Cross-border Merger

The After Effects

In contrast to all the shouting that happened in the room, there was deadly silence in the house when I walked out. I figured Ashar and Sam had probably left the house. In that moment, I felt so lost, so lonely. I stumbled on my feet signalling the end of the the confident show I had put on just a few seconds ago.

Even though I had just spoken the truth and did what I had to do, it still felt like something wrong  just happened. There were a tonne of questions running through my head - why did I have to follow him to his room, why couldn't I control my anger, why did I spoil the evening that Sam and Ashar had planned just to make me feel welcomed, should I have waited for Uncle to tell everything to Michael? Uncle, holy shit, I have to tell him everything. What if he gets angry? Would I end up failing and losing the trust of him and Mr. Ahluwalia?

Pulling myself out of the train of thoughts that was pulling me to the bottom, I picked up my phone and called Uncle. It went straight to voicemail. I explained everything at precisely as I could in the voicemail. Just to be on a safer side, I decided to drop him a text too. After this, I just prayed to every God and Goddess I could think of requesting them just to keep everything under control tomorrow.

...

When I woke up in the morning, there was deadly silence in the house. Even Mel who has become my usual companion during breakfast was on a leave today. Before I left for University, I checked for any signs of Michael being here but there were none. I hadn't received any call or text from Uncle too. The pit in my stomach had started getting bigger as I left the house for today.

Going to the University today seemed more dreadful since I wasn't able to sweep off my subconscious thoughts that today might even be the last day I would be spending at the University and with the friends that I've made here. I was growing impatient and restless just waiting to get hold of any clue of what was going to happen today.

Calum was also not present for the lecture that we have together. I dropped him a quick text to check in if everything's okay. 

Nothing that was happening today was giving me a positive energy and if that's not a sign of things going downhill then I don't know what is. After the lectures were done for the day, I quickly rushed back home hoping Michael would be there... Shocker, I know! But for the first time, I wanted to see him and make sure everything's okay. The silence of the day and lack of communication from Uncle was killing me at this point.

As I opened the door to the house, I heard noises coming from the living room. I took a deep breath preparing myself for the possible confrontations right now and stepped in the house. 

I saw Uncle sitting down on one of the chairs in the room slightly worried and Michael standing, frantically moving his hands as if he's trying to explain something. Both of them sensed me standing there and the discussion came to an abrupt halt as they saw me.

Even after all the thinking I've been doing throughout the day, I could not plan what would I say in this exact moment. So, I did the first thing I had wanted to do since yesterday without wasting a second. 

"I'm sorry", I looked straight at Uncle.

Uncle looked confused because from the look he was giving, this was not what he was expecting me to say.

"I— I should have waited for you. I know you said you were waiting for the right time to talk to Michael and I should've waited. It was not my place." I apologised to Uncle. 

No one said anything. There was once again heavy silence settled in the room. 

"I should go. You were talking before I arrived so, I shouldn't really stay. I'll be in my room", I said to anyone in particular and started walking towards the stairs.

"Yukta", Uncle called before I took my stair.

I turned around and he walked towards me, "You don't need to apologise. The truth needed to come out anyway. It's true that I think waiting for some time could've been a better idea but now that it's done, it's better we focus on how do we proceed further."

"You still want me to work ahead?", my voice started to crack a little, "You are not going to take me off this case?"

"No Yukta! Of course not! Why would you think that I would fire you for doing something that had to be done. You were chosen not just because of your lawyering capabilities but for things that are far much more needed at this point one of them being trust. Truth be told, in between all this, you have strengthened your position and you are not going anywhere now Miss. Understood?"

I nodded as fast as I could probably looking like a child while wiping up the tears that had pooled my eyes.

"Now you are going to stay here and be a part of the discussion I was having with my son because now this concerns you equally."

"Dad if you're done falling for the melodrama over there can we get back to where we were", Michael snaps from behind Uncle.

And here we go again...

A/N: Kill me for making you guys wait this long. Actually please don't because I have a news that's made my day and will hopefully make you happy too... the story now has over 100 votes and that's a landmark I would like to celebrate. 

Thank you for voting on and loving this story everyone! This means an extreme lot!!! Love you so so so Goddamn much!

Also, I' m removing the meet the characters page right now because there's a lot I don't like there... just wanted to let you know. 

P.S. If anyone knows how to make mood boards please let me know in the inbox. I'm pretty much a boomer in that department . Love ya.