10. Mall

                                    

                                          
Radhe Radhe readers💙🦚✨,
Author
The evening wasn't as quiet as the morning. The Rajvanshi mansion bustled with the arrangements of another party. The radiance and vibrance of the party pushed the whole house into a new fit of Chaos. Everyone busy with their own set of work. Except for two souls, Akshara and Adhiraj.
Akshara stretched her body getting up from the long session of her afternoon nap. But at that instant, the memories of today came crashing down her memory lane. Remembering her father's helpless face her heart wished to forgive yet before she could, her rational mind stopped her. She huffed "Huh! Baat bhi nhi krungi mai uss akdu se"
She got down the bed and moved out of the room for lunch. Everyone was present except Adhiraj and Atharav. Everyone ignored Akshara's presence except her family. Reyansh grinned seeing her and made her sit between him and Akarsh, "Jag gyi meri shona?"
Akshara smiled at him nodding. Reyansh puts an arm around her shoulder, dragging her chair near him. "Neend acchi aayi?" Akarsh asked cheerfully to which Akshara was about to nod again but stopped when Adhiraj entered with Atharva taking their seats.
Adhiraj glanced at his princess, who had not even spared him a look since he entered the room. Instead, she was laughing and talking to Akarsh. He didn't know why but deep down he felt a surge of jealousy mixed with sadness surge up his heart. He felt upset for scolding his princess.
Adhiraj cleared his throat slightly to gain her attention. But to his luck everyone looked at him except her, "Princess pass the jug" Adhiraj said, gesturing towards the jug kept beside her, again attempting to gain her attention. Akshara stopped eating for a minute and slightly tugged the jug towards her elder brother Reyansh.
Reyansh not wanting to escalate the situation, knew what his sister wanted and passed the jug to his father. Adhiraj and Shivani shared a look of disbelief, not expecting such a response from their daughter. Others on the table had the same look of utter distrust in their eyes.
"Princess" Adhiraj again called out with a smile etching on his face but it soon dimmed when he got no response in return. Akshara ate the last bite and went into the kitchen to keep her plate. Everyone had each other look but no one dared to utter a word. 
Adhiraj felt something breaking in his chest, he just wasn't able to handle his daughter's ignorance. He wanted to hold her and utter sorry till her heart found content and she again called him out as 'Papa'. After years of separation from his little princess, again not hearing her voice and giggles was falling hard for him. 
Adhiraj frustratedly twisted his spoon upon the dish, "Sab log apne khaane par dhyaan do". He ordered coldly sending shivers down everyone's spine except his family. Till now everyone was enjoying the father-daughter banter but after this, they knew that Adhiraj wasn't in a good mood now. Better not to put their lives into the hands of hungry lion.
As Akshara came out of the kitchen, Adhiraj tried to stop but she without even turning back dashed out of the dining room.
-×-
In the evening, Akshara was roaming in the corridor reading her history boo while twirling a pen in her other hand. She was marking out some important points to study before her approaching pre-boards. All the chaos in her family had really disturbed her studies, leaving her with only a little time to prepare for her studies.
"The two main objectives of the early nationalists were..."She trailed off her sentence feeling a tap on her shoulder. She tore her gaze away from her book, turning around to look at the person. Her body stiffened finding her father standing in front of her, folding his arms to his chest.