Angeline - His Uninvited Queen ✅

56 - The Arrival

Arun's POV:

Angel and I reached our home at about 10 o'clock in the night by a cab. As the cab entered the gate, Vijay rushed out of the home excitedly, holding Mahi in his arms, and everyone else rushed out behind them. Everyone's expression conveyed how much they loved and missed Angel.

The cab halted in front of the portico. Angel's expression shifted from impassive to trepidation as she stepped out of the cab. I understood she feared Amma and Appa's scoldings. But I could do nothing about it. I just followed her after paying the bill.

Mahi immediately leaped from Vijay's embrace, rushing to Angel, her tiny foot barely touching the ground, and hugged Angel's legs. "Amma...Finally, you came! Do you know? My Diya Amma is in the sky as a star. Appa told me that Diya Amma will give me whatever I ask for. I always asked for you only from Diya Amma. Finally, she gave you to me." She looked up at the sky and brightly smiled. "Thank you Diya Amma."

I smiled warmly, yet feeling a little jealous. Mahi always used to pounce on me whenever I came back from the channel. But that day, she totally ignored me. I wanted to lift her in my arms and press my forehead against her forehead, and wanted to ask her, "Am I a joke to you?"

But I kept quiet as the other part of me was happy to witness her love for Angel. Most of the time, I wondered what made Mahi perceive Angel as her amma. That too, when she was an innocent newborn baby. That too, when we all taught Angel as her aunty. I really couldn't get the answer for my questions. But I ended up thinking, "Maybe, babies know their mother's touch even when they are inside their mother's womb. They respond to their mother's touch even before birth. But Mahi lost that touch as soon as she was born, and when she was yearning for that touch, she might have felt it in Angel's touch."

Angel stood frozen, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

"Lift me, ma." Mahi said excitedly, raising her arms.

Angel immediately lifted her, cradling her against her chest. Their cheeks met, Angel's tears trickling down, and then she kissed Mahi's cheeks. "I missed you so much, kuttima."

Mahi narrowed her eyes, wiping Angel's tears. "Why are you crying, ma?"

Angel smiled, blinking. "These are happy tears, kuttima. I am meeting you after some years na? I am so happy."

Mahi pouted. "Will someone cry in happiness?"

"Yes. Sometimes we cry out of happiness. I am so happy to meet my kuttima." Angel kissed her again.

Mahi kissed her back and spread her little arms wide. "I am also this much happy. But you will not go anywhere out hereafter na?" She pouted.

Angel smiled. "No. I will never leave my kuttima hereafter under any circumstances."

Mahi nodded her head excitedly, wrapping her arms around Angel's neck.

Appa intervened, passing his signature death stare at Angel, and said, "Angel, I want to talk with you a lot. But I am not able to speak now..."

Mahi chimed in. "Why can't you speak with Amma now, Krishi? Is your mouth busy eating chocolates now?"

I chuckled. Mahi is the only one who can call Krishna Appa by name after Payal amma. That too, by a short name, Krishi, and Mahi is the only one who can ask silly, teasing questions to him after Payal amma.

Appa made a helpless face.

Amma and Vijay laughed. Sree just looked at them puzzled because of her hearing disability.

Appa left Amma to laugh, but passed a glare at Vijay.

Before Vijay could stop laughing, Mahi asked innocently, "Chutki, Mama, Why are you both laughing?"