Boxset: Destiny Decides.. & Destiny Embraces..

by P. G. Van

  “He loved you and you didn’t have the courtesy to say what you said to him over a text message, in person,” I snapped at her.

  “Meera, I don’t have all day. Please step out of the car, or I will get you out of the car myself,” she threatened.

  “Go away, Reetu. I have nothing to say to you,” I said and stared back at her.

  “I know how to get you out,” she said and showed the lug wrench that she was holding in her hands and added, “You either get out with no scratch or let me break the glass on your precious new car.”

  I debated if I should step out of the car but Srini’s words echoed in my head and decided against it. I knew I could buy more time if I stayed in the car. I decided not to let her get me out of the car. I closed my eyes and hugged the steering wheel as I braced myself for the blow on the window from the wrench.

  I pressed down on the panic button on the key fob and waited to be showered by a million pieces of glass. I gathered all the strength in my arms so I could hang on to the steering wheel even if she tried to pull me out of the car. I held my breath and thought about Nick. I remembered his beautiful face when I left him all alone in bed earlier that morning and tears started to run down my cheeks when I wondered if I would be taken away from him.

  I decided to fight, and I opened my eyes looking to my side, and I saw Reetu pulling away from a man a few feet away from the car. I watched in surprise as Reetu wiggled away from the man and ran back to the minivan.

  “Follow that car,” the man said looking to his far right and then came up to the car window, and asked, “Ms. Nick are you okay?”

  I looked at him and realized that he was the guy that was on the patio when the two men showed up on the patio at breakfast. I nodded not trusting my voice.

  “Please stay in the car, Ms. Nick,” he said and pulled out his phone.

  I took a deep breath and shivered realizing that the security team had actually followed me. The idea of security that I found completely ridiculous was what had saved me from Reetu that day.

  I sat inside the car with my eyes closed as I steadied my breathing. A few minutes later, I heard a familiar whirring sound and felt my stomach knot up with anxiety, as I knew it was Nick on his bike. I looked through the windshield as he stopped on the shoulder on the other side of the highway and looked at me. I saw his eyes through the helmet visor and tears started to roll down my cheeks when I saw the pain in his eyes.

  I unlocked the doors and got out running to him as he walked down the trench.

  “Nick, I am so sorry,” I sobbed, as he put his arms around me and added in a shaky voice, “I shouldn’t have left without telling you.”

  Nick took a deep breath and tightened his hold around me and said through gritted teeth, “I had a heart failure when Mitch called me,” and added as he pulled away to look into my eyes, “You will never ever do such a thing no matter who is in trouble.”

  I hid my face in his chest sobbing and heard the police sirens a few minutes later.

  “I wrecked my new car, Nick,” I said against his chest.

  “Least of my concerns, Sameera. I am just glad Reetu didn’t get to you,” Nick growled.

  “Ma’am, are you okay?” the police officer asked as he approached me and added looking at Nick, “Hi, Nick.”

  I looked in surprise that the officer knew Nick on a first name basis and Nick whispered, “Caught speeding too many times on this highway.”

  “We need to talk about that later,” I whispered and turned to smile at the police officer and said, “I am fine, officer.”

  “Nick, is this your new wife?” the police officer asked smiling at Nick.

  Nick introduced me to the police officer and was told that Reetu’s car is being tracked and will be pulled over soon.

  A few minutes later Mitch and Raj pulled over on the shoulder behind Nick’s bike in the Range Rover.

  “Nick, we got her,” Mitch said as he walked down the grassy slope to where we were standing and added smiling, “Thanks to our guys for having the sense to follow the car until the patrol car caught up with her.”

  “Mitch, please remind your Ms. Nick here that the guy she wanted you to punch was the one who came to her rescue,” Nick mocked smiling at me and added, “The guy followed you even though he had strict instructions that your car was for private use only.”

  I smiled weakly and asked, “What is his name?”

  Mitch called out to the man and signaled him over.

  “Ms. Nick, this is Jim,” Mitch said.

  “Hi Jim, thank you for coming to my rescue,” I said smiling at him.

  Nick put his arm around Jim and said, “I owe you big time, Jim.”

  “Just doing my job, Nick,” Jim said in a soft voice.

  “Ms. Nick, you look awfully pale,” Mitch said looking at me and added, “Nick, take her home. I will take care of the car and your bike.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Nick helped me into the passenger seat of the Range Rover, and I looked at the car stuck in the ditch and said, “That car actually braked before I realized what was happening, Nick.”

  “One of the reasons why I considered it in the first place,” Nick smiled as he got into the driver’s seat.

  Nick merged onto the highway, and I called Srini back and he answered within the first ring, “Meera, is Nick with you?”

  “Yes, Srini. So sorry I freaked you guys out,” I said apologetically.

  “We are on our way to you, where are you now?” Srini asked.

  “We just left the accident site and we are headed home,” I said looking at Nick.

  “We are not,” Nick said and added, “We are headed to the ER.”

  “Nick, I am fine,” I objected and when Nick did not budge, I told Srini that Nick was taking me to the ER and passed on the details of the ER that Nick gave me to Srini.

  “We will see you there,” Srini declared and hung up before I could object.

  “Nick, there is no need to go to the ER. I am fine,” I whined.

  “I would like to hear that from a doctor at the ER,” Nick mocked and asked, “Why did you feel so compelled to leave the house?”

  “Oh gosh, I almost forgot,” I said and pulled out my phone to look at the text messages that I received to confirm that I didn’t imagine receiving the text messages from Nate.

  “Sameera, I asked you a question,” Nick said in a stern voice.

  “Sorry, I left to meet Nate because she texted me asking me to meet her at a coffee shop,” I said looking at the text messages and couldn’t believe my eyes.

  “Nick,” I gasped and added, “I did receive the texts on my phone with Nate’s display name because Reetu’s number is saved in my phone as one of Nate’s numbers.”

  “What? How did that happen?” Nick asked surprised.

  “The only plausible explanation to that is that Reetu got hold of my phone at some point and saved her number with Nate’s name in hopes of using it like how she did this morning,” I said taking in a deep breath. “No wonder she called me from an unknown number the night of the wedding when she could not reach you.”

  “I wonder how long she has been planning this, and I wish she had used her creativity for a good purpose,” Nick said shaking his head.

  “Nick, do we have enough to press charges against her?” I asked softly.

  “Oh, yes. You know Sam has a list of charges beginning with not showing up for the wedding,” Nick said laughing.

  “You are kidding,” I said in disbelief and Nick shrugged his shoulder and said laughing, “You never know. He is a pretty bad ass lawyer.”

  Nick pulled into the parking lot of the ER department of the nearest hospital and led me to the check-in area. Nick and I were directed to a screening room for the first round of questions. I lay on the bed as Nick paced around in the small room that was overflowing with the medical equipment.

  “You seem perfectly fine, Sameera,” the ER doctor said smiling at me.

 
“Thanks doctor. Could you please look at my husband and repeat what you just said to me?” I said looking at Nick.

  “I heard her,” Nick said smiling at the polite doctor and asked, “I hope there are no broken bones or internal bleeding.”

  “No internal bleeding and based on your description of the accident, there is no need for an x-ray,” the ER doctor said looking at Nick.

  “I just need to be sure that she has no broken bones,” Nick insisted and added, “Her car hit a tree.”

  “I don’t see the need but if you insist then I can order an x-ray,” the doctor said and added, “I need to know if you are pregnant before I order the x-ray.”

  I looked at her and said, “I am not.”

  “What was the first day of your last period?” she asked as she looked at her notepad.

  When I gave her the date, she looked at me and said, “That was almost seven weeks ago. Are you sure you are not pregnant?”

  “I have very irregular cycles, and I recently got off my hormones so my cycle is delayed,” I said looking at Nick and realized he was holding his breath.

  “I can’t take a chance. I will run a quick test on the blood sample we collected and get back to you,” she said and left the room.

  “Nick, breathe and please don’t get your hopes up. It’s going to take us a while to conceive,” I said as he came to stand next to the bed.

  The doctor came back a few minutes later and said, “I am sorry, Mr. Bhatia. I cannot request an x-ray for your wife,” and added with a low smile, “Congratulations. You are going to have a baby!!”

  “What?” I asked in complete surprise and heard Nick let out a victorious ‘Yes’ as he pulled me to his arms. I laughed in utter shock as Nick chanted ‘thank you’ endlessly.

  “Thank you, doctor,” he said looking at the ER doctor.

  “You are welcome, Mr. Bhatia and congratulations again,” she said smiling and added, “It looks like you have family waiting in the lobby. Would you like to have them sent in?”

  “Yes, absolutely,” I said cheerfully.

  Nick looked into my eyes and said, “Thank you baby. You have given me everything, and I didn’t even have to ask,” he brought his lips briefly to mine and said, “I love you and promise to take good care of you and our baby.”

  I smiled and said, “I still can’t believe that we are going to have a baby.”

  The doctor came back wheeling medical equipment with her, and Srini and Nate walked in behind her looking extremely worried.

  Nick saw Srini and put his arm around him, and said, “Srini, I am going to be a dad and you are going to be an uncle.”

  “What?” Nate asked looking at me, and I saw the expression on her face go from being worried to confused and then an expression of sheer joy and pride as she hugged me breaking down into tears.

  “Meera, I am going to be an aunt. How could you not tell me sooner,” she whined.

  “Nate, we found out a few minutes ago,” I said running my palms on her back.

  “Congrats, Meera and Nick. This is so exciting,” Srini said looking at Nick and came to put his arms around me.

  “When are you due?” Nate asked with excitement.

  “I can tell you if you let me do an ultrasound on her,” the ER doctor said laughing.

  Nate and Srini laughed and stepped back to stand next to Nick. The small room looked crowded as the doctor set up the equipment and applied a gel on the device to perform the ultrasound.

  “You guys can come stand behind me if you like,” the doctor offered, and I smiled when I saw the three of them cram into the small space behind the doctor. Nick kept looking at me instead of the ultrasound as the doctor found the optimal spot to show us the image of our baby.

  “There you go guys, do you see that spot right there?” the doctor pointed to a round gray dot surrounded by darkness on the screen and said, “That’s your baby and the flickering dot you see is the baby’s heartbeat.”

  I saw tears of joy run down everybody’s cheek as they stared into the screen smiling.

  “Oh, wait a minute,” the ER doctor said in surprise and added, “There are actually two heartbeats, look.”

  “Wait, what?” Nick was the first to react and ask, “What does that mean?”

  “Twins, Mr. Bhatia. Two babies!!” she laughed looking at everyone’s shocked expression.

  Nick put his arms around the doctor and said, “Thank you doctor. You are the best,” and added, “Please get out of my way so I can kiss my wife.”

  The small room resonated with the shouts of joy from Srini and Nate as Nick’s lips came down on mine with so much tenderness and love that I knew I had to be the luckiest woman on the planet.

  “Please contain your celebrations. We have other patients that are in real pain,” the doctor said as she left and added, “I will get the paperwork ready to send you home.”

  Almost an hour later, we pulled into the main driveway of the family residence and Nick stopped in front of the main entrance instead of pulling into the private garage. Srini and Nate pulled in right behind the Range Rover in Srini’s sports car.

  “Nick, why are we going through the main entrance?” I asked as he led me up the wide semi-circular staircase by my hand.

  “Because we are going to tell everyone about the babies,” Nick said with excitement.

  Raj came to the double doors looking worried and asked, “Why did you go to the ER? Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, Raj. Where is everybody?” Nick asked walking past Raj.

  “They are all in the family room,” Raj said with a puzzled expression.

  Nick walked into the family room and stood looking at the family that was gathered and smiled at them. He turned to look at Srini and Nate and said, “Nethra and Srini, please take a seat. You too, Raj.”

  Nick looked at the dozen people that were gathered including Mitch and PammiMa’s entire family and said in a soft voice looking at his mom and dad, “Sameera and I are going to be parents,” and added interrupting the cheers and said, “I need a double cheer because we are having twins!!”

  The large family room overflowed with laughter and cheers of joy as the celebrations continued into later that afternoon.

  *****

  “Third time’s the charm,” Nick said smiling at me as he sat on the chair in the bathroom later that night.

  “Yes and you promised you will behave,” I said, as I got ready to shave his beard and mustache.

  Nick and I were both in our terry robes after showering together, and I smiled at him remembering how he worshipped my body with his lips.

  “Are you sure you want to do this. I can maintain this look for however long you want it,” Nick said as I lathered up the shaving cream with the brush and added, “I totally enjoyed the fired-up side of you.”

  I giggled and said, “I thought it was your beard that was driving me nuts, but it was the pregnancy hormones, Nick.”

  “Really? I had no idea there were those benefits to having a baby, babies, I mean,” Nick teased.

  “Yes and from what I have heard, pregnant woman have better orgasms,” I said laughing at his foamy face.

  “This is another good piece of information,” Nick said looking at me.

  “Okay, hold still. I am going to start,” I said in a soft voice as I took the blade to his cheek.

  Halfway through the shave, Nick looked at me with mischief in his eyes and asked, “When do you think we made the babies?”

  I looked at him and asked in a puzzled tone, “What?”

  Nick pulled on the robe tie to open up my robe to reveal my abdomen. He took the shaven side of his face to my tummy and asked, “Do you think it was on our special nights or on our hot nights?”

  I laughed and said, "I don't know, maybe both since we are having twins.”

  "You have a point, Mrs. Bhatia,” Nick said running his freshly shaven skin to my belly.”

  "Nick, I never thought this day would come so soon with my cycl
e being so weird,” I said cheerfully.

  "I am so thrilled, you have no clue,” he said looking up at me as he ran his palm over my tummy and added, "Especially when I was woken up to Mitch screaming frantically on the phone this morning.”

  "I am sorry I put you though so much pain, Nick. My heart broke just thinking about how sad you would be if…” my voice trailed off when I saw the pain in his eyes again. The same pain I saw earlier that day when he came to get me after my car had rolled down the slope of the trench.

  "I do not want to think about it,” Nick declared showing me his cheek and signaling me to finish shaving his beard.

  Thirty minutes later, I looked at the face I fell in love with less than an year ago and said, "That's the face of the father of my babies.”

  "I can't wait for your tummy to grow,” Nick said pulling me to him.

  I felt the naked softness of his lips on my lips after such a long time and realized how good they felt on my skin. I leaned forward to dig deeper into his mouth with my tongue and felt the thrill deep inside my stomach.

  I pulled back and looked down at my tummy and said, "You know why I called Srini this morning on my way when I thought I was going to meet Nate?”

  Nick looked at me with a puzzled expression and I said, "I saw the fog descend over the hills, and I got reminded of the patio episode and felt a pain deep in my tummy. Nature's way of warning you of danger I guess.”

  "Something called destiny,” Nick said standing tall and added, "I thanked all the gods out there that Srini answered your phone that early in the morning.”

  "I freaked out when I saw Reetu,” I said tears gathering in my eyes and added as he took me into his arms, "I thought she would do something to me, and I would never see you again.”

  Nick rocked me in his arms and said, "I need you to stop thinking about what has not happened and focus on what is sure to happen. Why don't you go get ready for bed? I will finish up and see you in a few minutes.