"Mumma, whele ish dadda?" asks Aanya.

"Wait for a while baby, we'll meet dadda soon. Okay..." says Ragini as she sits down on a bench and makes the girls sit on her either sides.

They keeps waiting for an hour but no one was telling them anything about Laksh's condition. Ragini looks at her daughters who fell asleep, waiting for their father. She gets up and keeps their heads on each other's shoulder and head to make them comfortable.

"How much more time they'll take?" she asks impatiently to Ankit.

"Don't know! None of the doctors have come out and the nurses aren't telling anything." he tells her.

"Excuse me, who are you?" asks one of the police officer to Ragini.

Ragini looks at the officer and then at Ankit. She wasn't getting what to say. Who's she?

"She's Laksh sir's relative." answer Ankit on her behalf.

The inspector was about to say something but Ankit cuts him off.

"Don't worry! They're of no harm to him. They're family." says Ankit.

The inspector nods and moves to the other officers.

"How did this happen? Who did this and why?" she asks.

"We were on our way to the airport when we got attacked by some men with guns. I used my gun to fire but I couldn't compete with them alone and they got successful in shooting him. They immediately ran away from there because he was their aim and they got what they wanted. We have an idea about who did this but we're not sure yet. The police is investigating." he tells her.

Ragini nods. Just then a doctor comes out of the OT.

"Doctor, how's he? He'll be fine, right?" she asks in a broken voice.

"He has been shot on his neck and we all know how sensitive that part is. We're trying our best. I don't want to give false hopes to you. The chances of his survival are almost nil. Still, let's hope for the good." says doctor before moving away.

Ragini stumbles as she keeps both of her hands on her mouth in shock. The tears which got dried till now again starts flowing from her eyes.

"He can't leave us now. He can't leave his daughters. He just can't go, leaving me. He have to fight for us. Nothing will happen to him Ragini. Just calm down. He'll be fine." she starts assuring herself.

"Mumma, did dadda come?" asks Aanya as she looks at her mother while rubbing her sleepy eyes.

Ragini looks at her daughters who were awake now and somehow fight backs her sob. She moves towards them and sits down besides them.

"No baby. He's on the way." she says caressing their hair.

"He's sho chlo." complains Ishanvi pouting.

"Yes, he is! You both scold him when he comes, okay?" says Ragini.

"Otay..." says Aanya and Ishanvi smiling widely.

***

One month later

Ragini was sitting in the hall in her house, working on her laptop. After sometime, she closes all her files and keeps staring at the desktop picture of her laptop. It was the selfie which Laksh clicked that day, with three of them sitting on him. Tears starts falling from her eyes as she thinks about the last one month.

Ragini's pov:

One month! It has been a month that he left us! I still can't believe that he's no more. The only man I ever loved is no longer in this world. My daughters lost their father forever. They'll always be deprived of their father's love, protection and care. Their family will always be incomplete. He came and left like he never came. He made our daughters used to of his presence just to leave them forever. He came back in my life and brought back all my feelings just to leave me alone and broken!

That day was the worst day of my life, the day I lost him. He could not make it. He couldn't fight for his life. He was a liar. He said that he has his daughters to live for but he didn't live for them. He decided to die. I'll never forgive him for that. I hate him for leaving us. How could he do that? He knew that I loved him. He knew that his daughters loved him and needed him more than anything else but still, he left. He didn't think about me. He didn't think about our daughters. He was always a selfish man. He never cared about the feelings of others. He was always a liar. He was a liar as Arhaan and as Laksh too.

My daughters are still waiting for their father. Little do they know that their father is never going to come back. They says that their dadda has promised them that he'll come back that means he'll come back. They say that they're ready to scold him for coming so late. They don't have any idea that their father has gone to the place from where no one can ever come back but they're too young to understand that. Whenever I say that he's not going to come back, they gets angry on me and even stops talking to me. They say that I'm a liar mumma. But I know, they'll accept the truth with time. That's a different thing that I myself can't accept the truth that he is never going to come back. Why God why? Why did you do this to me? I was living without him, then why did you bring him in my life again? And when I got used to of him again, you snatched him away from me! It's getting so difficult to live without him but I don't even have the option to die. I have to live for our daughters. I thought that I got him to be with me to raise our daughters and share things but I was wrong. I thought that he didn't love me but at least he was there, with me. But no! I'm alone, again!

She immediately wipes her tears when she hears the door bell ringing. She closes her laptop and gets up to open the door. She finds Naina and Arjun standing on the door with two gift boxes in their hands.

"These..." says Ragini.

"We went to the market and we saw these so we bought them for the girls." says Naina as they enters inside.

"There wasn't any need for this." says Ragini.

"Shut up!! No one asked your opinion." says Arjun falling on the couch.

Ragini doesn't say anything but sits down with them.

"You were crying!" says Naina looking at her red eyes.

Ragini looks up at that. She bites on her lower lip as she shakes her head in a no.

"You're lying!" says Naina.

Ragini was about to say something but stops when she hears footsteps along with Ishanvi's voice.

"Main hu ek udta lobo dolaemon... Main hu ek udta lobo dolaemon..." comes Ishanvi while singing.

She comes towards them and stands in between them.

"Ale these fol me?" she asks excitedly as she looks at the doll house and doraemon stuffed toy placed on the table.

Arjun and Naina nods. Ishanvi smiles happily at that.

"But you get them only when you give me a sweet kissie." says Arjun.

Ishanvi jumps upon him and kisses on his cheek. She immediately jumps down and takes the stuffed toy from the table as she sits on Ragini's lap. Trio chuckles at that.

"Where's your big sister?" asks Arjun to Ishanvi.

Before Ishanvi can say anything, Aanya come there. She looks at the doll house and starts jumping up and down.

"Wow!!!" she says as he tries to hold it but Arjun takes it away.

Aanya glares him. Arjun smirks.

"You'll get this only when you'll give me a kiss, just like Ishu did." he says.

"I'll not. You called me devil that day." says Aanya stubbornly.

Ragini and Naina chuckles at that while Arjun frowns.

"Okay, then you don't get this beautiful Barbie doll house. I'll give it to someone else." says Arjun to annoy her.

"I don't even want it. I'll tell my dadda to bling me mole big balbie house. Hurr..." says Aanya making faces.

Everyone goes silent at that. Aanya moves towards Ishanvi and snatches the toy from her. She keeps it back on the table.

"Dadda will bling dolaemon fol you." says Aanya as she pulls her sister out of her mother's lap and then pulls her to their room.

Arjun and Naina looks at Ragini who was crying now. Naina moves towards her and takes her into a hug.

"Shh... Ragini, don't cry. Please..." she says as she rubs her back.

"He's gone! He'll never come back." says Ragini in between her cries.

***

A few days later. It was afternoon. Ragini was in her room. The girls were sleeping on the bed while Ragini was moving here and there, lost in her thoughts. Just then there's a knock on the door. She gets out of the room. She passes through the hall and opens the door. She gets surprised seeing Ankit.

"Ankit..."

"Can I come in?" he asks.

Ragini nods as she gives him way to enter inside. She closes the door as both of them moves to the hall. They sits in front of each other.

"You here?" asks Ragini.

"I need to talk something very important to you." he says.

Ragini nods, signing him to continue.

"As you know that Laksh sir had no sibling neither Durgaprasad sir had any brother. Laksh sir was his only child." he starts.

Ragini nods.

"Which means Laksh sir was the only heir of all the wealth of his ancestors." he continues.

"Why are you telling this to me? What you're trying to say? Say it clearly." she says confused with his talks.

Ankit sighs at that.

"With Laksh sir not being alive now, the only heirs of all his wealth and property are his daughters, Aanya Laksh Maheshwari and Ishanvi Laksh Maheshwari. You have to come with me to Kolkata, with the girls. There are some legal formalities that are needed to complete." he says.

"What are you saying? My daughters don't need his money or wealth. We're happy with what we have. We don't need anything. We're not going anywhere." says Ragini shaking her head.

"I know mam. You don't need anything. But it's not their need but their right. Their right as Laksh Maheshwari's blood. Everything of their father is theirs, no one else's." says Ankit trying to make her understand.

"But..."

"Please mam. It was his last wish." says Ankit sadly.

Ragini looks up at him in shock.

"That day when he got shot, he told me two things. One, if he survived then he wanted to meet you and his daughters first. Two, if he couldn't survive then his daughters gets his real name and all his wealth which is their birth right. He always wanted to treat them like princesses." Ankit tells her.

Ragini keeps sitting there without saying anything. She was going through a battle in her mind.

"Okay... How much I may hate him for so many things but I'll definitely fulfill his last wish. I'll do what he wanted." she says determined.

Ankit smiles at that.

"Thank you so much mam. I'll book the tickets. We're leaving for Kolkata tonight only." says Ankit as he gets up.

Ragini nods and he leaves from there. She moves to her room and looks at her daughters who were still sleeping.

"No more hide and seek. Now the time has come. Time to face the world and go back to the place from where it all started. The place where I met him and fell in love with him. It's the time for my daughters to get the real name of their father. It's the time for them to get all their rights. I can't do injustice with them by keeping them deprived of their rights. It's the time for the world to know about Laksh Maheshwari's unknown daughters." she says as a tear slips out of her eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX

The writer has run away before anyone could kill her.

OUR CUTE FAMILY will be coming next.