Married to My Brother-in-Law, In Love with His Brother (Early Acess Ch 21)

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Chapter 21: Between Smoke and Silence

The rain hadn’t stopped.

Neither had the weight in Rajveer’s chest.

The storm outside was only a whisper compared to the one inside him—a cyclone of guilt, grief, and every word he hadn’t said when it still mattered.

He sat in the jeep on the edge of the old sugarcane fields, mud thick beneath the tires, head bowed, rain dripping down his temples like penance.

“I should never have asked her to marry me.”

His voice cracked, barely a whisper, almost inaudible beneath the engine’s low hum.

A bottle of Desi daaru sat unopened on the seat beside him, but he hadn’t touched it.

Not yet.

Pain deserved to be felt raw.

His thoughts wandered—slipping through time like smoke.

Megha.
Her laughter still haunted the courtyards of his mind.
The way she’d smiled through pain.
The way she’d died—giving him a son and taking every trace of color with her.

He never told her he loved her.
Not once.

Duty had always come easier than affection.

And now, Meenal...

He hadn’t married her out of love.
He’d married her for his son.
To give his son a mother.
To give Arun love and stability—a family he never had.

But love?

He hadn’t dared to offer that.
Not when it wasn’t his to give.
Not when he saw the hollowness in her eyes as he tied the mangalsutra around her neck.

Love was a luxury he couldn’t afford, not when the weight of his past still suffocated him. But as he watched Meenal care for Arun with a tenderness he had never known, he wondered if maybe, just maybe, love could find its way back into his heart.

A branch snapped nearby.

He didn’t flinch.

He watched the fog slither over the hills, a damp chill seeping into his bones—just like the haze clouding his heart.

He finally opened the door and stepped out.

The rain soaked through his kurta instantly, but he didn’t care. His jutis pressed into the mud, cold and unforgiving.

He looked up.

And for the first time in years…

He screamed—not for the world to hear, but to shatter the silence that had crushed him for years.

In the loud thunder, no one heard him; he unleashed the anguish he’d buried for years. The sound echoed through the empty hills, a cathartic release of all the emotions he had been holding in for far too long.

In the rain, no one saw the tears streaming down his face, mixing with raindrops as he finally let go of the burden he had been carrying.

The storm raged on, but for once, he didn’t fight it. He let it strip him bare—kneeling, sobbing, surrendering. In the chaos, he found something he’d forgotten: silence could heal, too.

As Rajveer’s scream faded into the storm, miles away, Meenal stirred in her sleep, a sudden unease gnawing at her dreams.

She was sleeping with a book in her hand. Suddenly, she startled awake—the book slipping from her grasp as a sense of unease washed over her.
She didn’t know why.
Only that something in the air had shifted.

She walked to Arun’s room, brushing his curls from his forehead, heart aching with a mother’s quiet ache. She wished she could give him peace without tearing herself apart.

“I’m trying, beta,” she whispered. “I’m trying to be strong for you.”

But where was Rajveer?

He hadn’t come back.

She had seen him getting out of his jeep but didn’t see him return. The worry gnawed at her, making her pace back and forth in the dimly lit hallway, praying for his safe return. A sudden cold prickled at her spine. The shadows seemed thicker, the silence heavier. Something was off.

Aditya, meanwhile, sat alone on the temple steps.
The aarti bell rang softly behind him, but he didn’t move.

He had left the haveli.
But not the past.

Meenal’s voice still echoed in his ears.

“I’m a wife. A mother.”

He respected that.
He hated it.
Most of all, he hated the man he’d become.

But he also knew… Rajveer hadn’t just heard her words.

He saw his shadow passing by the door.
He had felt every one like a blade across his chest.

And now Rajveer was out there.
In the storm.
Alone.

The next morning, a servant brought word:

“Thakur Shahab’s jeep has been found in the fields. Empty.”

The haveli plunged into panic.

“Where is Thakur Shahab?” Meenal’s voice was steady, but her eyes flickered with fear.

“Thakurain, he is in the hospital,” the servant replied, his voice trembling. “He was found unconscious near the riverbank.” Meenal’s breath caught.

She clasped Arun closer, her breath catching—not just from worry, but from a growing dread she couldn’t name. If Rajveer didn’t come back whole, what would that mean for all of them?

Aditya’s eyes widened.

Arun, still half-asleep, tugged at her pallu.
“Maa… where’s Baba?” The question hung heavy in the still morning air, a fragile thread tethering them to a man slipping further away.

In the hospital bed, Rajveer’s eyes fluttered open—dazed, bloodied, and fragile as shattered glass.

******

Author’s Note 💭

Hey, you... yeah, you. 💬

If you’ve made it through Chapter 22, take a deep breath with me.
Because damn. That was heavy. 😔

Writing this chapter broke me a little. Rajveer’s storm wasn’t just outside—it was inside, and I felt every drop of it while writing. The guilt. The grief. The silence. The scream. All of it. Sometimes, pain speaks the loudest in the things we don’t say, right?

And Meenal… oh Meenal. She’s trying so hard to hold it all together for Arun, but I know some of you see through that quiet strength. And Aditya? Complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

💭 Now I’m wondering... what did you feel in this chapter?
Did Rajveer’s scream hit you in the gut?
Did Meenal’s unease stir something in you too?

📣 I want to hear from YOU.

👉 Drop a comment. Tell me your theories.
👉 Leave a 💔 if Rajveer’s pain shattered you.
👉 Drop a 🌧️ if you felt the storm too.
👉 And if you’re silently rooting for Meenal... just hit me with a 💙.

Your reactions, your thoughts, even your silent reads—they mean the world to me. Truly. Thank you for walking through this storm with me.

We’re not done yet.
Hold tight. The next chapter might just change everything. 👀

With all my heart,
— Shaar Shree
#Chapter21 #BetweenSmokeAndSilence #EmotionalReads #Rajveer #Meenal #ReadersMakeThisWorthIt