Falling For You Thread 6||Chapt 139 - 140 pg 54||4th May + note pg 55 - Page 29

Chapter 126

Geet's cheeks grew crimson red and she squeezed her eyes closed. Maan remained frozen for a moment unable to believe what is happening, he swallowed thickly and tried his best to look away from his wife's body but it was very hard. She was naked and standing in front of him unknowingly taunting him. He inhaled deeply and crouched down grabbing the towel and slipped it around Geet, she bit down on her lower lip feeling the small grazes of his fingers against her skin as he fixed the towel.

His cheek pressed against hers, she shuddered. Maan turned his head slightly and brushed his nose against her cheek and lowered his head.

Geet inhaled deeply taking a step back, she gasped when his arm went around her waist and held her.

"Maan" she murmured biting down on her lower lip.

"Hmm..." he stared down at his wife and smiled seeing her breathing heavily, her eyes still squeezed closed.

She swallowed noisily and lifted her head opening her eyes. "Dadima is waiting for me".

"One..." Maan didn’t finish, he cradled his wife’s cheeks and pressed his lips against hers. Geet softly moaned tilting her head back and digging her nails onto his shoulders. She tiptoed forward and slipped her arms around his neck tightly and responded slowly.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Araina, speak to me" Ranbir looked at her concerned.

She couldn’t bring herself to tell him, not here, not right now. Araina had pushed that memory to the back of her mind. She had hoped it all ended and she wouldn’t need to face this again. She managed to keep it hidden from her family and especially her brother. If he comes to know... he would not be happy at all. She knew how over protective Karan is and she didn’t want to see that side of his if he happens to know of the incident in London. She looked down at her hands and noticed her fingers shuddered unwillingly.

The shaking fingers hadn’t gone unnoticed by Ranbir, he reached out concerned and laced his fingers with hers. "Araina" he squeezed her hand.

She lifted her eyes and looked at him, focusing on his soft gentle brown eyes ignoring the sharp intense glowing green eyes that still haunted her time to time.

"Talk to me" he cupped her cheek brushing his fingers across her skin. "Who is this Arun?" he asked again.

"Can we go somewhere private?" she mumbled, she was inside the car but it wasn’t private enough. There were a lot of eyes around them, someone could be watching. Ranbir agreed and straightened starting up the car and drove away.

~~~~~~

Geet slipped her arm around dadima’s as they walked towards the cafe. Maan had left after he’d stolen a kiss from her promising to finish off his work as quickly as possible to be with her. She told Dadima about her courses and her cooking classes.

Dadima listened feeling pleased seeing Geet is a little uplifted. The last time she’d seen her wasn’t the happiest times. She recalled how broken Geet had been after she’d lost the baby. She wouldn’t wish such a loss upon her enemy. She didn’t know what she’d have done had she gone through that. She was just grateful to see Geet slowly moving forward.

"This is the cafe I was talking about" Geet spoke breaking off her thoughts. "This is where Taz and Sanjana work, I’m going to help out first by cleaning and stuff, afterwards they’re going to let me assist them in the kitchen" she added.

Dadima smiled glancing around the place, the cafe was filled with splashes of different colours. It was buzzing with different age groups, there were elderly customers huddled around a table with a book in their hand. Young adults and teens with their laptops in front of them as they enjoyed a hot drink and cold dessert.

Geet led dadima towards the counter and called out to Taz who had her back to them.

"What are you doing here clumsy?" Taz responded without turning away, she concentrated on piping the cream atop of the dessert.

"I want to introduce you to my dadima" Geet responded, "I’m not clumsy, it was one accident" she added in annoyance.

Taz finished the dessert and turned handing the dessert plate to her customer then looked at Geet and dadima.

She frowned for a brief moment which had not gone unnoticed by Geet nor Dadima however seeing Taz straighten and flash a wide smile they brushed it off.

"Hi, I'm Taz. Geet's friend" she introduced herself holding out her hand.

"Geet told me all about you and Sanjana" Dadima responded shaking her hand.

"I hope it's all good" she winked. "Sanjana isn't here right now, she's got a dancing class going on at the back" she pointed behind her.

"We'll meet her afterwards" Geet told dadima then turned to Taz, "Your best cup of tea and some raspberry turnovers please"

"Coming up, go take a seat. I'll bring it over" she replied.

Geet pulled out her purse when Taz waved it off saying it was on the house.

~~~~~~

Ranbir waited patiently, he watched Araina swing back and forth. He'd brought her to the other side of the city to its quiet park where he knew it would be quiet.

The park was usually used by elderly people in the morning for their walking, other than that barely anyone else comes. For the last 15 minutes, he'd sat on this bench waiting for Araina to say something but she looked like she was going to be sick.

Guessing she probably wouldn’t be able to bring herself to tell him, he got up and joined her side lacing his fingers with her.

"I'm here for you" he gently whispered.

Araina slowly turned her head and a tear slipped down her cheek.

"Who is he?" he questioned.

"My stalker" Araina breathed out heavily.

He frowned in confusion and Araina started her story.

"I was studying law as you know in London" she looked up at him.

He nodded.

"There I met Arun, he was in the same class and we had become friends" she continued. "Which led to something more over the next year" she averted her eyes staring ahead. She didn’t want to see how Ranbir reacts to whatever she says. If its disappointment, she wouldn’t be able to continue. "6 months of being together, I realised he was trying to control me. He started asking to change out of whatever I wore, he started suggesting I stop eating this and that. He didn’t let me go out with my friends, he always made excuses about wanting to spend the time with me. These were common signs of that controlling behaviour which I was covering in my law class, so it clicked to me and I tried ending it with him"

"Tried?" Ranbir looked confused.

"You're not breaking up with me Araina, I won't let you" Arun stood in front of her.

"Do you hear yourself, Arun?" Araina yelled. "You're trying to control me, you don’t let me meet my friends"

"Your friends are brainwashing you" he countered sharply.

"I… I just can't listen to this anymore" she moved to walk past him when he grabbed a hold of her shoulders and squeezed.

"Stop it Araina!"

"Let me go" she grated out between her teeth.

"No, you're mine" he shook his head vehemently.

With little choice, she shoved him back as hard as she could and ran.

She hoped to escape him that day.

"I paid the landlord and finished my tenancy agreement early. I moved out in the hopes that he wouldn’t bother me at home" Araina continued. "I tried to take out a restraining order but there was little evidence, I contacted the police but he had not committed a crime so it was out of their hands" she mumbled. "It was the same cycle for 3 months, he harassed me at the university, he followed me to the firm I was assisting in. They had to let me go because he was always shouting from outside and disturbing other clients. He was slowly ruining me".

Ranbir reached over slowly for her hand and laced his fingers with hers giving her a reassuring squeeze. Araina turned to him, and he noticed her eyes filled with tears.

"Over the next couple of months, he… he kept sending me emails, texts, letters. It got too much, I went to the police and showed them everything. They were able to charge him but he was able to bail himself out. He was only given community service but I was able to put a restraining order against him. The university pulled him out of the programme…" she paused swallowing thickly. "I thought it ended there, I wouldn’t hear anymore from him".

"But it didn’t stop him?" Ranbir questioned.

"It just made him even more furious" she responded. "After two months of thinking it was finally over, I'd returned home from my part time job and noticed that my apartment was cold that night when I returned home. I looked around wondering where the cold air was coming from and that’s when I'd seen the broken back window…"

"What…" Araina frowned, suddenly a chill ran down her spine as she felt another presence in the living room. She turned around and gasped.

Arun watched her with interested, he was leaning against the door frame enjoying her reaction. He straightened smirking noticing the fear in her eyes, she backed up with each step he took towards her. Araina sensed the danger she was in, she ran towards the back door in the hopes of escaping but Arun got there faster. She turned to run out the front when he grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled her back aggressively.

"He beat me up for ruining his life apparently, his father had disowned him and removed his name from the will and cancelled the trust fund which he was going to receive when he was 25"

Ranbir squeezed her hand tighter feeling murderous. If he found this Arun himself, he would’ve killed the b*stard.

"My friends had found me the next day, I couldn’t remember much other than feeling this force on my head, all I remembered was his forceful punches… The doctor I had told me that he'd left a scar on my right thigh… He carved Arun on it with a sharp pointed object – they think it was knife. I had it covered with my tattoo so I wouldn’t be reminded of him ever again" she closed her eyes tightly. "I never told this anyone Ranbir, I never told any one from my family because I know how much it would kill them to know they couldn’t protect me" she opened her eyes and looked at Ranbir. "You can't ever ever mention this to anyone please" tears slipped down her cheeks. Ranbir pulled her closer and hugged her tightly.

~~~~~~

Geet looked over her shoulder expectantly as the doors of the café opened again. Maan had promised to join her and dadima for lunch but its now nearly 1pm and he has not yet responded to her text or calls.

"Bete maybe Maan is stuck in a meeting and wouldn’t be able to make it" dadima suggested.

"He could at least let us know na dadima? Since when has he become careless" she mumbled to herself mostly. Dadima chuckled and shook her head.

"Why don’t we go to the restaurant you want to go?" dadima suggested. "Or we could have lunch at home and go out for dinner?"

Geet reluctantly agreed and headed back to the apartment with dadima.

Just as she was about to open the door to the apartment, the door was opened by her smiling husband. "Hi"

Geet frowned, "You're here?"

"I am in front of you Geet" Maan chuckled.

"You didn’t answer any of my calls or respond to texts" Geet accused in annoyance.

"That's because" he walked around standing behind her and placed his hand over her eyes making dadima laugh and Geet annoyed.

"Maan, what are you doing?" she bit out.

"Shhh" he slipped his arm around her shoulder guiding her further into the apartment and walked her towards the dining room table. Dadima followed and smiled brightly.

He slowly moved his hand from her eyes.

Geet blinked open her eyes frowning for a moment then looked at her husband.

"Happy birthday" he whispered. He had been unable to answer any of her calls or texts as he was picking up her birthday cake. He had returned home and placed it on the table nicely, also the takeout dinner had arrived as requested. He had the table set up for his wife to return. He was about to call her and ask she return home when he noticed her car outside the building and knew she was on her way upstairs.

"Thank you" she murmured, she hadn't even known it was her own birthday. She had forgotten about the date. She slipped her arms around her husband and hugged him tightly.

"Happy birthday bete" Dadima wished her next hugging her.