Strangers- Part 3

Hii all thank u so much for ur immense support..love u all so much.. looks like all loved abhi’s charcter in this as much as I love. I think I will satisfy u all with this story.. now back to the story…

Pragya sat on the bed rigidly and wondered what to do. The last 24 hours had been one hell of an emotional roller coaster for her. She did not have any way out of the horrible situation she has got herself into. Her baby has no father and will be branded for life if it did not have a father’s name. While she was willing to live with the stigma of an unwed mother was she willing to subject her child to a life of illegitimacy? Is that not the reason why she tried to take away her life in the first place? But then in doing so she was also about to deprive her child of its right to live. Does she have that right? What was her alternative? Living with this complete stranger as his wife? What does she know of his character? Nothing. But something in his eyes told her that she can trust him. After all the guy is living with his father who seemed to be a kind soul. He cannot be all that bad. Moreover, if it had not been for him she would have been dead by now, a victim of her own foolish act.

Just then she heard the door open. He came out of the bathroom, a large towel wrapped around his waist, rubbing his hair vigorously with another towel.
“So, what have you decided?” Abhi asked her nonchalantly.
Averting her gaze from his well-muscled bare chest, she nodded her head and said that she will stay.

“Good,” he said brusquely and threw a fresh towel at her and proceeded to slip into his pyjamas, turning away from her. “You can have your bath and change into something less flashy. I’ll wait for you downstairs.” With that he banged the door shut on his way out.
Blissfully unaware of the palpable tension between the two young people sitting across him at the dining table, Raghav Mehra was his chatty self.

“So, Pragya beta, did you meet my sister, Pratibha in Virar? What did she say?”
Pragya turned to look at Abhi wondering what to say.
“No Baba. Pragya wanted to meet her school friend who also lives in Mumbai. In fact her friend was getting married, the reason Pragya was clad in that grand …” Searching for the right word to use for her outfit he finally settled for, “…costume.”

He then continued, “After we landed in Mumbai, she directly went to her friend’s house while I visited Bua. Moreover, I wanted to introduce her first to you Baba.”
Raghav looked pleased to hear this.

“You know Pragya, this rascal did not tell me that he was bringing you home. I had resigned myself to seeing you only after two years.”
Abhi interrupted “I wanted to surprise you Baba. That’s why I did not mention that I was bringing her along.”

Suddenly struck by a thought Raghav asked her, “I hope that you are here for good and not on some holiday, are you? Even otherwise, I don’t think you can get back to your studies any time soon now that the baby is on the way.”

Before she could answer, Abhi hastened to respond. “No, Baba. She is here for good. She could not bear to stay away from me for so long and she insisted in joining me.”
“Abhi, stop intervening and let my bahu speak for herself. I am yet to hear her voice,” he gently chided his son.

Abhi and Pragya exchanged uncomfortable glances.
“Abhishek is right Baba. I couldn’t bear to be apart from him for two long years,” she said and as an afterthought she added in a low tone,” I love him very much.”
Hearing this Abhi jerked his head in her direction and looked at her bowed head in surprise but she fixed her gaze on the food on her plate.

Baba chuckled happily, “So you love my son very much, do you? I am sure he loves you too. After all you two got married in tearing hurry without bothering to invite me and are now getting ready to welcome a new life to celebrate that love, aren’t you?”
Baba noticed that both Abhi and Pragya turned red hearing him but thought that they were blushing in happiness.
“By the way, for someone who is a British citizen, you do not have even a trace of British accent,” Baba wondered.
Pragya looked pleadingly at Abhi to rescue her.

“Well, Baba. Not everyone develops an accent. Pragya had most of her schooling in New Delhi. She went to the U.K. only when she was about fourteen years old. I guess her Indian accent was pretty much established by then.” Abhi wondered how much more yarn he will have to spin but thankfully Baba seemed satisfied with that answer.

“Well, Abhi although I am unhappy with you for secretly getting married in London without inviting me, seeing my beautiful and demure bahu, I can understand your haste. Now that the two of you are here, I want to celebrate your wedding in the Indian style.”

Hearing this, Abhi literally choked on his food and Pragya looked at him in alarm. Neither of them expected this. Abhi felt like kicking himself. He should have anticipated this. His father is not going to be satisfied till he himself witnesses his son’s wedding. What was he going to do? He had to think fast.

“Baba, what is the need for another wedding? Afterall we are already married.”

“Yes, you are, but what about your old man? Does he not have the right to solemnize the wedding of his only son?”

Abhi’s brain was paralyzed, unable to think of a good enough excuse to escape from the marriage trap his father was unknowingly laying for them. He did not say anything more, although he tried desperately to think of some way out. Pragya found it difficult to have her food and excused herself mid-way. She rushed back into Abhi’s room and threw herself on the bed face down, weeping bitterly into the pillow. Baba, who thought that his bahu was feeling queasy because of the pregnancy, did not suspect anything. He asked Abhi to take care of his wife. Abhi nodded his head and followed Pragya to his room.

Seeing Pragya’s face buried in the pillow and hearing her violent sobs, Abhi felt guilty.

“Pragya, I am sorry. I did not expect that my father will come up with this wedding plan. If you want, I’ll go down and admit the truth to him and stop all this. It may postpone my problem for some time but I’m afraid it is not going to solve yours. I can only think of one way which will be beneficial to both of us; we’ll go through with this wedding.”

Pragya lifted her face up and looked at him in shock.

“Hear me out first. This need not change anything between us. Granted things have become a little more complicated but as long as you and I know that this entire marriage is a farce, we don’t need to feel compelled to honor it. Neither of us need to fulfill the duties of a husband or a wife. After the wedding we will register it immediately so that we can file for divorce by mutual consent after a year. You may leave whenever you want to after the birth of your child without waiting for the divorce to be finalized. In any case you need not return to this house after you leave, irrespective of the legal status of our marriage at the time.”

Although much of what he said did not make sense even to him, he spoke with great conviction that Pragya merely gave a dazed assent to a decision which was going to turn their lives topsy turvy.

So this is it. The new turn in abhigya’s life will make u interested I guess…hope this is good. I will refer abhi’s father raghav mehra as baba so that u wont get confused I think all are ok with it.. tell me ur views on this sudden marriage in abhi pragya’s life what do u guys think about this. What twist will come..looking forward for ur views. Express ur views on this story either positive or negative..

And one important one, I got admitted in SDNB VAISHNAV COLLEGE, chennai for my b.com course. I am so happy with it as I got seat there. I just want to share it with u all as u all are like my family. Thank u all for ur wishes. So coz of this admission process I am somewhat busy with it so couldn’t reply u all so sorry hope u all will forgive me.. love u all stay blessed, keep smiling….