Part 1
It's been 2 weeks since the classic wedding. It is a merry day for Ruhi. Armaan has warmed up to her and so has the rest of the family members who were against it initially. However, she can still feel some underlying tension in her interactions with Chachi sa and Madhav Papa. She hopes that things will settle down soon with them as well. Dadisa surprised her and Armaan with a vacation for which they needed to leave early tomorrow morning. They are yet to pack.
As Armaan sat with his family in the living room, he was satisfied with the current family dynamics. Everything is at peace; the peace he so longed for. Though he missed a certain vibrant personality to some extent, he is content. Maybe this is what Dadisa meant when she claimed that once Abhira is out everything would fall in place eventually. He has never seen Dadisa this peaceful in the last 10 months. He was momentarily astonished when she assembled everyone and gifted them a vacation, ordering him to sideline his work for the next 2 weeks. She even proposed that they all should spend some family time after dinner. Ruhi has dutifully excused herself to get dessert for everyone. The guilt he felt for destroying Ruhi's life was slowly disappearing.
Everybody was chirping away happily watching the wedding video, reliving the happy moments. Among the happy giggles, they couldn't have imagined what awaited them. It came as a surprise when they heard the door knock at 10 PM in the night. They channeled their attention to the door in unison only to come face to face with the person they thought they wouldn't see again: Rohith. What followed was the emotional reunion of everyone with their long-lost favorite son of the family. In that commotion, no one noticed the frozen stance of Armaan. It was Rohith who realized that his dearest brother didn't look pleased with his return. Meanwhile, Armaan was overwhelmed. Never in his life, had he thought he would be able to reunite with his brother. After the momentary happiness of seeing his brother, the guilt he slowly started letting loose, bounced back to him with doubled force. He stood frozen when he realized that the family dynamics wouldn't be the same anymore.
"Here is the dessert. I customized the custard for everyone acc.." Ruhi's words were stuck when she witnessed the scene in the living room. The dessert tray got slipped gaining everyone's attention. Ruhi's pale face brought the family back to reality. She couldn't get any paler when Rohith strolled towards her and uttered "Hello Biwi-ji! Hope u missed me". That was when it dawned upon Kaveri what her zid resulted in. But that momentary conscience she felt was taken over by her deep need to always be right and her mind had already started formulating the justifications for what had happened.
He faced Armaan as he inquired "Vaise Abira Bhabhi hai kaha?". Kaveri could feel the tension raising. She ushered Rohith to take a seat in an attempt to deviate the topic. However, that only made the situation worse as Rohith's eye caught the video playing on the screen: Armaan & Ruhi's wedding ceremony. Panicked, Kaveri turned to Rohith to explain but was perplexed seeing the smirk on his face. She wasn't expecting his following words either. "So finally the lovers got united. Though it was expected, I never thought you would be approving it", said Rohith as he turned to Dadisa. That came as a shock to everyone except Vidya. "Lovers? yeh kya keh rahe ho Rohith? Humne tho yeh sochke shaadi kiya ki dono zindagi akele ghuzar rahe hain." To that Rohith incredulously questioned Vidya, "Aur aapne maan li? You were ok with replacing me, with my elder brother, in my wife's life?". As Vidya stood dumbstruck, it had felt like a dagger in her heart. Kaveri confirmed that it was Vidya's idea to get them married, throwing Vidya under the bus brutally.
The look of betrayal on Rohith's face that was directed towards her pushed Vidya into a frenzy. She implored that she was just trying to set things right and confessed that Ruhi had requested her to propose her marriage to Armaan. As everyone in the family analyzed the scene unfolding in front of them, they were able to formulate the backstory that might have happened. However, for better understanding, Sanjay probed Rohith further about his sudden disappearance from Poddar house. Rohith changed his demeanor after that inquiry. His eyes blazed with anger as he faced Armaan and Ruhi questioning "Do you expect me to stay in this house unaffected when my newly wedded wife tails behind my brother at every possible chance? And my said brother on the name of sacrifice, gets me married to his lover? And that I was only a medium for my wife to enter this house to stay close to my brother/her ex-lover ". What ensued was absolute quiet.
PS- Apologies for the short chapter but it was really difficult to build up the storyline in this direction. I just had a vague idea. Special thanks to my roomie -chimku alias manu for helping me develop this plot. I also acknowledge that I am yet to update Part 4 of A day post separation - Poddar Family. I am not abandoning that but I need time. I wouldn't be able to do justice to that plot with my mind clouded with anger towards Armaan after today's episode. Bare with me.
O Humnava Tum Dena Saath Mera
Anupamaa
Music Corner
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