MINE ~ An AbhiRa FF

Chapter 7 : Friday Family Feast & A shocker ?

As soon as Abhimanyu entered, he saw his mother already coming in his direction and engulfed him in a hug. Ah! The warmth of a mother's embrace.

“Maa! All the love for Bhai. Nothing for me ?” - complained Neil good-naturedly. Manjiri pulled Neil's ear saying “shaitaan” and hugged him tightly.

After the pleasantries, they proceeded towards the dining hall and Abhimanyu braced himself. There, on the table, were the 3 people he least interacted with, and if possible, didn't at all.

“Good evening Tauji and Taiji.” - Him and Neil greeted together.

“Arey Abhimanyu ?” - said a pleasantly surprised Anand Birla. But Abhimanyu didn't smile at the warmness in his tone because his blood had already started to boil at the way Anand Birla ignored his OWN son's ‘Good Evening Dad’. That was the problem. Anand Birla's extra sweet behaviour towards Abhimanyu was not because he had some kind of attachment towards him, No. It was always to show his son down. To make him feel unimportant. Because according to Anand and Mahima Birla, if Parth was not interested in Medical, then he should've gone to business side like Abhimanyu, instead of selecting a ‘below-their-standards’ field. And their constant jibs at Parth on these dinners didn't help either.

“Congratulations Abhimanyu. Read about your successful deal yesterday.”
Abhimanyu willed himself to NOT lose his temper at THAT voice. He turned to the only person he had not greeted :

“Thank you Mr. Harshwardhan Birla. You look proud.” - He taunted with a smirk.
Because everybody knew that Harshwardhan Birla wanted his son to be a doctor. And Abhimanyu hating his father with a passion decided against it. The question is, why Abhimanyu hated his father so much ?

Jaywant Rai, Abhimanyu's maternal grandfather, had two daughters ; Mahima and Manjiri. He distributed his property among his two daughters within his life. 50/50. After their marriage, Mahima with her share and Anandwardhan and Harshwardhan's money collectively bought a land on which Birla Hospital and Medical Institute was standing today. But Manjiri didn't. She didn't want to invest her money their. They tried to coax her but she stood firm on her decision of investing in Jaywant's once successful but currently suffering company. Everyone said that it was foolish of her to do so because the company was clearly suffering without a proper owner and Jaywant's health was worsening day by day. Abhimanyu was 15 when his maternal grandfather died. He was shattered. The only father figure in his life left him. What surprised everyone was his maternal grandfather's last will in which he had left the company to Abhimanyu and had declared his trust in him that he'd take it to the new heights of success. Abhimanyu still remembered how his father had mocked at that time about a ‘kid’ handling an almost bankrupted company and had once again tried to convince his mother to sell it and utilize the money for a right cause. Manjiri then decided that she'd given this relationship enough time but it was not getting any better and got divorced. When Harshwardhan asked her to leave the house, she simply stated : “Its my house. If you want to leave than you can”. Which was true, because half of the money in Birla house was hers. She had more right on this house than anyother member.

Abhimanyu had spent so much time with Jaywant, that from a very young age he had started to absorb the sharpness and wittiness of his business minded grandfather, and if his grandfather believed that he could do it, then so did he. He was 18 when he took over the company. Working on it along side studying business as majors, he cleared every obstacle in his path without stopping and the rest was history.
And what the world says when you get successful ? Ah! Yes. ‘Congratulations!’ That's exactly what happened with Harshwardhan Birla. The person who never respected his wife, let alone love, pestered his son to be a doctor without knowing his interests in life, made his childhood miserable, suddenly changed his behavior towards Abhimanyu thinking all's gonna be fine. ‘Hn!’ If only he knew his son.

What's the point of a family if they treat you according to your profession and success rate just like the world ?

“Abhi! I've made Curry Rice for you.” - Manjiri's voice broke Abhimanyu's chain of thoughts.

After dinner, everyone got dispersed while talking. Parth and Neil were discussing something. Shefali and Nishtha were looking at a piece of jewelry online and were debating on it's colour combinations. Your Majesty Doctors were seated discussing about the upcoming board meeting and Abhimanyu was sitting with his mother, at a distance from everyone, a mug of Americano in his hands.

“Abhi. I met Mrs. Sahani today.” - Manjiri started and Abhimanyu already knew where this was leading.

“Maa please. Not again. Why don't you understand ? I'm not interested in marriage!” - said Abhimanyu, frustrated.

“Abhi her daughter is a nice girl. She -”

“She maybe the nicest in the world and I'm still not interested. Marriages are a waste of your time and energy. Look at yourself.” - Said Abhimanyu.

“Abhi it's not necessary for every marriage to end like mine did. Your father and I had differences and -”

“And Tauji and Taiji ? They both are doctors right ? Are they happy together ?” - asked Abhimanyu challengingly.
And Manjiri had no answer to that. Because despite being a match professionally, Anand and Mahima Birla were NOT a happy couple. And it was visible in their behaviour towards each other. Sighing defeatedly, Manjiri tried one more time :

“And Parth Shefali ? They ARE a happy couple aren't they ?”

“Parth Bhai and Shefali Bhabi had a LOVE marriage Maaaa. And in my case, there is no chance of that either.” - Abhimanyu said closing the topic.

Manjiri sighed and decided to leave the topic. For now at least.

“Okay fine. You'd stay the night ?” - She asked hopefully.

“Goodness! No!” - He exclaimed . “It's been a long day and I want to rest. And you know that I won't get it here.”

Finishing his coffee, he decided to leave and saw that Parth and Shefali were also taking their leave. Bidding adieu to everyone and hugging his mother one last time, he left for HOME.

~

While getting ready for bed, Akshu was just giving herself a head massage, when her phone announced a notification.

Birla Empires.

Cleaning her hands quickly like if she opened it with oily hands it'd get tainted, she started reading and froze. No. There must be some kind of misunderstanding. She read again and dropped her phone on the bed in disbelief.

She was appointed as the PERSONAL ADVISOR OF CEO ???

She couldn't believe it. Maybe they'd sent someone else's mail to her. Rummaging through her purse she quickly pulled out the envelope, personally handed to her by the CEO himself, and started to read. Skimming through the page her eyes stopped at the name of the appointed designation :

“Cheif & Personal Advisor To CEO”

Her jaw dropped. This clearly meant that she was going to be with her boss like 24/7 ? Accompanying him on his meetings, business trips and wherever he went ? Her breath quickened at that thought. Waiting for Monday would be even more difficult now.

~

Author's Note : Apologies if it seemed a bit rushed but I really wanted to get done with the background info of the characters so that we can move on with the current story.
You guys will tell me about the chapter in the comments. Yes ? Hope so. Will be back soon till then,

Happy Reading! ❤️
& Hasta La Vista 😎