Unkept Promises

Epilogue

Make sure to read the author's note at the end

Abhiram's POV

"And where are you lost now Mr. Handsome?"

I felt tiny droplets of warm ocean water being splattered on my face.

Culprit?

My ever gorgeous wife who now had mischief plastered on her face.

"Always in you, my beautiful Avi."

Well, if she wanted to flirt, I was the master of that game.

She chuckled at my words as we were heading towards the beach, the slightly warm sand, and a viscous mixture of sand and water in some places impeding our pace.

We were on a holiday here in Goa - Aaru's insistence for beaches had brought us here. As it is, we had a decided rule since the past four years - work and study hard, and then relax in these much-deserved vacations.

It had been four long years since my Avi had forgiven me, and things had only gotten the best for us. The very best - personally and professionally too. We had grown more closer than ever, if that was even possible considering that we had always really been as thick as thieves asides of that difficult period.

The thing is, now, I had even worked on that guilt - of course, only with my Avi's help. I had kept my promise of apologizing to her each single day until I would be absolved of that guilt. It did take time, a lot of time to be really honest, some two more years, but she was patient.

It wasn't really a sudden process, that one day, I woke up and did not feel that remnant guilt, but a gradual process of understanding things, processing them with a rather mature thought process. It was like the opposite of building something. I mean, when you are in the process of building, say a home, you lay the foundation, and you gradually and cautiously lay a single brick - one after the other. Getting rid of guilt was exactly the opposite - you remove that burden over your heart - one bit at a time, one after the other, and as in a home, foundation means the most, in dealing with guilt, destroying the very foundation of your thoughts, of those cynical thoughts which had brought you up to that extent takes the most time and efforts.

While here, my guilt was much-deserved, and perhaps, even now, the last bit of that foundation still stays, I have been able to bring myself to forgiveness, to forgive myself for what I had done. Yes, frankly speaking, I would never really be able to forget the worst mistake I had ever committed, the way I had hurt my Avi - that's not possible for me, but a lot of, or rather, a massive chunk of the negative emotions associated with that now stay forgiven.

A part of me, however, would always lament for what had happened.

In all of this emotional turmoil, Avi has been the most patient with me. There would be times, when she would be triggered, or I would be triggered. There would times when she would have angry, emotional outbursts - the way she ought to, there would be times, when I would still breakdown reeling under regret, but we stood together. Whatever it was, and whatever came our way, we stood together, no matter what, and slayed those demons in our minds hands in hands.

But asides of that, our growth was absolutely beautiful. Us, and our Aaru. It was perfect.

Avi and I had decided to not have more kids. It was a random day, and we were just slouching around in our bed, Aaru fast asleep in between us, when that random thought popped up in her mind.

"Abhi, more kids?", she asked all of a sudden.

I was already staring at her, and when our eyes met, our faces morphed into a huge negation in unison.