"Veeranshu, are you crying?" She tried to lift his face up but he refused to look at her. "Wh--" She was cut off by him and gasped, hearing him.

"I'm afraid that you will leave me, Bani." He said in a broken tone.

"Ansh, what's wrong with you? Why would I leave you?" She asked, holding his face in her palms as he looked up at her.

"I'm not the right person for you. You will hate me once you learn about me." He spoke as his eyes showed some sort fear in them.

"Veeranshu, you--" She paused, seeing Rey who was stirring in his sleep. She patted him gently and he went back to his slumber again. "Let's go to the balcony." She whispered to Veer and arranged the pillows securely around Rey before they walked into the balcony.

"Why Reyansh baby is sleeping here?" Veer asked her.

"He fell asleep when he was playing with me here so I asked Shreya to let him sleep with us tonight." She said, looking at the sleeping baby with so much love and yearning in her eyes which had not gone unnoticed by Veer.

If our daughter was alive, she would have been 6 by now.

"Ansh, tell me now. What happened to you? Why are you behaving differently today?" Bani asked concernedly.

Veer closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and opened them back again. "Can I ask you something?" He asked, taking her hands into his. Bani nodded at him and he continued, "Hmm what would you do if you find out about the person who left you years ago?" He asked cautiously as her facial expression started changing when his question registered in her mind.

"Huh? Why?" She asked, pulling back her hands from his hold and turning away from him. He could see her getting uncomfortable with his question.

"Just tell me, Bani. What would you do when you find out about that person?"

She manifested the signs of intense misery making Veer immediately regret for asking her that question. He opened his mouth to say something but Bani beat him to it. "I don't know, Ansh. I just got tired of waiting for him from the past 5 years. I was in coma for 14 months and I don't know what happened in that period. Maybe he had visited me in the hospital and found out that my child is no more so he must have decided to leave me there. I-I just think so..I'm not sure. Those are just my assumptions. Sometimes, I had also assumed like what if he was not aware of my pregnancy or what if he left me because he didn't want my baby. I just don't know, Ansh. Maybe there is a possibility for me to get raped by a heartless monster, got pregnant and my family threw me out when they found out about it." She let out a painful chuckle and continued, "Anything could have happened in the past but now I'm sure that I don't care and I don't want to know about it anymore." She turned towards him and gave him a warm smile.

"Why?" Was the only word that escaped from his mouth without his realization.

"Because I have you by my side, Ansh. You are with me in the present and I want you to be there in my future too so I don't want to learn about my past anymore. I admit, I have asked you and Sam to tell me about my past few days ago but now when I think about it, I figured out that it's not necessary for me to live in the past when I have a beautiful future with you and our family."

Fresh tears welled up in Veer's eyes and he instantly took her into a hug. Bani was totally confused and surprised with his behaviour yet wrapped her arms around him and caressed his back in a soothing way.

"Will you forgive the person if he comes back into your life again?" He asked after breaking the hug.

"No!" It was an immediate reply and the colour drained from his face after hearing her answer.

"No?" He asked in a whisper tone.

"I don't want him to come back in my life, Ansh. I don't ever want to see his face or learn anything about him. My life has become colourful after I got married to you and I just want to live it this way without bothering about my past."

"But you shou--" He was cut off by her.

"Veeranshu, shhh... Let's not talk about my past anymore." She gave him a tight lipped smile and decided to go back into the room but he stopped her by holding her hand.

"There are chances for you to get your memory back in future, Bani. Will you still be with me even after remembering your past?"

"Will you let me go if I don't want to be with you?" Bani asked back and Veer looked away from her, controlling his emotions that were trying to flow out from his eyes again.

"No, I won't let you go. I will persuade you to stay with me." He said with his hold tightening on her wrist possessively.

Bani smiled at him and removed her hand from his tight grip before moving closer towards him. "What if I want to leave you even after you persuade me?" She asked teasingly and his face became pale again.

Instead of answering her, he left the place without another word while Bani just stared at his retreating figure and sighed in confusion before going back to the bed.

The next morning, both Veer and Bani woke up with a jerk when they heard Reyansh crying loudly. They saw him sitting on the bed and looking around the room with his big doe eyes full of tears. "Mama!" He whispered while searching for his mom around him.

"He's searching for his mom. I will take him back to Abhi's room." Veer said, taking Rey in his arms and he started crying more loudly while showing his tiny palm, opening and closing his fist towards Bani as if he was asking her to carry him. "I think he wants you to carry him." Veer chuckled, putting Rey back on the bed and he quickly crawled towards Bani who was more than ready to take him in her arms.

Rey calmed a little when Bani took him in her embrace and he started staring back at Veer with a frown. Bani chuckled looking at Veer who was staring at them in disbelief and got up from the bed with the baby in her arms. "I will take him to his mom." She said before leaving the room while talking animatedly with Rey who finally stopped crying.

This is not fair at all. He is able to recognize her but not me.
Veer rolled his eyes and headed towards the gym.

****

Two days later, it was 8:15pm when Veer reached back home after attending the last surgery of the day. He was not himself the past two days as he started giving Bani a cold shoulder and he avoided getting back home before 2am even when he didn't have anything to do at his workplace. He was frustrated with himself for not having the guts to reveal their past to Bani and Sid's constant nagging was also making him lose his peace of mind as well.

Sighing exasperatedly at his fate, he entered into the mansion to see his whole family gathered in the main hall except Bani. His eyes immediately started searching for her as he decided to reveal everything to his sweetheart today but she was nowhere to be seen. He dragged his feet towards his family members and they all looked at him with serious expression on their faces.

"Oh, the king has finally decided to grace us with his presence." His mom stated mockingly.

"Mom, where is Bani?" He asked, ignoring her previous statement.

"Veeranshu, sit here. We need to talk to you." His grandpa said in a stern tone.

Veer sat in front of his grandpa reluctantly with his eyes still searching for the person who means the world to him. "What's wrong with you, Veer? We found that you are coming back home at 2am and leaving to your work before 7am? Is this how you should behave when you have a newlywed wife here?" Amar, his dad asked him with severe disappointment in his tone.

Veer had already expected these types of questions so he just sighed knowingly. "Dad, I had few cases to--" He started but his grandpa cut him off.

"Don't lie now, young man. We already know that you had nothing to do until 2am at the hospital so you better tell us the truth. What were doing at the hospital the past two days until 2am?"

"Grandpa, I-I will explain this to you later. Someone please tell me where is Bani." He asked desperately as each second his mind was suggesting every possibility that could have led to Bani's absence in front of his eyes. Moreover, Sid's constant nagging from the past two days was also playing in his mind and his heart started beating rapidly thinking about all the negative outcomes.

"She's in your room." Sam answered him and he quickly rushed towards the stairs to go to his room but stopped hearing Sam's next sentence. "She's not okay, Veer. She locked herself in the room since morning and didn't even come out for lunch also."

"What?" He looked at her aghast and the next moment climbed the stairs as fast as possible. He tried to open the door but it was locked from inside so he quickly took out his spare key and unlocked the door.

He stepped inside to see the room being in its normal condition like it was in the morning and he sighed in relief thinking she didn't break anything aggressively like she did few days ago. He rushed towards the balcony and came back disappointedly as she was not there. He then took long strides towards the washroom but stopped abruptly when he heard some sniffles from the walk-in closet. He entered into it and looked around with a frown as she was nowhere to be found but still he could hear the sniffles.

"Bani? Where are you?" He called her but got no response in return. He checked under the dressing table and turned when he heard the sniffles more audibly from the wardrobe beside the dressing table.

What the hell? Did anyone lock her inside the wardrobe?

He quickly opened the wardrobe door but it was slammed back with a force from inside. "Bani? You here? Open it now." He said, pulling the door again but it was pulled back from inside. "Hey sweetheart, come out first. Why are you hiding there?" He asked exasperatedly as he heard the sniffles increasing again.

"Veer?" He heard from behind him and turned to see his mom standing out there. "What happened? She's hiding in the wardrobe again?"

"Again?" He frowned but nodded at her.

Sam chuckled at Bani's childishness and walked towards him. "Sweetie, come out. You can't breathe if you stay there too long." Sam coaxed, trying to open the door but she heard a groan from inside the wardrobe.

"I'm not coming. Leave me alone!!!" She shouted at them and Sam hissed, pressing her ears with her palms.

"Hey baby girl, please come out. Why are you hiding there?" Veer asked, trying to apply more force on pulling the door but Sam stopped him.

"It's okay, Veer. Let's leave her alone for some time. I thought she would eat the dinner tonight so I prepared her favourite chicken biryani today but seems like now it's going to be waste of my efforts." She sighed loudly while winking at Veer who narrowed his eyes at her.

"But mom, she can't stay inside there for too long." Veer trailed off but Sam stopped him again.

"No, she's really a stubborn girl. Let her be here and let's go to devour the yummy chicken biryani now." She said, pulling Veer out of the wardrobe with her.

"Mom, what are you doing? My wife has locked herself inside the wardrobe but you are talking about chicken biryani?" He asked in disbelief.

"Shhh, don't make noise. Wait here for 2 minutes and see how she will come out herself. I'm used to this tantrum of her. She always does like this back at the Phoenix Home too." Sam assured him.

"What? She hides herself inside a wardrobe?" He asked baffled.

"Yes. Whenever the kids prank on her or she feels betrayed by them, she would isolate herself like this by hiding inside a wardrobe then her mother Grace would cook her favourite dish to make her come out."

"It means you already know that she's hiding inside the wardrobe and that's why you made her favourite chicken biryani?" Veer gaped at her.

"No, there's no chicken biryani today. I just lied to bring her out. Oh, see there she's opening the door. Go and hide somewhere first and convince your wife for your deeds." She quickly said before leaving the room.

Veer hid himself behind the curtain which was on the right side of the walk-in closet and waited for Bani to come out. As he expected, Bani slowly came out with her eyes fixed on the ground. She looked so depressed as if she caught on someone cheating on her. It was heart-wrenching for him to see her with swollen eyes and red face while his hands itched to take her into his embrace and apologise for making her cry again.

She gasped softly when she saw him coming out from the curtains. She tried to run back to the closet but his reflexes were quick enough to grab her hand and pull her to him.

"Leave me!" She squirmed as she took her into his embrace.

"Baby girl, I'm sorry for not spending time with you the past two days as I wa--" She cut him off.

"I don't care. Just leave me!." She shouted at him and he looked at her with pained expression when she said 'I don't care'.

"No, baby. I want to explain it to you." He started but gulped back his words as she glared at him.

She pulled away from his arms. "Please, Veeranshu. I hate it when people treat me like a fool. Just two days ago you said that you were afraid of me leaving you but your actions just conveyed the opposite. It's very easy to fool me, right? Just because I tend to forget things, you all have been treating me li--" Without listening to her words, he smashed his lips on hers thinking that she would calm down but to his surprise, she pushed him away with such a force that made him to stumble back two steps.

"Don't touch me!" She gritted her teeth.

"Why?" He asked as she slowly stepped back from him. She walked to the bed and took an envelope from there. For an unknown reason, Veer's heart started thumping loudly as if it was indicating a deep trouble.

"Open it." She said, giving him the envelope and glared at him with her accusing eyes. With shaky hands, he opened the envelope and saw some photos in it. His eyes widened seeing the photos one by one and he instantly understood who would have sent them to her.

That's it. It was the moment when the ground fell out from underneath his feet when he saw her giving him a look that was expressing her resentment towards him. It was totally beyond his imagination and he immediately understood what would happen next.

Holla, I think I've updated earlier this time 😜
Did you guys guess what happened at the end, whose photos were they and why Bani was so angry with her Ansh?
Keep guessing and I will update the next chapter soon ♥️😘