Dedicated to Secretgiggles783

Prabir quickly rushed to the kitchen and noticing him, Dhruv switched off the TV and followed him.

The easiest thing that cropped up in Prabir's mind was making bread toasts and frying omlettes.

Winky meowed almost as if crying and Prabir quietly heated up some milk for her. It was quite late in the evening and she was hungry.

Dhruv helped Prabir frying the omlettes and while working, they heard the doorbell ring.

"I'll check," Dhruv said and darted swiftly to open the door, assuming Mayank's men were back.

He was puzzled to find Sarvesh staring at him, his hair dishevelled, with brown half pants and a light cream color t-shirt on.

"Where's Bhargu Di?" He asked out aloud.

Prabir peeped at him from the kitchen, startled to hear Sarvesh's voice.

Dhruv placed his right palm on Sarvesh's face, covering his mouth and dragged him upto the kitchen as
Prabir cursed himself in his mind for having left out Sarvesh's name among the people, Parul had to keep the secret from.

"Don't scream. Did Paru not inform you about the jerk sitting there?" Prabir whispered and pointed in the direction of the guest room.

Sarvesh stared at him blankly giving an impression that he knew nothing about Mayank or his mother.

Parul came downstairs straight to the kitchen and blushed hard catching a glimpse of Sarvesh.

"If you want to meet Bhargu, you will have to wait here because firstly she is famished and secondly she's presumably not in a good mood.

How about all three of you sit here and have some bread toasts with omlettes?

Dhruv. Can you please take this for Mayank?" Prabir said briefly before handing Dhruv a plate with an omelette and some toasted bread.

"Yeah! Sure," Dhruv replied and walked away with the plate.

Prabir filled some warm milk in a tiny dish for Winky and she licked  it happily.

Parul had already served Sarvesh in the meantime. Prabir hurriedly served for Parul, Dhruv and Bhargavi.

"Paru. Don't go anywhere near the guest room or Mayank. I hope I am clear?" Prabir said in a commanding tone.

Parul nodded in agreement instantly. Even before Dhruv could return back to the kitchen Prabir strolled upstairs.

He called out Bhargavi's name before entering his room, as he held the plate which also contained a glass of milk.

"Come in Prabu. This is YOUR room," she replied casually.

He placed the plate on the bed and was satisfied to observe Bhargavi eat up at high speed.

Soon after she had placed the empty glass of milk on the plate, Prabir whispered," Bhargu. Sarvesh is here. He wants to meet you. Parul told him... that you were stabbed.

You want me to send him back or would you like to meet him?"

"Umm...I have nothing to do and I am bored. So I will meet him.

Wait! Did you hold him downstairs in case I ate him up due to my prodigious appetite?" Bhargavi said and burst into giggles.

Just one look into her eyes let Prabir know that she was being afflicted by an unendurable pain. Despite that she made all attempts to make it look like it was no big deal.

She was doing her utmost to hide her pain, not wanting him to look at her with sympathy in his eyes.

Prabir softly stroked her hair and murmured, "Take your medicines Bhargu. You skipped them in the afternoon."

"Okay!" She said and scurried to the study table. She took her medicines while Prabir regarded her carefully.

"Bhargu. You don't have to pressurize yourself to hold in your emotions.

Yes, you might fake a smile and put up an appearance to hide all the deepest soul eviscerating pain...that  you have kept in reserve but  believe me baby I understand. You don't have to pretend to be okay and coil up inside," Prabir said earnestly.

"I am done with ' Everything's cool and I am okay persona '.
I have been fooling myself all this time and have been devoting more and more efforts just to keep up this charade...trying to look all happy and upbeat.

And it isn't even difficult for you to look through this whole wobbly framework.

Frankly speaking, I want you to coax me,holding me close... in your loving embrace, but even that seems like a distant dream" Bhargavi mumbled as tears ran down her face.

Prabir moved closer and placed her head gently on his chest and stroked her hair, letting her sob and weep. He whispered," It's okay Bhargu.There is nothing to feel embarrassed."

"I did not tell Maa that I was stabbed because I did not want her to be agitated every time I step out.

I never told her I work for Ziko or that... I was collecting evidence against Nishwas Sinha because she would get panicked.

I keep things from her because I feel she won't understand. She doesn't know about anything going on in my life.

She  said she doesn't want to see my face, then why do I have thirty five missed calls from her? When I am not even worthy enough to be called a daughter?" Bhargavi rattled on feeling both angry and hurt.

Prabir listened to her speak, calmly without interrupting her and finally spoke when she paused." Bhargu. She was mad at you... but those tense angry feelings are now gone.
She is in a state of remorse and wants to make amends for her extremely ruthless behavior towards you.

This is a horribly rotten truth that the first seed of distrust is planted deep in her chest Bhargu. She thinks you deceived her.

But...there is always a room for healing and restoring relationships.

Let me take care of it Bhargu. I'll fix it.  Don't call her or receive her calls for the time being."

She smiled at him burying her head in his chest and looked up at him after a while.

"I'll send Sarvesh" Prabir said gladly and walked away.

"Sarvesh. Paru. I am telling both of you. Don't tell Bhargu anything about Mayank or his mother. I'll talk to her later about it.

She's waiting for you. You can go" Prabir said cheerfully walking into the kitchen.

"Prabir. Mayank wants to talk to you. I asked him to wait till you came downstairs," Dhruv informed.

Prabir swiftly nodded and dashed off to the guest room.

"Yes! Mayank. What do you have in mind?" Prabir enquired brusquely.

"I will do anything you want. Please save Maa,Prabir" Mayank said instantly.

"Okay! Arrange three nurses who can stay here with her in shifts before you leave for Rimpson.

I'll inform you about my plans later," Prabir stated bluntly.

"Umm...for tonight, if you will let me stay here...tomorrow morning I have asked a nurse to join sharp at 6a.m. in the morning," Mayank informed.

"Of course you can stay here with your Maa, but I won't let those three fools stay here," Prabir said uneasily.

"You have enough evidence against my father to put him in prison,right?

Do you have any evidence against him, that proves he did an unbailable offense?

If he gets released on bail, and figures out that I...I tried to extricate Maa from his evil hands, will he have me thrown out of my school Prabir?" Mayank asked innocently.

Prabir looked up at the ceiling as if asking the Heavens to aid him in his endeavours to cope up with his seething anger and stick to his virtues.

His tempting desires were to grab Mayank by his neck and squeeze as hard as possible or to kick him out of his house gloriously.

Frustrated he blurted out," Mayank. You won't die even if you are thrown out of a school.

Yes! You will have to work extremely hard to earn money and get admission into a new one.
As your past record of results isn't good, you will have to pay more... maybe double.

Maybe you won't get admission in the middle of a session and will have to wait for a year.

Dude do you even realize your mother's neck is on the line?

Do not even think about hiding your tail in between your legs and running away when I am daring to risk my own family for your sake."

Mayank felt like he was kicked in his guts while Dhruv guffawed.

"Just for being on the safer side...why don't you let his men stay here tonight?" Dhruv questioned after his laughter had died down.

"They have received plenty of cash Dhruv.
They were asked to showup only an hour later but haven't yet. So in all probability, I am assuming that...they will be nothing more than nuisance in an extremely drunken state," Prabir clarified his decision for not letting Mayank's security personnel stay for the night and he walked out of the room.

Prabir called up his father, plonked down on the sofa in the living room. The call was received after some time.

"Hello! Prabir"

"Baba. Can you please come home a bit early today? I need to discuss somethings...really important with you.

If you are late as usual, my spoken words will be nothing more than a distant ramble in the background to you but I need you to pay close attention to what I say tonight"

"Okay! I'll be there in thirty minutes" Mr. Banerjee said and disconnected the call.

Prabir was relieved. He was doubtful if Mr. Banerjee could possibly return home before his usual timing. He had a load of things in store to discuss with him, about Bhargavi,Ms. Nalini, Mayank's mother.

Mr. Banerjee left all his work and rushed out to return home as quick as possible. This was the first time, Prabir was demanding his presence, and from his tone he realized Prabir was dead serious.

Dhruv sat down quietly beside Prabir and placed his palm on his left shoulder.

"I'll miss you a lot Dhruv. Kavya aunty would have been discharged today in the evening, from the hospital and they will come and pick you up tomorrow in the morning," Prabir sighed.

"I'll miss you too," Dhruv replied back remorsefully and a tear rolled down his right cheek.

Prabir embraced him impulsively. He couldn't fathom how hard it is for  father's to get their daughter's married and send them away.

He felt so attached to Dhruv, when they hardly knew each other even a few days ago.

"After Baba...you are the only person who cares for me," Dhruv mumbled softly.

"Don't treat me like a stranger once you start living with your new parents.

Never be afraid to talk to me about your struggles.

Yes! I most of the times don't share my problems with Baba because I feel...he has a lot to deal with.

  I believe some things are best left unsaid and one needs to experience it.

Mostly, Baba trusts me enough to know that if something is important, I will tell him.

There are things that I am not comfortable about telling to Baba but I honestly do share it with you," Prabir said thoughtfully.

"How can you even think that I'll treat you like a stranger?

I know what you are not comfortable about speaking...to your Baba. He doesn't need to know about your fetishes," Dhruv smirked, and Prabir chased him.

Prabir caught him up and said in a serious tone, "Bleat as much as you like, but you won't be heard.

Want me to knock out your teeth?" and they both burst out laughing.

                         **********

Sarvesh ran upstairs swiftly followed by Parul. He showed no decency of knocking on the door and just barged in.

"Bhargu Di. Are you okay? Who did this to you?" Sarvesh questioned concerned.

"I am alright Sarvu," Bhargavi said with a strained cheerfulness, as she wanted to lie down and rest for a while. She was amazed at how  concerned and worried Sarvesh had been for her. He looked frightfully distraught.

"Di.I have once lost my sister and now I don't want to lose you," He said and hugged her making her flinch.

Parul pulled him away from her instantly. "Sarvesh she is injured. You are hurting her," she reminded him.

"I am sorry, I am so...sorry," Sarvesh apologized nervously.

"It's okay! Relax you two. Nothing happened to me," Bhargavi said assuring.

"You are lying Di. It's so awful! How could Nalini aunty do this and that too only because you were late?" Parul demanded heatedly while Bhargavi stared at her startled not knowing what she was talking about, and then realized instantly that Prabir had distorted the facts and broken down the complicated and complex information to easily acceptable and digestible chunks for her.

Bhargavi mindfully diverted the topic of discussion from her to their school and studies.
She left them discussing and arguing with each other about some homework as she closed her eyes and relaxed herself, reflecting on what Prabir had said a while ago.

There is always a room for healing and restoring relationships.

What he said was right. She had forgiven her father after seventeen long years.

All she needed to do was wait, have patience and keep her faith in Prabir.

A/N: Hey! Everybody

Hope you enjoy reading this update.

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