The Big Uneasy |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

Chapter 7: Trying To Be Of Too Much Help?

A/N : Dear readers, thank you so much for all your lovely comments & some of the very legit feedbacks that you've given on the storyline! My only submission is, this book is already completed at my end, and I will not be able to make much edits at my end for now, but I will definitely take your FB into account in my next set of projects!

Having said that, I hope you still enjoy what I have penned down for you this week, and please let me know your thoughts about the chapter. Yes, I am open to both the good & the bad, just not the mean ones :)

Now, happy reading!

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Manik's POV

She was talking, she was opening up. I felt bad that I have never let her open up to me this freely so far; she was laughing and I was guilty since I knew this laugh wouldn't  stay for long – I was going to take her to a past that I felt had held a lot of hurt for her. Invariably the topic of the past came, I spoke of my numerous adventures and relations and hook-ups, it was funny to see her scandalized, it was adorable in a way. Only when it came to Soha, I had been curt & cut it short, and asked her to begin.

She spoke of her childhood, she spoke of her father abandoning her mother when they were young, of their tough days when her mother fought hard to meet the ends, her small sacrifices for Aliya. I felt protective of her in a way I hadn't felt before in all these five months of marriage. Me, taking care of her was a duty; for the first time, I felt responsible for her from within. She mentioned her adolescence - I could relate to all the part time teaching jobs she did to support her mother, I had taught music too, to support daadi, only she didn't know. She spoke about a lot of things that night, she spoke of her three failed attempts at marriage, in which one got her at the mandap even! She told me how dowries, demands kept jeering to her face, how Aliya was always chosen over her, Aliya's peril of hiding from her potential grooms to make her relations work, her mother's obsession about ensuring her daughters are happily married; it all made sense to me now – her acceptance to our wedding alliance, her reluctance on the wedding night, her acceptance of hiding my and Soha's past from all – it all made sense – in a way she was also forced into this relation, just like me. For the first time I could relate to her in a way I never had before. But the one subject I needed to know about, Nandini hadn't spoken about that – not yet. I decided to bring up the topic over dinner.

"And that freak by your bedroom window? He was your ex-boyfriend right?" I asked casually, keeping an eye to her reaction from the corner of my eyes while eating my food. She stopped mid-way, in fact she froze for a few seconds before regaining composure. "Some other time" she muttered. I looked up, "Oh no no no Nandu! This one seems serious, you've got to tell me about him. I saw him at our wedding too! And on our pag-phere you think I didn't notice the silent eye-sex you were having with him from the window?" I asked goofily. She looked scandalized for a second, I almost laughed, but didn't give away. I knew she would begin. And as expected, she did begin, but what followed shook me to the core. So that creep had always used Nandini as bait to lure Aliya? Then when he got to know that Nandini loved him, he pitied her and accepted her?! Seriously, he thought Nandini was in need of his pity?! Oh and then the joker blabbered about his love for Aliya before Nandini after the two were engaged?! Was the man freaking nuts? How dare he hurt Nandini like that! And this idiot of a woman, still loved him & let him go for the sake of his happiness? What was this woman made of, seriously?!

I was driving us back home after our dinner at the apartment; none of us spoke, we were both lost in our thoughts – Nandini was lost in the shadows of the past that she had just described to me. I was lost in the story too – Nandini really did, and still does love that window-creep I realized; however hard it was for me to imagine anybody falling for that creep, well it turns out that my own wife did! But what is even more unbelievable is, of all people the same sad freak decided to be choosy and didn't reciprocate to Nandu's feelings? Does he think he deserves better? Who is better? He had got the best!! And that was luck – of course he didn't deserve Nandu! And who did he like? Aliya? That noisy kid? The window-creep sure seems like a paedophile! And what did he do when he realized he was about to be engaged to the wrong sister? He was too reluctant to clarify? He let Nandu run her feelings all over, before telling her he loved Aliya, but was okay to marry her! Who does that? Didn't he consider once, how Nandu would feel? Their wedding was called off. But Nandu, despite all this, still loves him?