Married to my Brother in Law, In Love with his Brother (Early Acess CH 33)

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Now… let’s dive back in, shall we? 😉

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Chapter 33: Shards of Truth

The haveli didn’t echo. It absorbed grief like a secret kept too long.

The light had faded from the sky, but Meenal hadn’t moved. She sat curled on the cold floor beside the bed, her pallu slipping off her shoulder, her bangles silent against her wrist. The marble beneath her was unforgiving, but she barely felt it.

A quiet storm swirled inside her. Aditya’s words circled like a dirge.

She touched Arun’s blanket. He was warm, asleep, untouched by the complicated world that had birthed him.

Her head bowed. Her heart throbbed—not with romance or longing—but with something older. Wearier. A grief that came not from one heartbreak but the erosion of many silent years.

She shouldn't care anymore, but she did. The weight of it all settled in her bones, a heavy burden she couldn't shake. She closed her eyes, seeking solace in the darkness that enveloped her.

The door creaked.

She didn’t turn.

“Meenal?”

His voice was low. Careful.

She inhaled shakily but didn’t speak.

A pause. She heard the door close, the soft click muffled by thick walls and even thicker expectations. The rustle of his kurta told her he stepped in, but not too close.

Rajveer stood there for a long moment, like a man at the edge of something he didn’t know how to cross.

“I saw Aditya leaving,” he said finally.

Her back was still to him. She didn’t move.

“Can we…,” he added quietly. “Just… talk.”

She turned her head just enough to glance at him, eyes rimmed red but dry. “Then talk.”

The lamp on the carved teak table glowed amber, casting soft shadows on his face. Rajveer looked older than his thirty-five years. Tired. Worn not by time, but by restraint.

“I know,” he began, his voice unsteady, “that you loved him.”

Silence stretched. The kind that made antique clocks tick louder.

“I know,” he continued, "he loved you too. I heard your conversation with him that night.”

That night, the night before his accident. Meenal thought.

He took a breath, as if confessing something that didn’t belong to him.

“And I know, Meenal… If fate had been kinder, you would’ve been his, not mine.”

She didn’t flinch. Only adjusted the loose end of her saree, her movements quiet, graceful. But her silence was heavy, like velvet soaked in rain.

Rajveer exhaled. “You must hate me. For stealing that chance. For tying you to a man you never asked for.”

Finally, she rose.

Not angrily. Not theatrically. Just… slowly. With the grace of a woman who had picked herself off cold marble floors too many times.

She looked at him.

She didn’t expect the crack in his voice. It stirred nothing romantic—only a strange ache. A part of her wanted to look away. But she didn’t.

“I do hate you,” she said.

The words didn’t slap. They whispered.

Rajveer blinked, pain flickering across his expression.

“But not for that.”

A pause.

“I hate you,” she continued, her voice quieter now, “for the silences. For years you walked past me like I was the furniture. For the way you stood beside her bed that night—dry-eyed, unmoved—when she needed someone to hold her hand and whisper that she mattered. I hate you for the way you made us all feel small and insignificant, like we were nothing more than shadows in your presence. Your indifference cut deeper than any words ever could."

Her chin lifted, spine straight. But her eyes—old wounds behind kohl—held everything she wouldn’t say.

“I don’t hate you for Aditya. That chapter closed the day you put vermilion in my parting. He and I… we ended before we even began.”

Rajveer’s throat worked, but no words came.

Meenal turned to look at Arun again. Her fingers ran gently over his tiny toes.

“I have my son. I have myself. That’s enough.”

He stepped closer. The old floor creaked under his leather juttis. “You shouldn’t have had to make peace with so little.”

She didn’t reply. But a single tear rolled down her cheek—silently, stubbornly.

Rajveer’s voice broke. “You’re stronger than I deserved.”

Meenal looked up, eyes sharp again. “No. I was just… left with no other choice.”

They stood there, between past and present. A past that bound them and a present that never seemed to offer any easy answers.

Just truth. And the beginning of something fragile.

Not forgiveness. Not yet. But perhaps—just perhaps—truth had cracked the silence. And from the shards, something new might bloom.

💌 Author’s Note – From Me to You

Okay… take a breath. I had to, after writing this one.
Chapter 33 wasn’t loud. It didn’t scream or shatter. But it cut. Quietly. Deeply. Like walking barefoot on glass you didn’t even see coming.

After Chapter 32’s soft heartbreak—with Aditya’s honesty and Meenal’s fragile hope—this one felt heavier. It’s the aftermath, isn’t it? When no one is yelling, but everything hurts.

Meenal on the floor, with her pallu slipping and bangles silent—that image just wouldn’t leave me. Because how many times do we break silently, while the world keeps going?

And then Rajveer…
Finally speaking. Not just words, but truth. Not romantic. Not redeeming. Just real.
That moment when he said, “You shouldn’t have had to make peace with so little”? Yeah. I had to pause and cry too.

I wanted this chapter to feel like standing in an old haveli, where the walls don’t echo—they listen. Where grief isn’t loud, it’s folded into corners. Where silence isn’t peace—it’s weight.

And Meenal… my girl didn’t scream. She stood tall. Told him exactly what hurt. And that? That’s a revolution wrapped in a saree.

So tell me—
Did it hurt you too?
Did it make you breathe a little slower?
Did you forgive him even a little… or not at all?

I love hearing your thoughts. You all carry these characters with so much heart. And trust me, Chapter 34? Oh, it’s not letting up. There's more silence to break and more truth to bleed.

Until then,
with bangles, bruises, and a little hope,
Married to my Brother in Law, In Love with his Brother by __Shaar Shree 💫
#ShardsOfTruth
#MeenalDeservesPeace
#QuietButStrong
#RajveerSpokeButDidHeHeal
#MangoesStillMissingButEmotionsNot