Married to My Brother-in-Law, In Love with His Brother (Early Acess Ch 25)

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✍️ Chapter 25: Things Left in the Quiet

The haveli woke slowly, as if unsure it wanted to.

Muted light slanted across the hallway floors, dust motes drifting in lazy spirals through the still air. Somewhere in the distance, a milkman’s bell rang. A dog barked. Then, silence again.

Meenal stood in the kitchen, mechanically boiling milk for chai. The milk boiled over, spilling onto the stove in a sudden hiss. And trying to break the eerie silence, she turned on the radio, filling the empty spaces with the familiar hum of music. The aroma of cardamom and ginger wafted through the air, mingling with the quiet morning stillness.

She could hear Rajveer in the living room. Not talking. Just existing.

The clink of a cup on wood. A page-turner.

She hated how familiar that silence had become.

Three years.

Three years of brushing past each other in hallways. Three years of being married without being anything at all.

She wiped her hands on her pallu and walked out, two cups of chai balanced on a copper tray. She hesitated in the doorway.

He was seated on the divan, sling still around his shoulder, yesterday’s exhaustion still clinging to the shadows under his eyes.

He didn’t look up.

She cleared her throat softly. “Chai.”

He glanced over, then nodded once. “Hmmmm,”

No “thank you” today. Maybe yesterday had just been a miracle.

She placed it on the table and sat across from him, but not close. The air between them stretched tight, too much history and too little intimacy to fill it.

He took a careful sip.

She took none.

Finally, she asked, “Did you… sleep?”

He paused. “Not really. You?”

She shrugged. “A little.”

They both looked away at the same time.

It would’ve been comical if it weren’t so tragic.

From the corner of her eye, she watched him wince slightly as he shifted. Her instinct twitched—to adjust the cushion, to help—but her hands stayed in her lap. Three years of living like strangers had carved a silence too wide to cross. It lingered now—thick, full of things they no longer said. The weight of their unspoken words hung heavy in the air.

She sat across from him, their knees nearly touching, yet it felt like a continent stretched between them. How could you sit beside someone you married for years… and still feel a world apart?

He noticed.

She knew he did.

“Arun asked for you this morning,” she said after a long pause. “Before falling back asleep.”

He nodded. “He’s a good kid.”

She nodded too. “You… said the right thing last night. When he cried.”

Rajveer looked at her now, slowly. “I didn’t think. It just came out.”

Meenal’s lips pressed together. “It was… kind. More than I’ve seen in a while.”

He exhaled, barely a laugh. “We don’t usually do kind, do we?”

“No. We don’t.”

The truth sat heavy between them. They both took sips of chai like it would help wash it down.

She finally set her cup aside. Passing his medicines to him, she said softly, "Here you go. Don't forget to take them." Rajveer took the pills from her hand, his eyes meeting hers briefly before looking away. He swallowed them with a grimace, still avoiding her gaze.

Meenal stared at him and his wounds and bruises but couldn't bring herself to ask him why he was driving in the rain near the riverbank. She knew she didn't have the right to question him about his actions, especially when their marriage was all about Arun.

Meenal sighed as she took the empty cups away. But Arun came running into the kitchen, looking panicked and out of breath.

"Maa….maa," he gasped, clutching onto Meenal's saree as he tried to catch his breath. She knelt instinctively, dread coiling in her chest. "Kya hua, Arun? "Are you okay?" she asked, concern evident in her voice. Arun looked up at her with tears in his eyes and whispered, "Baba fell down the stairs." Meenal’s heart sank. She dropped the cups and ran.

*****

💬 Author’s Note

Hey you,

Thanks for making it this far. Chapter 25 was a tough one—for Meenal, for Rajveer, and honestly, for me too.

This chapter isn’t about big arguments or grand gestures. It’s about the things that go unsaid. The way silence can settle between two people like furniture—normal, expected, and heartbreaking.

I wanted to explore that strange ache of sitting beside someone you once loved—or maybe still love—and realizing you feel like strangers. That line in the chapter, “How could you sit beside someone you married for years… and still feel a world apart?”—that’s the one that stayed with me the longest.

If you’ve ever felt that, if you’ve ever lived in that kind of quiet… I see you. This chapter was for you.

✨ If it made you feel something—tell me.
Drop a comment, send a DM, or post a thought using #ThingsLeftInTheQuiet. I’d love to know what line stuck with you, or even just how you’re holding this story in your heart.

And hey—don’t close the book just yet. What’s coming next? Let’s just say… silence doesn’t last forever.

– Shaar Shree.
#MeenalAndRajveer #Chapter25 #ThingsLeftInTheQuiet