glad that the male Ranawats weren't home yet or else they would have chopped Vihaan by now and thrown him in the ocean.

"Vihaan that date night before I handed you the divorce papers was meant for us to talk. What did you do that time? Sat the whole time with your phone ignoring me like always. Now its my turn" She started pushing him out of her house. Vihaan held her hands and twisted them behind her back.

"My sherni" He said with a smile seeing the fierceness he had fallen in love with.

"She roars and tears people too, want to try?" Aarchi tried freeing herself from his hold.

"That I don't know but I know she bites, she loves biting a lot" He winked at her making her lower her gaze in shyness. Nidhi and Maitri smiled hearing Vihaan's flirtings.

"I suggest you to leave from my property Vihaan or else I'll be forced to ask the guards to take you out" She said fisting her hands tightly to hold onto the fort she created around herself.

"Try that too but I am not going unless you listen to me"

"I don't want to listen to you anymore Vihaan. Samajh nahi aarahi aapko ke mujhe aapki koi bhi baat nahi sunni" She said angrily.

"Nahi samajh aarahi na Aarchi. You've taken away the symphony from my life when you came here and am here to get back what is mine" He held her close to himself.

"I've returned all the deliveries you've made. I don't have even one musical instrument that's yours" She said fighting him.

"Pagal ladki. Am not talking about the musical instruments am talking about you the one who brought music to my silent life. You were right when you said that when you would be silent I'll be desperate to hear you. Here I am my love asking you to talk to me"

"No thank you. You also should feel how I felt all these months when you ignored me, behaved mean with me. Atleast mine came with a due date, you are responsible for choosing when to end the pain. Stop bothering me anymore Vihaan" She finally escaped his clutches and pushed him out of her house. She closed the doors on his face. She turned around to see her family looking at her and Vihaan with an unfathomable emotion.

"No one will open these doors for him or else I'll leave from here" Aarchi said and walked back to her room. She walked by her window and saw Vihaan sitting on the bench staring at her window continuously. His face brightened up seeing her at the window. Angrily she closed the curtains and turned her back to it.

"He's sitting on the bench" Maitri said looking out of the living room window at Vihaan.

"Let him be there" Kaira said knowing how both Vihaan and her daughter were in terms of being stubborn.

"But ma... If Maan sees him here, they'll eat him raw" Maitri said worriedly.

"Let it be between the guys" Kaira said pulling Maitri from the window. Maitri nodded her head and walked to Nidhi who was working and decided to disturb her. Hours went by and the girls let the new couple be on their own. Soon it was time for dinner and Maitri and Nidhi went to the kitchen to check on what's made for dinner when it struck Maitri that Vihaan had been sitting out the whole day.

"He hasn't had anything to eat since morning" Maitri said feeling sad at having her brother-in law sit outside hungry.

"Should we go give him atleast a fruit?" Maitri whispered to herself.

"And be killed by Aarchi? Pick your fights wisely Maitri. Aarchi will kill us before she kills him" Nidhi said patting Maitri's shoulder. Aarchi, who had walked down to get herself something heard them and was proud of the decision Maitri and Nidhi made and greeted them warmly.

"What are you both making? Am so hungry I can eat a mountain of food" Aarchi looked around in the fridge to find something to eat but nothing enticed her.

"Aaru..." She heard Aviraj call her from the living room. She ran to the living room to smell a delicious aroma of samosas filling the room. Rishav and Aryaman glared at the packet of samosas. They all had just returned from work.

"For you" Aviraj handed her the parcel unsurely.

"I love you bhaiyu" She kissed his cheek tightly leaving some wetness on it so he would be annoyed by it. She walked into the kitchen and divided the samosas amongst everyone and asked the helps to share it amongst all family members. She took her plate of samosas and chutney and walked into her room with a plan to binge watch Disney movies as this was her new way of coping up with stress.

"You brought the samosas?" Nidhi asked Aviraj, handing him a glass of water. Aviraj refused and looked outside.

"Bastard got it for her" Aryaman murmured eating the samosa.

"You also are eating that samosa" Maitri reminded him.

"That's not the point here. Food is never to be disrespected" Aryaman asking Maitri to open her mouth. He dipped his samosa in sweet chutney and looked at her to eat. She ate from his hand and looked ahead to see everyone talking. Aryaman and Maitri didn't realise that they had fallen into the habit of feeding each other from their part that now they did it unconsciously.

"How dare he buy my daughter food? I can buy her anything she wants" Rishav said angrily. Kaira held his hand looked at him pleading eyes asking him to calm down.

"Of course you can buy your daughter anything she wishes but he is her husband who bought her something before she asked for it. We should be more concerned about that part and not that HE bought her food which you could also do" Kaira explained to him by whispering it in his ears.

"She looked happy seeing the food though" Aviraj said thinking calmly. Nidhi fed him and herself the samosa as Aviraj opened his laptop and was working. Nidhi understood that it might be something urgent and hence he is working in the living room.

"Give it some time and if it doesn't work out then we will take matter in our hands" Kaira said holding Rishav's hand.

"Hmm" Everyone agreed and went their ways to freshen up for dinner.

Just when everyone gathered to have dinner, Aarchi walked down stomping her feet on the stairs and looked at her brothers.

"Tell him to go home, the wind has started picking up and he'l fall sick if he stays out more" She said looking at Aryaman and Aviraj. Aryaman took an umbrella and walked out to talk with Vihaan.

"Wassup bro?" Vihaan looked at Aryaman as his teeth clattered due to cold.

"Go home" Aryaman said ignoring the desire to punch the smile off from Vihaan's face.

"Not without her" Vihaan looked inside the house to see Aarchi looking at him angrily.

"Well...that looks kind of impossible right now. Come to beg for your love when it stops raining and seriously just fuck off for now" Aryaman looked at Vihaan who ignored Aryaman's words.

"Would you fuck off if Maitri was angry with you?" Vihaan asked standing up from the bench.

"No because I don't fuck up like you" Aryaman glared at Vihaan.

"I just need to talk to her once Aryaman. She's my wife" Vihaan pinched his nose and looked at him.

"Its her wish when she wants to talk to you. Go home" Aryaman said annoyed.

"Home is no longer home without her yaar. Without her it feels like just walls built in seperating one space into two. Her scent, her laughter or her hums there's nothing there. It might as well be a cemetry without her. I need my symphony back" Vihaan said looking back at Aarchi who tried hard to keep herself in place and not rush to him. Aryaman looked at him for a while before turning and returning to the palace to convey Vihaan's message to Aarchi.

"Arrogant fool, idiot, stupid, bastard, egoïstic royal pain in the ass. You guys can call him in but my room is completely off-limits to him" She said looking at everyone in the room and walking back to her room. Vihaan entered the house with a smile and greeted everyone to receive a cold response. Aviraj and Aryaman asked him to go to the guestroom and take a hot bath as they brought him warm clothes.

Vihaan kept smiling to himself as a fool and changed into warm clothes and walked to the dining area to find Aarchi coming running down happily smelling the aroma of food.

He sat on the seat beside hers and waited for her to come.

"What food do we have today?" She hadn't noticed Vihaan and entered the dining room chirpily. She stopped in her tracks seeing Vihaan at the table.

"I'll eat later" Vihaan sensed that she was going back to her room and didn't want her to remain hungry. He stood up from his place and walked to the guestroom knowing that he was paying for his actions. Everyone looked at the couple silently and looked at Aarchi after he left.

"Serve him dinner in his room" Aarchi sat down in her place after asking a help to deliver food in Vihaan's room.

"What? Let's eat" Aarchi tore a piece of her roti and ate while the Ranawats looked at her shocked at how she ate before Rishav ate when she has been doing that ever since birth. They ignored it and ate and retired for the night.

Maitri was standing in the balcony looking at the garden when Aryaman hugged her from behind.

"Its been long since we've... you know" Maitri looked up at him with mischievous eyes making Aryaman smirk.

"Are you suggesting what am thinking wife?" He turned her around and asked. Maitri nodded her head with a shy smile.

"Think before you ask for it Ranisa, it is after a long time we will be doing it so there's alot pent up in me" Aryaman said running his fingers on her bare arms.

"Are you afraid that you won't be able to match my libido?" She deliberately asked him to tease him.

"Order of places you've picked for tonight" He growled making her wet instantly.

"Wall-Bed-Shower" Maitri said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Bas? You are getting fucked on every flat surface my Queen, these 3 places are nowhere near for what I've planned for you tonight" Aryaman carried her in bridal style and took her to the bed.