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Since it was Karthik's birthday, the Goenkas went to the Mandir, which they go every year on this occasion since Karthik was born. Being the closest mandir that too of Karthik's best friend Krishna he loved coming here every week with Dadi.

Naira and Karthik have some work in that area so when they are completed they decide to pay a visit to the temple.

"kya hua, itna muskura kyun rahe ho", questioned Naira

" jab bhi iss mandir mein aata hun, iss dil ko ajeeb sa sakoon milta hai", he said still smiling.

Karthik and Naira went in front where the murti was, they were standing right beside the Goenkas, but shut their eyes for praying so no one noticed each other. Since Goenkas had come a bit earlier, they finished praying first, as they turned to leave they saw Karthik standing beside them.

"Karthik", they all whispered softly under their breaths. Manish was about to touch Karthik's shoulder but stopped himself. The family moved away from that place not wanting Karthik to see them.

"Humara Kittu, humare ankhon ke samne hai, aur hum usse galle bhi nahi lagga sakte", said Dadi sadly.

"Maaji dekhiye woh ladki jo Karthik ke saath hai, mujhe lagta hai wohi Naira hai",  commented Surekha.

"Dekhiye ne Maa kitne khush lagg rahe dono, khas kar humara Karthik, kitne pyaar se dekh raha hai Naira ko, hum toh uski kushi chate hai Aur woh kush hai", said Akhilesh.

Just then Karthik who was so busy in admiring his beautiful girl, burnt his hand as he didn't know that the pandit had bought the pooja ki thali for him to take arti and accidentally brushed his hand on the fire slightly.

The Goenkas panicked seeing this and were about to go closer to Karthik, but stopped as they saw Naira sweetly scolding him for being so careless.

"Naira am okay kuch bhi nahi hua hai, bas thoda brush ho gaya jala nahi", said Karthik

"Toh jala nahi, jal sakta tha, tum dhyaan nahi rakh sakte kuch ho jatta pata hai kitna dard hota", she asked

"Kisse dard hota mujhe ya tumhe", he questioned and she just hugged him. 

"Ab humein Karthik ki fikar karne ki zarorat nahi", said Suvarna and the family nodded with a smile leaving the temple.

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Few days later it was Naitik and Akshara's anniversary, the families had a gathering, Karthik and Naira did a small play on Akshara and Naitik's married life journey. Since it was pretty late Akshara requested that they all stay at Singhanias for the night.

It was late night everyone but Karthik was peacefully asleep, the boy kept turning his body sometimes towards the left sometimes towards the right.

He could see blurred images flash in front of his shut eyes, images of young child being slapped and whipped by a woman, the images were too unclear, he could neither notice the woman's face nor make out if the child was a boy or a girl but every time the whip touch the child he felt as if he had been hurt.

All of a sudden he got up and looked around to see all the family sleeping around him, he quietly got up and went outside not wanting to disturb anyone.

These nightmares hadn't been new to him he had got them previously many times as well but had never been able to get their meaning or recognize the people, but these nightmares always instilled a mysterious sort of fear in him. It gave him a terrible feeling from the inside.

It was early morning when Naira's eyes opened, she was about to shut them again, when she saw everyone was still in bed, but then she noticed Karthik missing, so she get up and looked around the house but couldn't find him. Then she went outside and saw Karthik outside his back against the wall his face rest on his knee, Naira lifted his face up so now they could see it clearly, there were tear stains. Naira shook him awake, he opened his eyes and noticed that it was red and puffy.

"Karthik kya hua", Naira asked lovingly

"Kuch bhi nahi, bas ek burra sapna", Karthik answered

"Sirf ek sapne ke liye you had tears, woh jo bhi hai sirf ek sapna hai", Naira said.

"Kuch sapne aise lagte hai, jaise woh haqeqat ka hissa ho.", Karthik replied

"Haqeqat jaise laggte hai, doesn't mean it is real, don't think about it too much.", Naira said and gave him a side hug.

Karthik nodded positively and gave her a forced smile, Naira noticed a fear and pain in Karthik's eyes, she knew he still was not convinced. Naira wrapped around her arms more tightly and Karthik did the same, pressing her as tight as he could to keep her as close as possible to his heart. Naira could feel tears falling on her forehead, she was getting disturbed seeing that a nightmare made this state of Karthik.

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It was late morning everyone was up and finished their breakfast

"Suvarna Ma'am, aap yaha", said Karthik running to the lady at the Singhania door and hugging her.

"Kaise ho mera bacha", Suvarna said ruffling his hair, to which he gave a cute smile. Naira was happy seeing this as Karthik was lost and sad since she had woken him.

Karthik introduced Suvarna to Naira, then to the whole family.

"Aap ne Karthik ko bahut ache sanskar diye hai", said Devyani

"Aur bahut sarra pyaar bhi, Karthik ne batiya", added bhabhima

"Bahut pyaar diya hoga, magar Karthik uss se bhi zyada pyaar ke haqdaar tha. Jab Karthik ko sab se zyada zarorat thi uske pass nahi thi. Humesha Karthik se jhoot bola ke uski family nahi hai. Massi hun uski, woh bhi saach chipiya usse. Lekin sab sirf issi liye kyun ke darr lagta hai, aaj bhi mujhe sab ki baatein yaad hai, mein ne toh sirf woh sarri baatein sunn kar bardasht nahi kar payi, lekin Karthik ne who sab saha tha.", thought Suvarna as she emotionally looked at Karthik while she was lost in her thoughts

"Suvarna ji,  Kya hua kaha kho gayi app", asked Akshara

"Kuch nahi bas aise hi", answered Suvarna, but Naira felt that there was something Suvarna was hiding, she noticed the soft loving looks full of yearning, Suvarna passed Karthik. It reminded her of the ones Akshara gave her when she had been angry and was maintaining distance from Akshara.

Suvarna left within an hour, saying that she had a train to catch, Karthik offered to drop her to the railway station but she denied. Naira felt something very fishy as she didn't understand why would Suvarna not take the opportunity of spending more time with Karthik.

Something in her heart told her to follow Suvarna, so she made some excuse and left the house, making sure Suvarna doesn't notice her, she noticed that Suvarna's rickshaw stopped near a huge Villa. She waited for Suvarna to go inside.

"Bhaiya yeh ghaar kiska hai", she asked the guards.

"Goenkas", one of the men replied in a formal tone.

"Aur yeh Suvarna ji, kaun hai", she questioned

"Malkin hai, Manish saab ki patni, unki dusri patni", said the guard.

Naira was shocked because Karthik had said Suvarna was unmarried had no family, except the orphanages she owned. She knew Karthik didn't lie, so she wanted to know why Suvarna lied to Karthik.

"Why are you talking to strangers about all this", scolded the other.

"Madam aap jaiye yaha se please", the other guard told Naira

"Aap andar jaiye aur apni Suvarna malkin se khiye ke Naira ayi huyi hai, unhe bahut sarre sawalon ka jawab chaiye", said Naira.

The guard did as he was told. The family members were taken aback that Naira was here. They got to know that Naira knew that Suvarna was Manish's wife and Suvarna knew that Karthik must have told Naira that Suvarna is unmarried and has no family, they realized if they send Naira back it is only going to raise more questions and maybe she could even bring Karthik here, so they asked the guard to get Naira in. The only way out now was to tell Naira the truth.

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