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He stood there numb, trying to figure out how to explain all of this to his daughter. He didn't plan to have Rhea in his life but now that she has become a part of it, he was finding it hard to overcome the fear of losing her.

"Rhea... I-" before he could say anything more, Rhea ran away towards her room. Varun started following her behind only to be stopped by shraddha.

"Don't. She won't listen to you at this moment. Let me handle this." Shraddha told him and he nodded as she followed Rhea to her room.

"Why are you still here? Just leave!" he glared at Tara as she stood there unbothered.

"Who's this girl anyway?" Tara asked referring to shraddha.

"She's my wife!" Varun replied and she scoffed.

"Like I'll believe." she shook her head.

"I don't care if you do or not!" Varun shot back.

"Admit it, varun. You can't keep Rhea happy. Just give her back to me." she said.

"Never! Now get out of here or I'll call the guards." he threatened her.

"Fine. But I'm not backing off." she replied with a smirk before walking out of the house.

"Rhea.... Baby where are you?" Shraddha asked as she entered Rhea's room.

"Rhee?" she checked under the bed but didn't find her until she heard light sniffles. She moved towards the cupboard and opened it and found her curled up in there.

"Rhee.... come on, get out of there!" shraddha reached for her hand and pulled her out of the cupboard. She then scooped her in her arms and went to sat on the bed with Rhea on her lap.

"Stop crying baby!" Shraddha said, wiping away her tears.

"Daddy doesn't love me." Rhea stated between her hiccups.

"Hey.... there's nothing like that. Your daddy loves you the most." Shraddha replied.

"But... but... he said he never wanted me." she looked at shraddha with teary eyes.

"Rhea... You know your daddy. He don't know what's he talking about when he gets angry. He didn't mean any of that." Shraddha told her as she herself felt like crying, seeing Rhea in this state.

"Why is he mad?" she asked wiping away her tears with her little hands.

"Uhh... Rhea do you remember when that kid in school stole your red-head doll?" Shraddha asked and she nodded.

"And you cried because she was your favorite. Daddy is mad too because someone is trying to steal his doll away from him." shraddha told her and she looked at her confused.

"So we can buy him a new one. Like you bought me a new red-haired doll." Rhea suggested and Shraddha shook her head.

"We can't Rhee. You get dolls like these only once in a lifetime. You can't afford to lose them." Shraddha told her.

"Come on, get back to sleep." Shraddha said as she put Rhea under the covers and started stroking her hair lightly.

"Shraddha?" Rhea opened her eyes to look at her.

"What was mama doing here?" she asked. Shraddha wasn't sure what to answer her yet as she didn't want Rhea to have a bad image of her mother.

"She was here to wish you a happy birthday." Shraddha replied.

"But I don't want her here. I don't wanna go back with her." Rhea told her.

"You aren't going anywhere. Now close your eyes and go to sleep. We'll talk the rest in the morning." Shraddha told her and she immediately shut her eyes close.

"Kartik, I just realized that you haven't proposed me yet and you're already planning about the wedding." Sara told him as they were on their way to Sara's house.

"Oh hello? I did propose you. Don't you remember? In the office, when you were crying like a baby." kartik looked at her for a split second and then again fixed his gaze on the road.

"You call that a proposal?" sara asked and he just shrugged his shoulder in response.

"Uh-huh! That's not how it's suppose to be Mr. Aaryan. I ain't marrying until you propose me in a proper way." she told him and he frowned at her.

"Are you crazy? I even told my parents that you said yes." kartik looked at her as he stopped the car in front of the building.

"Who said I'm denying? Just propose me in a proper way and I'll say yes again!" she told him with a smile and he shook his head.

"Anyways, good night!" she pecked his cheek before getting out of the car and making her way into the building.

"How's she?" Varun asked as soon as he saw shraddha appear in the living room.

"She's asleep. I did what I could. She'll be better in the morning hopefully." Shraddha replied.

"Thanks. I just... don't want her to hate me. There are enough people for that job." he let out a sadistic chuckle.

"I don't know what's going on right now and--I get it if you don't want to tell me but... it's gonna be okay." she said as she sat beside him on the couch.

"I'll tell you when the time is right. I just want you to focus on Rhea right now." he told her and she nodded.

"Wanna go out for ice-cream?" she asked and he frowned at her.

"Ice-cream? At this time?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah! I know there's an ice-cream parlor nearby." she replied.

"Fine. But we're walking. I'm not in the mood to drive." he rolled his eyes as he saw her stood up from the couch.

"No problem at all!" she replied and he shook his head with a chuckle.

"Go get changed first. We're not going out as Kristoff and Anna." he told her and she chuckled.

"You did what???" he laughed out loud at something she did in her childhood.

After almost spending half an hour deciding on flavors, they both were now on their way back with ice-cream of two different flavors in their hands.

"I know right." she shrugged her shoulders proudly.

"Man... Gotta say, you were a mischievous girl back then." he shook his head with a chuckle and she winked at him.

"What about you? Got some stories about your childhood?" she asked and saw the smile fade away from his face immediately.

"My childhood wasn't that exciting. I was sent to boarding school at the age of ten. Then I spent my college life abroad. I never got to spend time with my parents and when I finally had the time, they were no more." he told her and she gave him a sympathetic look.

Before she could reply anything, her phone went off.

"Hello?" she attended the call as Varun looked on.

"Am I speaking to Ms. Shraddha?" the lady asked.

"Yes. Sorry I didn't recognize you." she replied.

"Ms. Shraddha, your father got into an accident." the lady told her.

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