Chapter 29 #2
"Akansha... don't speak in puzzles. I'm freaking out here," Shaurya replied immediately.
"Siya doesn't want to come to your place tomorrow. I don't know what exactly is going on in your daughter's head, but yes... she has definitely started avoiding the topic now," Akansha texted honestly.
The very next second, her phone started ringing.
She sighed before answering.
"Akansha..." he breathed into the phone as if he had just run a marathon, making her own breath hitch for a second.
Damn his tone.
Akansha shut her eyes briefly, trying to compose herself.
'He is worried for Siya, that's why his voice sounds like this, Akansha... stop entertaining dirty thoughts,' she scolded herself internally.
"Shaurya... calm down. I'll talk to Siya properly and she'll be fine soon," Akansha tried assuring him.
But he was nowhere near calm.
"I'm coming to see my daughter," he declared and disconnected the call before she could respond.
"What? Hello? Shaurya—"
The line was already dead.
"You cannot come here."
"Do not come here, Shaurya."
"I will not open the door for you."
She kept sending message after message, but there was no reply from him.
When an entire hour passed — roughly the amount of time it took to reach her place from his residence if traffic was manageable — Akansha finally sighed in relief, assuming he must have regained his senses and realized the complications involved in such a reckless move.
But she was terribly wrong.
She lay down beside her daughter, trying to force herself to sleep.
But sleep was nowhere near her tonight.
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"Suraj... is everything ready?" Shaurya asked his CSO once again.
"Sir, ten more minutes..." Suraj answered, sounding apprehensive for perhaps the first time ever.
He had never been nervous around Shaurya before.
His boss always carried an unnerving calmness around him.
No matter how tense the situation became, Shaurya never appeared shaken or agitated.
But tonight, seeing the impatience on his face and the barely restrained restlessness in his movements, even Suraj felt uneasy.
"Suraj... it's been more than an hour since I asked you to arrange this," Shaurya said, trying hard to control his temper — the same temper most people believed he did not possess.
"Sir... because of the festivities, the roads were crowded till late night, so clearing the route is taking time. And as per your orders, your visit will remain strictly private. No one will know about it," Suraj explained carefully.
Shaurya nodded. If there was one man whose abilities he trusted blindly, it was Suraj.
After another fifteen minutes, Shaurya finally began his journey.
To see his daughter.
To reach his wife.
He was nervous. Terrified of Akansha's reaction. But his worry for Siya overshadowed everything else. An hour later, he reached outside her house and immediately called her.
Akansha, who had finally managed to fall asleep barely half an hour ago after endless tossing and turning, woke up with a jerk as her phone rang loudly beside her.
"What the hell do you want, Shaurya?" she snapped groggily into the phone.
"Open the door before your neighbors find out who is here to visit you," he replied calmly.
And just like he expected, she disconnected instantly and rushed toward the main door, cursing him the entire way. If anyone noticed his presence here tonight, she would personally murder him.
She yanked the door open only to freeze for a second. He was dressed in tracks, a hoodie, goggles, and a mask. If she did not know him intimately, she probably would not have recognized him at all.
Akansha secretly sighed in relief. At least he had tried to stay discreet.
She already knew he would be careful, but when it came to Siya, Shaurya's emotions often overpowered his logic. Him standing outside her house at this hour was proof enough of that.
The second he stepped inside, she shut the door behind him firmly. Shaurya immediately called Suraj.
"You can leave. Don't park the vehicle anywhere nearby. I'll call you if needed," he instructed before disconnecting the call.
The moment he turned around, he found Akansha glaring at him with narrowed eyes full of irritation.
"Hi..." he started awkwardly. "Um... don't worry, nobody will suspect anything. I asked Suraj to leave because a bulletproof vehicle parked around the neighborhood would obviously attract attention... so relax. I handled everything."
He was practically babbling from nervousness.
"I told you not to come," she snapped. "Why are you here?"
Shaurya tried his hardest not to look at her properly, at the sliver of slender waist visible beneath her crop t-shirt.
At the pale stretch marks peeking through her skin — marks that only made her more beautiful in his eyes, painful proof of the love and suffering she endured while bringing their daughter into the world.
That single glimpse made his fingers itch to touch her. To trace those marks gently with the same hands she once loved against her skin. But he forcefully pushed the thoughts away, reminding himself why he came here.
"I'm here for Siya," he answered, attempting to sound confident, though every ounce of confidence evaporated under her scrutinizing stare.
"Siya is sleeping. Now what?" Akansha asked coldly, folding her arms beneath her chest.
"I'll wait," he replied simply before walking toward the couch and settling himself there as though the house belonged to him too.
Akansha frowned deeply and followed him to the living room. She understood the silent message perfectly.
He was not leaving anytime soon.
"Shaurya, you are not supposed to be here," she repeated, trying to suppress her anger.
"But I am here," he replied quietly. "So please... accept it and let me handle this my way. I want to try... try for my daughter. I can't sit there pretending to work while my daughter suffers here. I just can't... please understand, Akansha."
The distress in his voice was too raw for her to ignore. She huffed in frustration, but her heart no longer allowed her to throw him out.
"Fine... suit yourself," she muttered and turned to leave, but his fingers wrapped around her wrist before she could walk away.
His eyes slowly wandered around the house. The place radiated warmth.
A real home.
His gaze landed on the crayon drawings decorating the walls. He instantly recognized Siya's little scribbles, though every messy drawing had clearly been transformed into something adorable afterward.
Akansha.
She must have corrected and completed every drawing for their daughter.
Then his eyes moved toward the photo frames lining the wall.
Most of them contained Siya. Some had Akansha and Siya together.
Others had Richa with them. A few included Akash and Richa's parents.
But every single frame, except two, had Siya in it.
One of the remaining two held a picture of Akash and Akansha. The other had only Akansha and Richa.
The frames alone were enough to tell him how deeply involved Richa had been in their lives.
.. and how profoundly her betrayal must have hurt Akansha.
Shaurya knew his own deception had already shattered her ability to trust people, and Richa's actions probably ripped open those wounds all over again.
Noticing where his gaze rested, Akansha abruptly pulled the curtain down over the wall, covering every single frame.
She believed deeply in nazar — the evil eye.
Whenever outsiders visited her home, she always covered those photographs. She never liked exposing the happiness of her small family to unwanted eyes.
"I was looking at them... why did you cover them?" Shaurya asked softly.
"Isn't it obvious?" she shot back immediately.
No, she did not think Shaurya would cast an evil eye on them. But she hated him looking at those pictures. Because every frame painfully reminded her that he was absent from all those moments. They could have had those memories together.
They could have been a happy family with Siya. If only he had not ruined everything. And now, despite how much it hurt her too, she wanted him to feel that absence. She no longer understood her own heart.
One part of her constantly wanted to hurt him. But another part suffered the most every single time he looked wounded. Nothing had changed after all.
Shaurya Singh Shekhawat still had the power to completely wreck her heart.
"Akansha... I want to see Siya's pictures.
.. Right from the time she was born... I don't even have the courage to face her right now, even if she is sleeping.
.. So please... let me spend this night with my daughter's initial years.
.. the part of her life I was never a part of.
..", Shaurya pleaded, his voice heavy with emotions that slowly began overpowering Akansha's hatred.
A bitter laugh escaped her.
"I never thought I would show you these albums one day, but I guess now is the time.
.. Cry the whole night thinking about everything you lost, Shaurya.
.. The precious memories of your daughter's birth, her first word, her first step, watching her grow up.
.. You missed all of it. And the fact that you can never relive those moments is killing you.
.. I can see it clearly, and honestly? It feels so good seeing you like this", Akansha said.
But that wasn't the truth.
The hatred she had nurtured for years forced those venomous words out of her mouth, even when her heart felt the exact opposite. Shaurya knew that too, yet her words still pierced through him.
Akansha walked into her room and took out the albums, carefully removing the photographs she never wanted him to see.
Those memories belonged only to her pain.
She would never let him know what truly happened that day. She would never tell him how much hatred for him took birth in her heart the moment their daughter was born too...
That was his punishment.
He would remain unaware of it for the rest of his life.