Treacherous Souls

XXVII. "How were you able to discern him?"

Third Person

30th October, 2015

Time was a ticking bomb, just ready and waiting to create an explosion, and the outcome would deliver a clout straight to the Palace of Rajput.

A lot of problems seemed to attack the lives of the Rajputs at the same time— the man who had dared to try to assassinate Mishka and Aastha was still not caught, and there was another trouble named Rishiv Yadav looming over their heads. In addition to this, the court date for Dhruv and Mishka's divorce agreement was nearer than Dhruv would like to admit.

In all these months, he was so busy trying to sort out the mess that he'd completely forgotten about his impending divorce, and now he regretted not doing anything about it before.

"Dhruv! Dinner is ready." Mishka's voice echoed from outside of his office, where he had been holed up since a couple of days now, only coming out to eat a few meals, and he couldn't stop thinking that a few days after, maybe Mishka wouldn't be there to remind him to eat his meals timely.

He sighed heavily, trudging down the staircase towards the dining room, where nearly every seat was filled. He took a seat beside his wife, and couldn't help thinking that his wife might not be there to sit on the seat beside him in a few days.

"What's for dinner?" Arjun asked, rubbing his palms together, a silent way of commanding the maids to start serving the delicious food.

"Malai kofta and naan." Mishka answered, scooping up some of it to serve herself. She didn't like being served by maids, so she forbade them from doing so, choosing to plate her and her husband's dishes herself— of course, the practice of serving her husband flew out of the window when she crossed her tolerance.

However, before she could serve herself, the serving spoon was snatched out of her hands.

Being astounded, she stole a glance at her husband to see him putting a spoonful of kofta and a naan on her plate before doing the same for himself.

'These little things aren't going to melt my heart.'  She thought with a scowl, and remailed silent, not wanting to create unnecessary scene.

Rashmika, who had witnessed the event unfolding before her eyes, suppressed her smile and focussed on finishing her supper.

***

"Did you see how Dhruv bhai plated Mishka bhabhi's dish? It was so romantic." Aastha sighed, falling on the plush bed with a thud.

Manav chuckled at his wife's actions, and joined her on the bed, lying down beside her and turning his body sideways to look at her grinning face.

Aastha had successfully recovered from her gun shot wound, much to their relief. She believed that she would have gotten mad if her arm had to be bound by a cast any longer than was necessary.

Since the incident at the pool nearly a month ago, Aastha and Manav had grown closer, sharing the details of their days to each other every night and waking up in each other's arms every morning.

"It was, wasn't it?" Manav replied, his eyes searching her face for something.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, moving back a little to make space for Manav.