Finding Love in the City

63. From this moment onward

A massive responsibility was about to land on his shoulders, and Shubham was not only panicking and anxious, but he was also on the verge of a brutal breakdown. Within the span of a couple of hours, he had somehow managed to go from being an appreciated husband and a doted-on father-to-be to an utter disgrace in the name of a life partner and a colossal failure as a father. All because he couldn't string one sentence properly without letting the name of his ex grace his lips.

He had managed to fuck over his marriage, which was already on tenterhooks since the word go. The crux of the understanding had dawned on him, thank you very much! More so when his sworn enemy shoved some logic into his retarded mind. He was in love with his wife. Utterly in love. Yet he had managed to antagonize her when she was in a vulnerable state. To the extent that after the entire debacle of childbirth would be over, his wife was going to pack her bags and move out of their house along with their child. She would be serving him with divorce papers most probably by the end of the month. And she was surely going to retain the custody of the child as she had jokingly said only a couple of hours ago. Oh, well, it felt like a couple of lifetimes ago when all was cheery and merry.

He shuddered when the thought of his family leaving him struck him and gulped hard as spontaneous images of an infuriated Piyali with her nose flaring and her eyes burning with rage crossed his mind. Nah! She was going to burn him alive with the immense glowering she was capable of. And she was not to be blamed this time. It was his fault and his alone.

He groaned and held his head in his hands when another round of shrieks and screams pierced the ambience of the hospital. She was in unbearable pain, and though Akanksha was inside with her, he was terrified of facing her, scared of seeing the disappointment in her eyes. Hence, sitting outside on the metal chairs was his punishment and his insurance.

"Why are you not going in, dude?" Rishi smacked the back of Shubham's head with a scowl on his face. "Piya has asked for you twice."

Shubham's eyes lit up, and he grinned wide. "She has?"

Rishi's frown turned severe. "Yeah... like twenty minutes ago. Raunak told you, didn't he?"

Shubham blinked a couple of times, recollecting what Raunak had said a few minutes back. He had assumed Raunak was only advising him to be with his wife in the moment of dire need without the knowledge of how Shubham Agarwal was the last person Piyali Agarwal was willing to see in this case. His brows shot up when comprehension dawned on him again, and his heart burst with delight. "She has asked for me?"

Rishi huffed and smacked the back of Shubham's head again. "Since when did you become this slow? Chop chop, Mr. Agarwal! In the room. Now!"

***

"Where the heck were you?"

Piyali's angry and strained voice boomed across the cabin as soon as Shubham threw the door open, and he swallowed in nervousness when he saw the state she was in. Covered in sweat, her cheeks flushed crimson, her features contorted in pain, and her limbs writhing from one side of the bed to the other, crinkling the sheets beneath her. The machines she was hooked to beeped from time to time, and the strong smell of disinfectants mingling with the sweet aroma of pineapples overwhelmed his olfactory ducts. However, before he could adjust to the scene in front of him and open his mouth to respond, his wife threw her head back on the pillow and groaned.

He let out a shaky breath. "I... I was not sure... I..."

"Call Mom." She chewed on her lips as a mild contraction troubled her. She took three heaving breaths in quick succession and glared at him. "I don't know where my phone is, and I need to talk to my Mummy. Now."