Hello butter cups, I'm here with an update after long time! Happy reading 📖!

Sharan reached his office and as usual, Ishaan briefed him regarding his meetings for the day. It was hectic than usual, because of the leaves he took earlier.

He had back to back four meetings scheduled for the day and he also had to prepare notes for the case he was going to present in front of the court the next day.

Quickly grabbing his phone, he left her a text as he immersed himself in attending the meetings and clients.

Sharan

Mridula on the other hand, was lost in deep thoughts. So much was going on in her brain and she couldn't really put a fullstop to them. Just then her phone buzzed with his message from him.

You don't really need to move mountains to show your efforts for something, small things make a big difference and that message did indeed bring a difference in her mood.

She slowly got up from the bed and took a bath, as the warm water flowed down her body, she felt all the worries and all the confusions clearing out from her body. She wrapped herself in a green coloured khadi saree.

For the first time ever after their marriage, she looked at the vermilion box in her wardrobe.

Her hands itching to take a hold of it in her hands while her heart contemplates whether or not to do whatever she was planning on doing.

She closed the wardrobe without taking it out and leaning on to the wardrobe placing a hand on her chest trying to calm herself down.

Nodding her head in no to herself, she sat on the dressing table carefully braiding her hair. It looked quite messy and she took her sweet time in braiding her hair. Tying it into a simple loose braid she gave herself one final look in the mirror.

Her heart itches to go there and take out the vermilion box but her brain fights back saying there's still time to do so.

She took slow steps into the living room to be greeted by Teja who was struggling with the old lantern repair. He had his entire tool kit spread in front of him, in every two minutes he would have a satisfied smile on his face hoping that the lantern is repaired but as soon as he plugs in to the switch it doesn't glow leaving him to sigh over his futile efforts.

"Any help, Teja?",she asked and he looked towards her. His face almost looked like he was going to either cry or pull out his hair any second if the lantern didn't work.

"Ayyo, vadina! What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be resting?",he asked as he got up from his place.

"I was resting, thought I'll just come around for some fresh air. Do you need any help?",she asked.

"How is your health now? Doing any better? Oh about that, I will manage somehow don't worry",he said.

"Yeah, the medicines seem to show their effect. I am able to walk by myself not as good as before but better. Are you sure? You seem to be struggling with it. I can give it a try",she offered to which he nodded.

Immediately, she tuck her pallu near her waist and observed the lantern to check where the defect was. She loved repairing and reassembling things when she was in her teen years. Although, her spare parts would be from her uncle's garage which he was always suspicious of losing whenever she visited.

After carefully observing where the defect was she removed all the spare parts one after the other.

"Vadina, you were supposed to repair it not remove every part of it",Teja said worried.

His mother would definitely kick him out of the house, but his grandmother would probably kill him if something happen to the lantern. They all loved it too much than their sons and grandsons for it to be lost or never glow up again.

"I know, Teja! Give me some time. Why don't you go and fetch me some water in the meanwhile?",she suggested not wanting someone to disturb her as she concentrated on something.

Sighing he walked to the kitchen to get some water but found some mouth watering besan laddoo on the kitchen counter. He took one in his hand and just when he was about to relish his first bite of it, he felt a sharp pain in his ears and it didn't really take him long to realise that his mother was holding his ears.

"Amma, amma, amma it hurts",he said as he tried to escape from her hold which she eventually gave into.

"How dare you hide it from me, Teja?",she asked in a stern voice to which he showed his puppy eyes.

"Amma, please only one laddoo. I was also working on lantern",he said trying to cover up for his mistake.

"Who said I was talking about the laddoo?",she asked with her hands on her waist. Now it was Teja's turn to think what else did he mess up with.

"Then what else are you talking about amma?",he asked completely clueless.

"About this!",she said as his phone and him along with a girl who is supposedly his girlfriend picture pops up along with My love with a heart symbol followed by.

"Shit, how did this even happen?",he muttered to himself still in shock how his mother caught on him.

"Wondering how did I know? Oh I always scold you for your carelessness somehow it came into use for me today",she said with a gritted smile.

"You left your phone in the living room, the charger was connected but alas the switch wasn't turned on. I was going to turn it on and there was a call from your love. So, I am here to hand over it you with utmost responsibility",she said in a sarcastic tone.

"Amma, tha-",she cut him off as he tried to explain her something.

"Nah, nah, nah! We'll talk about this after your brother comes back home. He does not have duty tonight so let him take his younger brother's responsibility",she said and went from there.

In the meanwhile, Mridula worked on the lantern and fixed it. She plugged in to the switch and checked if it was working. It did lighten up bringing a broad smile on her face.

"Hey, this is working again",Aruna exclaimed while looking at it and gave a proud pat on Mridula's back.

"How do you know how to do this, kanna?",she asked.

"I used to love fixing things and finding defects and especially fixing them when I visited my uncle's garage when I was in my teen years, guess that experience worked here",she said with a small smile.

"Oh that's great! Why didn't you try pursuing things in that field then?",Aruna asked.

"It was a hobby, athaya. This is my passion",she said.

"Wait, why are you stressing yourself with all this? Come sit here",Aruna said taking her hand into hers and taking Mridula along with her, she made her sit on the couch.

"Just sit and if you still want to do something. We need to paint some diyas, would you like to do that, hmm?",she asked.

"But I am not very good in painting athaya. In fact I haven't ever done it, I am afraid I'll do it wrong and just make more work for you all",she said.

"Just try, if it does not work out. You don't really need to do it. Actually I read somewhere that painting is like letting out whatever is in our hearts and also therapy kind of thing. So no compulsion, just try. Okay? I'll  send the essentials to you with Teja. Ask him to help and make sure you make him work to his fullest",Aruna said to which both of them giggled.

"I'll try, athaya! Let me see if there is any hidden talent in me which comes out like this",Mridula said.

"That's like my girl",she said and side hugged Mridula.

The whole day Mridula immersed herself in painting the diyas with simple designs that she found on the internet and some which she did by herself after getting inspired from the designs that she found.

Initially though the paintings didn't really work out, she slowly improved as she painted more and more. She was so much into the work that she didn't realise it was evening already. She got up from her place slowly, and walked towards the kitchen.

Unusually, it was empty. She moved towards her grand mother in laws room and she wasn't there too. Now this was something suspicious, where would all of them just vanish? Thinking to herself, she limped all around the home and found nobody inside.

The sound of water droplets falling from somewhere in the home was the only sound audible as well as her anklets sound. She moved to the living room and sat down on the couch along with her phone. She opened the phone and called her first instinct, her sister.

"Hello akka! I'm going to the rounds now. I'll call you in an hour or something. Is it something important?",Aaradhana asked.

"Aaru, did anyone call you and inform that they were going somewhere? Nobody is at home. I was just busy painting and I got so involved in it, I couldn't really notice what was going on around",Mridula said.

"Did you call bava and ask him? Maybe he would know",she suggested.

"But he said, he would be busy in work today and asked me to sleep as he would be late",Mridula replied.

"Just give anyone a call akka, and call me back after that. Okay? You are okay, right?",Aaru asked.

"I'm fine, I'll call you back after calling Teja Or athaya",Mridula said and disconnected the call.

She tried calling Teja but her efforts went in vain. As she was going to call her mother in law, her phone network was lost.

She knew something was wrong and maybe it's someone who is deliberately trying to do this.

She turned on the television, being completely fearless and put on Tom and Jerry episodes. Laughing at the cartoon every now and then she continued watching it.

After some time, she felt someone's presence and some thing pointed near her forehead.

"Welcome here. I hope you had a safe journey",she said and cornered her eyes towards the person standing behind her.

To be continued..

Hello dear readers,

How are you all doing?

I was kind of down with so much happening in my personal life, that's the reason I couldn't update the story.

I hope you all understand. Thank you for supporting and being patient with me and my update schedule.

How was the update?

Did you all like it?

A cliffhanger 🌝🌝

I'll try to update soon, no promises though. Let's see if I can surprise you all. It took a lot of effort from my side to get back here again, I hope you guys support me like always.

Thank you so much for reading, please don't forget to vote and comment your views. Share this with your friends if you feel the story deserves the appreciation.

Also, anyone here who can make a new cover for this story?

The way the story will go from now on, will be in a different track. I hope you'll enjoy it.

That's all for this update. Meet you in the next update, no voting target for this chapter as I am not regular as of now.

Take care of yourself, and live life to the fullest. Sending you all loads of ❤Love

Follow me on Instagram
@ sakshi.wattpad, for glimpses or anything related to the story. I'll start updating from today!

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Sakshi Devi