Aeipathy

०२|The concealed truth

“The feeling of abandonment.”

°°

They quietly walked inside the house, one after another. Climbed the stairs in a daze and now after reaching the bedroom it felt like they had reached an exam hall where there was a pin drop silence. It wasn't very pleasant.

An off-white colored baby cradle for Meera was fixed beside the bed and Mihika's eyes followed Aarush smoothly placing Meera into the cradle and arranging her various stuff around on the table beside, while keeping her busy with a toy that was hung down from top of the cradle rotating on its own.

"Just listen to what I have to tell you, okay?" Mihika heard him say softly after a while. Aarush gave her a pleading look for a mini second while arranging the stuff he was carrying as he spoke. His eyes were avoiding looking at her as much as possible.

Meera made a noise as soon as he walked away from the cradle towards the wardrobe, seeming like she was ready to cry any moment now. Mihika couldn't help smiling as she picked her up. Babies are just too soft and innocent for this world, the only being who can melt your heart any day, perhaps Mihika's heart was swayed by Meera's charms as easily as she'd been swayed once upon a time by Meera's father.

Aarush signaled he'll be back in a minute and almost dashed inside the bathroom as if he was in a hurry. The trolley bags and unopened air bags layed down on the carpet around the room. Mihika's smile didn't leave her face at all and she played with Meera in the meantime while waiting for Aarush to come back. Thoughts leaving her mind as Meera became her sole focus of admiration in the moment.

Keeping herself busy with Meera eased her mind a lot and she thought, maybe it's not really that big of an issue as she's making it out to be. Isn't it just how things are supposed to be? Them moving forward in life and their careers. Mihika felt like something that had been stuck inside her throat for a few hours now was gone finally. It wasn't like her to be overreacting like this after all.

Looking at the sparkling amber eyes of Meera, who sucked on her fingers while giving toothless smiles on getting tickled every once in a while, Mihika couldn't help but kiss her chubby cheeks one after another after every few minutes. Meera made a happy noise as she held and pulled on Mihika's locks into her tight grip.

"Hey! It hurts." Mihika chuckled while trying to free her hair locks from a deathly grip. Children sure do have strong grips. The anger and frustration Mihika had felt while coming back from the airport was gone as if they never existed. She felt so light and calm that even she was surprised with herself.

What changed? She couldn't point it out at the moment. She knew how she should feel and behave and how she should not but she couldn't help it even if she had this sanity stuck in her head every time her ideas wandered. Things were hopeless and bound to happen, nothing could be done or changed.

When Aarush walked out of the bathroom he admired the sight with relief written all over his face. Mihika was sitting with her legs crossed on the bed with Meera on her lap, who was kicking her hands and legs as they talked in an incoherent language.

"You're adorable, just like your dad." She hushed to the baby as a 'hap-bah' sound came out of Meera's mouth.

What a sight. Aarush could finally feel at ease a bit. It didn't seem too hard to lay open the pages from his past few years in front of her, of course after leaving some of it out of context as much as possible for obvious reasons.

"Need help?"

"Please!" They shared a laugh and Aarush helped her pull out the hair locks still gripped tightly into Meera's fingers. "I didn't know she could do something like this."