Kaira- United we stand

Part 3

It was late night. Little Sakshi had gone to bed, but the others were awake, waiting for Karthik to come from office. All others, except Shubam, who had kept a long face, given an excuse that he had dinner outside and stayed aloof from the others.

"Bhaiya has not answered his phone. Shall I go to his office and check?" Luv offered, while Kush also got up to start.

"No guys, you stay here. Karthik told me he will be late today. You all eat, I shall eat with Karthik" Naira told, while the others shook their head in negative

"Naira, ever since we came to this house, we decided we shall stick on together and stay together. So lets have it with Karthik." Swarna told

"Yes beta, Swarna is right" Manish supported

They heard the sound of Karthik's bike and Naira's face lit up with a smile instantly. Karthik walked in, visibly tired and worn out. His face was weary and eyes red.

Yet, his face genuinely lifted, when he saw his family

"Luv Kush, how was your first day at college?" He asked as he hugged both of them

"Superb Bhaiya, we enjoyed a lot" Kush answered, taking Karthik's bag from him as he slumped on to a chair

"Any ragging guys? Did anyone trouble you? If so, tell me, we shall escalate it." Karthik said, affectionately

"No Bhaiya, nothing of that sort. No one troubled us. Ragging is forbidden in our college and one good news is we have been elected as department representatives for the first year by our HOD"Luv said, beaming

Karthik smiled at his little brothers. He looked at Naira, who was giving him a questioning look

"Sorry, I was late today, but looks like for the next few months, it is going to take late, as the project I am working on is progressing fast and we need to push ourselves." Karthik answered before Naira could ask him

"Come everyone, lets have dinner" Naira said

"What, you guys have not had dinner till now?' Karthik asked, annoyed

"We were waiting for you. We shall have together. I told everyone, but everyone wanted to wait for you to come" Naira said

"Not right. From now on, I shall be late, and I want all of you to have food on time. Papa, you should have BP tablets on time. This is not correct" Karthik told, looking at his father

"Enough of talking, come now" Naira said as everyone went to eat

"Sakshi and Shubam?" Karthik questioned

"Sakshi has slept off. Shubam...." Swarna started to answer, but was stopped midway. Karthik understood her incomplete sentence and went and took his mother's hand in his " Maa, I want you to believe everything shall be okay" he said, looking into her eyes

Swarna's eyes turned moist. "Everything shall be okay" she repeated 

They sat to eat, Naira noticed that Karthik was hardly eating.He was preoccupied and lost somewhere. Deciding to put off her thoughts till they were alone, Naira rested the topic.

After cleaning up, she went to their room, where she saw Karthik sitting beside Sakshi, patting her forehead. Naira shut the door and went and sat beside him

"Did she cry for me? She ll usually sleep with both of us na?" Karthik asked

"She cried a little bit, but later understood. Your daughter is mature Karthik, just like her Papa" Naira said

Karthik who was confidently acting in front of everyone, faked a smile which was caught by his wife instantly

"Karthik, what happened?" she asked him, keeping a hand on his shoulder