Chapter 114

Entitlement to happiness

“I don’t want to talk to you” she hissed to Sagar Ghatge

He had showed up at her office a few minutes before her lunch hour, she had not seen him face to face in over 4.5 years. He sadly did not look a day older, or an hour older even

“I met Mr Sen and told him, I am going to borrow you for a couple hours” he whispered in Marathi

“Well Mr Sen was wrong I CANNOT be borrowed”

Colleagues walked in and out glancing at them when he realized he was getting attention, he removed his sun glasses so people could see he was the Dad

As if it was not evident already

Ughh!!

“Please do not make a scene” she whispered her voice trembling

She felt like being sick

She excused herself ran to the bathroom to throw up and returned 15 minutes later, he was still there in the visitor area, she didn’t want him wandering 

near her cubicle she had to get rid of him

“Please leave”

“Are u sick dear?” he stood up panicking scanning her reddened face

“I have panic attacks” she murmured

“WHY? Your mother is a witch…”

It went on and on and on for 20 minutes, she grunted denied and began to argue but it went on…

Her mother usually began her tirade by blaming HER and ended it by blaming her with generous sprinkling of blaming her in the middle

Sagar USED her to rant about his ex

“U are in bed with my friend why does it matter to you?” she asked with a smile but through grit teeth

His look changed instantaneously….

It appeared like he was going to smack her

She stepped away nervously

“So… please don’t ever come to my office”

He furiously texted and then turned the phone toward her

“AMRUTA… AMRUTA is a naïve innocent girl, SHE BEGGED ME… tine mala vinavani keli” he growled angrily

“Nicee… sleep with the Dad and then plead with the daughter” she began to cry

“U… U are hopeless… like ur mother” he cursed

“If u knew that why did u come here? I am no longer in ur house, I am not touching ur money… please leave”

“U are throwing up because u went off to have another baby” he said with a glint in his eye

“Well I am in child bearing and child rearing age… YOU are in the age to have grand babies, I am going to gift u some” she smiled wiping angry tears

“Your mother has destroyed you”

“U think so? Because she hasn’t even LOOKED at me in 10 years”

There was SO much pain in that statement

Sagar just didn’t get it

“I know she is teaching you…. Don’t lie to me” he was losing it

His face was puffy and red… his brow sweaty in the 20C air conditioning

“You are so consumed by rage you don’t even know she doesn’t acknowledge me, I haven’t seen her in many years… I heard she said to someone she has ONE daughter” Mrunalini wept softly

Sagar looked shocked for a second

“She taught you all these Marathi film lines?” he was speculating

“Please leave” she ordered turning around

A couple faces she knew from Accounting paused… “I am fine” she shrugged

Sagar chased her

“When Amruta has a baby she wants YOU to be the BIG SISTER” he said haughtily

Leave me ALONE” she pushed his hand off her shoulder and sprinted almost “That is the grossest thing I have ever heard… she told me she doesn’t talk to her father and misses a father in her life” It all came back to Mrunalini

All the lies and deceptions and massaged facts tumbled on to the surface, or were jettisoned from the deep sub level caves on to the top

She turned toward him

“She is a opportunist, at least YOU should have thought about it” she demanded

“I am not entitled to happiness or what? Am I not deserving of joy, don’t I get to spend life with a woman on my side? Ur mother is like a poison plant, I go near her I will die” he slammed Falguni

“You both destroyed ME” she whispered

“Don’t worry you will get your fair share of the 100 crores” he smiled wickedly

“I wont touch it even if I am in the greatest bind” she whispered

“Oh yeah that’s what they all say… ur mother took 100 crores, you get your pound of flesh my love”

“U are sick” she walked away

Went to her desk grabbed her phone

Sen accosted her with a kind smile

She wondered why

“Your father is SUCH A GOOD MAN” “WOWW”

“Did he give u money?” she asked bluntly

He squirmed

“Don’t tell me” she said

Walking out toward her fave stairwell hiding spot

There was a text from Aatreya… he had had many sleepless nights and had written a long paragraph about how ashamed he was about not thinking about her

How selfish he was and how he didn’t deserve her

How self absorbed and careless he was… on and on

She read the first two sentences and 

Typed

“The ring needs to be resized” and sent it

He was in a meeting all afternoon so didn’t have his phone with him he knew she was picking up the kid at 3 (It was her turn to pick up Dhru, she had blown it, Dhru would be in after school care)

She would later after going back to her desk, and at the end of the day read the whole text from him, he had ended with “I completely understand if you want to reject my proposal…Mrunalini”

At 6 when she would pick him up like a lifeless zombie… he had taken back his proposal… sigh I wish I had read the text… sh—shitt

 she would see him calling