a twist in the tale; swabhiman (chapter 2)

the next morning, karan woke up immediately. remembering the previous night’s events, he realised naina would be in the room as well and so looked up at the bed. but, naina wasn’t there and so karan got up to look for her.

karan: she isn’t here, where could she have gone?

karan left the room to start looking but naina was nowhere around.

karan: she couldn’t have possibly gone to the store room. but it’s the only place i haven’t gone to look. let me go and check.

karan went to the store room and found naina sleeping there on the floor. at the same time, her alarm rang and she noticed him there. naina woke up and started taking the pillow from the floor.

karan: naina, why did you sleep here?

naina: what do you want karan? i can’t sleep in your room, i can’t sleep in the store room. where do you want me to go?

naina rolled her eyes and before karan could say something, she walked outside the store room as her mind wandered off to last night’s events. rohit calling, her broken heart, and him – the one who’s done so much for her, if he woke up to find out she got married without him, that too with the conditions it happened in – he would be devastated. naina and meghna both got ready and headed down where sandhya wanted to talk to them.

sandhya: meghna, naina, this will be one of your last rasam’s so please, do it well. you’ll both need to cook a dessert of your choice for the family. you have an hour so make good use of your time.

naina: don’t worry masi ma, it’ll get done. we won’t disappoint you.

at the kitchen, meghna decided to talk to naina regarding everything that had happened.

meghna: why did you do it?

naina: what?

meghna: why did you agree to papa’s condition and get married to karan?

naina: i owed it to you. you and ma have done so much for me in the last seven years, what i did was nothing compared to all of it di. and besides, you’re my sister, i couldn’t see that happening to you. i know you love kunal and you deserve to be with him. i sacrificed very little in compared to all the sacrifices you’ve made for me.

meghna: you owe us nothing naina. you’re family, not an outsider.

naina: i know di, but it had to be done.

meghna: no, i can’t believe you did this naina. you don’t love karan, you love someone else. forget about that, what happens when he wakes up and finds out his own daughter got married without him? what do i tell him?

naina: i’m married to karan now, my feelings don’t matter di. regarding dad, he’ll understand why i did what i did. you won’t have to explain or say anything to him. if he wakes up that is, with every day that passes by, i keep losing hope that he might ever wake up again or that i might ever be able to even talk to him again.

meghna hugged naina and comforted her. but before she could say anything, she saw the time on the clock, it was lunch time.

meghna: naina, we’ll talk later. we have to bring this out now.

naina smiled and understood. the two sisters brought out their respective dishes for everyone to try. they did and they enjoyed every bit of it.

dadaji: meghna the halwa was amazing and naina, this is the best kheer i’ve had.

nirmala: yes, dadaji’s right. the two dishes were great!

khyati: hmm i loved the halwa meghna bhabhi.

meghna: thank you, kyati.

sandhya: it was good.

kunal: topper, i didn’t realise you were an all rounder. you’re good at everything!

meghna: (laughing) kunal!

nk: naina, i agree with bauji, the kheer was really something. you have to make more for us next time.

naina smiled and thanked him. she was surprised at how nice he was but perhaps he was trying to fix things, to mend things with everyone – especially his son, karan.

karan: bhabhi, i really liked the halwa.

naina and everyone realised how karan didn’t bother to talk about naina’s dish. naina didn’t mind it but the rest of the family didn’t want her to feel bad and so dadaji quickly changed the topic and announced something that was going to leave naina speechless once again.

dadaji: anyways, now i have a surprise for the four of you.

kunal: what is it dadaji?

dadaji: well, first of all, we’ve decided that meghna will be the vice president of paras and sons.

meghna: what? but dadaji,

nk: meghna, this is what all of us want and have decided. please, don’t refuse.

meghna looked at naina, not sure what to say.

naina: di, please don’t refuse. everyone will be really happy if you said yes, especially me.

meghna: okay.

dadaji: that’s the spirit meghna bahu! but, you won’t start working now.

nirmala: the four of you will first go for your honeymoon and then meghna can start working with kunal and naina can finish school.

sandhya: yes, and we’ve also picked the place for the four of you, although i’m sure if you wanted to go somewhere else there wouldn’t be a problem.

kunal: masi ma, i’m sure we’d love wherever you’ve decided to send us.

dadaji: well then, what do you guys think of bali?

kunal was happy with the decision. it had to be fun, an island honeymoon with his wife? nothing could be better. but naina’s heart stopped, she couldn’t go to bali, she just couldn’t risk going back. meghna took one look at naina and realised that this was going to be a problem and she was going to help her sister solve it. karan was just upset at the whole idea. he couldn’t go on a honeymoon with naina, he just couldn’t.

thank you for all the love on my first chapter. i hope you’re enjoying the story so far. if you have any feedback or suggestions feel free to comment. the next chapter will be up around the same time you read this! thank you for reading!!