Pihu shut the door behind her and walked slowly towards the bed worriedly. Her steps almost halted at seeing the shaking of shoulders.

"Sakshi."

She sat beside her on the bed and put her hand on the shoulder. "Sakshi," she called out worriedly but it only ended up in her sniffling more.

Taking long breaths, Sakshi tried not to weep in front of her sister-in-law but there was no hiding now. She wiped her eyes but tears won't stop. Hearing her Tai ji mentioning the engagement had created a big fear in her mind.

She didn't like the professor enough to marry him but here her family was dreaming about the wedding already. Sakshi was not just worried now, she felt like her life was ruined.

"I am unwanted," she sobbed while holding the edge of the drawer.

Pihu gasped and held her chin, turning her face gently. "Don't say such thing. You know, there is nothing like that. You are our princess. Everyone wants you here. Haven't you seen us whining for you staying here for longer?"

Sakshi shook her head. "Then why talking about wedding, Bhabhi? It's killing me. I don't want it. I. Don't. Want. It."

Pihu stared at her worriedly.

Sniffling slowly, Sakshi shook her head. "Just because I am not under eighteen, doesn't mean that I am mentally ready for such a big thing. That even marrying a stranger," she hiccuped.

Pihu couldn't really watch someone crying. Her own eyes would fill up instantly and that was what happening. She inhaled a large amount of air and breathed slowly. Holding her hand, she made Sakshi turn to her.

Looking into her eyes, she spoke, "Do you even realize, how much we all love you? Whatever you are thinking is wrong. I am not justifying mummy's words but if you think from her side, you will understand that she is just worried."

Sakshi stared at the floor while hiccuping when Pihu smiled sadly. "Your uncle had talked to papa in the wedding last month. They were mentioning that they have got proposals from good families and would love to have one of the guy being hitched with you."

Sakshi looked at her with her face describing her shock. "What?"

Pihu nodded. "But mummy could never be satisfied if she hasn't overviewed the family, their standards by herself. So, before your uncle starts mentioning it again, she is putting her own efforts. At least, she will be satisfied for life that she has sent you to a great family."

Sakshi shook her head restlessly. "It's not about family. For me, it's about the person I am getting married to. That professor-"

Sakshi halted her tongue, her eyes stoning on Pihu as she thought sharing all the happenings with her. But how would this look to her. No matter how much they cared for each other, Sakshi knew that Pihu would sincerely follow orthodoxy thoughts of elders. She had this quality of analysing their view and then supporting them. She would herself think like an elder.

But Sakshi had to shot an arrow in all these arrangements to stop this nuisance right here. She didn't want to leave for Delhi while still worrying that if behind her back, they were setting dates of her engagement or wedding.

Anything that could spoil her Tai ji's plan, Sakshi thought hard of it. She knew that whatever they wanted to do, was for her good. But she couldn't just marry a stranger. She had seen Pihu suffering much in her early months of marriage. She had noticed how stressed she used to be.

Now, she loved her brother and had a beautiful kid. But what about her dreams and ambitions. She couldn't put the same dedication in reaching those ambitions now which she used to dream about before.

Pihu could have been stronger but it was her brother then. He had always been manipulative, always been stubborn. He would get what he wanted and in the end, someone had to back off. In their story, it was Pihu.

Sakshi didn't want to compromise like her. She was different. She wanted to be independent rather than getting controlled by a man that was not even of her age. In her story, it would be her man who would compromise. Not her.

But how could she stop this arrangement. She had to spoil the plan by a strong viewpoint about the professor. Yet her heart won't get ready to give Pihu a valid reason.

He hadn't came on that date because he was shy. What if he really was? He had been angry at her in the classes. He had been rude to her while knowing who she was. What if he was genuinely a passionate teacher? A disciplined one? It wasn't a loophole. It was a quality.

After what he did, he called her in his office. He behaved like a true gentleman in her moment of sorrow. He helped her and worked for all the bad moments he gave her. That too wasn't a loophole. But a quality.

Sakshi twitched her lips mentally. The professor wasn't a jerk but he still hid things from her. He still was so elder than her. He still was a government servant. He still was of not her type. But these were not the valid reasons.

Pihu could easily convince her by interpreting his every action while looking at her with those puppy brown eyes. Sakshi would be melted in a blink.

But then, the question came in her mind. Why didn't she want to marry Kabir?

She didn't know. But she knew that she wasn't ready to marry anyone. She wasn't mentally prepared. But why?

Because she was still afraid of getting hurt. She wasn't ready to do a life-long relationship when she has gotten such a great fraud in her life. She didn't want to get such an important part of life this easily and without any check.

But the most important reason had brought a fresh tear from her eyes to leak down on her cheek. Pihu frowned while Sakshi's nostrils flared. Before Pihu could even react, she gulped.

"I am still deeply in love with Shrey," she told, shocking Pihu to the core.

______

Pihu held her breaths while observing from the corner of her eyes, how Raghav was holding the staring wheel with such tightness. His jaws were clenched and eyes burning the very road they were moving at.

In the rear-view, she could see Sakshi fidgeting with her fingers. Her gaze was too on the road from the window on her right and there was no emotion on her face except for that lost look of a one-sided lover.

There was too much silence in the car yet this body language was speaking the truth. Someone's evil eye had caught her family.

She knew that Sakshi's decision to leave for Delhi the next day was not right. Running away from the problems was not a solution. Celebrating Bhai Dooj with a fake smile on her face, Sakshi kept her words limited.

Pihu didn't like this kind of  environment in her home, the egoistic behavior coming from mother-in-law who wasn't stepping down from her wish of luring Sakshi towards Kabir—she hated it all.

But what could she even do about it? The secret that Sakshi had revealed was not just a valid reason for her denial of seeing Kabir, it was the very condition of her heart that even time couldn't heal. It had became a disease.

The stress had made Pihu's chest sore from the loud beating of her heart in these two days. Sakshi's words were consuming her mind, eating her up. How could she be still in love with a boy who had played her so shamelessly?

"I don't know. I cannot control this longing in my heart. I crave for the sight of him. I beg for the love of him, Bhabhi. These four years away from him, many guys have approached me. It's not like I haven't tried. But my heart won't let me try new. I am trapped with all his memories. I am lovestruck badly. I can't get over him."

Pihu blinked slowly, letting out the breaths that she was holding. She couldn't believe that through all this years, Sakshi had been suffering loneliness without him. Her love had became more deadly for herself. She was as lost as she was the day, Shrey had revealed his fraud to her. The same girl who was just a toy for Rishabh's plan to hurt Raghav.

Those days were the worst for her family. They were like a storm and she couldn't forget how badly her relationship with Raghav had been affected. She didn't want that time to come back again.

But it could come back easily, if Sakshi won't get over Shrey. She hadn't shared anything more than that with her. Did this mean that she had met Shrey in Delhi? The least she knew that he was studying abroad and just as he returned, he was trapped in the rape case.

Was Sakshi even aware of that? Could she really be in contact with him? Pihu was overwrought.

"I don't know what is the need of being silent and mournful when I have told you that I am with you, Sakshi?"

Pihu looked through the rear-view, noticing how Sakshi had lowered her eyes. But no one could ignore her husband.

"I am just not feeling good," she told the truth.

Pihu swallowed, thinking that no one was feeling good since the last day. Sakshi was here for three whole days and she was leaving one day before, because of the whole subject that her mother-in-law had poked.

"I didn't know that she was this serious. I thought she had been joking," Sakshi said slowly.

Raghav sighed. "Do you want me to warn this Kabir? I don't care if he is a family friend or whatever. You don't have to think that your grades will be affected by denying him. Nothing will be affected by your decision. So, just stop thinking about it."

Pihu watched quietly as Sakshi didn't reply. A smile curved her lips when Raghav spoke, "I won't let you go if you keep doing it."

She noticed the smile that lit Sakshi's dull face. She missed that cool, charming and cheerful girl. The baby of the house. But all had changed really. She truly had been different after her first love being incomplete.

"I don't know. How am I even going to react if he comes in front of me?"

Raghav nodded while glancing at Pihu who was awaiting his reply. He shrugged his shoulders while saying, "He is your professor and if he doesn't behave like one, you just have to whisper your surname to him. He will be reminded with whom he is dealing with by bothering you."

Pihu blushed when he winked at her, making Sakshi chuckle. "I miss you guys," she told them.

Pihu breathed while watching Raghav smile. "Will you come Delhi sometime this year? On new year, maybe. Or even before. On Christmas. Please," whined Sakshi while both of the exchanged a look.

"Bhabhi?"

Pihu raised her eyebrows while smiling shyly. "Ask your brother. He always spoils our plan before they can even be made. All his deals and meetings-"

"What about the dedicated teacher? I have to give extra tuitions. I want my kids to top," Raghav mimicked while giving her stern look.

Sakshi burst out laughing while Pihu narrowed her eyes. Before she could say something, Sakshi started picking her bag, "Alright. Just decide. Okay. Now, bus stand has arrived or I should say, we have arrived and only focus should be on me."

The couple exchanged a taunting glance and got out of the car. Just as Sakshi's eyes met with Pihu, Raghav could observe that the conversation in her bedroom last morning was something deep.

Pihu was truly hiding something and he, being a good husband, would wait.

After tight hugs and goodbyes, they finally let Sakshi getting into the bus. Waving with a smile, Pihu heard Raghav muttering, "My parents have reminded her that she is not my real sister by doing this Kabir-thing."

Her hand stopped thankfully after the bus had started moving. Pihu watched her husband opening the door for her and walked around to sit on his seat. She got inside while he started the car quietly.

An awkward silence fell again and immense emptiness filled her chest, realizing that how time passed so soon. Sakshi had gotten so mature to talk about old love and beliefs.

"So, what is her problem?"

Pihu was startled by his sudden question. She blinked repeatedly, looking away when he glanced at her with raised eyebrows.

"Nothing," she told him nervously. "The same that she keeps saying. Kabir is a stranger and also that she is not ready for this marriage."

Raghav clicked his tongue, smirking humorlessly at her. "Do not lie to me," he warned her.

Pihu flared her nostrils. "I am not lying, Raghav. Don't be a child."

"The last time you have lied to me, you-" He stopped himself while clenching his jaws. Increasing the speed of the car, he muttered through gritted teeth. "You know, what had happened."

Pihu closed her eyes at remembering the time when she had found out that she was pregnant. That phase was the worst she could ever feel. She hated him talking about it.

"I am not lying to you, not hiding anything. Sakshi was crying at the mention of engagement and that can really terrify a girl. No one knows better than me," she spat back while looking in the front angrily.

A silence followed until Raghav spoke again, "The last time you have hid things, we have ended up crying in each other's arms. I can work on any reason that Sakshi has given to you."

Sighing heavily, Pihu looked out of the window. "Raghav, give me my space. This is a girl talk and Sakshi trusts me. Me telling you can hurt her image for you and our relationship too. Avoid this, please."

A hand reached her thigh and Raghav glanced at her. "Okay. Don't get angry to me, now." He muttered softly.

A small smile stretched on her face and Pihu looked at him. She almost laughed when he didn't look at her.

"Be nice. Be bad. But I am not going to tell you," she said. "Because there is not even anything to tell."

"Does she have a boyfriend?" He asked calmly.

Pihu shook her head. "Don't overthink. I have told her if there is, we will be there for her. She was happy but then, there is no one."

"Do you think? That best friend of hers-"

Pihu frowned at him. "Raghav stop worrying over her," she raised her voice.

Raghav was quiet now. But Pihu's heart was beating faster. The words her husband had said were so true. She couldn't afford lying to him again. She couldn't afford hiding anything again. But what would be his reaction?

He would be angry. Of course, he would. He hate Malhotras. If it had been in his will, he would have burned them all. He had kept saying that for the time until Riaan was born and all his insecurities have ran miles away.

But he really hated them and Pihu couldn't dare sharing Sakshi's immense love for that guy to him. There was no scope of this one-sided love. Especially, when his life was close to over. He was suicidal and close to getting in prison.

It would be suicide for herself to talk to Raghav about this. Even if he had became very soft to her in all these years. His softness was still the middle-level harshness, one could receive.

This was a touchy subject.

Pihu decided to hide this and prayed Sakshi would bump into that professor or any other guy. Because getting over the first love isn't easy and only a better option could change her mind.

Without having their first love, people get obsessive. She knew very well from her own experiences. How Raghav had turned out in their days! How Rishabh had became so heartless and vengeful in the end!

Pihu was truly worried for her.

Sakshi was a rich girl with an open mind. She too could get stubborn and follow her brother's footsteps. She too could explode one day and write her own destiny by conquering her first love.

All she would be needing a trigger and that trigger could be just a little amount of love from Shrey. Even after four years, if she hadn't forgotten him. This mere show of affection could make her more crazy in love.

She might get unstoppable.

But Pihu could rest her heart thinking that Sakshi was still naive. At least, she had shared her truth with her. She would feel relaxed while going back to Delhi.

Though, feeling relaxed was not the true description for her current situation. Staring at the phone with a controlling smile, Sakshi could feel her heart swelling in her chest.

Maybe, fighting for love was not at all that wrong. You only have to put efforts and wait. One day, you might get response—that even only if your love is true.

The name of the sender of this lazy noon Hi was shining on the screen and defining her true love for this person.

Because the response had been finally received.

________

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