Page 28 of Substitute Bride

HER FEAR

Jhankar just keeps looking at Vikrant, shocked after hearing this.

At the same time, certain things start becoming clearer to her because she knows her brother very well.

Her brother holds a deep affection for his family, but he also understands the importance of a child to a father.

She is well aware of Vyom's deep love for children. Everything is becoming crystal clear before her eyes now. She also realizes that when they suddenly found out a month ago that Sonakshi was pregnant, everything must have happened very hastily. Probably neither of them had the time to think things through. That’s why they decided to run away as soon as possible rather than terminate the pregnancy.

Vikrant approaches Jhankar after noticing her in a state of shock and seeing her staring at him.

Vikrant stands near her, and she starts looking at him even more intently. The ease with which he is sharing everything is even more surprising to her.

"How are you able to convey all this so effortlessly? I’m not sensing any emotions from you. I mean, you were going to marry this girl, and she’s pregnant. Don’t you feel cheated or jealous at all? After all, you were going to marry her—didn’t you have any feelings for her?”

Vikrant looks deeply into Jhankar’s eyes and replies:

“I was never in love with Sonakshi. We’ve known each other since childhood because our families were acquainted.

Because of this, our marriage was arranged by both families.

There wasn’t much time between our engagement and all this happening for us to understand each other or fall in love.

Sonakshi never told me she loved anyone.

I only met her two or three times before the wedding—twice with the family and once alone. She was my father’s choice.”

Jhankar chuckles softly at his words, then shifts her gaze, studying him before speaking.

“Are you a little strange, or are your actions strange? I would never want to marry a man I don’t love or even like.

If my family chose someone for me, I would definitely want to get to know him first before making such a major life decision.

I would not allow such a decision to be made lightly.

After marriage, either he might resent me or I might resent him.

It’s better to argue before marriage and make decisions after understanding each other.

Love marriages can also end in strained relationships, but I want to thoroughly understand my future husband before marriage.

I don’t know what kind of world you live in, where you didn’t even want to know anything about your wife—you just went to marry her. ”

Vikrant watches Jhankar carefully as she speaks with her usual rhythm.

Suddenly, she falls silent, realizing that she herself is already married to a man she didn’t know at all.

She had just been talking about knowing a partner before marriage.

She suddenly feels uncomfortable with the situation and starts to leave, but Vikrant immediately says:

“It’s every girl’s dream to marry someone after knowing them. It’s every boy’s dream too.”

When Jhankar turns to face him, he puts both hands in his pockets, looks directly at her, and speaks:

“I neither believe in marriage nor do I like to trust anyone, so whatever you say is useless for me… Most importantly, I hate cheaters the most.”

After saying this, Vikrant walks away, and Jhankar can only watch him leave.

~~~~

Sharda starts looking at all the workers serving breakfast in her room. She speaks while seated.

“I was just coming out; why did you all bring breakfast here?”

“Because I said…”

Vikrant enters with a smile and responds to Sharda. She is surprised to see him because she had gone to sleep early last night and didn’t know when he had returned home.

“You? How is Jhankar? She’s absolutely fine, right?”

Vikrant pauses for a moment. It’s the first time in many years that Sharda has shown interest in someone else’s well-being rather than his.

But he understands that her anger towards him is also filled with deep love.

The more she tries to express her resentment, the more her eyes fill with affection.

Ignoring everything, he sits beside her and says,

“Jhankar is fine, and she’ll be here shortly because I told her that breakfast is being served in your room. Today, we’ll have breakfast with you, and then we’ll return to the hospital. So, we want to spend any free time with you.”

"You should spend as much time as possible with your wife so that you can understand each other better.”

Sharda looks closely at Vikrant, who nods in agreement, but she knows very well that, for Vikrant, all this is just an act for a few days. So, Sharda continues and tells him:

"And your effort should be that the more she tries to keep herself busy, the more you should try to break that busyness and make her focus on you. Often, when one tire of a car gets punctured, the car can still reach its destination with the help of the other tire. Sometimes small efforts don’t work—more effort is needed.

You should help her in everything because she is your wife.

The effort should always come from your side, because the mistake started from your side. ”

Jhankar enters the room, but upon hearing Sharda’s voice, she stops. She doesn’t understand why, but she wants to listen to the conversation between Vikrant and Sharda. She hears Vikrant’s voice:

"I regret everything I’ve done to Jhankar, and I want to help her in every way I can. But you don’t need to worry about us. Everything is absolutely fine between us.”

As soon as Jhankar hears this, she looks inside and sees Vikrant sitting there with his usual stern expression. But at this moment, there’s a strange softness in his eyes that she has only seen in Sharda’s presence. After hearing his words, Sharda smiles lightly and responds immediately:

“I just want to see both of you joyful and smiling together, but there’s always some issue or the other. She’s also quite upset, and I hope you’re not troubling her.”

Vikrant takes a deep breath, and seeing him do so, Jhankar finds it difficult to stop herself from laughing. She enters the room and says with a smile:

“How are you, Aunty?”

“I’m seeing you after so many days.”

Sharda cheerfully opens her arms to Jhankar with a warm smile and hug.

Vikrant watches them closely, and seeing Sharda’s affection for Jhankar makes him a little jealous.

He turns his face away to avoid them, and Jhankar notices this too, which again makes her stifle her laughter. Then Sharda softly tells her:

“He’s been like this since childhood—once he accepts someone as his own, he doesn’t want to share them with anyone else. That’s his biggest problem. Now, if I show you even a little affection, he gets jealous.”

Vikrant looks at Sharda, and she laughs. Seeing him react like this, Jhankar also laughs out loud. Vikrant, ignoring them both, begins serving his breakfast and focuses entirely on eating.

~~~~

“Set the whole world on fire; do whatever you want.

I don't care. I want that boy in front of me. I want to tear him into pieces so badly that even his family members won’t be able to find his nails—and I will do all this in front of my daughter's eyes, who has left me with no way to show my face anywhere. "

This voice echoes loudly throughout the hall, causing his wife—standing nearby—to become terrified, while ten men stand there with their heads bowed. The man looks at them and shouts furiously.

"Why are you all standing here like fools?

I still can't understand how you people haven't managed to find those two idiots. Until today, there’s never been a case where we tried to find someone and failed. Even if he was hiding underwater, we’ve always managed to locate him.

So why is it taking so long to find Sonakshi and Vyom? "

“Chandel sir, Vyom and Sonakshi are nowhere to be found. It seems as if they are not even on this earth. They have a lot of cash with them—maybe that’s why they’re avoiding transactions, which is making it hard to trace them.”

“What do you think? Speak quickly—I don’t have time to waste.”

“Someone is trying to protect both of them. We’ve checked our entire network, but they’re nowhere to be found. The only reason for this must be that all traces of them have been completely erased. You know who has the power to do something like this, but I don’t understand why he would do it.”

“You mean to say that Vikrant Dhanraj is behind all this?”

The man nods. Viren Chandel begins to contemplate deeply and immediately pulls out his phone.

“Hello, Vikrant… I want to meet you.”

“I’m busy.”

Before Viren Chandel could say anything further, Vikrant disconnected the call, leaving only the beeping sound, which was enough to ignite his rage.

~~~~

Jhankar is feeding soup to her father, who is drinking it with great difficulty because he’s struggling to prepare himself to eat such bland food.

He’s a big fan of delicious meals and doesn’t like plain food at all.

Seeing the expressions on his face, Chitrali can’t stop laughing, which makes Vikrant, who was working intently, also look over at Raghunath, who seems completely helpless with the soup.

Raghunath immediately turns his face away and mutters,

“I can’t take this poison anymore.”

“This is not poison; you have to eat it—eat it quietly. After that, the doctor will come to inject you. Go to sleep quietly—there’s no need to act like a child.

Every time I see you, you’ve gotten fatter from eating good food and shakes.

From now on, your wife will tell you not to cook anything tasty; otherwise, your obesity will increase even more. ”

Chitrali, listening to both father and daughter, immediately chimes in.