"Shame shame puppy shame!" Rk teased Ruhi seeing her dancing on the bed wearing only her diapers.

"Papa!" Ruhi shrieked and quickly went under the blanket feeling shy. Rk burst out laughing and pulled Ruhi out of the covers and started tickling her.

"Where is your momma?" Rk asked. Ruhi pointed to the dressing room.

"Getting ready huh?" Rk asked. Ruhi nodded her wagging her ponytail.

"You didn't get ready?" Rk asked. Ruhi pointed to the dress on the chair her momma had picked and kept for her.

"Come, Papa will put the dress for you." Rk set Ruhi on the bed and walked around to the chair and took the pale blue Cinderella dress.

"Isn't the dress pretty, my baby?" Rk asked showing the beautiful dress to Ruhi.

Ruhi blushed cutely & nodded her. Then Rk unzipped the dress and slipped it over Ruhi's head. The dress fitted her perfectly.

"Aww... My princess is looking beautiful." Rk adored his daughter and kissed her cheek soundly.

"Papa loves you, baby" Rk said with a hint of tear.

"Baby loves you, Papa" Ruhi said cutely interchanging the first and last word of his sentence making Rk laughed heartily.

"You will be the death of me, Ruhi" Rk hugged her closely to his chest.

"Papa, you.. be... um.."

"No! Don't repeat." Rk placed his finger on Ruhi's cute little rose bud lips.

"Why your momma is taking so long to get ready?" Rk asked in a whisper.

"See, Papa and baby are ready." Rk gave a hi-fi to Ruhi making her giggle. Right then Madhu stepped out of the dressing room. Rk turned around with Ruhi in his arm and his jaw hit the floor seeing the sight in front of him. Madhu was beautifully dressed in a royal blue floor length dress. She had worn minimal make up and her hair was left loose in soft curls.

"You look absolutely stunning." Rk blurted out before he could stop. Madhu slightly blushed but didn't give much away. She frowned taking in Rk's attire. He was dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and white see through shirt looking dapper. Oh and his ray ban glass hanging on his jeans belt lope and resting on his upper thigh. She was practically checking him out an he was doing the same.

"Well, I didn't purposefully match with you girls. I wasn't aware that you both planned to wear in blue." Rk said defensively realizing why she as frowning. "If you don't want me to wear blue jeans then I can change it to black?"

"Um.. No! It's okay." Madhu said awkwardly averting her gaze from Rk to her baby girl.

"Hey baby! Looking pretty." Madhu cupped Ruhi's cheeks and kissed her forehead standing so close to Rk.

"Blue suits you." Again a slip up for Rk. Madhu glared at him and stepped back.

"Papa, blue me?" Ruhi asked holding her Papa's chin making him look at her.

"Blue suits you too, darling." Rk said with a smile. Ruhi kissed his cheek.

"Shall we leave?" Rk asked.

"One sec." Madhu rushed to the dressing room and came out too quickly with a blue color bow band for Ruhi.

"Perfect!" Madhu said after placing the bow band on Ruhi's head. When Ruhi tried to mess with it as she wanted to know what was on top of her head, Rk held her hand and shook his head asking her not to touch it. Ruhi pouted cutely but surprisingly she listened to her dad.

"Papa!" Ruhi squealed.

"What, baby?"

"Put me down" Ruhi insisted to walk. She didn't want her dad to ruin her dress by lifting her in his arms. Rk chuckled and set her down. Ruhi took her dad's hand and then on the other side took her momma's hand and led them out of the room making her parents smile.

"I'm excited to see our new home." Madhu said as they got settled in the car. Rk smiled at her but didn't say anything.

It had been a week since their confrontation. Rk decided that Madhu will feel better if Ruhi spends more time with her like before so he stayed out most of the day at the work sight of their new house and returned to the hotel only after Ruhi had gone to bed. He missed his daughter so badly. He missed playing with her all day but then he had to do as a reassurance to Madhu that Ruhi was still be her momma's girl. That Ruhi loves her too.

Two days back, Rk came late night and sneaked into Madhu and Ruhi's room and stood by their bed side and was staring at them with so much of love. To his surprise Madhu opened her eyes and caught him staring at them.

"Um... Sorry... I know it's creepy to watch someone when they are sleeping but I just couldn't sleep... so I came here to check on you two..." Rk blabbered and then leaning down, he planted a kiss on Ruhi's head & turned to leave back to his room but stopped on track when Madhu called him.

"Are you avoiding Ruhi?" she asked him sitting up on the bed, covering the blanket over Ruhi and stepping out of the bed.

"No, I am not!" Rk said. What her problem? If I stay home and spend time with Ruhi she accuses me that I am taking her daughter away from her. I have mesmerized her... put a spell on her and what? And now she is accusing me that I am avoiding my own daughter? I have made that mistake once and I never dream to do that again. All I am doing is giving some space to Mom-daughter duo.

"We missed you." she said softly.

"We?" Rk asked taking aback.

"Um... No, she." She corrected. Well, she actually lied. She can't deny the fact that she hated him with every pore of her body but she missed having him around too. She got so used to him in these three months. She kinda felt safe in his presence. She didn't know why? May be because of Ruhi, She wanted her daddy.

"She kept on asking for you. She was missing you."

"Oh! Well, the refurbishing work is almost done. We will be moving there in two days. Then I guess I will stick around you two, forever." Rk said with a soft chuckle. Then Rk walked back to the bed side again and knelt down on the floor and took Ruhi's little hand in his as he gazed her sadly.

"What?" Madhu couldn't help but ask the reason for his sudden sadness.

"Thanks for Ruhi." He said looked straight at Madhu's eyes.

"She is here because of you. If you had neglected her just like me then she wouldn't be in our lives now right? So thank you for sacrificing everything for this beautiful girl." Rk looked back at Ruhi caressing her cheek. Madhu stood there speechless.

"You fear of losing Ruhi to me... but it's the other way round. I fear of losing Ruhi but not to you... but because of what I did to you both. Today, she is a baby and she doesn't know how cruel her father was but one day she will..."

"She won't! I promised you I will never let our daughter know the gory details of our past. I might have felt insecure and jealous of her bonding with you but I am that cheap to tell about you, how you were in the past, showing myself so nice to her and steal her away from you" Madhu realized that her daughter will always love her and she should not give any room for her insecurity or jealousy. Ruhi just adores her dad to bits and pieces. She only wants both her parents' love which she will get. Madhu vowed to herself.

"You don't have to show yourself nice because you are already so nice. You are the best mother any one could ever ask for. I wish I had one like you" Rk sighed. Madhu didn't know what to say.

"All I have now is Ruhi's love..." Rk said kissing Ruhi's tiny little fingers.

"So do I." Madhu stated.

"But she will hate me soon... sooner than we know..."

"She won't. She will never come to know about our past."

"No! I know I made you promise me that you should never tell anything about our past for the two obvious reasons, one not to hurt this little soul and two not to be hated by her but I felt I was being selfish. I don't want to keep her in the dark. I, myself will tell everything to her once she gets the maturity to understand things. Then she can decide whether she wants me in her life or not. Till then I wish to cherish every moment with her." Rk said looking at Ruhi. His vision was getting blurred as his eyes started brimming with tears.

Madhu didn't press him. It was up to him to tell her the truth or not.

"You catch some sleep before she wakes up and disturb your sleep." Rk said as he stood up on his heels and made his way out of their room.

"So tell me is it an independent house or an apartment?" Madhu asked initiating a conversation to kill the silence. Even Ruhi was too quiet today playing with the stones fitted on her dress.

"You will see." Rk said with a smile.

"Where is bittuji? I hardly see him lately."

"He is busy..."

"With the house renovation works?" Madhu asked curiously.

"Nah!" Rk laughed.

"Then?"

"Learning French" Rk smirked.

"Why?"

"He found a girl here. Her name is Roma. She emigrated from India with her parents at a very young age. She got settled here and married..."

"Married?" Madhu asked surprised.

"And divorced the guy few years back."

"Oh! Well, Bittuji is aware of all this?"

"Not really."

"Then how do you know?"

"I talked to her. She was very forthcoming. You will see her today."

"Hmm... She doesn't know English or Hindi?" Madhu asked.

"She speaks both Hindi and English but for some reason she is annoying Bittuji by talking in French to him. That's why he is learning French."

"Oh. So he loves her?"

"I guess so." Rk shrugged.

"What about her?"

"She is not ready to have any relationship with another guy yet huh"

"How old is she?"

"Not sure. Guess she is in her late thirties."

"Oh. How old is Bittuji?"

"Bittuji is 42 years old. So she will suit him."

"Why Bittuji was single so far?"

"I kept him busy!" Rk smirked without any guilt.

"That's sounds so gay!" Madhu said and burst out laughing. Rk's heart warmed seeing her genuine laugh. He could see the glimpse of the old carefree Madhu.

"I didn't mean that way. When my dad passed away he had to look after me and my needs. In a way I'm responsible for him not having a family... Seems like I didn't mess only your life but his too..." Rk said guiltily. "...He had never shown any interest on girls before. This is a first. So, I seriously wish this relationship with Roma works out."

"I hope they end up as one lovely couple." Madhu smiled.

"Hope so too."

"How long it will take for us to reach?" Madhu asked looking out the window.

"About there." He said turning to look at her. "Just five more minutes drive."

"Oh okay" Madhu said and looked down at Ruhi. "I'm glad she didn't sleep off in the car. I want her to see her new house when we enter in first." Madhu said and kissed Ruhi's head. Ruhi looked up at her momma and smiled before going back to play with Rk's smart phone. Yeah, he had given his phone to her to play so that she will not pluck out all the stones off her dress.

"Rk..." Madhu called him softly.

"Yeah, Madhu."

"I have been thinking for a while..."

"About what?"

"About what you said"

Rk gave her a confused look.

"I told I can't be your friend... and I can only pretend in front of Ruhi... but I realized we can't fool her for long..."

"Yeah, that's right"

"So I made up my mind."

"Please don't kick me out of your life or Ruhi's" Rk begged.

"No, it's not that."

"Then?'

"I wanna give it a try"

"Try to be my friend?"

"Yes."

"You sure?"

"For Ruhi's sake I will do this" Madhu said looking down at Ruhi, caressing her soft hair.

"For Ruhi's sake." Rk smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. He wished she trust him enough to be his friend but then wasn't complaining. He was...just happy.

"But that doesn't mean I don't hate you. I still do." She made it clear to him.

"I guessed that much." Rk smirked.

"So friends?" Madhu stretched her hand for a shake.

"Friends" Rk shook her hand with his. Ruhi placed both her hands on top of her parents' hands binding it tightly and gave them her adorable smile.

"We are here." Rk said breaking the perfect moment as the driver pulled the car outside their new house.

Rk stepped out of the car first and went around and opened the door for Madhu. Madhu picked her dress up so that she will not trip on it and slowly stepped out of the car and then helped Ruhi to clamber out of the car. When Madhu turned and looked at the building in front of her, her eyes went wide and her mouth parted slightly in surprise. Rk grinned contented seeing her expression.

... to be continued!!!

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