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“So?” she yelled. “So how does it matter to you? Don’t even try to be my mother.”
Garima clenched her jaw. The girl had no gratitude.
“Drink this,” she offered the glass. “It’s for your hangover.”
Adira didn’t care to take it, so Garima kept it on the side table.
“I am sure you didn’t eat anything last night. You must be hungry. Come out for breakfast.”
“I am not interested in staying here… with you around… And whatever you did last night means nothing to me.”
Adira tried to get up but collapsed on the bed again, having no energy left in her body. Garima crossed her arms. She didn’t assist her because doing so would only enrage the girl more.
“Drink that and come out. Don’t make me call your father and inform him about all of this.”
Adira frowned while Garima made her way out.
******************
“She woke up?” Maya inquired of her mother after emerging from the guest room.
“Yes.”
“You should have told me. I would have taken that juice for her. Why did you go? Mumma, you know she doesn’t like you.”
“She doesn’t like you either,” Garima argued. “But that’s not my concern anymore, Maya.”
Maya sighed in disappointment. “She is not going to change, Mumma. However hard you try to change her.”
“I know I shouldn’t have brought her here in the first place, but I didn’t have a choice. Vivek is out of town, and this girl was risking her life by getting overdrunk on the streets. If Ranveer hadn’t supported me, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“I have talked to Mr. Bajaj,” Ranveer interrupted them. “Told him she is here.”
“You told Vivek?” Garima asked, not so happy about it.
“I did because that’s the basic thing to do, mom-in-law. He would be looking for her otherwise, knowing she didn’t turn up home last night.”
“But he would be mad at her now, and Adira would think I fed his ears.”
“He won’t,” Ranveer declared. “I have asked him to go easy right now. One wrong step, and handling Adira would be difficult for any one of us. Though I am least interested in what she does with her future, I know you care for her. And that’s why I am going to involve myself a bit,” he stated.
“Oh, thank you, Ranveer,” Garima smiled. “Thank you for everything.”
“Mom-in-law,” he paused. “This is your house too, and we are a family. You don’t need to thank me for anything.”
Maya’s heart swelled with pride. Could her husband be any better than this? He was exceptionally handling every relationship well. Who had thought he would give so much importance to his family? He was always so full of himself earlier.
“Yesterday when I saw Adira on the streets... alone... fighting with her own self for other's mistakes, I recalled the times when I faced similar challenges,” Garima continued. “When Vivek couldn’t give me his name, I was broken. I didn’t know what to do with my life. If Maya hadn’t been in my womb, I would have ended my life then and there.”
“Mumma,” Maya cupped her mother’s cheeks. “Don’t recall all that. It’s in the past.”
Garima wiped her tears with a gentle nod. Ranveer couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if Garima had ended her life then. He would have never got Maya in his life, which was unconceivable.
Adira came out of the room, looking really messed up. After taking the hangover cure, she decided to head back to her home. But now that she realized she was in Ranveer Malhotra’s Paradise, that resolve weakened. She came ahead without dropping her gaze from Ranveer's, who had no interest at all in even glancing at her.
“Thank you for last night,” she muttered.
Ranveer’s brow rose. “Thank my mother-in-law. She saved you. She got you here.”
