Shehnaaz thought her husband would calm down if she gave him some time and space but it looked even 24 hours were not enough for that man to let go of anything. She sent him flowers in his office, the bouquet she chose had a small handwritten sorry card along with lilies. She asked Lata to make his favourite for breakfast and lunch, only if she knew how to cook the meal would have been even more special but nevermind. She tried not to overdo the apology thing and rather irritate and piss him off because she had never seen him this angry and didn't want to repeat it either.

They needed to talk but he clearly wasn't ready and so was she, she didn't want to talk about her father's infidelity with him. What were they going to do by discussing something that happened years ago? Moreover, Sidharth had nothing to do with this, he wasn't supposed to bear the consequences of what had happened with her and her mother. All he needed to know was that she was extremely sorry and she was ready to be his doting wife for the rest of their lives.

"It says, 'I'm sorry husband. Red hearts.' Awww! It's so beautiful." Adith was going to the cafeteria when he heard a bunch of women at the reception.

"Wassup ladies?" He tried to peak what they were looking at.

"Ah nothing. Sidharth sir ke liye bouquet bheja hai unki wife ne. How romantic!" Sheila gushed, holding the lilies.

"Nice. Let sir have a look at it now." He replied, taking it away and taking it to the designated person.

"Sir, aap ke liye. Oh, ye card!" He knocked at the door, kept it on his boss's table and handed over the card that fell off.

"Hmm. Who took the card out?" Sidharth asked, wondering if anybody else saw the bouquet.

"Um, it probably came out when the staff was reading it." Adith hesitated to answer.

"Come here, let's have a look at this." Sidharth simply kept the bouquet aside and opened his laptop, plugging in the chip Roma got him.

"This is a very important lead we have against someone. I expect you to keep it to yourself. Highly confidential." He added.

"Sure sir." Adith nodded and focused on the screen when the audio began.

They could hear MLA Rao asking one of his men to go and receive a parcel for him that'd arrive in Nagpur, they talked about two dozen of mangoes that probably meant two crores of the amount he had been bribed with but the important part was the mention of Singhania's name.

"Sir, Rajat Singhania ne MLA Rao ko paise deke tender liya!" Adith was taken aback by the new information.

"Hm, aur hum unhe expose karenge." Sidharth replied.

"Ofcourse karenge sir, I'll call the commissioner right away." Adith suggested.

"No, you won't! We are not going to do anything unless we collect all the proof against them. Itne se audio se kuch nahi hoga. Now listen to me very carefully." Sidharth replied and they planned on how to crack the codewords used and go check the places where Singhania's men had dropped the money for MLA Rao so that they could collect some evidence.

He was busy handling the office and trying to get a lead against his rival, consequently it was late when he returned home. He found Shehnaaz setting up the dinner for the two of them, it looked like she didn't eat without him.

He was so occupied with all that had happened lately, his mind was taking longer than usual to come to terms with all the accusations she had made along with Sukhbir's past deeds.

"You look quite tired. Hungry?" She asked him with a smile.

"Hm." He nodded, pulling a chair and taking a seat. Except it wasn't his usual chair, he had skipped the one that was next to hers and chose the distant one to sit this time. She noticed and let it slip, taking the one next to him and they began to eat.

"Aur sabzi du?" She asked, offering a bowl of green beans to serve him.

"Nahi." He replied without averting his eyes from his plate.

"Lata itni achhi beans banati hai, no wonder you like beans." She mentioned.

"How about some ice cream? Office se laut rahi thi tabhi-" she began again when he stood up, done with his dinner.

"I'm full." He replied and left.

She sighed, finishing off her plate quickly to go and talk to him now, the ice cream she got could wait.

"Sidharth?" She entered their room and found him scrolling through his phone near the night stand next or the bed.

"Mujhe baat karni hai." She added, standing right in front of him such that he wouldn't be able to walk away this time.

"Sidhaaarth, baat kar na yaar mere se. Gussa hai toh nikal lo! Lekin yeh jo kar rahe ho, wo mat karo na!" She pleaded, holding his hand looping hers around.

"Kal poora din humne ek baar bhi baat nahi ki humne, mere se nahi ho raha hai aur. Please, I'm sorry na. Talk to me!" She said, slowly making her way between his arms.

"Leave my hand." He replied, maintaining the distance again. Every time she'd come close, her hateful gaze, her lack of trust and those remarks she made the other day would cross his mind.

"Ek chance toh do yaar galti sudharne ka!? I'm trying, I'm not going to make that mistake ever again. Never." She insisted, not letting go of his hand and closing the gap between them again.

"I cannot. I just can't, with you breathing down my neck all the time! Gimme some space now!" He snapped at her, shrugging off her hands, he was about to step out of their room. This woman just couldn't stay away from him!

"Is this how we're going to be every time we get into a fight? With you walking out?" She couldn't help that comment coming out of her.

"It's not just any fight! It's all you! Your facade! You started it, toh abhi rone se koi fayda nahi hai. Tab sochna chahiye tha jab tum hass rahi thi apne doston ke sath iss shaadi pe! Laughing out of regret, weren't you?" He retorted, as if her words only added fuel to the fire.

"Hass nahi rahi thi for God's sake! Only if you would have stayed a little longer, you'd have heard the entire thing I said about us getting married! Sidharth, humari shaadi jis tarah se hui, uss deal ke pressure me hui, mujhe usse problem hai. Humesha rahegi kyuki I wanted to marry out of love! Okay! That's all I meant! And about regretting it, I told Nishant that I do not feel so because we're getting along well, we understand and support each other. I told him that we could make it work like other couples!" She explained it to him, holding his hand against her heart and wishing that he'd at least believe her this time.

He didn't have anything to respond with, maybe she was right, maybe if he would have stayed a little longer he would have heard her talking good things about their marriage and maybe they would have eventually made it to their impending lunch plan.

He wasn't coping well with all of it, to a point he was glad that his wife was trying to make it up to him but somewhere disappointed that she couldn't see him in a different light. They had been close, intimate and yet she decided to believe that he might have just cheated on her recklessly.

He looked to his left, she had slept long ago after their argument, looking exhausted and probably cold because she was all curled up. So he raised the AC's temperature a little and pulled her covers up, tucked a few strands of her hair back as well before letting sleep take over him.

"Mam, parso ghar me pooja hai. Sir ke parents ki barsi hai." Pia informed Shehnaaz the next morning.

"Okay, toh uh. Mai parso office nahi jaungi. Do you need my help with anything? Tayyari me?" Shehnaaz had no idea about it, she never had any conversation with husband about his late parents and his relationship with them.

"Nahi mam, aap sirf sir ke sath pooja me baithna. Sara kaam maine dekh liya hai." Pia replied.

"Okay, toh Aunty kal tak aa jayengi, I suppose?" Shehnaaz said.

"Nahi mam, Ramya mam pooja me kabhi nahi aati. Wo next week aayengi." Pia answered.

"Kyu?" Shehnaaz was surprised.

"I don't know mam, wo humesha isi time Pune chale jati hai. Apne ghar, kuch weeks ke liye." Pia looked confused as well.

"Acha? Ajeeb hai. Unko toh hona chahiye yaha." Shehnaaz mumbled, befuddled why such a caring aunt would not be by Sidharth's side when he would need his close ones the most that day.

"Sidharth!" She spotted him before he could leave for his office and called out, purposely in front of the house-helps so that he couldn't ignore her.

"Nashta?" She asked.

"I have an early meeting." He replied, he was trying to finish off work sooner to take a day off for the pooja as well. Well, it wasn't just about the work, his system, his heart would usually not like working around his parents death anniversary. He used to sit home at times in his parents' room and miss them, not that he didn't miss them everyday but that one day would let him lose himself, shed a few tears in silence and be a normal guy for a while.

"Acha, ek second ruko please, mai pack karke lati hu. Maine pancakes banaye hai, please mana mat karna." She said and wandered off to the kitchen before she could hear him refuse.

She didn't know if he liked them with honey or butter, she didn't even know if he liked pancakes! But she had cooked the easiest thing she found on youtube. She burnt a few in the beginning, a few were uncooked when she flipped them before time but she gradually made an edible one after 10-15 attempts.

"Here." She handed him the tiffin and he took it without arguing. Now that's progress!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello there! Here's another one!

Well if you ask me, I've normally seen people taking their own sweet time to think, consider, reconsider and evaluate what all they want from their life..

So what I'm intending to say is that two people who were literally not ready to get married were asked to marry each other and I don't really think it's their fault while having problems to function together.

In some simple words, I'd put it like - this is what happens when two different kinds of personalities who don't know each other are tied together. And if they're willing to work it out, it's not going to happen overnight!