Heart is a Fool

Chapter 10: Waiting for Good News

Ritwik connects with Vikrant:

Ritwik finally zeroed down on the profile in Facebook he was looking for "Viks RuHayJa" . It was a difficult find since he never imagined Vikrant would use a very American Phonetic profile in Social Media. As he scrolled down the feed; he found pictures in America with groups of people; and one girl in particular which seemed like his girlfriend. Further down, one post caught his attention "Celebrating my graduation 2 To be Chachu; super happy" .  It was dated 2 days after he had found Palak with him in the hotel room. Ritwik hit himself hard for not checking on this earlier and decided to send him a message on Messenger since he had not responded to his Linked In message

"Dear Chachu; We are so glad to come to this world and meet you;  we want to thank you for taking our mum to hospital that night; we also wants to know why you broke our dad to a million pieces that night, we love our mum, dad and a little bit for you too !!

Yours loving, Unborn Niece(s)/Nephew(s)"

Vikrant was shocked to see this message and laughed out loud. He always knew Ritwik was all heart and actually was quite fond of him. He has himself died a thousand deaths for all that he did to create this confusion between Ritwik and Palak.  He replied with a "Sorry Bhai and a bundle of emojis". Ritwik was not the one to melt so easily and still in doubt whether he knew something but looking at his life in America it did not seem that he would indulge in pettiness. He had to confront Vikrant face to face to know more but for now the doubt circled back to Rishabh. Why would Palak react to a known devil he wondered? 

The next 2 weeks zipped by; checking on pictures, videos and daily updates of Palak sent by her dad. He was too busy working on his business plan that went back and forth between Tim and him multiple times. During the day he would slip out of Noon Biotech office and go pillion riding with Robin from hospital to hospital gathering data to substantiate his plan. He also collected feed back on Exigen so that his dad did not doubt what he was up to. He literally worked round the clock and the small trades that he placed every morning online earned him a decent profit so that he did not have to withdraw any money from Noon Biotech. That's one thing he did not want to do. 

Ritwik & the Gynaecologist

Ritwik zoomed to Chandigarh in the morning to be in time during Palak's ultrasound. Her dad introduced him to the doctor and seeing the calm grey haired man ; Ritwik's apprehension of a male gynaec reduced a bit but he still indirectly pestered for a lady. The seasoned doctor was used to obsessive husbands and very wittily told Ritwik that there would be a battery of doctors including a lady attending to Palak since she was expecting twins and one of the babies was Rh- ; moreover Ritwik was most welcome to be in the labor room to witness their first breath. This calmed him down a bit but he was not sure of his own nerves. 

During the ultrasound; his eyes were set on the screen as the doctor pointed out to the 2 babies coiled up within Palak; their movements and their heart beat. One seemed to be a little weaker than the other but that was normal for twins he was told. He peeped through the glass window and saw Palak asking questions to the other doctor and his eyes brimmed with joyful tears. 

Then he produced a long list of do's and dont's for Palak that he had jotted down after doing extensive net search and taking tips from Taari who was a midwife during her young days. He handed it over to Manjeet and ordered her to make laddoos made of sesame (til) and feed Palak so that she  was endowed enough to feed the babies. Seeing Manjeet's quizzical expression; he very comically threatened to put her on a diet if his wife or unborn kids were not fed well. Manjeet hugged him as he said that; she remembered her 12 year old son Akshay threatening to put her on a diet complaining to Palak ; if she did not serve him extra laddoos. 

Ritwik hid behind a pillar when Palak and her parents were leaving. She was walking slowly; holding her stomach but was looking askance. She could feel his proximity and a cry stuck in her throat. These days she was very emotional; not sure it was the hormones or the fact that she and Setu spoke every other day and heard all about Rohit's excitement and the little things he did. She knew Ritwik would have gone crazy too and missed him. 

Noon Family Discussion

Rishabh was complaining to Vijay and Mamta that Ricky was rarely in office; moving about town and showed little or no interest in the business. Aman had a sly smile; since Ricky had already pointed out the financial discrepancies and the malpractices that Rishabh was up to and he was quietly investigating. Jobless Reeva was busy filing her nails and urging her father and brother to finalize the divorce papers with Palak and get Annie in the house as her sister-in-law. Aman wanted to zip her mouth but somewhere deep within he was hopelessly in love with her.

Vijay was more concerned that Ritwik may become a Sanyasi since he was not using any money from office and largely remained disconnected and had started locking his room. Mamta nodded and wondered how Ritwik was working with renewed vigor inspite of the medicines; he had dark circles but was always raring to go. She enquired from the trusted help if Ritwik was being given medicines ; and the guy nodded innocently only to turn around and smirk. The medicines she gave were being collected in a container and the harmless similar looking multi-vitamins sent by Geeta were given to Ritwik who flushed it down daily thinking it was a tetra-cyclic drug. 

Palak's Baby Shower

Palak's parents forbade Ritwik from coming to the Baby Shower (God Bharai) even though he had promised to peek through the window. Her dad agreed to live stream for him through Whatsapp after Ritwik gave him  idiot proof instructions. Ritwik locked himself up in his room that day; feigning ill health. He could not take his eyes off Palak who was glowing like a million bucks. All the ladies blessed her and whispered that she was surely getting a girl since she was glowing with good health. Ritwik grinned like a cheshire cat wanting to pull her cheeks at that moment at the thought of a baby daughter. He spotted the gold bangles on her hand that was the Noon family heirloom and felt happy that one day his yet to be born daughter would wear it. 

In between all the brightly dressed women; there was a lady who was draped in a cream saree and blessing Palak with a peck on her forehead. He could not see her face; but she seemed oddly familiar. It was Geeta who had come to attend the function since she was the actual mother-in-law and Manjeet saw no reason to invite or inform Mamta. She had brought jewelry and clothes for Palak which she could not gift at their wedding. Her eyes brimmed with joy and while blessing Palak fell on the Noon heirloom bangles on her hand. Geeta possessed them once upon a time after her marriage to Vijay and wished to see it on her daughter-in-law's hand the day Ritwik was born. How time flies ...She could have pawned them for her treatment but left them behind for her darling Ricky's wife and had stepped into an uncertain future. She touched them and was glad that they had made their way to the right hands. 

He ogled at all the food making sure that Palak's mom had followed his instructions.His princess was going to be queen now with the little ones on the way and he blew virtual flying kisses. Getting back to work; he gave final touches to his business plan incorporating all the feedback Tim had provided. He mailed  off the final version to KKR with a wish on his lips and stood up to stretch. There were many missed calls and messages from Aman and Ananya enquiring about his health. They wanted to meet over beer and he wanted to meet over vegan shakes. He laughed out loud at his transformation. The new dad had to live for his children now!! 

The next one month was a long wait for all his babies ; Palak held the key to two and the third one his business plan had to be blessed by KKR. One evening his phone rang while he was chatting with Aman in his cabin. He picked up his phone and stormed out telling Aman he will be back in a day or two !! 

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