Arranged Love

18. Vulnerability

Disclaimer: All the characters written below are imaginary and a work of pure fiction. There is no resemblance to any incident or situation, and is written as a work of fiction.

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A/N: A long emotional chapter ahead! I think long chapters can become a part of my new normal now😌

Vivek's POV -

"The number you are trying to call is currently switched off. Please try later. Aap jis vyakti ko call karna chaha rahe hain woh ------" I groan and disconnect the call for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.

Why the hell is she not picking up her phone?

No.

Why the hell has she switched off her phone abruptly?

I groan yet again and run my sweaty hands over my face in exhaustion. I feel like slamming my phone on the door when I am continuously greeted by the irritating recorded female voice instead of my Smriti's sweet voice.

Suddenly, I feel my heart skip a beat as if something is wrong. Is Smriti okay? Is she in some trouble? Arghhh. Maybe I am just overthinking. Maybe her phone's battery died, and she was too sleepy to put it on charging. Arghh.

I kick the centre table in front of me with my leg in frustration just before my phone goes off, its loud ringtone making me flinch in the otherwise quiet room. I hastily pick up my phone to find Smriti's grandfather calling me.

My mind drifts back to the night Dadu called me, worrying about his little Pari's well-being. Every cell in my body screams that something is wrong, and I must rush back to Smriti. I swipe the call button on my phone, answering Dadu's call, but before I could say anything, he opened his heart out on the call. His wails and our mutual concern for his granddaughter led my siblings and me to take the next flight to Delhi, tomorrow's closing ceremony long forgotten.

I tried calling her once again after boarding the flight to Delhi before I switch my phone off for the next two hours and ten minutes, but to my dismay, my call went unanswered.

"Bhai, don't worry. She'll be fine." My brother silently coos to me in an attempt to calm me from my spiral of negative thoughts. I only hum back in response, failing to get any words out of my mouth as I switch off my phone, ready to take off from Mumbai to my Smriti.

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"The number you are trying to call ----." I disconnect the call in annoyance.

"Fucking hell." I cannot help the curse coming out of my mouth.

"Bhai, our cars have come. You go ahead and find Bhabhi in one part of the city while Amu and I'll go and find her in the other part of the city. Ro furnishes me with his plan.

"Drop Amrita home first. It's been a tiring night." I say, not wanting to exhaust my younger sister more than she already is.

"No, Bhai. Ro bhaiyya said that too, but I insisted on accompanying him. Ek se bhale do, do se bhale teen." (Two better than one, and three better than two.) She says the idiom with complete seriousness and I let out a chuckle at that, surprising myself. At this point, I don't even know whether I chuckled at the age-old idiom or at our helplessness. Not wanting to waste any more time than we already have lost, I quickly agree with them and I sit in my car while my siblings sit in Rohit's car.

"Where to, sir?" My driver asks me nervously.

How would I know?

As the sun began to make its ascent on a sombre morning, casting a soft golden glow across the landscape, I found myself compelled to look up at the sky. It was as if the heavens were calling out to me, beckoning me to witness the beauty amidst the turmoil that had settled in my life.