REBORN: As a Mom & a Wife ✓

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*piss*

"Dei, it's paining da" Vikram hissed in pain as Karthik treated the wounds on his face.

"Who beat you this hard?" Karthik dipped the cotton in antibiotics and applied them to the wounded area.

Vikram didn't reply to his question; he just saw the terrified woman beside him. Karthik understood his friend's signals and just treated his wounds quietly.

Meenakshi brought two glasses of water and stood behind Karthik. She still doesn't remember the woman who is sitting in front of her.

"Have some water" Karthik said, closing the first-aid gave to Aditya to keep it back as Meenakshi passed the water to them.

"Thank you" Vikram said, smiling at her. As that woman just nodded her head. Meenakshi hugged the tray and observed the women. Wearing a brown-cream half saree, covering her upper self with a shawl, and jet black wavy hair that reached till her mid-waist, she saw her face features as being just around Meenakshi's age.

"Now what do you want to do?" Karthik asked, looking straight into Vikram's eye. He knew this situation was a little complicated.

"Ha.. First.. Meenakshi, can you take her inside the room?" Vikram asked Meenakshi to take everyone, leaving Karthik and him alone.

"Ok.." She kept the tray on the teapoy and carried Kushi on her side waist. "Shall We?" Meenakshi smiled and asked that woman.

That woman looked at Vikram as if she were seeking his permission to go with her, and he nodded his head positively. She slowly got up and followed Meenakshi to their bedroom.

Meenakshi is still in confusion, as she doesn't remember this woman from her past life.

"Feel comfortable yourself" Meenakshi said, bolting the door. She made Kushi sit on the carpeted floor and gave her some picture books, which Kushi was observing carefully.

"Thank you" the woman said to her, and she sat on the single sofa in the room. There was an awkward silence between them, which Meenakshi thought to break.

"Ha, I'm Meenakshi" she said, forwarding her hand towards that woman. That woman hesitated before shaking hands with her. "Hi.. Renuka"

'Renuka..?' Something popped inside Meenakshi's head.

"If you don't mind can I ask how you met Vikram Anna?" Meenakshi asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Renuka fiddles with her fingers as if she is thinking something. Meenakshi thought she just asked something wrong.

"It's ok if you don't want to share" Meenakshi said with a smile. Renuka looked at Meenakshi, then her eyes darted to Kushi, who was observing a picture book. A small smile printed on Renuka's face.

"It all began a year ago." Renuka said, while looking outside the balcony, Meenakshi listened to her carefully.

"I came from a family where love doesn't exist between couples. Wives just dedicate their whole to their husbands, while men do not give them the single respect a woman deserves. Growing up between them, I just thought that if love doesn't exist in my relationship, I at least need respect from my future spouse. When I asked my Amma and Chitti how to gain respect from men, they simply said, 'It depends on the man you choose'.

I didn't understand how, so growing up, I chose to be an independent woman. And because my family is orthodox, I was stopped from going to work. But my Amma and Chitti pleaded with the men to let me work. After so many attempts, I was finally allowed to work. I was the happiest person that day. I packed my suitcases and moved to PG, near the IT office. That was my first day of work, and it all started from there." Renuka remembered their first encounter and smiled. Seeing her smile, Meenakshi smiled.

"A murder happened in the parking lot; a few officers came for an investigation. That's where I met him. From then on, he started to follow me, and even though I turned him down in many ways, he still didn't leave me alone. At some moment I started falling for him, but I got scared." Renuka looked at Meenakshi.

"I got scared; there would be some day when I would leave him permanently. So I distanced myself from him, but he never left me. All he would say was, 'I will wait for you'.

I wasn't the girl every boy noticed, but I was the girl he noticed, and to me, that was everything. Unknown to me, I fallen hard for him, but what I feared happened. My family got to know about him wooing me. I was called back and grounded at home. And at that moment, they arranged my marriage with my cousin.

I used every method to forget him, but he made it impossible." Renuka kept her hand on her womb and half smiled, taking Meenakshi by surprise.