Married to My Brother-in-Law, In Love with His Brother (Early Acess Ch 26)

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✍️ Chapter 26: Fractures, Seen and Unseen

The footsteps echoed louder than her heartbeat.
Her saree tangled at her ankles as she raced up the stairs, heart slamming against her ribs like a warning bell.
She saw him—Rajveer, motionless, shadows at his temple—and for a terrifying second, she thought: Not again. Not like this.

“Thakur Sahab!” she shouted, her voice sharp with panic.

He was at the landing. His leg jutted at an odd angle, his shoulder slumped hard against the banister, fingers twitching as if trying to hold on to something that wasn't there. His face—pale, stunned—held a look she hadn’t seen in years: helplessness.

Arun hovered at a distance, tears streaming down his cheeks, clutching his wooden horse like it could protect him.

Meenal dropped to her knees beside Rajveer, hands trembling. “Can you move?”

He winced, tried, and faltered. “Ankle. I think… I landed on it wrong.”

She didn’t hesitate. “Don’t move.” Her voice had turned to steel. She looked over her shoulder. “Arun, beta, call Chachu downstairs. Now.”

The boy ran.

Meenal turned back to Rajveer. Carefully, instinctively, she brushed the hair from his forehead. “You could’ve hit your head…”

He blinked at her touch but said nothing.

“You shouldn’t have been walking around without help,” she snapped. Her voice cracked at the end. “What were you even doing?”

Rajveer looked away. “I needed air. I didn’t want to sit anymore.”

“You think I don’t feel like disappearing sometimes?” Her voice cracked. “You think I don’t stand in that same window and wonder what it would feel like to be someone else… even for a moment?”

Someone else… or with someone else? Rajveer thought, remembering that conversation between Aditya and Meenal.

He looked up at her. “Then why don’t you?”

She opened her mouth. Closed it again. Her hands clenched in her lap.

Because I have no one to run to.
Because Arun needs me.
Because this haveli holds too much history to leave and too little love to stay.

None of those words made it past her lips.

She bit her lip.
“Because I don’t get to fall apart.”
A pause. “Arun has no one else.”

A pause. Then she added, more quietly:
“And because if I stop moving…” her voice cracked, “…I’ll break.”

The air shifted. Not silence, but something closer. A tension pulling inward, not away.

Aditya arrived minutes later with the driver. Between the four of them, they lifted Rajveer and eased him onto the divan. His face twisted in pain, but he didn’t groan. Meenal watched every movement like a hawk, hands fluttering close but never quite touching—until he whispered, “Sit with me.”

She looked at him, startled.

“I’m not asking for forever,” he murmured. “Just… right now.”

She sat a little closer.

Not touching.

But not pulling away.

He leaned back, eyes closed, jaw clenched.

And for once, they shared the pain—not in silence, but in presence.

Minutes passed.

Meenal eyes fell on his plastered hand and leg and she couldn't help but feel a surge of empathy for him.

Then softly, Meenal said, “You still didn’t tell me what you were doing near the river that night.”

Rajveer didn’t open his eyes. “I was thinking.”

“About?”

“About drowning.”
The word hung between them like fog.

Meenal’s chest tightened. “You… wanted to die?”

Rajveer stared at the ceiling, eyes glassy. “No. I just wanted to feel something. To remember what it felt like to want to come back up.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

Arun’s laugh echoed in the other room—small, high, bright. It didn’t belong in the heavy space between them. But it reminded her: there was still something worth saving.

She looked at Rajveer, her voice unsteady. “Then stay alive. Even if it’s just for him. Even if it’s just for now.”

He opened his eyes and met hers.

This time, there was no silence.

Just quiet understanding.

“Will you stay?” he whispered. “Just tonight.”

Meenal didn’t answer right away. Her hand hovered over his, then pulled back.

“I don’t know how to stay,” she said finally.

Rajveer turned his face toward the window. “Then maybe… just don’t leave.”

Silence. Then the smallest nod.

Meenal sat a little closer. Not touching. But not moving away.

He didn’t want to lose Meenal the way he’d lost Megha.

Meenal's heart ached at his vulnerability, but she knew she couldn't make promises she might not be able to keep.

In a house full of broken stories, sometimes the quietest ones survived.

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💬 Author’s Note

Hey love,

Take a breath. No, really—take a breath.

Because this chapter? It hit deep.
Not just the fall. Not just Rajveer on the stairs.

It was about the kind of hurt you don’t bandage. The kind that settles into your bones.
It’s about feeling like you’re breaking, but still showing up.
Still staying.
Still loving… quietly.

When Meenal said,

I know some silences are heavier than any fight. And sometimes the bravest thing is not to leave, but to sit next to someone… even if you don’t know how to stay.

If this chapter left you with feelings, let’s talk. I want to know what stayed with you.

👇
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You’re not alone in this quiet.

– Shaar Shree ✨
#ThingsLeftInTheQuiet #MeenalAndRajveer #Chapter26