ᴇx-ʙᴏʏʀꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ, ɴᴇxᴛ ʜᴜꜱʙᴀɴᴅ

Chapter 61

Nishtha

"Welcome!" Maa said as she opened the door.

I stood in the kitchen, still digesting what had just happened when I heard Maa open the door for Vamika's boyfriend's family. I tidied myself and got ready with glasses of water for them, while Yuvaan and everyone else had gone outside to sit with them.

They welcomed them onto the couch and got in talks when I walked in with water.
"Oh! Lakshmi Ji! God granted your wish!" Maa said, "This is my daughter-in-law, Nishtha." 
I smiled, bent and touched her feet, "Namaste Aunty."
"God Bless you, beta!" She said then turned to Maa, "She's more beautiful than her pictures show, I must say!"
Maa chuckled, "Indeed."
"Beta weren't you supposed to be back next week?"
"Where were you bete?" Ramesh Uncle asked.
I turned to them, "I was at an IBM tech conference Uncle, we started in Milan and ended in Chicago." Then I turned to Aunty, "Yes I was supposed to come back next week, but my tour got cut due to a new project, so we returned this morning."
"This morning?" Aunty said
"Yes!" Maa finished, "She got back at around 6am today."
"Bete you must be tired, you go rest if you want, don't worry about all these formalities!"
"No no Aunty. I did rest once I got back. I'm okay now. I'm happy to be here." I said.
"You got very lucky Jaya Ji." Aunty said, "And it's only been 2 months since they married?"
Maa chuckled, "They've been together since their college days. I knew my daughter-in-law from long back. They just registered it officially 2 months back!" 
I felt a knot in my stomach.
She really has no idea that her while of her children's marriage is being fixed, the other child's marriage is ending.

I understand now why Yuvaan didn't tell her anything. It's because now suddenly he believes me. I need to talk to Vamika about how things played out. I hadn't even gotten the chance to see the news yet, was it on there?

"So, as I was saying." Maa started, "We are okay with this marriage but we wanted Vamika to study ahead. So how can we work around that?"
"I have the answer for that." Ramesh Uncle said, "Dhruv is going to join part time masters in the US, I think Vamika wants to do a full time masters too, so maybe they can go together. Dhruv will be taking control of a new expansion I'm looking into in California, where is exactly where Vamika aims to study as well. They can do their masters and work together, then they can come back to India once it's done."
"I like this idea, but do they need to marry and go, can't they come back and get married?" Papa said, "Wouldn't that be better?"
"Rajesh Ji, I understand your point," Aunty added, "But if the children are committed to being married, then why not?" 
"Dad." I heard his dusk voice, as he sat next to me, "Can I add something?"
I saw Papa nod.
"I don't think we should follow the ideal society's age of marriage. I wanted to marry Nishtha as soon as we graduated college, but we waited, and look how much time we lost."
He's such an effective liar.
"If Vamika and Dhruv want to go ahead with their life, then we should let them. They've already passed the test of time and distance, and for them to be ready to accept any decision that we take shows that they value us and our opinions. Isn't that all what we want? I think we should let them take their step ahead and get married before they go to the US."
I felt a knot.
He's lying so casually.
Well, to be honest, we've had to do that even to Aaji, when we lied about what happened. It's not new, he's helping Vamika.
Still.
Papa sighed, "You're right."
Maa looked at him too, "Really!"
"Yeah." Papa said, "I'm okay with this decision then, Vamika and Dhruv..." he looked at Ramesh Uncle, "We can get them married by next month before their course starts in January. They can use the 2 months to settle and get started."
"Wonderful!" Uncle said and everyone got up to congratulate hug them.
I saw Dhruv and Vamika smile.
I always wanted them happy. I always liked Dhruv, ever since I knew he did a lot to keep Vamika in his life and help her out when she was being blackmailed.
If only she had told her family sooner.
It's in the past now.
I felt a tug on wrist and I looked, Yuvaan. I saw him hold a laddoo in his hand and he looked at me, "Muh meetha kar."
I wanted to ignore but I knew others were watching, still I scanned around to check and did notice Ramesh Kaka looking, so I looked back at him, not in his eyes, just at the laddoo, and came forward. He fed me a bit of it, and then guided my hand to feed him back.
"They're so cute!" Lakshmi Aunty added, and came to us, "Nazar naa lage!"
Her finger went around her eye as she put a little of her kajal behind Yuvaan and my neck.
We smiled and touched her feet.