Tears immediately formed in her eyes as she took it in her arms and caressed it with her fingers. These white roses are my symbol of respect for you! His words rang in her mind as a silent tear escaped her eye.
"I still thought it was inappropriate...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
° ° °
Varun never hated anyone in the business, not even his rivals. He had always maintained a healthy competition with everyone. For him, his haters and the person who envied him were his greatest motivators. No one from business industry has ever managed to get on his nerves but except Ashok Khanna.
This man was playing mind games with varun since day one. He tried every ounce to ruin varun but varun never payed that much attention to him until he involved his personal life.
"What's he doing here?" Varun asked through his gritted teeth.
"I-I invited him!" kartik replied.
"Wait... Why?" he furrowed his eyebrows at him.
"You told me to invite everyone, even your rivals!" he shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, but..... Ashok? You know how determined this guy is to ruin me." he tried to keep his voice as low as possible.
"Sorry. I didn't think of that." he apologized.
"Now listen to me carefully, keep an eye on him and don't let him create any scene." Varun told him and he nodded in response.
"Sir, Rhea is asking for you." Shraddha said as she came from behind.
"God... Shraddha. Stop calling me sir! You're my wife!" Varun told her.
"I'm not!" she mumbled and kartik let out a chuckle.
"You know what I mean!" he told her and turned his attention to kartik.
"What are you laughing at? Go and do what I asked you to." he told him and kartik immediately left the place.
"Come let's go to Rhea and have dinner together." he held her hand as they went towards Rhea's direction.
"Oh God! Rhea!" Varun exclaimed as he saw his daughter's face covered with chocolate and she giggled.
"Rhee, come let's get you clean up." Shraddha said and took her to the guest room.
"Why are you staring at me?" Varun asked as he saw Sara glaring at him.
"You know sometimes I hate you, for what you're doing to her but at the same time seeing her with Rhea like that....." she trailed off.
"What?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Leave it. You won't understand." she shook her head.
"I-I'll go check on Rhea." by saying this he started walking towards the guest room.
"Rhea... No more sweet now okay? You'll get hyped and won't be able to sleep well." Shraddha told her as they both made their way out of the guest room.
"Otay!" she replied innocently.
"Good girl!" she ruffled her hair.
"Mrs.Dhawan!" she stopped in her tracks and saw a guy standing in front of her.
"Excuse me, do I know you?" she looked up at him as he was quite taller than her.
"I'm Ashok. Ashok Khanna." he held his hand out to her.
She hesitated at first but thought that it would be rude to ignore so she eventually forwarded her hand towards him. But instead of shaking it, he took her hand towards his mouth and gently kissed her knuckles.
"Shraddha!" Varun came from behind and witnessed the scene in front of him.
Shraddha quickly pulled her hand out of his grip and a smirk formed on Ashok's lips.
"Well well, if this isn't the great Dhawan!" Ashok grinned as Varun glared at him.
"Wasn't expecting to see you here." Varun said.
"Gotta keep updates, ya know." he again smirked and varun so wanted to punch him and wipe that smirk off his face.
"Well, I might say varun, I didn't know you've such a great choice." he said eyeing shraddha from head to toe and she immediately grew uncomfortable.
"I-I mean. Mrs.Dhawan you're such a beauty." he smiled at her.
"She sure is!" Varun said holding shraddha by her waist and pulling her closer to him.
"Come on, let's go get something to eat. Enjoy the party Mr.Khanna." he said and left the place along with Rhea and Shraddha.
"Why the hell were you talking to him?" he asked in a low voice.
"I wasn't. He came to me!" she replied.
"Okay... From now on don't talk to anyone you don't know. Especially him." he told her.
"Whatever." she rolled her eyes at him.
"Sara, have you eaten anything yet?" kartik asked as soon as he approached her.
"I'll eat later. I need to check on...." she started to walk but kartik held her hand and made her sit.
"No. Not unless you eat something." he said handing her the plate.
"But... I've to...." he cut her off.
"I'll handle the remaining things. Come on. Open your mouth." he said as fed her a spoon full.
"You're too cute!" she said pulling his cheeks and he blushed lightly.
It was 12 when the guest started to leave and was almost 1:30 when the everyone left including the caterers.
"Did you enjoy today Rhee?" Shraddha asked as she was now putting her to bed.
"A lot!" she exclaimed.
"Princess, you're still awake?" Varun walked into Rhea's bedroom.
"I'm not that sleepy." she pouted as varun sat on the bed beside her.
"That's because you ate too much sugar tonight." Shraddha stated.
"Daddy, will you read me a story?" Rhea asked.
"Kiddo... It's too late!" Varun said as he was too tired now.
"Please!" she looked at him with a pout.
"OK, fine!" he said and picked out a story book from the side table.
"You can go sleep now." he told shraddha who was silently standing at the corner of the bed.
"OK. Goodnight Rhea!" she kissed her temple.
"Night!" Rhea smiled at her before placing a kiss on her cheek.
It only took Rhea fifteen minutes to doze off. Varun silently placed the story book back and came out of the room. He started walking towards his room when he saw shraddha coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of water in her hand. She had now changed into her comfortable pj's and was no longer wearing her evening dress.
"Shraddha." he called her out making her stop in her tracks.
"Yeah?" she turned around to face him.
"Uh-Thank you for everything tonight. You did great!" he told her and she looked at him blankly not sure what to reply.
"I better go. I've to go office tomorrow." he said and again started walking towards his bedroom.
