Rikara Short Stories Collection

Lemons & Lemonade : Part Four

Thank you so much for voting and commenting on the previous part.

Please note that I have changed Om's sister from Soumya to Priyanka, as it might confuse some with Soumya as his sister.

Gauri stared at her father and Om over the dining table as they discussed about POLITICS!!!! That's right! They were talking about politics!!! Of all the things in the world - POLITICS!!!

"Can you pass the water, Gauri?" Om asks her as he looked at her. All he got in return was a murderous look from her.

"Gauri, pass the water." Shakti tells her.

She quickly took the bottle and passed it to Om. Her father and Om were like house on fire, getting along like hell and she was getting burned! After Om had dropped the pregnancy bomb on her father, he had screamed and screamed for a long-long time. Then he had cooled down and asked her to show Om to the guest bedroom, pointedly saying that Om WILL BE sleeping in the guest room and that they would finalize the wedding date in the morning. Yes, he never bothered to ask her whether she wanted to marry Om, just that she was marrying Om. Without her father noticing she had dumped all his things in the guestroom, and he had slept there the previous night.

In the morning Om had come down in fresh clothes, and her father thankfully decided not to ask about the change in his attire. Om had requested to talk to her father alone, and they had gone off to his study. An hour and a half later, they had come out laughing like old friends. Om had the good sense to stay clear of her path and not try to talk to her. Around afternoon, he had "hugged" her father and left to Mumbai promising to bring his parents soon to finalize the wedding date.

Later, Shakti had called up Pinky and informed her about Gauri's marriage to Omkara, leaving out that Gauri might be pregnant. Pinky who was apprehensive about Omkara at first due to his history with Svetlana was finally appeased when Shakti told her that Gauri and Omkara loved each other. She was then happy for them, as she did feel guilty for what Svetlana did to Omkara.

***********

After he left, he didn't call or text her, he gave her the much-needed space. It's been three days, and she hadn't talked to her father after that night in the kitchen. She decided to talk to him and goes to his study.

"Papa, can we talk?" Gauri hesitantly asks as she looked at him.

"Come in, Gauri. You know you can talk to me." Shakti says smiling at her.

Gauri goes to him and kneels in front of him as she kept her hands on his knees. "Do you hate me?" Gauri asks worried trying to control her tears.

"Because of you and Omkara..." he says vaguely.

Gauri nods her head and says in tears, "I broke your trust."

"You did." Shakti agrees, "but my love for you is not so feeble that it would just go away because you made a mistake."

"I am sorry, Papa." Gauri says crying.

Shakti wipes her tears and says, "You both are going to be married soon, and the wrong would right itself." "I don't want to marry him."

"Why because he made fun of you and your love?" Shakti asks. Gauri nods her head and says, "He broke my trust."

"He broke your trust?" Shakti muses, "He didn't get you pregnant and abandon you, Gauri. If anything, he is fighting you, to be with you. That's not breaking one's trust. It is standing up to the love and trust you have on him."

"After what he did, I can't trust him." Gauri says looking away.

"I am your father and I don't like talking about this, but I have no other option. He said he seduced you." Shakti tells her embarrassed himself.