Arhi SS l When She Rises From The Ashes l Ch 15 l Pg 75 23/11 NEW

Chapter One

Mauuu... Priya squalled as soon she saw Arnav enter the house and bounced towards him. She collided with his legs and smiled up at him happily showing all her six teeth.

Arnav smiled down at her and picked up the 1 and a half year old kissing her chubby cheeks which showed the dimples of delight.

"Hey, Piu." He husked in her ear and she jumped in his hold excitedly.

HP came to take his bag so that he could hold her well, knowing that little thing won't come down or go to anyone until she played with her heart's contents with her precious Mau.

Arnav smilingly carried her to his room, as usual, greeting his Nani and Di on the way and not very discreetly avoiding his Dadi who sat with them in the hall holding a tea cup.

By now used to of his rude dismissal of her presence in the house she only scowled but said nothing.

"He loves her so much. He almost passes all his free time in the house with her, but what about her mother? Nowadays Chote doesn't even bother to ask me about my health leave alone other things. How aloof he had become to the family." Anjali rued. Her pout in place.

Payel who had been coming out of the kitchen instructing OP for the night meal thinned her lips. Pressing them together hard so that her temptation to reply her duly did not overcome her too much breaking her control. She walked off the place as soon her legs could take her.

"Even after gone her shadow did not leave our lives. Especially chote's. She still holds the reign of the course of his life and I cannot curse her enough for this. Because of her he doesn't even acknowledge me properly." Subhadra spat venom in frustration and rage. What she wanted she had achieved, but at what cost?

"That's enough." Devyani put her foot down while Anjali's pout only extended a mille centimetre long.

"She is gone. There is no point dragging her in each and everything going wrong in this house. If Chote chose to live like a recluse then it's his choice. He has passed the age of spoon feeding long back and no one can make him do something against his wish, that time has passed too," she said looking at Anjali pointedly who whined "nani" like five years old, unlike her thirty-five self. "So it's better we leave him to live and carry on his life as he wishes. Anyways I think we have played enough with it already." This time, she looked at Subhadra who only huffed in response. With that, she left the place.

**

Payel stormed into her bedroom and locked the door loudly making Akash almost drop his laptop.

"What happened?" He asked cautiously. Knowing nowadays his calm docile wife, once, lost her patience more often than not.

In answer, all he got was a spiteful glare before she stomped off towards the bathroom to change.

She had been not a very talkative person like her sister to start with but at least she used to talk to him about her feelings but since the fateful day she had shut his family and to quite an extent him too. And this display of anger and sometimes despair all he could see to know that she still had emotions left in her. The love among them was a story of past They only lived together because well, he wanted to and she, he assumed, was habituated to live with him and somewhere he felt she was waiting for something. Something only she knew was coming or going to happen. And that feeling honestly scared him.

**

Arnav walked in his bedroom with his niece and put the bouncing bundle on his bed. She bounced on his soft bed some more and clapped in glee. He smiled seeing her happy face. Something positive to look forward to. He went to his cupboard to take out a change when his niece crawled down the bed and decided that his cupboard would be more interesting to play in.

She crawled through between his legs and inside his cupboard making him chuckle. Proud of her accomplishment she clapped and squalled before she started picking and throwing things out of it. Arnav only shook his head doing nothing to stop her and decided to change later. Pulling out his laptop he sat to do little work till her niece got bored of her throwing game or she threw each material out.

About 10-15 minutes later he felt a tug in his trouser. Knowing who it would be he shut the lid down of his lappy and started playfully, "tired already Piu. What hap..." His voice got stuck in his throat seeing what Piu held in her hands.

A small ornate box that held memories of a life he would rather prefer to not look back than reminiscing about it and feeling awfully little as a human.

He hurriedly snatched that box out of the little girl's hand, startling and freighting her at the same time. Quickly putting it inside the small safe in his cupboard he picked up Piu who by now had started crying aloud offended by her favourite Mau's behaviour.

He patted her back soothingly crooning I am sorry sweetheart' for her ear while two drops of tears escaped his own eyes.

He chanted in his head the only name that soothed his burning heart "Khushi, Khushi"

**

Shyam was tired playing a lovy dovy puppy of a husband and an affectionate father when he was none. He thought taking that girl out of the picture would give him some peace while his access on Raizada fund would become unlimited. But all turned out just the opposite.

That old hag came to help him and never returned. Now she clucked like a mother hen around Anjali and him all the time. Arnav, whom he thought would lose his sanity once the girl was gone, was very much same ASR and became even shrewder if possible. Before he at least had free access to Anjali's account and credit cards and could spend as much he wanted. But now that infuriating Salhe Sahib of his had come up with this mind-blowing way to control his money by taking him out of every shared account with his wife and making his credit limit to just a few Lakh. He paid him enough to keep his wife and daughter happy with an added threat that if he did not then whatever he is transferring in his sole account will be stopped along with the dismissal of the credit card in his name. And he was intelligent enough to know that he could not take the risk as His Di's chote may think twice before harming his Jijaji but the ASR would not blink before shooting him down and feeding his dead body to the stray dogs. That much he knew about him. So even though he was tired but he was not ready to give up on his life yet.

Sighing loud he crawled in their bed beside his wife who instantly clung to him making him grimace.

One clingy woman, he had married! He thought irritated though not daring to push her away.

**

A woman sat near a window in a dark room. Her face half illuminated by the crescent moon outside. Her unwavering gaze looked straight ahead unblinkingly. She could be very well mistaken for a statue if not for the little movement of her index finger that tapped on the window pane slowly in a measured interval.

A shrill ring broke the sinister like silence in the room.

The woman looked to her side and touched the green floating button on the screen and then pressed the speaker sign on the phone.

She did not bother to say hello as no one else called her in this number who were not supposed to.

"We are all set to make our next move ma'am," the man on the other end of the line said quietly though his voice resonated loud in the eerily silent room this side.

"I expected so too Shay" She had a melodious voice but at the same time, it sounded like coming from a dead person.

The man called Shay informed, "I will come to pick you up an hour and a half before boarding."

In answer, she hummed and Shay cut the call after wishing good night'.

"Careful what you do to a good woman, because you will have to deal with the bitch you created. Now it is about time that you meet the bitch" She spoke to the empty room before a humourless chuckle ripped out from her hollow inside and echoed in the empty room sounding like a howl of a burning soul.

You know mister I loved you,

Took all of your shit, like I was used to,

But you crushed me until I lay in shreds on the ground,

And then you walked off dusting me from under your boot.

Now, mister, you will know,

How much once I loved you,

When I show you one of this days,

How much I hate you.

**

So was that enough EK drama!?😉

Lemme know

notification info in the next post