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I wouldn’t dare. I don’t want to dare anything to anyone because I am tired of doing so.
“I’ve always wanted what I can’t have.And trust me when I say, nothing stops me when I want something. I can walk a thousand miles if you are my destiny because the heart wants what it wants, Jaan.”
His lips hover over my earlobe as he finishes whispering.
“So, I dare you to try escaping my gaze and see the consequences.”
My breath turns shaky when his lips touch the sensitive skin behind my ear where he kisses, burning me with rage. I am getting addicted to his touch and this has to stop. So, with all my energy, I push him away and walk out of the restaurant. I’ll check in at some hotel tonight and tomorrow shift all my stuff from the Villa after I find another house to stay. Mentally making a note to speak to Rudra’s father tomorrow morning, I hire a cab and drive to the nearby hotel to stay tonight.
CHAPTER 22
Aarav
I remove the suit jacket and throw it on the couch as Aman and I enter the AR Mansion.
“Aarav, calm down. She’s safe and that’s all that matters.”
“Safe?” I snap at Aman turning around. “Despite breaking up with Rudra she is not returning to me but staying in some damn hotel and you want me to believe she is safe? What if Rudra finds some other way to convince her? Actually, you know what Aman? Let him try. I am going to finish his game once and for all. I don’t mind shooting his damn heart.”
“God!! Just relax, will you?”
Aman yells at the top of his voice. He’s losing his calm too and why not? He too hadn’t expected Jhanvi to be in a mess like this. My sources had already been following my wife after that tragedy which happened recently when I saved her from two drunk men on that deserted road. I was home tonight when one of my sources informed me about Rudra taking Jhanvi out for dinner and I already felt that intuition something is wrong. Since Aman was around that same restaurant, I asked him to look into it while I drove there. When I reached, Aman told me he had seen Rudra giving some pill to a server and asking him to spike Jhanvi’s drink. That was the last straw of my control and before she could sip that wine, I made an entry to show that a**hole his right place.
“I should have called the police. He needs to go to jail for everything he has done with us so far,” I scowl.
“Not like this, Aarav. Everything has its own time. We’ll soon have more proof against Rudra and we can take some legal action then. But right now, you need to calm down and focus on Aarvi.”
Aman is right. Since today morning when Aarvi woke up she has been asking for Jhanvi as she had spent last evening with her at Amaya’s birthday party. I tried to convince her Jhanvi is out for work and will be back, but she cried inconsolably asking me to bring her mother back. That pricked me so much that the whole day I spent next to my daughter, giving her hopes that soon Jhanvi will return to us again and this time, forever.
“Sir,” Aarvi’s nanny returns to us. “Aarvi has a fever. She was asking for Jhanvi Ma’am again and crying for her.”
“What?”
I am on my feet as her Nanny informs this and so is Aman behind me. We reach Aarvi’s room and she’s sleeping but constantly murmuring‘Mommy’which stabs my heart.
“I’ll call the doctor.” Aman takes out his phone and dials our family doctor while I scoop my daughter in arms. She’s burning with fever. Damn hell! I won’t forgive myself if anything happens to her.
“Jaan, relax. Aarvi will be alright. You heard what the doctor said.” I scoop my wife in arms to soothe her sobs.
Aarvi was three years old when she got a high fever suddenly after an event at our mansion. It had been three days since her fever had not gone down. Daadi mentioned that kids at this age were prone to get a bad eye on them very easily when people appreciated them and my wife did every ritual Daadi asked her to do, to make sure that the evil eye from our daughter was casted away. We also had a team of doctors who kept monitoring her health every hour. Aarvi’s appetite was considerably reduced and she was so cranky and moody all the time that it exhausted all of us. It took Jhanvi hours to make her eat well and even more trouble when we tried to give her medicines. All this had taken a toll on Jhanvi’s emotions and that night after three days of seeing our daughter suffering, she finally couldn’t control herself and sobbed bitterly in my arms.
“Jaan, stop crying. This is not going to help, sweetheart.” I kept kissing her hair and showered her with kisses on her face which calmed her for some time.
“I can’t wait to see her alright again, Aarav. Smiling and laughing and playing around,” Jhanvi sniffled in between her sobs.
“She’ll be fine. Just give her a few more hours and she’ll regain her health. The way you are looking after her, it’s incredible. You have shown so much patience from past three days, now show some more. I swear, nothing will happen to her and the next morning when we wake up, she will have already recovered.”
Those few words from me gave her the strength she needed. We both headed back to the bed, took our sides and kept watching Aarvi as she tossed in her sleep. Jhanvi hadn’t slept well either from three nights nor I, but even then, we could hardly think of taking a nap.
The next morning when I opened my eyes, feeling some heavy weight on my chest, I saw Aarvi sitting on my stomach, trying to wake me up. I instantly took her in my arms and she snuggled closer.
“Daddy,” she murmured, cuddling me.
The movement woke up Jhanvi too and she quickly checked Aarvi’s temperature which looked normal. The relief on my wife’s face and the smile on my daughter’s lips were the only ones that soothed my heart. I took them both in my embrace. While Jhanvi spoke to Aarvi, asking her how she felt and what she would like to eat today, I watched them interact, giggle and play in my hold. The circle of my arms embracing Jhanvi and Aarvi to me, constituted my whole world. Anything and everything beyond that didn’t matter.
“Mommy..”
Aarvi’s whimpers break my reverie and I instantly graze my fingers on her cheeks to soothe her down. She is crying again. It is midnight. After the doctors left diagnosing Aarvi, I had to battle putting her to sleep alone and now she’s woken up. The fever is still there and I don’t know what to do about it. The last time my wife was with me to tackle this, today I feel crippled handling this alone. There’s no one who can give me strength and hope that my daughter will be fine. That it’s just a matter of some time. But I know the fever isn’t normal. According to the doctors, it’s the stress that Aarvi has taken to be with her mother again. It’s obvious she was missing Jhanvi too much from the last two years, and now after getting a glimpse of her and spending some good time with Jhanvi at Amaya’s birthday party, her hopes have elevated. I have to do something about it before things loosen from my hands.
