The Intern

Part 18

This is a mature story. Only read if you are comfortable.

Akshara Goenka:

A few days after the dinner at Goenkas, Akshu came home to find Manjiri and Abhi's grandmother in a deep discussion with Badi Maa, Mimi and Bade Papa. Akshu greeted them and sat next to Mimi.
"Actually, before anything we always ask our Pandit-ji for auspicious days. He looked at Akshara and Abhi's kundli and was very happy with how their stars match but he said the most auspicious day is after 6 months." Abhi's dadi told Akshu's family. 6 months? That was enough time for Akshu to plan something and escape with Aarav. She silently thanked Kanha-ji. 6 months was plenty of time. "But if we don't want to wait 6 months and Abhi really doesn't..." the old lady laughed, "next Wednesday is also a very auspicious day and we have no problem if you don't." That was 5 days away. No, no. Akshu looked at her Badi Maa and wordlessly begged her to say no.
"That's such a short amount of time, how will we prepare for anything?" Badi Maa asked them.
"Actually, we are fine with next Wednesday. We want a simple wedding for Akshara. Next Wednesday is good." Bade Papa ignored Badi Maa and told Abhi's dadi.
"Wonderful. Abhi also wants a very simple wedding. We ourselves have lots of wishes for Abhi but he has given us strict instructions to have a smaller ceremony and he took so long to agree to get married, we now are fine with whatever he wishes." Manjiri laughed.

Akshu got up and went to her room and started to panic. 5 days? How was she supposed to plan anything in 5 days? If it was just her, she would have just left and went anywhere but with Aarav? No, she couldn't take her baby just anywhere. She couldn't risk her Aarav being in any trouble. She had to make sure she had a solid plan before she took Aarav with her but 5 days was not enough time to plan anything. What was she going to do now? She couldn't leave Aarav behind either. Akshu couldn't leave without her baby. She decided to call the only person who would help her. Abhi. She would convince him to move the wedding to 6 months later.

She picked up her phone and called him but he didn't answer. She called a few times but he didn't pick up. She was about to call him again when she got a message from him. "Hi baby! I'm in Mumbai for an important seminar and the signal here is weak. Are you okay?" Akshu quickly messaged him to ask when he was coming back and he answered back saying he was going to be back on Tuesday. That was the day before the wedding. Akshu sat on her bed and started to cry.
"Bua, do you want to build a car with my legos?" Aarav came to Akshu's room with his legos box. Akshu wiped off her tears and smiled at him.
"Of course. Come." She helped him get on the bed and opened his Lego box. She looked at her son. Her beautiful baby boy. There was no way she would leave him behind. She will marry Abhi if she had to and then she will take Aarav and run. She left Abhi once for Aarav and she would do it again if she had to.

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Abhimanyu Birla:

Abhi came back from Mumbai the morning of his wedding. His flight kept getting delayed due to bad weather and at one point he was scared he was going to miss his own wedding. Because he was in Mumbai, the usual pre-wedding rituals were skipped with there being no sangeet or mehndi or anything of that sort. He was scared that Akshu might mind. He knew Akshu had dreams of having a grand wedding but his mother told him that skipping all of the rituals was Akshu's idea only. He once again wondered what happened to Akshu for her to change so much. They were getting married so he will have all the time find the answers to his questions.

The Birlas arrived at the Goenkas and the wedding rituals started without a problem. Abhi kept looking at Akshu and he couldn't keep the smile from his face. In her red bridal lengha, she was looking more beautiful than it was possible for anyone to look, thought Abhi. Yet, Abhi realized how distracted she was. Akshu kept looking at her left side where her brother and sister in law were sitting with their son. He really needed to find out what was troubling his girl.