Chapter 12

12.

Raghav, still trying to explain himself, tried to calm his anger as his mother turned and walked upstairs to her daughter and daughter-in-law.

“Pallavi, this room is beautiful, did you decorate your and Raghav’s room too, uski choice too bahut karaab hai’” Keerthi asked.

Pallavi was quiet, and Keerthi too realized she might have overstepped, remembering the argument she overheard downstairs.

“Meri matlab, you should redecorate the whole house, I mean it is your house now, right?” Keerthi covered.

“No, it’s not my house, Keerthi, and to be honest I don’t think it ever will be, nor do I want it—“ 

“What nonsense, this is your home, Pallavi,” Amma stepped in the room, “And just as you decorated these beautiful rooms for us, I expect a complete remodel of the house soon.”

Pallavi smiled, hiding her sadness, her anger, and just trying to keep calm, “Amma, let’s eat and after that you have to rest, you can’t be up on your feet so much.”

“No no, I’m fine,” Amma replied, but before she could finished, Pallavi left the room to go down to the kitchen. Raghav was still standing at the foot of the stairs, not sure what to do. As he saw Pallavi he tried to talk to her, but she rushed past him before he could say a word.

Pallavi finished setting the table, and the food, the food she had made this morning specially for Amma’s homecoming, before Raghav had found another reason for her to hang her head in shame. She wondered if eating this food would take her back to this morning, before her life had taken a turn from worse to unimaginable. Raghav sat down, and then Amma and Keerthi, both of them staring sympathetically at Pallavi and then switching to glares at Raghav.

“Akka, you sit, let me do that, you’ve already done so much these past few days.”

“No, Keerthi, I’m done, everyone dig in.” She hadn’t served to Raghav.

Raghav said, “I can take my food myself, I guess.”

“Oh, I thought you were having another protein shake.” Pallavi responded, not looking at him.

Amma and Keerthi looked at each other. Amma thought, if anyone could take her son down a few pegs, it was Pallavi.

Amma noticed Raghav piling on the bharli vangi, “Raghav, you won’t like that, that has eggplant.”

“No, I’ve had it before, Pallavi made it a few days ago, it was delicious—“

He stopped mid sentence, he didn’t know if Pallavi knew he had been secretly eating the leftovers she left in the fridge for the workers.

Pallavi looked like the comment hadn’t phased her, and Amma and Keerthi continued to look worried.

After perhaps the most awkward two hours in the Rao mansion since its construction, including that night that a homoicidal drug dealer (Ved) had tried to kill him, Pallavi got up silently and cleared the table, she took Raghav’s plate too, just so he wouldn’t find some excuse to follow her into the kitchen. She was exhausted so she left the dishes for tomorrow, and then came back out, “Amma, I think it’s best if we all go get some rest, you really need to be back in bed.”

“Pallavi, I thought we could maybe watch a movie or play a game,” Keerthi interjected.

Amma, noticing Pallavi’s dejected face said, “No, I think Pallavi’s right, I’m tired, we’ll all just go to sleep. Pallavi beta, if you could just ask Reddy to get me some coffee, or I can make it.”

“No no, Amma, I’ll make it and bring it up to your room.

In all of this conversation Raghav was silent, still sitting at the dining table, staring at the spot where his plate had just been, trying to find some way to apologize to Pallavi. If she hadn’t put the drugs in his food…it meant she probably also didn’t send those pictures of Keerthi…oh god. What had he done? How could he have ruined an innocent person’s life like this?

Continued...