In the morning, when Ira opened her eyes, finding herself in her bed and faded sound of water coming from the bathroom, she sat up and looked around wondering how she came in her bed. The only thing she remembered about last night was crying in Raksheet's arms and kissing him.
When the visuals of last night and what Pavan said came in her mind, tears collected in her eyes. She covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to cry and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes as she heard the water sound coming from bathroom stopped.
The bathroom door opened and Raksheet came out, wearing his lowers only and water droplets falling from his head to his bare chest and shoulder. He rubbed his hair with the cotton towel and walked towards bed. He smiled at Ira and said.
"Good morning."
She smiled slightly "Good morning. You should have sleep more. You didn't slept well last night. And how am I here? Did you bring me inside?" She asked doubtfully.
"Who else would?" He said and sat down beside her on bed "I brought you inside."
Ira's eyes widened in shock, feeling embarrassed by imagining that her in-laws had seen him bringing her inside the palace in his arms.
"What?!"
Raksheet stopped drying his hair and nod innocently.
"Yes, i brought you inside. What's the problem in it?"
"You should have woken me up instead!" She yelled anxiously.
"Why?"
"Did your parents saw us?" She tried to ask "I mean, did they saw me in your arms when you brought me inside?"
He laughed after hearing the reason of his little wife's worry. He patted her head and answered.
"Don't worry. No one saw us. Only mother was awake when we entered in palace. She is the only one who saw us and trust me, she will not tell anyone about it. No need to feel shy."
"Are you sure?" She asked.
He nod and caressed her cheeks. He kissed her cheeks and gave the cotton towel in her hand.
"Will you Help me?" He turned around, back facing Ira.
She smiled at his request and started drying his hair.
He closed his eyes, feeling relieved that she is not thinking about last night. It would be better if she forget about it. Her crying face and sobbing voice, he still remember it and it makes his heart ache.
He want to beat Pavan so much that he will never dare to misguide his wife. Whatever he said to Ira, it must be haunting her. How can he say something like that infront of her? She is his wife, what will she think after knowing that someone would have married her husband if she wouldn't have come in his life?
He inhaled a deep breath and layed back, resting his head on Ira's chest. He looked at her in eyes and caressed the back of her head, pulling her face close to his.
"What?" She asked.
He leaned forward and pecked her lips. "You are beautiful."
She giggled on his comment "You always say that."
He slightly shook his head, looking in her eyes lovingly "You are looking more beautiful day by day."
After spending some time with Ira and making sure that she is not thinking about yesterday night, Raksheet left to meet his grandfather. He should tell him what happened last night and how Pavan tried to misguide Ira and create misunderstanding between them by lying. And he also want to know if Pavan was lying or not. Did they really wanted to end this enmity by marrying Raksheet to Seya?
"Grandfather, may I come in?" He asked after knocking on the door, catching his grandfather's attention.
"Come, come. When did you came back from Bayar?" Abhiveera asked, gesturing Raksheet to sit on the chair near the window and himself siting on the chair opposite to him.
"Last night." Raksheet replied, sitting on the chair as his grandfather said.
"Last night, it means you didn't had good sleep last night. You should go back to your chamber and take some rest. Ashwant will take care of the work for you." Abhiveera suggested.
Raksheet shook his head "No, it's ok. I had good rest. I am fine."
"That's good then." Abhiveera smiled and asked further "How is Ira? How was the coronation? I hope you didn't faced any difficulty there."
Raksheet sighed deeply and leaned forward on the table. Cupping his hands and resting it on table.
"Grandfather, I want to ask you something."
Seeing the serious look on Raksheet's face and expecting what he want to ask can be connected to Bayar and Bakshi family, Abhiveera replied.
"What you want to ask?"
"Before Ira and my marriage, did anyone from Bayar sent any marriage proposal for me?"
Abhiveera's heart skipped a beat. He didn't expected this question from Raksheet. There was a situation before when Abhiveera thought to do something like this but he didn't tried to do it. And no one knew about it except Ashwant.
He gulped nervously and closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his whole courage, he spoke.
"Not exactly but..." He looked at Raksheet who was curiously listening to him.
"....but what?"
"...but I wanted you to marry princess Seya."
Raksheet felt like an arrow pricing his heart. His grandfather, who always wanted to see him with Ira and asked him to marry her without caring about the future, he wanted Raksheet to marry their enemy's daughter.
"W-Why?" He asked in trembling voice as he can't believe what he just heard.
"Because I wanted to end the enmity. We are wrong at first place. We broke their trust. Because of me, they lost something precious. I can't blame them or can't see them burning in hate for us. If this enmity continues, our future generations may be harmed. Without any fault, they may have to suffer the same punishment as you are suffering. Because of me."
Raksheet closed his eyes, fisting his hands tightly to suppress his anger.
"Did you sent the marriage proposal to them?" He asked, hoping the answer to he 'No'.
"No, I didn't."
Relief washed over him, his heart suddenly felt at ease. He opened his eyes and looked at Abhiveera.
"Did you talked about it with anyone?"
"With your father only." He replied honestly, without hiding anything.
"What did he said?"
"He didn't had any problem. But the way you hate Bayar and Bakshi family, I didn't wanted to offend you more so i dropped that idea. I knew you will never accept Seya to be your wife-"
"Not in this life or any life." Raksheet cut his grandfather's words as it was getting hard for him to control his anger. Whenever Abhiveera was mentioning Seya or their marriage, Ira's crying face was appearing infront of his eyes and making him more angry and hurt.
"Even if I have to die because I don't accept her as my wife, I will die happily rather than accepting her. Only and only Ira can be my wife. No one can replace her. And if someone tried to do that, I will end their life right away without caring who that person is or who is backing them."
A thin smile spread on Abhiveera's face as he remembered that the same line he has also said once but the smile dropped when he remembered that he couldn't stand on what he said and couldn't fulfill it.
"I am sorry Raksheet. I shouldn't have thought that."
Raksheet breathed heavily, controlling his anger. "Last night, Pavan told Ira that they wanted to marry Seya with me to end the enmity."
Abhiveera's eyes widened in shock. Ira had to hear something she shouldn't. How can he say something like this infront of Ira? Abhiveera felt like he again failed, failed to protect someone he cherish a lot. What would she be thinking? She must be hurt. How did this happened?
"What?! He said that infront of her?"
"Not infront of her. He said that TO her when I was not there with her." Raksheet replied, clenching his jaw.
"What?! How dare he?! We didn't send any marriage proposal to them. He was clearly lying!" Abhiveera's eyes turned red in anger. Only the thought of Ira hearing Pavan's lie and thinking she became a barrier in the end of their enmity, made Abhiveera burn in anger.
"He didn't said that we wanted to end the enmity by the marriage. He said they wanted to end it with the marriage. And also said that Seya love me since a long time. She saw me in a political party and fell in love, which is a complete lie. But because he said this all infront of Ira, its hard for me to deal with it. She was crying whole night, asking question to make sure that I love her and will never marry Seya."
Abhiveera closed his eyes and tried to control his anger, not to do anything that will create disaster. Because when he did that last time, it had caused a big fiss. "How is Ira now?"
"Fine....may be. She didn't mentioned it yet. But I am sure she is thinking about it and worrying a lot."