After dinner, the time to cut the cake finally arrived.

"Come, baby. Let's cut the yummy cake Papa made for you," said Shalini, bringing the cake into the dining room and calling Nila, who was trying to make as much noise as possible hitting her blocks against one another.

"Wow, it looks perfect, Narain," remarked Shiva as he carried Nila to the dining table.

"It might not be that great. Also because I made it today after a long time. I don't know if it might taste good." Narain shifted on his feet in apprehension.

Anuradha remained silent and helped Shalini get the knife and serving plates for the cake from the kitchen.

As soon as everything was set, Narain lit a musical flower candle while Shalini and Shiva helped Nila to cut the cake.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Nila. Happy birthday to you," sang the four adults.

After cutting one piece of the cake, Shalini and Shiva took turns to feed it to Nila. Anuradha and Narain cheered while clapping and clicking photos to capture the moments of Nila's first birthday in their respective mobile phones.

Shalini cut out another piece of the cake and gave it to Nila, prompting her to feed her father.

Nila took the piece from her mother's hand and reached towards her father's mouth. Before Shiva could take a bite of it, she withdrew her hand from his mouth and brought the piece of cake in her hand to her mother's face instead.

"Wait, Daddy didn't get," claimed Shiva while Nila babbled, "Mommy, Mommy."

The couple burst into laughter before Shalini took a bite from the piece and fed the rest of it to Shiva.

Narain and Anuradha watched with a smile. Shiva and Shalini then exchanged places with them.

Anuradha cut a piece of cake and fed a little of it to Nila before Nila took the rest of the piece and fed Narain. Then, it was his turn to cut a piece of the cake and feed it to Nila. Again, Nila ate a little of it before feeding it to Anuradha. Shalini and Shiva watched with wide grins while capturing the moments in their friends mobile phones.

The moment Anuradha tasted the sweet cake, time stopped for her. The cake that was just melting in her mouth, tasted so good. The sweet creamy frosting, the heady savor of cherries exploding in her mouth, and the rich chocolate cake melting into warm sweet nothings overwhelmed Anuradha. It was too delicious; there were no words for her to describe just how mouth-watering it was.

Keeping the mobiles in their hands away, Shiva and Shalini rushed forward as Nila started digging her hands into the cake and playing with the cream.

Shiva quickly carried Nila from behind while Shalini took her daughter's hands out of the cake. Narain and Anuradha laughed, seeing Nila's face and hands covered in a mess of cream.

Shalini carried Nila to the kitchen while Anuradha followed close behind. As Shalini and Anuradha cleaned up the cream on Nila's hands and face, Shiva helped Narain cut a few pieces of the cake and serve it onto plates.

Shalini turned to Anuradha upon returning to the dining room. "The cake is yummy, right?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Just okay?"

"Hmm yeah."

Shalini raised her eyebrow at her friend in disbelief before turning to the cake. "Fine then, I'll have your share too. Black forest cake was not my favourite till now but now it is. So I won't mind having more."

"What? No-" Anuradha reacted before Shiva interrupted, "You said the cake is just okay. So no problem, no one's forcing you to have more. We'll help you and eat it for you happily."

As Shiva and Shalini shared a laugh, Anuradha narrowed her eyes at them.

Without waiting for their response, Anuradha grabbed a plate of the served cake and seated herself to eat it.

"You don't have to eat it." Narain muttered in a low tone, without meeting Anuradha's eyes.

"I will eat it because it is Nila's birthday cake." Anuradha glared at him.

Shalini noticed the apprehension in Narain's face and turned to Nila. "Baby, did you like the cake your Papa made for you?"

"Nam nam." Nila beamed and nodded.

Narain smiled a bit with a slight frown, not understanding what Nila had uttered.

Narain glanced at Shalini who quickly clarified, "She said nyum nyum. That's what she says when she likes her food. She says that even after drinking her milk when she's really hungry."

The four adults shared a smile, watching Nila.

"Papa, I wan mow," chirped Nila, running to Narain and scrambling onto his lap.

"Do you want more cake? Here you go." Narain fed her a little of the cake from the plate he was holding.

Shalini and Shiva shared a smile as they knew their daughter Nila was enough to make their friends merry again.

***

Later that night, after the cake was finished and the mess in the dining room was cleaned up, Anuradha took a stool and stepped onto it to remove the decorations from the walls and ceiling in the living room.

As Anuradha started removing them, Nila ran to her. "Naw Mama naw!"

Anuradha stopped and turned to Nila who quickly pointed at a single pink balloon.

"I wan ballu."

"Do you want that balloon? Sure, Mama will give you." Anuradha quickly got off the stool and moved towards the balloon before stepping onto the stool again to reach the balloon.

She carefully removed the balloon from the wall and descended from the stool to give it to Nila.

"Ballu," chirped Nila, taking the balloon from Anuradha.

"Aww, you can play with it, baby. But if it breaks, don't be scared and you should give it to Mama or Mommy, okay?"

"Oki."

As Anuradha once again stepped onto the stool to remove the decorations, Nila pulled at the end of her dress. Anuradha turned back to her.

"Naw, Mama. I wan."

"What do you want, baby?"

"I wan." Nila pointed at the decoration around the living room.

"No need to remove the deco yet, Anu. Nila likes it," Shiva stated with a smile. "Let it be there for few days. Then, we can remove it."

"Sure." Anuradha smiled as Nila gave her a big hug.

Narain, who was seated in the living room, watched them with a frown.

Had I assumed about her too soon? Maybe she lost her child unintentionally or because of any complication. Watching the way she cares for Nila, I guess I could have been wrong. How would such a woman have the heart to kill her own child?

But Swetha had seemed to like children too. She had always said that she wants to adopt children someday. But the moment she became pregnant, abortion was the first word she uttered. Just for the sake of her career, she was ready to kill our child. Though she listened to my wish and changed her mind then, the word came back to her soon enough and she used it to her advantage. When I tried to change her mind about it then, she changed her mind not regarding the abortion but regarding her love for me.

She tried to separate me from my friends. They wanted me to be happy with her but they didn't know how things and people had changed in our home over the last few months of my life with her. They never need to know any of it. The emotional blackmails and what I finally got after bearing it, I can never forget that no matter how much I try.

It hurts me every single moment, every single day and night but no one has to know that. I don't know which is worse; the change in her, the last few months I bore with her or this lonely life I'm living now. But I loved her. I loved her so much. It broke me when she changed. But I was able to hold myself then as I felt that if her mind could change like that, she never truly loved me.

That moment, all I thought about was the innocent child. I thought my child would be enough but she took it away from me too. She's the only girl to have shown me love and that too ended as fake. I'm not ready to let myself bear that again. I will never fall in love with anyone anymore. Never. Certainly, never again.

When the woman I loved could turn out to be so heartless enough to kill her innocent unborn child, then what can I think about the woman who I never liked? I assumed the worst but I could have been wrong.

Whether she lost her child by doing an abortion intentionally or lost her child without a choice, why do I have to care? If she's responsible for it, let her have at least a little guilt. If it was not on her own will, then let her find some peace in life. I don't care about her. I have my own life to worry about. Let her live as she wish as long as she doesn't cross my path and interfere in my life.

Narain turned to his friends. "Okay, Shiv, Shalini, goodnight. I'll take my leave."

"Okay, goodnight Narain," the couple replied with a smile.

Anuradha also turned to speak to the couple before she left.

Narain looked around for Nila but she was nowhere in sight. As he turned back, he almost tripped over Nila, who had crept up behind him without his notice.

"Hey, careful!" called out Anuradha, reaching forward to catch Nila in case she fell.

Narain and Anuradha held onto Nila at the same moment before she fell.

"Can't you be a little careful? You would have tripped over my baby."

"Your baby? She's my baby too," argued Narain.

"Whatever. She almost fell because of you."

"She didn't fall now. And she wouldn't have fallen because I would have caught her before she fell even if you hadn't."

Nila shifted her glance continuously from Narain to Anuradha and back, confused. Nothing had happened to her for them to argue.

Shiva slapped his hand to his forehead and shared a chuckle with Shalini. "Our entertainment has started."

To be continued...

A/N: Hey peeps, how was the chapter?
Please vote and comment. :)