Chapter 70 #4
Suraj walked in just as Akansha finished feeding Shaurya, and she went inside to put the plate away. Suraj greeted Akansha, and she responded with a smile. As usual, she asked him if he had dinner, and he nodded politely.
"Yes, Suraj?" Shaurya asked as Suraj approached, pointing to a seat for him, but Suraj remained standing as usual. He strictly followed protocol, except in certain rare situations.
Suraj stood, holding a folder tightly in his hands.
"Sir," he began, keeping his tone even, "We've received intel about a serious threat."
Shaurya gestured for him to continue, already sensing the gravity in Suraj's expression.
"The protests you planned to attend tomorrow and the day after," Suraj said, "there's a coordinated attempt to infiltrate among the crowds. The aim is to get close enough to target you. The people behind it haven't been identified yet, and their network is still active."
He laid out the details—patterns of suspicious movement, individuals being tracked across districts, and the signs that the plot was still unfolding. Every precaution they had put in place could hold against normal unrest, but this was deliberate, calculated, and unpredictable.
After reviewing the threat with his team, Suraj had made the decision: Shaurya would stay home the next two days. It was the safest option until the plotters could be contained.
Shaurya nodded, absorbing the information. The decision was not unexpected, but the implications were clear—his security had to extend beyond the state, to cover every route, every constituency, and every possible angle, until the network was neutralized.
Akansha came in during the middle of Suraj's briefing and heard everything but remained calm, deciding to ask questions at the end.
When Suraj was about to leave, she stopped him.
"When are you going to find a permanent solution to this, Suraj?" Akansha asked. Her words were respectful, but the heavy sigh on her face showed her growing frustration with the constant threats to her husband's life.
"Unfortunately, sometimes intercepting foreign threats is easier than solving problems that exist within the country.
A threat exists as long as there are people willing to sell their conscience for money.
We are trying our best to resolve these issues, but being a Chief Minister — and one doing exceptional work — security threats will remain a constant reality.
But I give you my word, as long as I am here, I will never let harm come Sir's way," Suraj said.
Akansha barely nodded, still processing his words, while Suraj left after being dismissed by Shaurya.
"I'll be fine, Akansha. Don't worry," Shaurya assured her.
"I'm scared, yes, but I will never ask you to stop, Shaurya. Instead, I'm proud — our Siya is too," Akansha said, gently rubbing his forearm.
Shaurya gently kissed her forehead, his heart warmed by her understanding.
"I'm proud of you too — of how you managed Siya and raised her alone, and she turned out to be a perfect daughter.
You're a visionary and one of the strongest forces driving a curriculum revision that could shape young minds for decades.
Despite all the extraordinary work you do, you never ignored the family or our daughter.
I'm so proud — not just proud, but also fortunate to have you and Siya in my life.
Thank you," Shaurya said, kissing her cheek.
Both of them continued talking while taking a walk on the terrace. It was late, and everyone else in the house was already asleep.
"Wanna have ice cream?" Shaurya asked her.
"I can't go down again," Akansha said.
"Come with me..." he said, taking her toward the small penthouse-like structure on the other side of the terrace — a side she had never properly explored.
She had always assumed it was a storeroom, but Shaurya led her inside and began showing her around, and she was awestruck by the beauty of the place.
It felt like a haven for lovers — peaceful, intimate, and quietly romantic in a way that instantly wrapped around the heart.
Shaurya opened the refrigerator, took out a tub of her favorite ice cream, and handed it to her.
"What's this place? It's so beautiful... When did you even find the time to get this designed?" she asked, relishing her ice cream.
"I didn't get this place designed. In fact, this was the only space I kept untouched by the interior designer.
I bought this bungalow only because of this place.
This small but cozy corner reminds me of my friend's apartment back in our hometown — the one where you and Akash used to study.
We had some of our best moments there. It saw the best phase of my life.
.. and that as*hole refused to sell it to me even after I offered ten times its value.
I'm ready to go even higher, but he still isn't willing," Shaurya said, almost whining at the end.
Akansha looked at him with a mix of love, pity, and anger.
Love — because of his antics. During the five years they lived apart, while she tried to erase every memory of him, he had searched for ways to keep her presence alive. He searched for her in memories, in places, in small details, quietly weaving those reminders into his life.
Pity — because he had never stopped chasing those moments.
He longed for her presence, for the love they once had, and it hurt to see that longing still alive despite her being with him again.
She realized that she was living with him now, but not fully beside him — and she resolved to change that.
The love she once believed had ended had never truly disappeared.
It had only been buried under layers of unspoken truths, anger, and her own stubbornness — layers that were finally fading.
Anger — because of his complete lack of practicality when it came to her.
Who thinks of buying an apartment just because it held a few good memories?
Yes, some people did such things, but not in her world, where decisions were based on practicality.
Shaurya already owned multiple properties there, including several residences.
Akansha too had their family home there.
So why buy another property? That too a fifteen-year-old apartment nearing the end of its structural life?
She saw no logic in it, and she knew she had to stop him before he wasted money on sentiment.
"Stop chasing a lifeless property, Shaurya.
There's a long life ahead of us, and we'll create far more beautiful memories in many more places.
We've already decided to move on from the past — to heal each other.
Moving on isn't a step-by-step process. We don't have to wait until we're fully healed to take the next step.
This is our life. We can make our own choices — not your parents, and not even our children get to decide that for us," she said, remembering how their decision to stay away from each other had once been shaped by his parents' venomous actions and her desperate need to protect her unborn child.
She knew he wanted to come closer to her after the kiss in their room, but he had been waiting — waiting for her to heal, waiting for her. Like always, he thought about her first. And she felt it was time she allowed herself happiness — and allowed him happiness too.
Shaurya understood what she meant, and his first reaction came from the heart even before his mind processed her words.
It fluttered with a strange mixture of happiness and fear.
That feeling always came when she stood too close to him — the fear of losing her again.
His face paled slightly. His eyes shone, moist with emotion. The happiness was there, unmistakable — but so was the fear. And from the moment she saw his face, she understood exactly what was going on inside him.
"Shhhh... Shaurya... I'm not going anywhere this time. Our past will not repeat itself. We have Siya with us. I'll never let her stay away from you — or from me. She needs both of us. So we will stay together. Fix that in your head and your heart permanently," she said.
Not for Siya alone — but for herself.
She had started loving him deeply again — so deeply that leaving him now felt impossible.
She allowed herself to feel that love, but she had not yet gathered the courage to confess it openly.
Somewhere inside, she knew that with Shaurya's love she would overcome those fears soon.
But for now, she spoke in Siya's name, because that would make him believe her promise.
He shook his head gently.
"Not for Siya. I told you before — we're staying together for our sake, because we love each other.
I know that's the truth. And I'll wait until you trust me enough to say it to my face — that you're staying with me for life not because of Siya, but because you love me and trust me again," Shaurya said, cupping her cheeks.
Her eyes filled with surprise and admiration.
For everyone else — even her own family — she had always been difficult to understand. But for him, she was an open book. He read her effortlessly, sometimes seeming to know her better than she knew herself.
"Shaurya..." she began.
But he kissed her, stopping her.
He knew she was about to force herself to confess something she wasn't ready to say yet, and he would never allow that. He would wait for her — he had always waited — and he would continue to wait as long as she stayed with him and he could see her smile every day.
Akansha pulled him closer, tangling her fingers in his hair and deepening the kiss. She wanted to tell him through that kiss what she could not yet say with words.
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The next morning, Shaurya was visibly happier than usual, and even the children noticed something unusual about him.
Akansha kept warning him with her eyes to contain his excitement.
His party's uncertain position and the constant security threats hardly matched his cheerful mood, but he seemed completely incapable of hiding his happiness after the previous night.
By mid-morning, her eyes had begun to ache from the number of times she had glared at him or rolled them at his behavior.
"Dadda... Are we bringing Pogo's siblings home?" Siya asked, trying to understand the reason behind her father's unusual happiness.
"No Siya, Mamabear gave permission for only one, remember? But if you want to play with more doggies, I can take you to the store where we got Pogo from. Want to go?" Shaurya asked, finishing his breakfast while simultaneously feeding his daughter.
"No Dadda... Why are you smiling so much? Did your boss say you're a good boy?" she asked, offering another explanation. Being praised by her teacher always made her happy, so she assumed her father's boss praising him might have had the same effect.
Shaurya had understood the question in his daughter's eyes long before she spoke it aloud, but he simply played along. There was no way he could tell her the real reason anyway.
What could he possibly say? That he was happy because her mother had kissed him with a passion he had not felt in more than half a decade? He could easily imagine Akansha beating him to a pulp if he ever told Siya something like that.
So instead, Shaurya dodged the questions and volunteered to play with Siya and Harsh after breakfast, and they happily agreed. He wanted to spend time with them before the long stretch of meetings that would soon pull him back into official duties for the next ten or twelve hours.
They finished breakfast, and Siya and Harsh ran to their playroom to bring their Lego sets.
"You're glowing... What happened?" Suman asked teasingly.
Despite the turbulence in his political life over the past few weeks, his personal life was steadily improving.
His relationship with his in-laws had grown warmer, especially with Suman.
They now spoke more like friends than relatives.
Even Akash had started feeling mildly jealous of the bond Suman shared with Shaurya, since earlier he had been the only sibling close to his brother-in-law.
Akansha, however, was simply happy seeing them bond.
Suman was correcting her past mistakes, and the warmth she now showed toward both Akansha and Shaurya felt genuine.
"Oh, please. Can't a man be happy?" Shaurya dismissed her.
"Of course he can. But I've never seen a man smiling like this when he's this close to losing an election," Suman said.
"I'm a pragmatist. I prefer to move forward with a smile," Shaurya replied.
"And the smile just got bigger," Suman teased again as Shaurya broke into a wider grin at the sight of Akansha approaching them.
"Jiju, you're whipped for life. Stop showing all thirty-two teeth. My parents are getting awkward watching you stare at their eldest daughter like a lost puppy," she added.
"Oh no, I'm enjoying this. Shaurya, you have my full permission," Vasant said.
Akansha, who had heard the exchange as she approached, glared at all three of them.
"You shut your teeth," she told Shaurya, who immediately obeyed.
"And you two, shut your mouths," she added, turning toward her sister and father. Both nodded obediently.
"Still a Hitler," Vasant muttered.
Shaurya glared at his father-in-law.
"Sorry," Vasant mouthed, and Shaurya rolled his eyes.
The children returned with their Lego sets, and Shaurya sat down with them. They insisted that Akansha and Suman join too, and both agreed, while Akansha's parents went upstairs to rest.
Shweta walked into the hall.
"Good morning, sir. I'm sorry to interrupt your family time, but Ms. Meera Pathak from Pathak Properties & Realty Ltd. is here to see you. She says the matter is urgent. Should I let her in, sir?" she asked.
Shaurya glanced at Akansha, who frowned the moment she heard the visitor's name. Meera Pathak? Why had she come?
"What's my schedule for today, Shweta? Do I have any free slot after my meeting with Mr. Sharma and the other associates?" Shaurya asked.
"No, sir, your schedule is fully packed. But Ms. Pathak said it's very important. She mentioned she wants to discuss election funding. If you wish, I can push your first meeting slightly and assign that slot to Ms. Pathak," Shweta replied.
Shaurya looked at Akansha again, searching her face for the slightest objection or even a trace of disapproval. Finding none, he turned back to Shweta and gave a brief nod.