Fitoor | ✓

24 | Chaubis

A/N - As promised, a chapter after reaching the word goal. Once again, the next chapter will be updated once this one gets 60 votes. 

P.S.  chapter dedicated to azureskies for being such a supportive reader!

Also, I have a special favour to ask from you all and I will really appreciate all the help I can get here. I have recently gotten the courage to sell my paintings. It took me years to bring myself to do this. If you wish, you can support me in this endeavour by following me on instagram where I sell it. My handle is chillarnahihai. You can also order your own custom made paintings if you wish. Thank you in advance if you decide to do that! 

24 | Chaubis

Tara felt sick, sick of herself. No one had given her the right to go and ask Lekh about his part so suddenly and completely out of the blue. Their relationship or lack thereof had only started taking up some speed and she had ruined it. The fact that no one talked about it, that even her own husband had refused to tell her about it was clue enough to not meddle into it.

Also, Lekh's past was not her business and she should in no way have interfered. Whatever it was, it was his past.

It was just that, everything he was today, whoever he was, it was all shaped because of his past. And Tara felt that just maybe because she was going to be a part of his life, she deserved to know. Or not.

Everything felt extremely complicated suddenly, it was as if life couldn't give her a moment of peace. The wedding was only two days away. It was haldi today and mehandi tomorrow and the whole house – five members including herself were rushing to get everything ready. Except, no one was letting her do much. Even the children were getting to do more than her.

A few of very close friends of her brother and his wife were also involved and were helping with the preparations and also the neighbor aunties. This was India, everything was a combined effort. Those were also the only people who were invited to the wedding. Between working all day to support the family and taking care of the children, her brother and Varsha didn't really have much time to socialize. Not to mention of course, that it was Tara's second marriage into a very scandalous house and though they didn't say it out loud, Tara knew they were reluctant to spread the news too much. She understood them. It was perfectly normal, especially in India.

She ticked off the things from the list that were dealt with. The invitations were sent. Shopping was done. The girl's family bought clothes for every member of the groom's family. It all cost a lot, both Varsha and Tara had brand new saarees that were never worn so those were added in the list of clothes that would be given away to the groom's family. They had to find ways to cut off as much costs as they could. Ramya had a friend in Jodhpur who did mehandis and as a favour to her friend she was going to do the mehandi for the bride's family for free. Plus, Varsha was pretty good at the designing too so she was going to help out too. The wedding was going to be in the Rajput house itself so there was going to be no baraat. This also meant that Tara's brother wouldn't have to spend for the wedding venue expenses. It obviously eliminated a lot of headache on his part. An average Indian spent more on a wedding than on education and that was the harsh reality.

The only compromise here would be that they would have to travel to the village early in the morning on the day of the wedding where they would be staying at a small house that the Rajputs owned which was a little away from their mansion. When Tara would be ready she would be sneaked into the place of marriage.

It was going to be a big rush, but hopefully worth it.

Tara's mind drifted to Lekh again. She cursed herself for reminding him of things that hurt him. Instead of looking forward to the wedding he would be drowning in the thoughts of his past. Why did she have to do that, why didn't her brain work.

For a moment she thought of calling him, for apologizing. But then decided against it, he was probably not even going to take her call. When she would go back to the Rajput house as his bride, she was afraid she was going to find a stranger in Lekh again. The man who looked passed her.

And that thought scared her more than anything else. More than what Indira had planned for her, more than how her baby was going to survive in this world. More than anything. Because somewhere in her heart she had found refuge in the idea that if Lekh was going to be with her, she would deal with everything. That everything would go smoothly.

But now she had herself gotten him to succumb into that Neverland he always seemed to be in. A place where no one was allowed to go. A place whose walls were so high; she knew she'd never be able to break them let alone climb.

And now, she felt like everything was going wrong once again. One step forward, two steps back.