Rehan Malhotra

It's been two days since we started living in Chacha's house with Ryan. We are living in our bubble, happily. The things that happened in the past months, everyone is trying to get over that.

Every time I look at Aadhya and Ryan I feel guilty for putting them through the worse. That woman did everything to get me married to her daughter. In a way, I'm responsible for what happened to Tara, Aadhya and my babies. I should have shouted, screamed or said anything to that woman, that I'm not interested in her daughter.

I was silent. Everyone was. The words were unspoken and she thought, there is a chance to put me and her daughter together, till anyone spoke.

She's now where she belongs, but to get there she had to break many hearts and take lives.

"Rehan!"

I turn the stove off before I run to the room we are staying in. Aadhya sat by the bed with Ryan in her arms, sucking her breast.

"He's drinking!" Aadhya cries as she looks at me.

Aadhya was pumping milk since her delivery. Ryan never drinks from her but Mom told her to continue trying and today Ryan decided to make his mother happy.

"Let me take a picture," I say moving to take the camera from the wardrobe.

"I love you," Aadhya mumbles to Ryan kissing his hair. I silently take their picture, admiring them. I can't help but kiss them.

"Does it pains?"

"At first. When he latched on but not now."

"You can't cry." I brush her tears.

"I can't stop." She giggles making me press a kiss on her lips again.

Ryan looks at us with his big eyes. He has his hand on her breast and mouth sucking but his eyes are on us.

"You don't like that?" I ask him kissing Aadhya again. "I came before you."

"Stop." Aadhya laughs pushing me. I smile kissing Ryan on his tummy.

"We are touching every milestone," Aadhya says after some time as I sit beside her.

"We are," I reply before grabbing the MacBook from the nightstand. "We have to decide. Soon."

We have been looking at different plans for our house. I want it to happen soon but we haven't found anything yet. My friend Dev has been sending me some plans for the house but nothing is to our liking.

"I want space! And none of your plans has space!" She said.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I want a house with space, also the outside too should have space."

"What are you going to do with that much space?"

"I want the backside to have a barbecue place and the front should have a garden with a big lawn."

"That plan seems okay."

"What do you want?"

"I want a pool. Inside. Only for us."

"Yes. Yes." Aadhya nods smiling. She gently switched Ryan to the other breast and he continues drinking. I made her sit against the headboard with a pillow between, as I thought her back might ache.

"Thank you." Aadhya let out. "How many rooms should we have?"

"I don't know. Five?"

"Five!"

I frowned. "What's wrong with five?"

"Isn't it too much?"

"No. One for us. One for guests. One for Ryan. And two for the future people."

She shook her head. "Who are these future people?"

"You know, Ryan's-"

"They are not coming for the next ten years."

"Still. We should make a room for them right?"

"Okay, but we need only one room."

"What?" I asked.

She laughs seeing my face. "I'm just playing with you. We will have two more even though you are not the one who has to push them out."

"I know. You are a wonderful woman. Thank you." I kiss her forehead.

"He is not drinking." I voice looking at Ryan. He was just playing with Aadhya's nipple and not drinking.

"If your baby is not drinking but playing with your nipple with his mouth, it's because he wants to be held or comforted. I read that in an article." Aadhya replies wiping his mouth which had milk on them.

"I see. But I'll make him burp."

We are interrupted by a Skype call from home.

"Hi!" Liya squealed seeing us.

"Hello! I miss you!" Aadhya says with the same enthusiasm after straightening her shirt.

"Don't say that. It's insulting to me." I say placing the Mac Book on the bed and taking Ryan. I place him on my chest and keep his head on my shoulders. Slowly patting his back by cupping my hand, he burp.

"Yes, Bhabhi. Don't say that. I miss you three, my Bhai more."

"Liya please, let's not insult each other. What do you want?" I ask.

"He vomited," Aadhya say passing me his burp cloth.

"Fine. I have a date." Liya replies.

I shake my head. "You are not going."

"What?" Liya and Aadhya ask at the same time.

"You can't say that." Aadhya frown.

"Mom and Dad agreed! What's your problem?" Liya ask angrily.

"I can, I'm her brother," I tell Aadhya. Then I look at the screen. "I will talk to Mom and Dad, you won't have to go."

"But you had girlfriends at my age." Liya points out.

"Yes. I did. But you're my sister. I'm not going to let some guy do unspeakable things to you."

"God!" Aadhya groans standing up from the bed taking Ryan with her. "I'm someone's sister!"

"Yes but you're my wife!"

"So what I have to marry him to go out on a date?" Liya shouts.

"You both are shouting at me!" I yell. "And you are not going to marry him. You can't date now. When you grow older we will think about it."

"We? Who's we? Only because Mom and Dad are busy I called to ask if you can drop me but guess what, just pretend this whole thing didn't happen." Liya screams before disconnecting.

"That didn't end well," I whisper shutting the Mac Book.

Aadhya roll her eyes as she gets out of the room holding Ryan.

"She is my sister!" I object, following her down to the kitchen

"She is a teenager!"

"Exactly! You know how horny those teenagers are. Especially the boys. I won't trust anyone with her."

"So you don't trust her?"

"No-" I shake my head. "The guy, whoever she is going with."

"Liya is very mature. She knows when to hug and when to punch."

"Trust me, I know she can punch but what if she hugged him."

"Do one thing. Go with her to the date, and sit beside him."

Even though her tone was mocking I did like that.

"That's a good idea!"

"As Liya said, just forget it. Okay?" Aadhya speaks forwarding Ryan to me. I carry him against my chest as she searches the cupboards.

"You don't understand! It's weird for brothers to see their sister with someone."

Aadhya scoff. "I'm someone's sister. You married me. Remember. The child you're holding is ours."

"Yes, but for your brother, I'm a person who does unspeakable things to his sister."

Aadhya looks at me with a straight face and then broke into laughter.

"What?"

"So you can do 'unspeakable' things to me, a sister of a brother, but another guy cannot go on a date with your sister? What is that?"

"She's my sister!"

"And we're again back to zero!" Aadhya exclaims raising her hands. "Listen, you drop her off tomorrow and then you pick her up. I'll ask her about the boy and Mom will make sure that his parents know about this too. Okay?"

I shake my head. "I'm not-"

"End of the topic. Period." Aadhya warns and I glance at Ryan, who let out the cutest yawn I've ever seen. "Put him on the crib and let's make dinner."

"We can buy," I suggest slowly.

Aadhya glares at me. "Till you married me, I was an energetic girl. But now I'm so lazy that I'm eating takeouts for the past 3 days!"

"You know when you start staying with someone you get habituated."

I wink at her and she raises the egg in her hand to throw at me. I laugh going back to our room.

By the time I put Ryan back on the bed he was asleep. I stare at him for a few minutes and take his picture. I would never get enough of staring at him the whole day. I walk back to the kitchen scrolling through the pictures. There are thousands of pictures and all of the mother and the son.

I have pictures of Aadhya sleeping against my chest only covered by the comforter. I slide to the next one and it is our mirror selfie, she is in my shirt and holding the phone while I have my arm wrapped around her waist, shirtless.

We were so happy and tension free.

I arrive at the kitchen and pull the knife and cutting board from Aadhya. I suck at making food so Aadhya has been teaching me the basics. From cutting things to making tea. Small steps.

"Small pieces but you should not spend more than ten minutes on them." Aadhya alerts me as she washes the pasta.

"Hey! I'm a beginner!"

She gave me a small smile before leaning to press a kiss against my cheek, closer to my lips.

"Someone is getting romantic," I say cutting the bell pepper.

Her cheeks are red as she put the pasta into the hot water.

"You can you know," I whisper into her ear. "I won't mind if you take the next step too. I'll happily oblige."

"Go away." She pushes me, laughing.

"Tell me this, why didn't you have any boyfriend before?" I ask. "'Cause if I had seen you before, boy! Let's say we would have had Ryan a long back."

"Yes. And you would be in jail for POCSO." She mocks.

"Nice one," I mumble nodding, transferring the vegetables to a bowl.

"My family is one of the living examples of patriarchy and male chauvinism. If my Dadi walks through this door and saw you in the kitchen, she'll gently kick you out and eat me." Aadhya explain. "And I was told to stay away from boys and also some girls who are too outspoken or adventurous."

"That was new information. And you never had any boyfriends or girlfriends?"

She giggles. "Of course I had. Do you think Kiara and Rita are normal? But I could never put myself into a relationship. I was scared to be embarrassed, in front of everybody."

"I didn't know this type of family still exists. No offence."

"Sadly, they exist. How much we say our country is developing, there are girls and women out there who are being abused, raped, and getting married before they are eighteen. I'm only a little bit lucky that I was born into a modern patriarchy family, even though that's not a bed of roses."

Yes. It's a sad fact.

"Let's smash the patriarchy," I say grabbing the plates from her to wash. She smiles and back hugs me as I wash the plates.

"When are your exams?" I question washing the last plate. Aadhya is in her final year of college and with all these situations we had she had to skip classes and now she has to attend the exams.

"After five days."

"You covered the portions?"

"Like only the thirty per cent. I could ask for help from Sanjay. He studied Civil, right?"

"Dear, how he graduated is still a mystery to him. So I don't think he can help you. But you should ask him, it'll be fun to see him embarrassed." I grin at the thought.

Aadhya put the vegetables and shredded chicken into the pasta and started mixing.

"You are a mean girl." She says putting spices into the vessel.

"I'm not." I react. My phone started vibrating in my pocket and I pull it out to see Kavya's message.

"Can we meet?" I read Kavya's text. "From Kavya." I glance at Aadhya.

"Aren't you going?"

I shake my head.

"You should."

"No. Her mother has already ruined eve-"

"Please." Aadhya interrupts. "That woman went to jail, breaking her family too. Kavya is innocent. The only thing she did was love you. She might need someone to talk and I know she was close with Tara but now I think you'll be her ray of hope."

I look at Aadhya for a second and then send a thumbs up to Kavya.

At the end of the day, she was a victim too.

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