I'll Love You Longer Than Forever

Chapter Twenty Eight

The next few days passed in the same fashion. Riddhima would show up at the hospital for sometime, muck around with Armaan and then go home.

She spent a lot of time with Rahul. They connected again, and it was like the whole How - could - you - hide - the - truth - about - your - adoption' argument never happened.

Rahul had his cast removed and was able to walk without too much pain now. The fracture was relatively minor and with constant physical therapy, he was able to get rid of the cast in a week. He had been advised some rest, still, but now he was done and him and Riddhima were joining Sanjeevani from the next day.

Rahul could hardly wait. He had missed working at Sanjeevani. That wasn't just his work place now. It was home. He had missed it. He missed working alongside his friends, he missed the canteen food, he missed all the shenanigans they got up to and he even missed Dr. Kirti's scoldings. He couldn't wait to start back.

Riddhima, on the other hand, was totally apprehensive. None of them had told Rahul about Muskaan's return. All of his therapy and appointments had taken place at home. So, there was no danger of him running into Muskaan. But, they were going to be working from tomorrow and there was no way that he wouldn't find out about Muskaan.

She didn't want another fight to culminate between them, about her hiding the truth, especially when he had just forgiven her for lying just a few days ago. She hoped he would understand that they had done what they did with the purest of intentions because they didn't want the added stress to mess with his recovery.

Everybody knew that Rahul felt incredibly guilty for everything that had transpired between him and Muskaan. And that he regretted leaving her the way he did. But, at that time, he couldn't think of a better option. By the time he had realized the folly in his ways, it had been too late and Muskaan had left. Rahul had tried to contact her numerous times, but she never answered his calls or answered the door when he flew in a time or two to see her.

Her message had been clear - she didn't want Rahul to talk to her anymore. After a few unsuccessful attempts, a heartbroken Rahul had decided that it was best to give her time. He would wait for her to make the first move. They would talk whenever she was ready and he would accept her decision without any contest. It was the least he could do for her.

Riddhima didn't want Rahul to be caught off guard because of them hiding the truth. It would open old wounds and she wasn't sure if Rahul would be able to have grip on his emotions if he were to come face - to - face with Muskaan without a prior warning.

There was also the fact that Muskaan hadn't taken Riddhima up on her offer to talk in the past week. With no clue about how Muskaan felt about the situation, she wasn't ready to let Rahul face the brunt on his own.

Determined, she made her way to Rahul's room, to talk it all out peacefully and come up with some sort of plan on how to react around Muskaan. Despite of how guilty he felt, Riddhima didn't think it would be a good idea to just go upto Muskaan and talk to her, begging her for forgiveness, which she was almost sure Rahul would do.

She took a deep breath and knocked on his door, waiting for him to reply.

"Darwaza khula hai, Riddhu," came his voice. Shakily, Riddhima opened the door.

"Hey," Rahul said, drying his hair. Apparently, he had just gotten out of the shower.

"Hey," Riddhima replied.