LOVE OR ARRANGED ?

CHAPTER XXIX

ARUSH'S POV

I wake suddenly when I feel Aadhya trying to wake me. I sit with a jerk worried if she is fine and ask her, "Are you okay, Love?" She nods her head in a yes and says, "Good morning! It's already 6a.m. Arush, thought to wake you, as you told we should start by 7a.m. to the airport." I take a glance at the clock, then back at her and notice that she has just taken a shower as she is still in her bathrobe. I quickly place a soft peck on her lips and say, "Good morning, Love! Let me just get ready in a few minutes and we can go downstairs."

I hurry to get ready for the day quickly and when I come out I see Aadhya clad in a navy blue netted saree. I quickly dry my hair and change into a white sweatshirt and washed jeans. We both head downstairs and go to the puja room where mom and dad are already doing the aarti. We quickly finish our breakfast and I notice that Aadhya was just playing with her breakfast. I don't comment anything on that as I know what she is going through right now.

Mom, dad and we start to the airport with dad driving and mom in the passenger seat. Aadhya is looking out of the window silently and is zoned out. Once we reach the airport, I hold her hand to bring her out of the thoughts and say, "We're here, Love. Shall we go?"

Once we check in we notice Aadhya's family already waiting for us near the entrance of the security checkpoint. We all move towards the concerned gate and I see Aadhya indulged in some conversation with Ananya. I walk towards McDonald's which is a little near to where everyone is sitting and order 2 chocolate milkshakes. I collect them and go towards Aadhya and Ananya handing them their drinks.

Aadhya was about to deny when I say, "Please Love, you didn't even finish your breakfast properly. So at least have this now."  She thanks me before slowly sipping her milkshake and I see her getting relaxed a bit. I know she didn't sleep properly last night and was constantly turning around. When we board the flight, she tiredly lays her head on my shoulder and I hold her hand. We didn't talk anything but just provided the strength to each other.

Once we reach Bangalore, we start in three cars which gladly my personal assistant has made sure were available by the time we exited the airport, with Aadhya and I in one car while the rest all took the two cars giving us some space. I realize we enter into a very familiar locality but at the same time it looks so different. I mean it's been a lot of years, but few buildings are still the same.

I feel Aadhya tightening her hold on my hand and look outside to see the driver stopped the car and was honking in front of a big black gate, when someone about my dad's age opens the gate wide and the car slowly enters into the premises of a beautiful house. No one would ever believe that this house is completely empty and doesn't have any residents living for a long while now.

I squeeze Aadhya's hand in assurance while she tries to take few deep breaths. I see the person who opened the gate run towards our car along with some woman probably his wife and open the door for Aadhya. She looks at them and slowly gets out of the car, while I get down from the other side. I see that uncle and aunty are hugging Aadhya and asking her how she is, while she slightly smiles at them and talks for a couple of minutes before turning towards me and says, "That's my husband, Arush and these are Ramu kaka and his wife Rachana kaki."

I smile at them and say, "Namaste uncle, aunty!" I remember Aadhya saying that they were the one who took care of her till the Singhania's took her with them. I turn to the sound of the other cars arriving. When everyone gets down Ramu kaka says, "Nothing had ever changed and we made sure this house is always the same beti, we know you will come here someday and didn't want you see everything different."