"Hm... I didn't, will have now", he said, he is about to ask about her when he heard Ragini's voice...
"Gosh Ishu... it's lunch break but you are on phone from the past one hour... come and have lunch baby", Ragini who came with a lunch parcel said, and Isha signed her to stay calm and let her talk...
"Who were you talking to, for an hour??", Abhyansh asked, and Isha sighed at his jealousy...
"Bhai...", she answered, and she is sure her husband must be fuming right now...
"Why did you call him?? What's the need to...", Abhyansh started but Ragini said something again...
"Ishu... I know you are on an important call, so how about this?? I'll feed you while you can talk", Ragini said slowly but Abhyansh heard...
"No", he sternly told in the phone and Isha sighed...
"Ragini, go and continue with your lunch, I'll join in 5 minutes... please", Isha said, Ragini nodded and went away understanding the serious situation looking at her friend's serious expression...
"Maharaj... bhai was worried about me, I didn't talk to him for a week, so I had to assure him I'm fine", Isha said answering his previous questions...
"Who will assure me that you're fine?? Even I didn't see you from a week", Abhyansh said intentionally...
"You already saw me in the morning, I'm fine, that's not the case with bhai, he is afraid of you hurting me, what are you afraid of??", Isha said but as soon as she realized her words, she closed her eyes in regret, she didn't mean to hurt or offend him...
Her words didn't hurt him, they just showed him a reality, he was determined to never let her miss her brother when he realized she is gonna miss him... but what he did is much worse... he had left her alone in that closed room with no one to talk or nothing to do other than cry over her fate, suddenly his heart started aching badly for her...
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you Maharaj... have your lunch, I have to go now, bye", Isha said and hung up leaving him to deal with the ache caused by her distress.
Isha didn't like hurting her husband at all... she sat there when Ragini again came there...
"What's wrong... who is on the call??", Ragini asked looking at Isha's worried face...
"My husband...", Isha answered staring at nothing in particular...
"And you didn't answer for my first question?? I asked what's wrong?? Or Is it the same answer for it as well??", Ragini asked and Isha nodded in yes... "what did he do??", Ragini asked
"We both are hurting each other but we don't intend to... I want to go to him, and erase all his worries but he wouldn't allow me... He hides everything from me, how am I supposed to help him??", Isha shared her worries vaguely with her friend...
"Give him some time more, maybe he needs time to trust you", Ragini suggested
"He trusts me Ragini, I don't know what's stopping him from sharing his worries", Isha wondered...
"You never know Isha, people say we women are the most difficult to understand but actually, men are difficult to understand, especially emotionally unavailable or emotionally damaged men are really very very hard, they seem like they trust you, but they have their own doubts, their fears are not always about telling us the truth, sometimes it's about how we react or respond to it scares them more... I don't know what kind of a person your husband is, but by your description, I feel he comes under this category... so wait for it...", Ragini advised
"Till now, I thought I could wait for any amount of time for him to open up but now I think I'm losing patience, if it's only about waiting for the truth I could do it... but when I'm receiving punishments without knowing why I'm being punished, I feel so hurt Ragini, I'm deeply wounded, I'm scared to even breathe as sometimes I feel maybe me taking breath too has someconnection with his past and it would offend him...", Isha said and this is the first time, Ragini is seeing a damaged Isha, not the soul-filling, happy going Isha...
"What do you mean by punishment Ishu??", Ragini asked carefully... "is that ba**ard hurting you physically?? What if he works closely with the king?? Would he become a BEAST like him?? King has his own reasons to become like that but I'm sure even the king won't be treating his wife that way...", Ragini blasted in anger...
"Ragini, calm down, don't use such words for him please, and no, he isn't hurting me physically, there are other punishments apart from hurting us physically... but I think what I did is extremely wrong, and he is suffering a lot because of it... I can see it Ragini, but how would I know what to do and what not to do?? For the first time, I took a decision all by myself, with the way he was behaving with me these days, with the amount of love he has for me, I thought I could convince him, but all my hopes shattered, I could never imagine his reaction... the fact that I don't even know why I'm being punished is tormenting me", Isha said, tears falling down confirming her pain...
Ragini just hugged Isha not knowing how to console her friend...
"Ishu, what do you mean by punishment?? Did your one-week absence has anything to do with it??", Ragini asked after Isha calmed down...
"I'll tell you the truth when the time comes Ragini, now come, we have work to do", Isha said getting up...
"Oh madam, wait... you didn't have lunch, let's go", Ragini said
"I don't want to Ragini", Isha said with a smile and left to continue with her work...
Ragini sighed and went to continue with her own work, but inside she is deeply worried for her friend... Isha is like a family to her and she doesn't want her to suffer like this... with her soft nature and kindness, any man would look after her very well, and by Isha's words, she can interpret that her husband too cares for her a lot, loves her a lot then why is he hurting her like this?? Wondered Ragini