Discordance

Chapter Fifty-Four

It seemed like the universe was conspiring against him and his monkey because everytime he tried to go and find his wife, someone or the other stopped him to ask about his wellbeing and he was forced to be polite to his family's guests. He kept catching glimpses of his wife and the way she looked in her saree drove him insane with need. What did a man have to do around here to spend some much needed time with their wife?

Finally, when he was free to go seek his monkey out and tease her, he was stopped in his tracks by Shanaya and he begrudgingly had to give her his full attention because she was asking some very urgent questions about their upcoming nuptials and he wanted to make sure his monkey had everything up to her liking. He wanted to surprise her and give her the joy she deserved.

Wrapping up his conversation with Shanaya he looked around trying to figure out where Akshara was but he couldn't spot her amidst the crowd. He hadn't seen her leaving with the guests for where the buffet was laid out and he felt the first inkling of fear run down his spine. Had she gone off somewhere to hide out and somehow couldn't find her way back?

With a spike of fear lodged in his chest, Abhimanyu rushed around blindly trying to find Akshara, his uneasiness growing tenfold when he couldn't find her. Abhimanyu ran around the temple hoping to see her hiding in the corner but there were barely any people around. He spied her brothers standing in a crowd in the corner chatting and laughing with each other but there were no signs of his wife.

As Abhimanyu got to the back of the temple, he saw a small gathered crowd and the blood froze in his veins. Could it be his monkey who was in trouble? He elbowed his way in to the crowd but all he saw was Ishika lying on the floor, and dadi sa yelling loudly to anyone who would listen to help her granddaughter out.

"Call an ambulance" he instructed some man standing on the side and he dropped on his knees next to Ishika taking her pulse. Her pulse was beating strong and steady so her comatose state made no sense to him. He was just trying to make sense of what was happening, especially because Dadi sa seemed to be panicking and yelling about something along the lines of "attempt to murder" .

Through his confused state of mind, he heard a small whimper from beyond the crowd and his pulse raced because he would recognize that whimper even in his sleep. Blindly, he shoved the people away to find Akshara clutching her ears as she stared at him with tears streaming down her face, her knees pulled into her chest. What the fuck?

"Baby?" he yelled rushing over to her, dropping Ishika's hand in an instant. Ignoring everyone, he pulled her into his chest kissing her hair gently. "Are you hurt? What's wrong?" slowly he wiped the tears off her face, looking her up and down making sure there wasn't something he had missed. "I'm here alright baby? You're ok, you're safe."

Just as Akshara's hands eased off her ears, Abhimanyu felt his heartrate drop gradually from where it had shot up in anxiety looking at his monkey like this.

"Abhimanyu, why are you worried about this woman when my Ishika is fighting with death right here. Isn't it your duty to look after the patients first? Especially when it was your wife who caused all of this?" Dadi sa yelled from behind them and he felt Akshara flinch under his embrace before shivering violently.

Ignoring Dadi sa, Abhimanyu murmured softly "shh..I'm here" into her hair, grasping her tighter closer to him. With all the anger he could muster, he turned to look up at Dadi sa glaring with all his might "There is no world in which my wife would ever hurt a fly so if you are going to scream like this, I recommend doing it a bit farther away from her so you don't terrorize her further. And I will make sure my wife is alright before I check on your granddaughter since I don't think there is any obvious threats to her wellbeing currently."