Hey guys,

I have started a new book, titled "Second chance at Love". Do check it out and let me know if it's worth reading! Enjoy reading this chapter, for now.

~A book of chapters, it is. A book of lifetime lessons. Called- Life~

-Affu-

In India

Murthy's Home

"Papa ji?" Hema hesitated on seeing Yashjeet quite calm, since the moment he was back from orphanage. She also knew he had gone with Nandini, hence why, she's getting scared with Yashjeet's calmness.

"Appa?" Sujata stood on the other side, and held onto Yashjeet's palm, gaining his attention. "Huh?" he looked startled, as he was lost deep in his thoughts.

"You don't look fine, Appa." Sujata said, worryingly and Hema too bent to have a look at Yashjeet's face. "Is something bothering you, Papa ji?" Hema questioned, smiling encouragingly, and Yashjeet sighed out loud.

"Nothing, bete. I am--fine." and Yashjeet leaned back in his recliner chair. "I was just--thinking. The normal daily thinking that I do." he smiled at the two ladies, who looked at each other before nodding at him.

"If you say so, Appa." Sujata said, smiling at him, followed by Hema. "Papa, dinner is ready." Mallika called out, walking towards the living area, while Vandana got busy with the servants to make the table ready with food.

"Okay!" Yashjeet stood up, and moved towards the dining area. "Hema!" Sujata moved towards Hema and held her hands, while looking at Yashjeet taking his seat at the head-chair. "Something is up. I can see it on Appa's face." Sujata whispered to Hema, who nodded her head in agreement to her statement.

"I think the same, Bhabi. Why would he be so silent all of a sudden? He didn't even go to office, today." Hema said, to which Sujata's worries only increased. "Do you think pari said something about Shekhar or Mishti?" Sujata asked, and Hema's eyes widened. "Hey Bhagwan (Oh my God!)" Hema palmed her face, and chanted prayers in her heart.

"Bhabi, why are you acting like some dramatic movie actress?" Mallika frowned, while walking towards the ladies, who glared at her. "What? What did I do now?" she asked, her forehead creased in confusion.

"Why isn't anyone here yet?" they jumped hearing Yashjeet's grumpy voice.

"Coming, Papa ji." they said in unison, before moving towards the dining area. "Why are you acting all grumpy today, Papa?" Vandana, who was standing beside Yashjeet's seat, asked confusingly, and the three ladies showed their eyes to shut her up.

"I am not acting grumpy." Yashjeet stared up at Vandana, blankly. "Oh!" Vandana nodded. " I meant, why are you being grumpier than your usual self?" She rephrased her question, and Yashjeet glared up at her.

"Vandana!" Sujata moved towards Vandana, smiling sweetly at Yashjeet. "Appa is fine. He seems to be just tired." Sujata held Vandana's hands, and squeezed it, which is her way of asking her to quit asking questions to the angry Murthy.

"Okay." Vandana shrugged and smiled sweetly at Yashjeet, before squinting her eyes at the ladies, asking them to let her know about the hell going on. "Where are others?' Yashjeet asked, gaining the ladies' attention.

"Papa ji!" Sooraj's frantic voice stopped Mallika from calling out for the men, again. "Papa ji!" Sooraj screamed out, and Yashjeet lifted his eyebrows in confusion. "Why are you shouting, Sooraj?" Yashjeet yelled out, and Sooraj stopped at the table, panting heavily.

"Sooraj! What happened?" the ladies asked, worryingly, and Sooraj only shoved the mobile in their faces. "This happened!" And Yashjeet's eyes widened at it.

***

"Being a very reputed company, Shetty and group was supposed to keep more than one eye on their employees, which they failed to do so; a statement claimed to be the truth behind them losing their 65 percent of shares, by Mrs. Shagun Reddy. Mrs. Reddy al--" The reporter's voice could be heard throughout the Malhora home's living room, and none of them present there could keep their wide opened jaws in check.

"What the heck is happening?" Rohit exclaimed, but almost breathlessly, in shock. "They lost their 65 percent share to a foreign company? How is that even possible?" he threw his hands in air.

"It's possible. One reason when you lose a few projects and you're about to go bankrupt." Raj replied to the question asked by Rohit. "There could be many other scenarios too, but this is what Shagun telling the reporters." Rishi completed the sentence, that was started by Raj.

"She said she failed to keep an eye on her employees." Cabir pointed out. "According to her, she lost these projects, because her employees were inefficient to win those projects for her." Manik replied, almost smiling smugly.

"But how's it possible? Her husband is one of the best businessmen of India." Harshvardhan stared at the TV Screen confusedly, and the Malhotra boys shared a secretive glance within each other and then stared at Raj, who was smirking at the screen.

"I can just say that he failed to keep an eye on his wife rather than his employees." Raj commented, which earned a pinch from Nyonika, while others stared at him confusedly, except for the boys.

"What did his wife do anything in here, Dad? They both are responsible for this fiasco." Mukti asked, confusedly, and Manik immediately took her in a side hug. "Ah, nothing Muku. What Dad meant is, since it's Mrs. Reddy who's managing the company more than himself, he should have been more careful about what she's doing. She could have been making mistakes in business." Manik clarified for Raj, to which, Mukti nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, yeah." Raj rolled his eyes, while shrugging his shoulders and then giving his attention to the screen. "For now, I need to make an urgent call." and Raj jumped up delightedly, and moved upstairs.

"He's going to call Shekhar." Nyonika shook her head at her husband's retreating figure. "Of course, Shekhar Uncle would have been smirking too, but in London." Dhruv commented, smilingly, and others shared knowing smiles.

Manik looked down at his mobile, where he could see an incoming call from Nandini.

"Uh, I need to attend it." Manik smiled sheepishly, before moving out of the living room.

"How's it going there?" Manik heard Nandini's cheerful tone, and he smiled to himself. "If you were expecting a 360 degree level of shock, amusement, confusion, and then elation, then yup. You win, Lilliput." Manik replied, and he heard her laughing out loud.

Manik leaned back to the wall behind him, and smiled to himself on hearing the sound of her laughter. However much he deny the growing feelings in his heart for his Lilliput, he couldn't deny the fact that he loves to hear her laughing or to see her smiling to the fullest.

"I can't deny the fact that I've been waiting on that elation part. I'm so glad I'm not the only sadist in this place." she said, shrugging, and he chuckled. "You're not alone, even if the elation part was missing." he said, and she smirked. "Oh yeah. I forgot that the sanskari coffee is a bit of a sadist too." she commented, and he smirked.

"Only when it comes to people like her and her son." he said, without any hesitation, and Nandini nodded to herself.

"How's it going in London? Dad just went upstairs to gossip with his best friend." Manik stated, and Nandini smirked at the question. "Should you ask that question, Grumpy coffee?" she asked, shrugging and he laughed out.

"Shekhar Uncle must be grinning like some Cheshire cat, while Mishti Auntie must be all shocked, given the fact that, you didn't tell her anything about it." Manik assumed, and Nandini bobbed her head. "You know you're improving yourself. The brain that you had when I came to India was too small, but now, it has grown a little bit." Nandini pointed out, impressed, and he rolled his eyes at it.

"I'm sure by the time I leave to London, your brain will be of it's right size." she completed, and Manik's breath hitched in his throat. "Leave to London? Did you forget, Lilliput? You're trying to reunite your Appa with Yash Daadu. So you're going to stay here." Manik said, firmly.

She smiled sadly at that thought. She may not be scared of her medical condition, but she is scared enough to see her grumpy coffee with his long lost love. So what if she's not here now? She'll be found, eventually, and Nandini didn't want to be a part of that happiness.

"And you think I'm gonna live with the traditional old man of my Appa? He would be getting me married to someone he adores, which probably is going to be a bad guy. I mean, boyfriend machine is an example." Nandini joked, but Manik didn't feel right. "So what? You will have your Appa and Ma with you. They won't force you with anything." he commented, almost hastily, in fear.

Fear of losing his Lilliput!

"I know. But that's not the only reason, Grumpy coffee. Did you take me for some whiny child?" she questioned, chuckling. "I wanna get back home." she replied, sounding soft. "And London is my home." she lied smoothly. "I'm here only because I have a reason to be. Once I get fine, once my family get happy, I'll leave with Mruno. Back home." she added, and looked down at the ring in her hand. The same ring that the Malhotras made Manik to make her wear.

Soon, she will have to return it to Manik!

"So...what about us?" she sucked in a sharp breath on hearing his question. Gulping down the lump in her throat, she smiled, though he cannot see that smile on her lips. "What do you mean, Grumpy coffee? I'm not gonna forget you just because I'm gonna get back home. You'll be my family. Forever." she sounded soft and loved, that made Manik to clutch onto his mobile tighter.

"And I'll come to visit you. You---and your Love." she stated, smilingly. "You're gonna find her one day. So I know, I'll be coming for your marriage and when you make the first product of your love." she didn't sound bitter. She didn't sound soft. She just sounded normal, and that bothered him.

"Oh by the way, don't name your kid with my name, okay? I heard friends do that. I don't like it. I want you to remember me as your friend, not as your daughter, coffee guy." she joked at the end, and he only clenched his fists.

"Li-Lilliput!" he mumbled, and she nodded. "I was being serious over there. Don't ever think about naming her Nandini. Name her something else." She said again, and he tilted his head down, wondering why his heart suddenly got tightened with something unease.

"Oh sh*t. I gotta go. I'm getting a call from Appa. Looks like Grandpa is done gossiping. Bye and miss me, Grumpy coffee." and she hung up on the call, while Manik didn't even bother to take the mobile away from his ear.

"Why is it so hard to think like that?" Manik muttered to himself. "She was talking about one dream that I always had. A family with Shona. So, why am I...hurt?" he took the mobile away, and then stared at the wallpaper, which was a picture of him and Nandini.

She was holding onto his arm, puling at one of his cheek, while he looked at her annoyed. And that was when she clicked the picture.

He smiled staring at the picture. 

Tracing his hand over the picture, his fingers halted at her face. She was smiling. She had that mischievous glint in her eyes, that he loved about her. Her cheeks were rosy, because she was too happy, and he wished to be that reason behind her happiness. She had her hand holding onto his arm, and he wished for her to never let go.

And his hand fingers went up to her eyes, where he could see so much of emotions in them, though all she had on her face was happiness.

"I fell in love with your Ma, because she read everything on my face even without I could tell her what I felt and surprisingly I could do the same too. A life without each other was bizarre for us. And then I realized I had fallen in love." Raj once said that to his kids, smiling proudly.

"Damn!" Manik knelt on the ground, breathing heavily. He ran his hands through his face and then hairs, still with his uneven breath. "I'm in love with Lilliput!" he breathed out, almost knocked out.

***

"Bhayyu!" Nandini let out an annoyed squeal, when she felt herself getting picked up in the air, and then placed on a jeep's hood. "Why am I getting picked up like some doll that you lost in your childhood?" she questioned, throwing her hands in air.

"To make you see this." and Sidharth bent down to let her have a look of his hair. "Really, now?" she questioned, staring at his head incredulously. "Do I really need to see how much of a mop your hair have become? And they stink too." She scrunched up her nose, and Rithvik smacked in Sidharth's head who started to glare at both Nandini and Rithvik.

"He was talking about his grey hairs, which probably, isn't a big deal." Karan said, waving his hands in air. "Isn't a big deal?!!" Sidharth cried out, and this time Asad just showed his eyes to his little brother.

"Well, that's cool then. You know, some girls like blond guys, and you aren't a blond, but you can adjust with grey hair." Nandini pointed out, and Viren let out a sigh, before sitting beside her.

"What is this, Angel?" Viren questioned, while showing a screenshot of a message in his mobile. Nandini peeked in it, and looked up at him blankly. "You know it was a message to Chote Papa, right? That was supposed to be between me and my Papa." she folded her arms against her chest, while speaking.

"Doesn't matter. We're your brothers." Shivaay said, waving his hand in air. "That doesn't go well with Nandini Murthy's dictionary, you know." She stated, and they squinted their eyes at her. "Not happening." she shrugged off their looks, and they let out a sigh.

"You asked him to bring all our Papas to the airport on the same day Appa and Mishti Ma arrive." Om exclaimed, and Nandini glared at him. "This. This is the reason why I didn't share that plan with you. You guys freak out with every single thing." she threw her hands up in air, and cried out in frustration.

"So? I got grey hairs because of your plans." Sidharth stated, and he received 8 pairs of dagger shooting eyes. "Shut with your grey hairs." they exclaimed in unison, and he pouted. "And we freak out because messing with Yashjeet Murthy is like walking on eggshells." Rudr pointed out, and Nandini nodded.

"And I like to walk on them, because I'm allergic to eggs." she said, and they sighed before settling themselves on the ground. "Not bad. I got the Murthy brothers on the ground, in surrender." Nandini commented. "Yeah. Because we love this walking-talking-time bomb- Murthy." Asad said, and Nandini grabbed onto Viren's hand and got settled on the ground in between her brothers.

"You know I like to play it cool. We need to get done with everything, Bhayyu. Finally, it's time." she said, while leaning onto Rithvik's arm, who looked at her and pulled her towards his chest. "That's a lot scary, you know? DJ...he's not an easy person. It's like playing with fire. Whatever we've been hiding will come out, and we don't even know if he'll...accept Appa, Ma and---" he trailed off, before looking down at his little sister.

"And me." she looked up at him, and then others, who were all looking at her. "It doesn't matter, you know? I don't care if he accept us or not." she looked away, staring elsewhere. "I just want him to know how much wrong he is. I want him to know how much he's hurt my parents. What if I do nothing now, and then I wouldn't have time to regret about it." she mumbled to herself.

"Babe?" Sidharth questioned, tilting his head, and she looked at him, before grinning. "Time waits for no man. I might forget about family reunion, and focus only about myself." she said, shrugging, and they nodded, though they couldn't shrug off that feeling of wary when they heard her speaking about time and stuff.

"So...what happened after the boyfriend machine fiasco?" she changed the topic, and they snorted. "Like you don't know." they replied, and she laughed out, before they joined along.

***

At night

"Wha--" Shravan slipped off his couch, with his juice can nearly slipping off his hand, while Abhimanyu and Arijit stared at their best friend, with their jaws dropped down in shock.

"Uh...Ahem!" Dhruv cleared his throat, before trying to smile at Manik, who was busy running his hands through his hairs, like it was a floor and he was using a sweeper to clean it.

"Bhai? You drunk?" Cabir questioned, frowning, and Manik looked up at Cabir to glare at him.

"Cabir! Shush. Not the time." Abhimanyu whispered to him, who just rolled his eyes at it. "When is ever the time that we could say 'yeah, the time to piss him off', Abhi?" Cabir asked, with sarcasm dripping off his voice.

"Cabirrr!" Arijit called out, glaring at him, and he let out a sigh. "Fine! I give up." Cabir smiled at Arijit, before looking at Manik, who went back to looking around, with his clenched fists and an uneasy expression on his face.

"So Bhai! You drunk?" Cabir asked, again and this time Dhruv smacked him in his head. "Shut it, Biraa!" Dhruv said, and stood up to sit beside an annoyed Manik.

"Bhai! Don't let him bother you. He's just messing with your temper." Dhruv said gently, and Manik looked at him, and then back at Cabir. "Don't look at me, Bhai. You called all of us here, stating its an urgent situation and we get to hear that you're in love with Lilliput?" Cabir exclaimed, and Manik huffed out.

"Yeah. So? How is it equal to being drunk?" Manik questioned, or almost barked out. "Because why should I hear about something I already knew about?!" Cabir cried out, and Manik zipped his mouth shut.

"Wh-What?" he questioned, confusedly and Cabir rolled his eyes. "Well! Let me take a proper seat, first." Shravan said, grabbing Manik's and others' attention. "I slipped, you know. I mean, I knew you were in love with her, but I thought you were dumb enough to never notice it." Shravan added, before sitting beside Cabir, on the couch.

"Wh-How the hell do you guys know it?" Manik questioned, incredulously and both Shravan and Cabir just shrugged.

"You smile at her like a creep."

"You freak out when something bad happens to her."

"You tend to get protective over her when someone says anything against her."

"You go all possessive over her when some guy even looks at her."

"You don't mind holding her hand and walking around."

"You don't like to see her worrying about even a minutest thing."

"You're ready to do anything for her, even if it's to anger Yash Daadu, you don't mind."

"You take care of all her needs, even if she doesn't ask you to."

Shravan and Cabir listed out the reasons, and all Manik did was to stare at them.

"Wow! That's so...smooth." Abhimanyu commented, impressed and Arijit nodded, agreeing to it. "I know right!" Dhruv agreed to it.

"We can point out many other reasons too, without the need to even give a thought about their relationship." Cabir said, shrugging his shoulders, and Manik relaxed back in his seat.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know how I can love two persons at a time. Am I still even love with Shona? I don't know. So how am I in love with Lilliput? I don't know." Manik bent down and threw his face in his palms. "I'm going crazy." he mumbled to himself, and his friends settled around him.

"Buddy!" Arijit kept his hand on Manik's shoulder. "I don't know about love, but I can say that...I've seen true love when I come to visit your family. The affection that Raj uncle has for Nyonika Auntie is always visible in his eyes, and I've always seen the same in your eyes when you talk about Nandini." He added, and Manik looked up at him.

"He's right. You know, that affection was there when you used to talk about Shona too. But nowadays, you don't talk much about her. You've started to talk more about Nandini and what she would want from you." Dhruv said, and Manik looked at his friends, blankly.

"What we're saying is Bhai..." Cabir knelt down and smiled at Manik. "You've fallen in love with your Lilliput way before you realized it, but you didn't accept it because you had a little bit of your feelings for Shona left in your heart. Now that you've realized your love for Lilliput, you decided to forget Shona too." he completed, and Manik bit onto his lips, feeling ashamed of himself.

"It's not bad to fall out of love, Bhai. That happens because you didn't fall entirely in love with someone. You didn't get to have true love with that person. The true love is a forever love. You'll never fall out of love with that person. And maybe you know who's your true love and just-love who's now your ex-love, Bhai." Shravan said, settling beside Manik's feet.

"You just needed a push, and you got that push today, which eventually made you realize that it's Nandini your true love now, and Shona is your past." Abhimanyu said, grabbing Manik's attention, and he let out a sigh before looking at his friends blankly.

"I..." he began, and then sighed. "I feel...happy." he commented, and they smiled heartily on hearing it. "I don't know why, but, when I think about her, Lilliput, I feel so happy. I forget that I was waiting for Shona all this while." he completed, and they pounced on him for a hug.

"That's because you're finally Lilliput's grumpy coffee, and letting go off something that's not meant to be." Abhimanyu replied, and Manik smiled broadly.

"I'm in love with Lilliput." he said, smilingly. "I'm in love with my Lilliput." he yelled out delightedly, and they laughed out with him.

They were happy, though, they were unaware of Nandini's feelings for Manik and their future. A twisted future, indeed, it will be.

***

How was the chapter?

And finally, it begins. The chase to true love!

With love,

Affu.