"PREGNANT? How the fuck did that happen?" Madhav asks.

"I think your answer lies within the question, bro." Shyaam says and earns a deathly glare from Madhav.

"Seriously, speaking! You both did it before the wedding? Gross!" Shree exclaims.

"What's gross about that?" Shyaam asks.

"Because akka is the WNFS type: Wedding Night First Sex." Devi says giggling.

"I am not!" Shree exclaims perplexed.

Devi giggles.

"How far are you with the pregnancy?" Madhav asks.

"Two weeks, I guess." Devi says.

"This isn't right!" Shree says shaking her head.

"Technically it's wrong if Shyaam and I were unmarried by the time the baby was born." Devi corrects Shree. "Plus who cares whether I marry first and conceive later or conceive first and marry later. The important thing is that we married first and the baby will come later."

"She's got a point, you know." Madhav tells Shree.

"Will you stop supporting her?" Shree exclaims. "Guys! This is so wrong!"

"So what do you suggest? Do you want me to abort this baby and 'properly' conceive another child?" Devi asks angrily. "True that this baby was conceived out of wedlock but I will not abort this baby. Not even think of aborting my baby unlike you!"

"What are you saying, Devi?" Madhav asks confused.

"I'm so sorry." Devi says. "I'm didn't mean to bring up that topic!"

"I tried to abort Madhu when I was in London." Shree says. "I was afraid of doing all of it alone and that's why I made up my mind. I even went to the doctor to have the baby aborted. But I couldn't. I jumped off the hospital bed and ran away before the anaesthesia hit me."

Madhav wrapped his arm around her and pressed a quick kiss to her head.

"Devi and Shyaam, we're happy for you. But it's not right that both of you try to cover it off." Madhav says. "You both need to come clean in front of our parents."

"Fine! Fine!" Shyaam says. "We'll tell them!"

"Good." Madhav says. "Can you both leave now, because me and my wife are awfully tired and we would really like to get some sleep."

S H R E E      P R A S A D

Madhav hums a soft tune as he walks by my side in our garden as the sunsets. I turn to him and smile.

"You seem to be really happy." I say.

"Because I have you. Today and forever." He says and holds my face.

"You know what, Teddy?" I ask holding his arms. "I'm happy too. Because I also have you today and for-"

A distant gunfire interrupts me and I freeze. Madhav winced in pain, his knees shaking and he was losing consciousness. That's when I realised that someone shot Madhav.

"Madhav! Madhav!" I exclaim as I hold him to me. He groans weakly as falls on his knees.

Two more gunshots.

He falls on the grass.

Dead.

I wake up startled. It was almost sunrise.

The blue teeshirt I am wearing is drenched in my sweat despite the cool climate in Munnar.

"What happened?" I hear Madhu ask. I rub my eyes. She was wide awake, poking the panda faces on her pyjama. "I heard you say Nanna's name in your sleep."

"Nothing nothing, Madhu." I say and she looks at me with those warm black eyes similar to Madhav's. I look over her and see Madhav sleeping peacefully. I breath out in relief.

"You sure, Mumma?" She asks looking up at me. "Because you look scared."

"I'm fine baby. I really am." I say tucking her into the bed. I get off the bed. "I'll go to the kitchen and be back. You go back to sleep, now!"

I sit on the nadumottom and bury my face in between my knees. I try to gain my breath and shake away the disturbing images of Madhav's lifeless body. My fingers shake as the gun shot continues to echo in my head.

I jump as I feel a warm hand on my shoulder.

"What's troubling you, chellam?" Madhav asks. He was wearing the usual black tee-shirt and the khaki shorts he wears to bed.

"What? No nothing is troubling me. I'm okay." I say as he sits beside me.

"Shree. I know you for almost four and a half years now. Don't you think I'll know if your okay or not." He asks and holds my cold shaking hand. "Madhu told me that you woke up scared. What happened?"

He wraps an arm around me. I rest my head on his shoulder.

"Bad dream?" He asks running soft circles on my back. I nod.

He gets up and sits in front of me.

"Is it the same nightmare you had that day? The one after our wedding?" He asks looking at me.

I look down at my hands and nod slowly. My eyes glimmered with watery tears I felt as if the whole world was about to crumble.

Unshed tears well up my eyes as they fall down my face. He pulls me impossibly closer, and then he presses his forehead to my collarbone. Soon the tears flooded like the waters rushing down like a waterfall. A strangled and fractured sob escapes my throat. I was crying hysterically.

"Madhav- Madhav, someone shot you right in front of my eyes." I wail looking at him. I hold his face with my cold shaking hands and look into his eyes through his glasses. "I saw you die in my dreams. Twice. I'm frightened, Madhav!"

"Shree, chellam. It's just a dream." He says.

"What if it's something that may happen. Madhav, I dreamt of us falling in love. And we fell in love. I dreamt of us separating and it happened. I'm terrified if this really happens."

"Okay, we're talking about coincidence. And you can't always say everything that happened in our lives happened because of what you saw in your dreams. We fell in love because we realised that we cant live without each other. We separated because of my adamant nature and short temper along with your misjudgment. How can we say that all this happened because of what you dreamt of?"

"Madhav, coincidence or not- it did happen somehow!" I say and he rolls his eyes.

"Tell me who will want to kill me?" Madhav asks looking at me sternly. 

"I-I-I. ."

"I'm certain that there's no man whose out there planning my death." Madhav says confidently. "I'm have no enemies."

And that's when it strikes me.

"What about Shiv?" I asks. "Shiv Sharma. He worked at our company."

Madhav kneels down next to me. "Chellam, he's locked inside a prison that is hard to break out of. There's no chance he'll escape."

"What if-"

"You know what, I'm calling the prison authorities to prove to you that he's locked up in his cell." Madhav pulls out his phone and quickly dials the prison.

"Hello, this is Mr. Madhav Ramakrishna. I'd like to know if prisoner Shiv Sharma is still in his prison cell." Madhav puts the call in speaker mode.

"Good morning sir." A man says. I remember meeting this man. Mr. Sarath Gowda -  the fat balding prison officer. "Yes sir he's in his cell. I just saw him this morning."

"Thank you Mr. Sarath!" Madhav says.

"S-S-Sir I hope there isn't a problem." He asks Madhav.

"No, no." Madhav says. "We just wanted to check on him. That's all."

"Ah alright then. Goodbye."

"Thank you. Goodbye." Madhav says cutting the call. He looks at me and holds my hand. "Are you feeling relieved now? He's the only enemy I'll ever have. And he's locked away in a place he can never break out of!"

I look at Madhav. He presses a kiss to my head. "Go sleep now. Everything will be fine."

"You sure?" I ask him. He nods.

Gently, he kisses my temple. Pulls me even tighter. And his lips are at my ear.

"Didn't I promise that I'll never leave your side?" He asks. He proceed to slowly kiss my neck once, twice, thrice and  so softly and tenderly.

I pull him towards me and kiss him, and lose myself in the taste and feel of him.

He kisses me. His soft lips send softer waves of tingling sensation through my body. The feeling overflows the vacuum in my mind. My heart beats so hard I can hardly keep still when he nudges my mouth open with his tongue.

I take his face in my hands and pull him closer. He holds my waist and makes a soft groan in the back of his throat.

"Shree," he whispers. "Look at me."

I shake my head.

"Chellam!"

I look up, slowly, to meet his eyes. I feel something thaw inside of me as I stare at her, and just as he's about to say something, a complicated bell sound echoes through the room.

Madhav looks around. "That sounds like a doorbell." He says. He walks to the door and opens it.

I rush to the door and I gasp as I see who was standing in front of us.

"Appa?" Madhav asks as he sees RK stand outside the house. He was there along with Leila, and Mr. Oberoi.

"Hello, son." He says nervously. "How are you?"

"I'm good." He replies politely. "We're all good."

"Aren't you going to call us in?" RK asks.

"Come in." Madhav says and leads them to the living room.

"We've been travelling for a week looking for Elysium." RK says.

"A week?" Madhav asks. "But it doesn't take more than two days-"

"Someone told me that Elysium was all the way in Assam." RK says as he angrily looks at Leila and Oberoi.

"We said Elysium might be in Assam." Leila confessed with a smile and hugs Shree.

"He drove off to Assam immediately." Oberoi says sitting on the sofa. "We let him look around Assam for a few days and later we told him that you are actually in Munnar. You should have seen the look on his face when we told him that."

"Yeah! It was epic!" Leila says laughing.

"You both are jeopardising your job!" Madhav says sitting in the armchair. Yashoda Ma and Amma come out of their rooms wrapped in their woolen sweaters. Shyaam and Devi were still inside their own bedrooms.

Oberoi sits on the sofa and clears his throat. "Your father is keen on convincing you to return and take up the CEO position in the company."

"R-r-really?" Madhav asks.

"Son, I made a grave mistake. The company is in trouble. We're sinking. We're losing our market share and our profits are dwindling sharply. This whole joint venture with those vultures is eating us alive. You must return."

"I'm sorry! I won't." Madhav says getting up.

"Madhav, please." Oberoi asks gently. "We need you more than ever. Only you can undo this."

"I'm sorry I won't." Madhav says.

"Son, I'll give you everything that I snatched from you. And if that isn't enough, I'll give you half my wealth. No, all of it! I'll give you your assets back and all of my wealth! Please come back."

"Keep your money with you, Mr. Radhakrishna." Madhav says coldly. "I don't want to return."

"Son, please we really-"

"Madhav, please listen!" Oberoi says calmly. "The company was there when you needed it the most. You, me, RK and our families we owe it all to this company. Don't we? Madhav, this company needs your guidance now. Is it fair that you turn your back when we need you the most?"

"Madhav, this is the company our family built." RK says. "Me and your mother - Rukmini worked day and night, sacrificing alot of things just to bring it to this level of success. If she was alive today and here right now, would you still turn your back to us?"

I quickly turn to Madhav who was looking down at his knees.

"He'll take the job back!" I announce and Madhav quickly turns to me. "He'll rejoin if you agree to my three conditions."

"I'll do anything to have Madhav rejoin dear daughter!" RK says.

"I want you to return the assets that were surrendered to pay for that lawsuit." I say. "And then return Madhav's rightful amount of company shares; along with your shares. He will rejoin only if he is given 100% of the company shares. Lastly, I need you to forward your official resignation immediately-"

"Shree what are you do-" Madhav asks and I rest my hand on his shoulder.

"Madhav will not rejoin until you resign!" I conclude finally and strongly. "And Mr. Radhakrishna, you need to give us in clear writing that you will not trick or cheat anyone hereafter."

"I'll do all what you ask for, Shree! I'll return everything in the next 72 hours. Madhav will have all the shares of the company transferred to him. Oh and that resignation- I'll give it to you in another 30 minutes." RK nods standing and holds my hand. "Just convince him to rejoin. I'm sure he will listen to you!"

"Madhav, does that mean you will join the company again?" Oberoi asks leaning forward.

"Fine!" Madhav sighs. "I'll join. But thane first think I do is to axe that joint venture with Dew Drop Heels."

"Do whatever you want, son!" RK says walking towards Madhav. "I fully trust you and I have learnt and realised that you are a better CEO than me - perhaps the best CEO that RKGOC will ever see."

"Thank you for those lovely words." Madhav says and stands up.

"No son, you don't thank your old man with mere words!" RK says. "You give him a hug and thank him. Unless you have forgotten what this foolish old man had done to you and-"

Madhav hugs RK in a quick flash.

"Ah yes, I finally got my magan back!" RK says and presses a kiss to Madhav's cheek. "Oh and congratulations, I heard you and Shree got married again!"

"We didn't invite you for that crazy wire you pulled a few months ago!" Madhav says smiling. "But we do have an album!"

"Yes, I'd love to see!" RK says.

"And Radha you have another album to see as well in a couple of days. The album is currently being made." Yashoda Ma says as she walks to him. "The wedding album of Shyaam and Devi."

"Shyaam got married?" RK asks in surprise. "When? Oh my lord, in my mind he's still that six year old that wets the bed!"

"Yesterday." Yashoda Ma says. "He and Devi had a simple register marriage. And we threw a small brunch party afterwards in the garden."

"When we go back home let's throw a grand reception for both the couples." RK says.

"When you mean both does that mean Shyaam-Devi and us or-"

"Well, then let's have a small reception for all three couples when we return home." RK says laughing. "The house has been dull without all of you! I missed having my boys, Yashoda, Shree and my granddaughter in the house. Without all of you it was like living in a big empty box."

"We're all back now." Madhav says. "Oh and we have a dog too! Your granddaughter gave her the most craziest name too!"

"Well, better to have a crazy name than no name at all right?" RK says and laughs. "Speaking of granddaughter where is she? Madhushree baby, where are you?"

"Grandpa?" Madhu asks as she comes out of the bedroom. She gasps in surprise seeing RK. "Grandpa! GRANDPAAAA!" She yells and runs to him.

RK picks her up and holds her in his arms.

"Oh my baby, my sweet chellam." He says pressing a kiss to her messy hair. "I missed you the most."

"I miss you to Grandpa." She says. "You bring me ice cream?"

"No baby." He says. "I'll buy you all the ice cream you can ever eat."

"Uhm no!" Madhav says sternly. "Shree and I decided that we gave this little baby too much ice cream. If you let her she'd eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner! No more ice cream until your turn 8, young lady!"

Madhu frowns.

"Don't worry. Grandpa will give you some ice cream secretly." RK whispers and Madhu hugs him.

To be continued....

-How are you readers?

-How was this chapter?

-What did you like about this chapter?

-How do you like the story so far?

-Woot woot! Finally the fam is united and happy..........! (For now)

-For more details, update countdowns and sneakpeaks about upcoming chapters make sure to follow our instagram account. Link in the inline comments!

-Show us your love and support there too (and yes you can get a follow back if you wish)

Keep the votes and the comments flowing!

Announcements

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas! Let this be a Christmas gift to all the readers!

PS: Madhav and Shree's bitmoji got a makeover and whoa they look fabulous and cute than ever before!

Thank you for all the support. The story has reached 150K reads and I am so thankful to everyone who's reading this story which so much love and interest.

Also follow our Instagram page @madhavnshree
There's alot of action and easter eggs for upcoming chapters.

Stay in touch! I'll see you soon with Chapter 58!