The curt knock at her door pulled Kriti out of her bed whilst supporting her lower abdomen with her left hand.

"Aniket?" she asked when her confused eyes met those of the man who made her heart buzz in a frenzy rhythm, bereft of rationality and worry.

"I just wanted to thank you, Ritz. Thank you so much, Ritz, for giving me the best gift of my life. You do not know how happy you have made me. I will remain indebted to you."

He cupped her jaw with the tenderest of touches, almost tickling her with his fleeting and tantalizing touch, to place a firm kiss in the partition of her hairline. The way she had clenched her eyes shut, with an exuberant crimson hue splayed across her cheeks and glowing with the radiance brought upon by the gravid state, had endeared her to him more than ever.

An overwhelming urge to rest her head against his chest, but Vivek's words came along as a tidal wave and brought along a melancholy which drowned her.

She could not bring herself to say anything in response to him. She had not imagined in the wildest of her nightmares that the one whose sincerity had endeared her had planned and executed a con, which devastated several gullible people. How could she spurn away the advances of doubt and mistrust which appealed to her saner part?

"Something worrying you, Ritz?" he asked. "Just worried because it is a new place. It will take a while to acclimatize. That's all," she said, not wanting to share her inner turmoil.

"Whenever and wherever you need me, I will be there. It's a promise," he vowed, dropping his hands to her hands and intertwining their fingers together.

The honesty which laced his tone and the affection which he showered on her through his eyes combined with his words to overwhelm Kriti and dispel the distrust lingering in her consciousness. She flung herself into Aniket's arms and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Aniket encircled his arms around her and pulled her closer, feeling more at home than ever. Her straightforwardness and ability to love without expectations had always stood out to him, but being in her arms as the father of her unborn, it was worth every sin and every crime.

The tune which his heartbeats sang out lulled her into a solace which she had found only in her father's loving arms. Protective and patient, her father knew how to erase every worry. Only her father was just hers. But Aniket? He was never hers to begin with.

"I am sorry," said Kriti, pulling out of his embrace with a jerk, and looked in every direction, except his. She did not want to entangle herself further before she unraveled the webs of mystery surrounding the man.

"Don't," he said, mistaking her hesitance as reluctance to express her affection for him. "I understand, Ritz. Never apologize for loving someone. Sometimes, your love can give them a reason to live, and sometimes it is the only thing which stops them from giving up," he said with a faint half-smile.

Kriti gave a curt nod at him, pulling the edges of her lips into a smile to avoid furthering the conversation. "Good night, Ritz. May every dream of yours be sweet and come true," he said, turning around on his heel and making his way to the mahogany door.

"Good night, Aniket," she said with a smile that failed to make the apples of her cheeks swell. She had little reason to believe her dreams would have joyous undercurrents, considering the suspicion that plagued her mind. Her fingers wrapped around the curve of her lower abdomen and she let out the breath she had held.

The vision ahead offered her sparse hope, but she would not let the darkness awaiting them touch her baby. No matter the torment or the repercussions.

_________________________________________________________

The intangible wall between them never seemed more insurmountable than it did in those moments of being seated as the audience for the wedding. They seemed as distant as they were proximate and it so appeared that their sprinkling of flower petals on the new couple was the only way in which they were truly in sync with one another.

It felt ironic to Ashna that the one unfortunate incident, which had made her idol for the public, was the one which her husband held against her. She had planned and executed several meticulour attempted innumerable times to put the past behind them, not realizing that every incident aided in the building of the invisible wall between them.

"This was us, just a few months back, remember?" muttered Aniket, gazing at the wedding rituals being carried out, bittersweet tide of nostalgia washing over his consciousness. His hands found their way to hers, and intertwined his fingers with hers with a hesitance that burned through her.

She turned her stare from the excited new couple to her husband. It took every bit of the acting she had learned over the years to prevent the tears stinging her eyes from escaping the constraints and rolling down her cheeks.

"Yes. I can never forget that day," she replied in a hoarse whisper, sad smile tugging at the edges of her quivering lips.

"I wish, we could relive that day, once again. It seems to be ages ago. So much turbulence, and so many emotions. I don't know what went so wrong..." he trailed off awkwardly, sighing deeply in disappointment.

"Neither do I. I wish I knew," she exclaimed, leaning into his warmth and resting her head against her shoulder, and he placed his own head over hers sideways. She looked at their entwined fingers longingly, hoping that someday they would be as close emotionally as they were physically, as they were in the bygone era.

"I wish I knew, Aniket. I wish I did, so I could set it right for you. For us. I hope it is not too late."

Ashna's musing was met with a resounding silence. Aniket's smile behind the glass mocked at her. The many notifications flooding her phone obstructed the view of her husband, making a crinkle form at the root of her nose.

"This is the cafe you would visit together before your marriage, isn't it?" asked Preeta, eying the bustling cafe through the glass of the Mercedes-Benz. Ashna hummed in reply, biting back her tears, which clogged her throat.

"We would visit the cafe for their cappuccino almost every day. Aniket and I would share the happenings of the day sipping that coffee. There were no secrets amidst us and one day, I wake up and realize we no longer know which is a secret and what just needs asking, because we just didn't share our thoughts anymore. We just talked," she said.

The sardonic smile and the anguish glistening in her eyes pushed Preeta to place a reassuring hand over her shoulder. But Preeta knew better than to lie to herself. Things had changed. Diametrically. Whether or not the change was reversible remained to be seen.

__________________________________________

Lack of communication has killed more relationships than one can count.

We are more than half way through the story. What do you think of the dynamics between the trio?