Holding On & Letting Go |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

Chapter 9: Rays Of Sunshine

A/N : Hello peeps, sharing the next chapter, hope you like it! Do vote, share and comment :)

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MANIK MALHOTRA

I was sitting at the dining table for dinner with my family. It was a warm fuzzy feeling inside me. Suddenly my daadi gently tapped my shoulder, I looked up at her.

"Oye Manik, why do you have such a silly smile plastered over your face? And why haven't you touched the food, it's going cold beta"

I came back to the present. I found myself basking in the bliss of being around my loud and chirpy family for dinner, after a very long time. My brother-in-law Abhimanyu was on a six months project to Belgium, and Krish was too young to travel, so daadi brought Mukti back home with her. The initial plan was daadi was to stay with Mukti for these six months.

But that day when I took Nandini to the doctor, she was diagnosed with severe depression. I was shell shocked, and the doctor had planted the idea upon me that there was no absolute cure - it was all about self-restraint on Nandini's part. She always needed to remind herself, to not let go - she had to constantly be in control of her mind - this was what remained of the Nandini who had always let go of her mind - she never controlled herself - be it when she told me that she loved me all those years back, or when she pulled me to random pecks on my face that night in Haus Khaus. But the doctor had also mentioned, the closest Nandini could go to lead a normal life would be when she was happy and busy with life.

Hence, after the check-up with the doctor and dropping a silent Nandini home, I had called daadi and explained the situation to her - she had immediately changed her plans of staying with Mukti, and decided to bring Mukti and Krish to stay with us instead.

So, today as I sat at the dining table admiring the sight, I saw daadi fondling Krish, and feeding him to baby food, Mukti and Nandini loudly chatting and giggling like teenagers - They had got along very well right from the beginning. Mukti, of course, knew about our past - she was fiercely protective of Nandini in the past - now when she met her, their bond strengthened right from the first salutation. And slowly in these two weeks, I saw Nandini improving - I was glad to see the occasional sparks of Nandz in her. In a way, she started seeing Aliya in Mukti, I could tell. They watched movies together, they chatted in each other's rooms till late night, they went shopping together, and sometimes they even teamed up together to take my case! - Well, Mukti would take my case, and she would stand by her with a small smile - Our equation hadn't improved. Ever since that night of her breakdown, we hardly ever spoke on a personal level - It's not that I didn't try, but she wouldn't - maybe she was embarrassed? I wanted to tell her to do away with all the awkwardness, but I feared reminding her of that night, especially when she was improving. I was happy with life in general with my houseful of loved ones - and as for Nandini's health and happiness, I kept a tab of it indirectly, sometimes through Mukti, sometimes through daadi and sometimes through the staff.

It had been a month and half. Mukti told me that the doctor had finally said that Nandini was in perfect control. She was fine and didn't need medication - she just needed to exercise control over her mind and be happy. I was overjoyed - after whatever she had gone through, she was finally fine. But one look at Mukti told me I was busted. Again.

"So Bro, what plans now? Nandini is fine. Should we send her back home?"

I was surprised, I thought Mukti loved Nandini, why was she suggesting me to send Nandini back? What was it that I had done this time?

"Good that she is fine. But let's check for some more time? You know, with depression, you never really know" I reasoned. My sister looked at me skeptically for a second.