It has been 5 years since Abhimanyu was born and Pratap became the king. And it has been 5 years since Anamika and Pratap became parents. Many things changed and some didn't change.

Abhimanyu is spending more time with his grandfather nowadays since his health is deteriorating with old age. And he is upset that he has only less time to spend with his grandson whom he got after years of yearning. And his grandson may not even remember him when he will grow up.

Pratap, on the other hand, felt how ignorance felt like. But he willingly chose this for himself, so no point of pondering over his sadness. He never misses to gift her for their anniversaries or other occasions in these five years. Though she acknowledged his gifts just formally, he used that as a reason to spend more time with her apart from spending time with their son.

Anamika can see his efforts to compensate for the previous times. But the wounds are still afresh. Still she tries not to be rude for the sake of her son. The insecurities caused by certain 'What if?' is stopping her from accepting his gifts or efforts whole-heartedly.

What if Saudamini was alive? What if he finds another women more attractive than her? What if he wants more sons? What if he didn't like her looks after some time? Would he still try and do all these efforts? Only time can answer her questions. But Anamika has already spent ten years believing somethings which cannot be changed in just five years.

Pratap's father was aware of all the efforts his son is making towards reconciling with Anamika. Learning how to cook her favorite dishes, in between his busy schedule and it's only the previous year that he was able to cook it properly and presented it to her without exposing himself. It's only after that dinner, Anamika came to know about this through her head maid since it was not that burnt food he cooked years ago. Though she was happy, she didn't acknowledge him regarding that, which even he didn't expect.

Previously, when Pratap entered Anamika's chamber after the war expedition, he saw that the flowers decorating the chamber were not her favorite. Although she said that her choices changed over time, he knew that it was not the truth. She avoided her favorite flowers since they reminded her of him. During the first five years of their marriage, he will send her favorite flowers everyday even if he didn't get time to visit her. And when he stopped sending, she was hurt. From there on, she stopped keeping any kind of expectations so that it will not hurt when unfullfilled.

But in these five years, there was never a day when Anamika didn't receive flowers from him. Although she doesn't keep them in her chamber, she keeps that in Abhimanyu's room.

Even if the workload is heavy for Pratap and he couldn't spend his usual time with Abhimanyu, he will never miss to visit Anamika's chamber once and have a look at her and their son before retiring for the day. Even if Anamika knows that he is there in her chamber, she would pretend to sleep.

Anamika has still not used the swing but if Abhimanyu wants to play in the swing, she would just push it from behind but never sat in that.

It was after dinner when Anamika was playing hide and seek with Abhimanyu, after he came back from his grandfather. Pratap came to her chamber at that time since he got some time. "Maasa, cwatch me", saying so Abhimanyu was running around the chamber while Anamika was blindfolded. Pratap is watching this with a smile on his lips. "Where is my Sher(Tiger)?", Anamika was searching Abhimanyu.

After a few minutes, Abhimanyu felt tired of running around so he decided to hide from his mother. He has still not seen his father standing at the entrance of the chamber. He went and hide behind the curtains. Sensing no sound of his feet running, Anamika found out that he is hiding, that too behind the curtains because that's his usual place.

Anamika opened the curtains saying, "Found my Sher". Abhimanyu screamed loudly with his hands covering his eyes. Both Anamika and Pratap laughed at him. Then only both mother and son saw him standing there. "Babasa!", Abhimanyu shouted and ran to his father.

Since Abhimanyu is spending comparatively less time with his father than with his mother, he get excited whenever his father comes to him. Picking him up, Pratap walked inside the chamber and then he played with his son for sometime before Abhimanyu slept due to tiredness, as it was past his sleeping time.

While looking at his sleeping figure, Pratap said, "His innocence will be gone soon". Since Abhimanyu is nearing five years of age, he will soon start his basic trainings in all the fields. Once he reached 13 years, he will be sent to Gurukul(residential teaching, where parents and children will be separated for years till they gain excellency).

Anamika couldn't help but agree with what Pratap said. Being the only male heir and yuvraj(Crown Prince) is not easy and she has seen that in case of Pratap as well.

Among all this, Abhimanyu never knew that he had one more grandmother apart from Sunaina. Even during family dinners, his paternal grandmother was forbidden from interacting with him.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hi All,

It is a rather short chapter(1000 words) compared to the previous ones(1500 words) . Since I promised a chapter before Sunday, I'm publishing today itself. But the next and final chapter will be long. And I'm planning to update on Monday since I have a holiday.

So, I got offers from two companies. I'm really happy.

Do vote and comment, if you like the chapter.

Thanks,

SM.