Q/N: Presenting a very special story of this book. Hope it will be received with love!
Trigger warning: Mentions of stillbirth, medical conditions.
Genre: angst
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Arnav and Khushi were cutting the cake for their wedding anniversary, this being their 15th was special and thus both their parents had come to wish them. As Arnav-khushi cut the cake, their family clapped their hands and then their 10-year-old son Arush came forward to eat the cake instead of feeding it to his parents!
"You have to feed them, stupid." Kiara, their 13-year-old newly turned teenager daughter admonished Arush.
"It's ok kia, let him have it." Khushi said and cutting another piece, held in front of Kiara, "Here, let me feed you."
Kiara turned her face away, "Eww, no mom, that's too many calories." she said making khushi's face fall. "Anyway, I have to go to my room. Happy anniversary mom, dad." she said and pecking Arnav's cheek, went to her room!
There was a tensed silence for a few moments.
"Beta, now you feed each other." Arnav's mom Ratna said breaking it, and Arnav and Khushi both stiffened as if they were tasked to do something impossible.
Just then Arnav's phone rang, and his face changed looking at the screen.
"Err, I am getting a call." Arnav said and excused himself. Arush too had gone to eat a big piece of cake in front of the TV, leaving Khushi with both sets of parents.
"Till how long will you two behave like this?" Khushi's mother asked.
"It's all our son's mistake, behenji. We shouldn't have agreed to let these kids get married so young." Arnav's dad, Arvind spoke.
Arnav and khushi had love-cum-arranged marriage in their early 20s. Both worked at the same software company and fell in love. When they told their parents, they matched their horoscopes and other things were checked and it became an arranged marriage!
Arnav and Khushi had a daughter 2 years later who they named Kiara and a son- Arush, 5 years after their marriage and the "perfect family" was ideally complete.
However, things took a bad turn as Khushi and Arnav both got promoted in their jobs and it became a topic of fights about sharing household chores, responsibility of kids and so on. It was getting more and more difficult with kids growing, their own demands increasing and Arnav and Khushi's working hours becoming even wider with their fat salaries! The result was constant fights between the husband and the wife about who was being the ignorant one!
Eventually, they decided to take the help of a marriage counselor. And it seemed things were falling in place for a short time. The counselor helped them appreciate each other's qualities, reminded them of their lost love. As per his suggestion, they even took a short trip together. It all seemed to be working.
Until 3 years ago, when Khushi found out she was pregnant again!
Having another child was something both of them had not thought of nor planned. This had been an accident.
However, terminating the pregnancy was something both didn't want and thus, they continued with it, albeit reluctantly. During her pregnancy, Khushi was overworking herself in her office, in order to secure her place and not jeopardize it during her upcoming maternity leave. Arnav unfortunately too was swamped with work and couldn't help her much.
Amidst that, in her 7th month she had a sudden bout of labor pains while in the office and was immediately rushed to the hospital.
