PART -1
It was simply another day, and Armaan had nothing to look forward to. These days everything seemed bland and uninteresting. He could feel the void in his heart and life from the moment Abhira walked out of his life. And what gnawed him more was that he knew that he wasn't who Abhira deserved to be with. On top of it, he couldn't even check on her wellbeing personally. He knows that she is safe out there flapping her wings high and working with all she has got to become the good lawyer that her mother wished her to be. His father is making sure of it.
With a sigh, he rose from his bed and walked out, closing the door to his room. It has become a norm to close the door as soon as he steps in and out. Perhaps if he had learned how to do it before, he would have been happy today with his wife by his side. The moment the living room came into his view, he felt suffocated to no end. He made sure to avoid eye contact with the family members as much as possible. He could hear their chat among themselves lowering momentarily. He could feel their gazes on his back and could hear a distant call from Ruhi but didn't care to stop by to greet anyone. However, he couldn't stop himself from halting when his cousins called him over from the garden as soon as he stepped out.
He could still feel that invisible wall between them whenever they interacted. He isn't blind to see the effort they are putting in to make him feel included, and valued. It's been a month since their confrontation. He couldn't ever forget that in his lifetime.
//Flashback-
He had woken up on the floor calling Abhira's name out of habit to turn off the music but didn't get any response. That's when it hit hard that he wouldn't be able to see her first thing the morning. And the feeling that came with it was not pleasant. He pushed it to the side and walked out just to see the chorus gang sans Charu dancing to some Bollywood song. He couldn't help but ask them what were they up to. The responses he got were blank stares along with their fingers pointed toward Charu. That did the trick. With one look at his sister, he was reminded of all that happened in the last 48 hrs. As he sat beside her and uttered his first word 'family' chaos broke in all senses.
"This isn't my family. Family is supposed to support and help you grow. What has this family ever done to me? Cut my wings when I wanted to pursue my career in law. Having a family law firm, I had to work for a rival firm hiding it from you. I sought guidance from Dev sir and eventually fell in love with him. We never wanted to hide it from family. All we wanted was to sort some things out before coming out clean. Even if I ever said it before this is what would have happened. When has this so-called family ever discussed things peacefully? Abhira Bhabhi was right this family looks like a page out of 80's..." before Charu could continue her monologue Armaan lost it as he cut her off with his own "ABHIRA..ABHIRA..ABHIRAAAA!!!! This is all her preaching. Isn't it? Wow! This is what she speaks to you..bitching about the family, brainwashing you, and supporting you in your so-called office romance."
Charu, who wasn't able to handle anything at that moment blurted out saying "Even she wasn't supportive of me. All she did was warn me now and then to come out clean. I was the one who asked her to keep it to herself for some time. She was behind my back even till the very last minute when she followed me to the cafe asking not to meet Dev sir". Having said that she stormed out there leaving a dumbstruck Armaan behind. That's when even Kaira revealed that she knew about Charu having a boyfriend but did not know who that was. Unable to stand there for another minute he walked out from there.
As the day passed by, his thoughts became more jumbled as recalled all the allegations he and his family put on her. He heard the chorus gang apologize to Abhira over a video call that night however when he came into view she had cut the call. In an attempt to divert from the sudden tension, and silence that filled the room, Krish started a conversation asking for ideas to cheer up his sister. That had been the last string to snap Armaan's patience. He had burst out asking if they cared for him and his feelings or just considered him as their robot mentor. He also raised his voice on not including him in their personal lives, and secrets and only coming to him when all got messed up.
Flashback ends.//
Something in their demeanor since that night has indicated to Armaan that they were apologetic. And he had noticed their effort since then. He even started reciprocating those efforts but it would take some time for them to interact without the lingering awkwardness. After a casual conversation with them that got extended for fifteen more minutes, he left to office. Ruhi could only watch him conversing with them from a distance. It was evident to her that the Chorus gang had distanced themselves from her. On top of that, she couldn't even have a single conversation with Armaan for over a month. She could hear a distant sound of her dreams getting shattered. In her desperate attempt to stop Abhira from confessing to Armaan and pleasing the elders, she degraded her relationship with the younger clan.
On the other hand, Elders were not blind to the tension flowing between all of them. After Kaira opened up to Manisha regarding all the conversations that happened, she was able to formulate that the entire fiasco was because of Ruhi, not Abhira. She was able to convince Manoj and Madhav about the same. After some initial resistance, the brothers were able to knock some sense into Kajal. They have kept a close watch on Ruhi ever since then as they noticed her antics towards Armaan once in a while. Manisha has restarted her investigation and has got hold of some drawing books that belonged to her. All she could find were some doodles and Armaan's name written between some pages. Though those were enough suspicious, she knew those alone weren't enough to confront her without solid evidence. And she is waiting for the time when she can shed some light on Ruhi's vileness in front of the family.
Though there wasn't any strong revolution yet, Kaveri could feel her grip on the family getting loosened. The house wasn't as lively as before. Even she missed the strong persona of Abhira from time to time. As she observed Ruhi without any comparison to Abhira, she understood that Ruhi wasn't always what she thought to be. She realized that her hatred towards Abhira blinded her vision to most of the extent. As she overanalyzed all her confrontations with Abhira, she was able to see the other side of the coin. What terrified her more was the buzz she heard in Poddar law firm that Armaan was wrapping up all his cases to leave the firm. She could visualize the downfall of the firm if that came true. She already had this conversation with Sanjay but the response to it was nothing but a smug face. He brushed it off as though he didn't care. She tried to confront Armaan but she couldn't get a hold of him for more than 2 minutes.
Updated Part 2 on page 2.
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