LIFE AS WE KNEW IT

SHOT 26

"So today you are going home. What a pity," the nurse teased Devangana. "We are going to miss seeing that handsome husband of yours."

Devangana gave her a brief smile. She had grown so used to her hospital bedroom these last two weeks, felt so safe there that she felt reluctant to leave.

Everyone had been so kind to her, so protective of her, so ready to reassure her that she was very brave and very lucky. Her worst injury had been the blood she had lost where the metal had pierced her flesh, but even the scar from that would fade in time, the doctor had assured her jovially.

Her back had been badly bruised, so badly that she had been black and blue, but by some miracle, no permanent damage had been done apart from a few fractures of some of her bones, which were thankfully on the way to healing after extensive surgeries.

The scratches that had covered her face had also totally healed, and now the doctor had decided that she was well enough to leave. To go home...

Home to Sathvik and Muskaan.

And at least something good had come out of the accident. When the police had caught up with Kalki at the airport, she had been so terrified that she had willingly agreed to sign a document renouncing any claim on Muskaan. The woman was immediately arrested and sent to prison. The final verdict on the case would be given next week.

Thankfully, the woman's still alive son did nothing to save his mother from imprisonment, and Harsh did everything in his power to make sure that the woman would be locked away for the rest of her life.

Sathvik had told Devangana how much he regretted not simply handing Kalki the money she had demanded, while repeatedly apologising for having put her life in danger.

But, as Devangana had told him, in her opinion all that would have done would have been to convince Kalki that she could continue to blackmail him whenever she chose. And then Muskaan would never have been safe.

"Ready, love?" Devangana nodded with a smile as she watched Sathvik pick her bag up off her bed and hand it over to Khanna, who was waiting by her hospital bedroom. She was sitting on a wheelchair, not strong enough to walk on her own.

She needed extensive physiotherapy to be able to walk properly like before. But she was okay, as long as Sathvik was with her.

He had been there for every single second of the last two weeks, showering her with love and care, which was by far the best medication that helped speed up her recovery.

At her own insistence, Devangana was holding little Muskaan. As soon as she was a little better, Devangana had begged to bring Muskaan to her. She did not want Muskaan to feel that she had lost a mother again.

The two sets of parents had come visiting every day. Her mother had tried to make Sathvik let her stay the night, but Sathvik was adamant. He would not leave the hospital for anything. The only time he would leave her bedside would be to go see her doctor.

Devangana had been dreading the drive back to the Acharya Mansion, but to her surprise, instead of driving her himself, Sathvik got into the back of the car with her after he had strapped Muskaan into her front baby seat, leaving Khanna to drive.

"It's all right, Devangana," he told her quietly, as though he had guessed how she was feeling. "You'll be perfectly safe."

Sathvik wheeled Devangana into their bedroom after dinner that night. His heart still pounded remembering the panic-filled hours he had endured, not knowing what was happening with his wife. Then there was Muskaan, who loved and needed Devangana as much.

In the first hours of Devangana's accident, during her surgery, when Muskaan had been, of necessity, separated from her, she had cried unceasingly and been inconsolable until, in desperation, Sathvik had asked for her to be brought to the hospital.

The moment he had placed Muskaan on the bed with Devangana, much against the hospital protocols, she had calmed down. And he had wanted to do the same thing, get on the bed with his girls and hug them to calm his erratic heartbeats down.

Just like Muskaan, he too wanted the reassurance of having his Devangana close to him. He couldn't imagine what he would have done if something had happened to her. He would have died right along with her.

"Sathvik ji?" Sathvik snapped out of his thoughts when he heard her call out.

"Yes, love," he said, pasting a smile on his face to mask the horrors he had felt for the last two weeks. "Something wrong?" Devangana asked.

"You are with me. What could go wrong?" Sathvik asked with a smile.

"I had you worried, didn't I?" Devangana asked.

Sathvik took a deep breath and kneeled in front of her. He took her hands in his and brought them to his lips.

"I had died every second there, not knowing what was happening with you. I couldn't bear to lose you, Deva. You are my life," Sathvik said as tears pooled at the corner of his eyes, remembering the pain and worry he had endured.

"I am sorry," Devangana said.

"No, no. I am sorry. It's my fault. I brought this into your life. If not for me, you would have been safe," Sathvik said.

"And I would have never known the kind of happiness I found with you," Devangana said, wiping the tears running down his cheeks.

"You brought Muskaan into my life. You brought a set of in-laws who love me like a daughter. Above all, you brought yourself into my life and made me the happiest woman in the world," Devangana said.

Sathvik couldn't find the voice to answer that. He was too overwhelmed. So he acted. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, pouring all his love into it.

"Forever mine," he pulled away slightly and whispered against her lips.

A/N

An epilogue would follow..

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Love,

SF❤️