...Preet P.O.V....

"What?" I almost screamed through the phone.
It can't be , it shouldn't be ! He can't leave me. What will I tell the kids! What will I tell the family? How will I manage everything alone? All these thoughts creeped my mind as soon as I received the phone call from Kavya.

I shivered on the mere thought of his absence and now he was gone leaving all of us behind alone.

I turned around to look at Kabir and my kids happily nuzzling each other.
I sobered up, called Aryan asking to arrange everything to depart at the earliest from our holiday.
The kids were turning 7 and we decided to surprise them on a trip to Disneyland.

I slowly moved towards Kabir, running my hands through his hair.
The moment he looked at me his smile dropped.
I motioned him to come out to the couch.
I made him sit as I kneeled in front of him.
I held his hands tightly in mine.

"What's wrong Preet?" He asked meaning only business.

"Kabir, Papa had a heart attack." I disclosed the half truth to let it hit slowly rather than hitting him with a storm directly.

"No, no, no! Preet you know his heart cannot take it!" He screamed waking the kids up.

"He didn't"! There I said it.

"No Preet, have you fucking lost it, he was fine , he was fine day before yesterday, we celebrated our birthday. He can't, there has to be some mix up. My father cannot leave me!"He cried while the kids ran to him.

"Kabir, Jaan please listen to me." I begged but it went to his dead years and he harshly shrugged me off shocking me to an extent.

"KABIR!" I SCREAMED to get his attention.

"We need to leave! Everything is done, the flight is in an hour!" I informed as he nodded.

I completed whatever packing I could, the kids hell confused as whybwas their father sobbing and why were we rushing back home.

"I want to go to Disneyland!" Araj pleaded.

"Some other time baby, right now we need to go back home!" I tried explaining to her.

"Some other time? " Kabir seethed.

"I fucking lost my father and you are planning holidays already?" He blamed me for something I never thought he could.

I looked at him with tears in my eyes. Pushing Araj behind me inorder to avoid her for witnessing all of this, Abeer being the smarter one held onto Araj as we left for the airport.
The ride was completely silent with none of us speaking.

As soon as we reached Amritsar, Aryan was waiting for us at the Airport with Tara, I asked Tara to initially take the kids to Saxena Mansion and when I turned towards Kabir, he was gone, without uttering a word he left with the driver. I had no idea what got into him. I mean I understand the loss was unbearable but I had no idea why was he behaving like this with us.

Aryan placed a hand on my shoulder and said, "Preet it's your chance to be strong and handle everyone. When I say Malhotra house is a hell left loose I mean every word of it."
Well it was pretty obvious, the man who held it all together had left us unsheltered all of a sudden, we waited on the Airport for Kavya, Abhi and the Kids as they had shifted to America last year due to work reasons.

As soon as Kavya saw me, he came running and hugged me as if her life depended on it. I hugged her back because support was the only thing I could provide her with.

Tara left for home with the kids while the rest of us left for Malhotra house.

As soon as I entered the house, it felt empty, it felt cold, as if he took the warmth of a home with him. It was just a house not a home now.

As soon as Kashish saw us l, she leaped from Kabirs arms to mine. I wipes her tears controlling mine. As she moved over to Kavya while I took slow fearful steps towards the lifeless body of Papa, Meera maa looking at him blankly, with empty eyes. I placed my hand on maa's shoulder and it was all it took for her to break down.

"Preet, dekh na tere papa nahi uth rahe, tu bol na unko, Teri toh har baat mante hai na. Tu unki beti haina, bolna unko uthne! Please Preet bolna !" She begged as I hugged her tightly finally sobbing loudly.

Every ounce of strength that I had been pulling left me. I couldn't comprehend what had happened, just a few days ago we were celebrating and here he was gone in a blink of an eye. While I tried calming Meera maa, my eyes searched for Kabir.
And there I found him looking out for all the arrangements.
Aryan walked up to him to stop him from avoiding the situation at hand but there was no way he could get through him.

My husband needed to cry, to vent out his loss. To accept the situation but there he was as if nothing had happened, looking clueless with empty eyes.

I motioned Kavya to come over to maa as I walked towards Kabir who was now sitting on a chair in the garden.

"Kabir!" I called out to him

"What are you doing here Preet, we have a lot of things to do. I have talked to the Gurudwara Head Granthi, he will be coming over, the message for the final rites have been sent. I have looked over everything, just check if we need anything else." He spoke as if I was talking to a machine who had fixed his work.

"What we need is to Cry, cry Kabir, you lost your Father, you lost your inspiration. You need to cry to accept it." I begged him.
"He didn't care about me when he left, why should I?" He asked shocking me to the core.

And just like a lifeless body he carried over all the final rites with Abeer and Kavyas kids .

Everyone noticed his condition but nobody had the guts to talk to him.

It was as if I had lost a part of my Husband along with Papa.

.......

And so has been the last three months. Kabir has been working like an absent minded machine with no feelings. He even started ignoring the kids and me to an extent. Because this was the first time in years when he missed their ptm and annual days .

I still remember the day I confronted him about his absence as a father and all he said was he didn't want the kids to get too attached to him,

"What if I die someday, how will they handle it?" Was his reply as he left me in tears in the hall room moving away to the bedroom. That was the first day where we slept apart. I slept sobbing in the living room itself as he worked the night in his office.

Kashish moved to America with Kavya for studies while Meera maa moved in with us, she was hell disturbed when she saw my condition the next day and when she confronted Kabir, it made things worse as he thought I had complained.

All said and done the last three months has been the worse of my lifetime. It felt as if everything was over and there was nothing in this world that could save Preet and Kabir.

___________________________________________

I know not the kind of Bonus chapter you guys were expecting but like I always said, life is not always about roses and rainbows it also comes with its share of thorns and storms.

I hope you guys still like it. Please tell me how it was.

Will be uploading another bonus chapter pretty soon.

Suggestion are always welcome if you guys wish to read something specific in the upcoming chapter.

Love,
Khwaish.