At night, the helpers had cooked some soft dinner. All the four ate in silence.

Later, Geetha lingered around the dining area. Ramit was in the lawn with his father. Her mother-in-law was taking her medicines.

When she saw her mother-in-law walking towards the TV, she joined her. "Maa."

His mother looked at her and nodded, asking what she wanted to say.

"Last time we spoke he became more angry," she said in one sentence.

"Wait another week then. He'll forget everything."

"It... doesn't seem like he'll forget anything."

"He's usually not stubborn. If he is, it's a do or die." That was how her son defied them and studied numbers and nonhuman languages and started a business she did not know how to explain to the other ladies. Then without telling them much, he left the country only to get a shoulder broken. Tsk.

Seeing her face the TV the entire time, Geetha was not ready to end the conversation without a solid answer to her problem. "What should I do then?"

She sighed. "Your mother and I were very close friends when you were kids. I won't say much to you, but if you are going to be the reason my son would be sad, I'll ask you to leave.

"You are pregnant and I don't want you to stress about anything. But I have kept quiet for so many days," she said and sighed. "Don't think too much. You know where you were wrong, don't you? Everything will be alright." She smiled.

Geetha could not smile though. Forget about a solution to his silent treatment, she now had another problem. She basically had no clue how to keep herself in the house, although it did not seem like her sweet mother-in-law was serious. She looked down as she waited for the men to return inside.

Ten minutes later, she was still sitting looking at random people arguing on the TV without enough context. If it was a news debate, she'd be having fun. But it was a daily serial that her mother-in-law loved.

She looked out into the lawn and saw them still sitting on the swing and the bench, talking. She said goodnight to her mother-in-law and went upstairs.

Inside the bedroom, their luggage was lying in a corner. She had forgotten she had to sort them out. She put away all of his and her clothes which she had packed earlier that day.

What remained were the bags they packed on the night of the attack. She started with his briefcase. It was filled with files and documents. She decided to set it aside for him to have a look before moving anything. When she was closing it though, she caught sight of something in one of the pockets. It was the clip of a certain pen she had lent to him. She took it out and indeed, it was that very old pen.

He had come to her classroom looking for her during the lunch break. He said he had a test and his pen was out of ink and the one he kept as backup was lost. She asked him why none of his friends lent him one. He replied saying Abhay was absent because he could not study for the test. Abhay was his best friend during highschool, and the only classmate Ramit sought help from. That guy really faked a fever fearing the test and the lost pen was in fact lost in his bag.

She gave her pen to him and later borrowed one from a classmate herself. She smiled at the memory. His introversion had been extreme during his puberty. He became so shy in front of girls, including her.

She looked at the blue fountain pen in her hand. She would give it back to him when he would drop the matter of divorce. Back then fountain pens were a fad at school. She had broken so many of those nibs and had gotten her books dirty a few times. Even her skirt got a tiny stain. Ramit was worse at using them, but this one has endured till now.

∼•∽

"Have you gone mad?" Ramit had just entered the room and he was puzzled at the sight. Geetha was smiling looking in an off direction. She looked too silly to be herself. "Are you okay?"

She hid the pen away in the moment of truth and said, "You came up by yourself?"

He scoffed at her. "You should stop with the act. It's my hand that's hurt, not my legs." She was quite an intelligent one. So he really did not understand if she truly missed that critical detail in her act. He really did not need anyone's help to walk and climb a few steps.

"Whom am I acting for? Neither maa nor papa is around."

That was what he did not understand.

"Here, if you're not sleepy, help me put these away," she said pointing to the luggage she opened.

"Why are you so free? I will put them away later."

"Didn't you say your hand hurts?"

He looked at her, challenging her to say that again.

And she did. "Tell me what goes where. Your hand hurts."

He felt bad listening to her words but did not know how to retaliate. He scoffed at her and sat beside the suitcase and told her to stack a few select documents into a certain rack. When she was arranging them like he wanted, he said, his voice reflecting the doubt in his heart, "There was a pen here. Did you see it?" He had already stood up and was looking around for it. He lifted the remaining documents with his left hand while shrinking his nose.

"Stop that! Just sit. You should not exert force on either hand." She took away the documents he was holding. "Which pen?" she asked.

He paused and looked at her. After a moment he said, "You took it, didn't you?" That must be what she was laughing about. "Is it fun making fun of me like that?" He turned away from her.

She was baffled at his words. His thoughts were jumping with no rhyme or rhythm.

"Okay then! Laugh at these too!" He took out a small stash of paper clips from the top shelf of a cupboard and threw them at her feet.

She looked at them and looked back at him.

"Why? Don't remember them?"

She picked them up. They were colourful paper clips with cute animals attached to them. "I remember." These were from a longer time ago and her memory was vague and faded, but she remembered. She was yet to go to school. One day, he came along with his mother. It was a last visit for the years to come. They had met again only in highschool and he had to awkwardly introduce himself a few times before she recollected him.

That day they were playing with these tiny things. She did not remember what game it was. He used to come up with numerous ways to entertain her when their moms talked. But in the end, when he was leaving, she was still hung up on the game and gave him those. As she recollected, she faintly remembered that he had told her to smile, assuring her he was going to take them. He also told her he'd bring them to play with her again.

He was a little surprised she'd remember them, but all he felt was increasing inferiority. He should not have shown them to her. He was acting on impulse. "There's nothing more for you to laugh at." He cleared the half filled suitcase using only one hand while struggling with the task. He turned the lights off and got onto one side of the bed, and turned away from her.

Only after a few minutes his breathing started to sound laboured. Still standing where she was, she knew he hurt his healing shoulder. He started crying. She knew those tears had little to do with his shoulder. It was definitely because of how she treated him all this time and because he felt she did not value his love.

It seemed like a long way to go if she was ever going to win him back. She had to show him she no longer looked down on his feelings. Perhaps more than that, what was needed was for her to prove to him that she valued him as much as he valued her. Maybe this was what love was, she thought.

However, for now, there was little she could do. She stood there silently crying herself. She waited for him to calm down, but he could not. Although his cries were muffled now, he was still grieving. She wanted to take a step forward and hug him. He had to let it all out at some point and she wanted to be there for him during this time. His grievances were as real as her existence, after all. But she could not do it. She did not have the courage or the heart to listen to his cries nor did she have the face to comfort him.

She slowly walked to the place where she hid the pen, took it along with the paperclips and walked out of the room. She lingered in the corridor right in front of the room.

Her mother-in-law caught sight of it and shook her head. She has quite a problematic daughter-in-law. She proceeded to walk on, without disturbing her.

Geetha walked back and forth slowly. If she had to act like this in the past, she'd hate herself. But now none of this felt like a time waste to her. She didn't even realise that she was wandering with nothing in mind. She wiped her tears and her nose and stood there, leaning on the railing for a while.

She then slowly went inside the room. Ramit's breathing was calm and even. He had fallen asleep. Good for her, she quietly snuck into the bed. Her eyes and her head were hurting.

She put the pen and the paperclips under her pillow. She should properly say sorry to him and return these. She closed her eyes and slept off.

∼•∽

The next day, nothing went according to her plan. By the time she woke up, the house was empty. She ran down stairs as she put her hair in a ponytail.

"Amma, tiffin is ready," a maid said to her. She was not yet familiar with the maid. She nodded to her and reached for a phone.

When she noticed it was 9:23 A.M, she turned around to wheeze and laugh at herself. She was delayed by 4 hours compared to the usual. She was not up that long the previous night, though. It must be because of her pregnancy. She felt slightly tired recently. 

But she was never numb to her alarm. She checked her phone.

Her alarm was turned off.

"Childish!" she said to the chair which Ramit usually occupied. He wanted to make her look bad to his parents, so he could convince them not to support her and file for divorce. If only she realised she was looking at him through the lenses of her own personality. If she took a step back and thought about him before herself, perhaps she could have guessed it right.

Her conclusion was partly correct though. He did turn off her alarm. But that was not some trickery. He had to resort to that. Last night was the first time he had cried so miserably before her. He dreaded facing her and whatever she'd have to say. He simply did not want her around him, at least for those few hours.

She went back up to check if the things were safe under the pillow. They were. Then she washed up and sat for breakfast.

"Where is everyone?"

"They went to the hospital."

"What happened?"

The maid looked at her for a moment and said, "Ramit baba's shoulder pain increased."

At that moment, memories of last night came into her brain, especially the image of him crying and turning away from her. That meant he had slept on his right shoulder. Sure he was mad at her but how could he be so ignorant and put his weight on his fractured shoulder? Didn't it hurt? When she went into the room after walking outside, he was still turned away from her and he was asleep too.

She felt sad for him. She decided she would keep an eye on that shoulder for him from now on.

After two hours, they came back. She was waiting near the door and went to greet them.

"What did the doctor say?"

Ramit did not respond. He didn't even look at her. Beside him her father-in-law also ignored her with a scowl. In fact, he had been ignoring her since the talk at the hospital. He walked in to fetch some files before he left to take care of his business. He bade farewell to his wife and son.

Geetha shrugged it off and asked once again, this time holding Ramit's arm, "What did the doctor say?"

Ramit pulled his hand back, still not looking at her. Her mother-in-law sighed and said, "They changed the dressing and asked him not to use that hand."

Geetha nodded. "I'll help him up, maa."

As she finished saying that, Ramit paced up his steps to keep some distance between them. Geetha soon ran behind him.

"Geetha! Be careful!" His mom shouted. Geetha slowed down. Her belly wasn't really big but she let him walk up without her.

∼•∽

A/N:
It's 14-06-2022 & it's been exactly a month since I've published the first chapter. Yah Hoo!

By the way, I could use some help from you all, you know... I proofread but it hasn't been long since I've written so when I read, I may be reading from my memory that's too fresh, I hardly find any mistakes, call me blind. If you come across any kind of error/confusing words/sentences, please drop a comment so that I can correct them. Thanks!

See you next chapter!