REPLACEMENT WIFE (Short Story) [THE MARTYR WIVES BOOK 1]

6. Mukhattat

VIDYUT

I came down to sit at the table, her health has been good now. She did notice my presence around the room but the surge in her pulse had settled now, and she wasn't flinching with me moving around the room.

Joining Manya, at the table for breakfast, she looked up at me from her plate of food, chewing slowly, "Where is my sister-in-law?" She asked with her mouth filled with her food.

"Don't talk when you are eating," I said taking the kalmi vada on my plate I focused on my food, particularly avoiding my sister's question. She gulped her food down.

The last time I left the room, Sarisha sat in the window again, looking out lost in her trail of memories, probably of her sister. I did not push her or ask her questions, I was not in the mood to deal with her childish retorts.

"Call, banni sa for breakfast," I said to Savitra, and she bowed before she left to follow my orders.

Manya heard me, halting her eyes rose to with brick of curiosity in them, I can assume the ideas that lingered in my sister's head, she is not twelve.

Her interested trinket in her eyes, that she so smartly framed into a question,
"You both were in the same room? You could have asked her," Manya pushed me, I did not feel the need to meet Manya's eyes.

Uncomfortable with whatever notions she had of my wedding night, I gulped down, drinking the water in the middle of a meal, a habit I could not shove away, well aware of how deadly it could be.

Manya did not shove the silence, and not touching her food opted for my answer,
"She was still asleep, she was sick last night," I told her as her eyes widened.

And I almost coughed on my edibles.
"She soaked herself in the rain, she had a fever!" Before a simple conversation deliberately leads to awkwardness, I cleared her doubts.

"Is she okay?" My sister asked highly concerned about the new female presence in our lives. It was new for both of us.

It's been just us two,

Savitra returned, bowing again informing me about Sarisha's dismissal from breakfast.

I don't aspire much from her, even partial obedience would do. My jaw clenched, and I simply ate, "Tell her she must come down." I ordered again, and Savitra dismissed from sight the next second.

Manya curiously followed my moves, her gaze on my head felt like a drill and avoiding her I tried to have a peaceful breakfast.

Sarisha needs to be downstairs, so I can introduce her to basic staff and then take her to meet Rani-sa and Raja-sa as a tradition.

"You are a terrible person!" I heard Manya muffle under her breath, I don't want the same thing from my sister. I closed my eyes trying to call my nerves before I looked straight into her eyes.

"I was going to marry her sister, but yesterday she died in an accident. We had no choice!" I completely explained her using the minimum words, framing them in a certain way more questions don't follow back.

"She lost her sister yesterday! And then she had to marry you? Talk about the devil on the back! She had it when her sister died, and now that she is married to you? It's turned into literally!" Manya joked so seriously, that any second person might guess her thinking she loathes me.

At certain times even I am not sure.

Savitra came around again, informing me the same.

The fury crippled in my veins, and I stood up abruptly the chair screeching, the sound echoing in the huge dining room. I moved to drag her down myself,