Birds of a Feather Completed G

Chapter 7: Anger

5236
104
2

The content of this story belongs strictly to the author, -Archi-. Any unwarranted use/copy of it is not encouraged and is strictly prohibited.

Chapter Seven

Anger

Khushi woke up the next day, feeling once again very stiff and sore. She had fallen asleep on the sofa, next to an untouched plate of food -her dinner- waiting for the husband who she knew would never come.

She felt déjà vu as memories of her wedding night came to mind. Then too, she was all alone in the Raizada Mansion, waiting for Arnav who had disappeared without a sign and now too, she was all alone, waiting for the same man.

Perhaps the only change from then to now was that she knew not to expect.

Khushi just began searching for her phone when she heard a deep baritone voice echo through the room:

“The bed is not so bad to sleep on you know.”

Khushi jumped with a start, her heart thudding in panic. She wildly looked around to see Arnav Singh Raizada, himself, seated on a turquoise armchair near the window, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, his hair dishevelled, and his blazer thrown carelessly next to him.

It appeared he had indeed arrived last night and slept on the armchair… perhaps waiting for her to rise?

“Sorry,” he mumbled, watching her anxious face. “I didn’t want to wake you up last night.”

Khushi took a deep breath, trying to will her heart back in to control. She felt very odd to see him in the same room as her. In the last one month, she had felt almost free of his presence, of the restraints that came with this marriage. But now, it felt as if she was back on their wedding mandap, utterly helpless.

Arnav glanced at the plate of now cold food. “Why didn’t you eat?”

Khushi cleared her throat. “D-did you not see my post-it?”

He stood up and made his way closer to her.

“I saw it,” he replied, sitting on the coffee table, only a foot away from her. “But when I didn’t show up once the sun went down, you should have known that I wasn’t going to come.”

Khushi realized what he meant: They were going to be brutally honest with each other, instead of shoving everything that happened in the past month under the carpet.

“I guess I wasn’t hungry anymore,” she said with a shrug.

He nodded. “So clearly, this is not working.”

“W-what is not working?”

“Us,” he answered simply. “We are not working the way we are supposed to be.”

Khushi’s heart took off again. What did he mean?

“We are supposed to be in love, happy and like a couple,” he explained in a matter-of-fact tone. “If we want everyone to stop interfering in our lives, we are going to have to be better at pretending.”

“So… what do you want me to do?”

He held out his phone to her. “For starters, give me your number… From now on, you will call me every time we are supposed to be happy.”

Khushi felt odd to hear that, but did as she was told.

“Do you drive?”

She shook her head in negative.

“Okay, I will arrange for a car and a driver for you. They will be present 24/7.”

He pulled out his wallet and handed her a card. “This is my credit card. I will have you added to the account today itself. I will also get the bank to issue a cheque book for you.”

He then took out a set of keys from his pockets. “These are keys to the apartment. Has Lata been taking care of your meals?”

She nodded in affirmative.

“Good, if you want, you can hire someone else too. Is there anything else you need?”

Khushi stared at him, blank. If he thought she would be satisfied by luxury, then he was very wrong. She grew up in riches, her family was much more affluent than his, so giving her a credit card or a car did nothing more than bruise her already hurt ego.

“I don’t get it,” she finally said. “Did your family give you grief about not showing up yesterday?”

“Do you care?”

“Yes, of course I care.”

“And why is that?”

“What do you mean?” she said, confused.

“Because you haven’t said a word since we got married. You didn’t confront me, you didn’t complain about me, you didn’t even object when I said this was all a pretense. For whatever reason, you want this marriage to work in front of everyone as much as I do. So, why do you care what my family said to me?”

Khushi was stumped. Apart from his business-like tone, there was something else in his voice. Was it anger? Was it disdain? What was it that made him look so cold?

She knew she couldn’t expect much, because he was right. If she had issues with how this marriage was turning out to be, she would have voiced it out a long time ago. But what bothered her was how little effort he was willing to put in. Surely, no human, let alone a man who married her, could be so heartless.

“Okay good,” Arnav said when she kept mum. “I’m glad we sorted this out. Why don’t you take a shower and get ready, so we can head down to breakfast?”

Khushi simply looked at her lap, unable to move. She had long ago accepted that she was just an ornament, that would be kept at the center of the room for show, but not given the freedom to move. So why was it so hard to play along now? Did some small part of her actually hope that life with this man would be any different than the one she already lived?

Arnav seemed to understand her predicament, for he said in a much softer voice, “Look, I apologize if I was rude-”

She shook her head, gathering her resolve. “I have seen worse.”

“Why don’t we set some ground rules then? Just to be sure?”

Khushi stood up. “No need for that. I am not just a pretty face; I understand the rules very well. I don’t bother you and you don’t bother me. You are free to do whatever you like, and I am free to do whatever I like. As long as we make both our families believe that this relationship is working, we will be perfectly happy.”

If he was surprised to hear her no-nonsense tone, he didn’t let it show. “Exactly.”

Khushi had no qualms with that. As long as her father was kept far away from discovering this secret of her marriage, she was willing to accept anything.

* * *

The game of hide-and-seek did not end after their conversation that day following karva chauth. Sure, Arnav had accompanied her downstairs to breakfast, asking her to serve him coffee and toast as though it was the norm and explaining to his parents where he had been the previous night; but once they drove back to the penthouse, things pretty much went back to the way they were.

Expect for maybe Arnav himself.

Khushi didn’t know if she was consciously seeking him out, or if he himself decided to hide less, but over the next few days, she saw him more often than she was used to. Instead of disappearing for work almost at sunrise, Arnav now went out for morning jogs, took his time reading the daily newspapers and came back from work before the sun set. Thankfully, the alcoholism was gone, though Khushi had a distinct feeling that he simply did a better job of hiding it.

Other than stopping their families’ interference, this change of behaviour did nothing but increase her woes. While absent-Arnav was somewhat manageable, this pretend-Arnav was downright unbearable. Always on the verge of shouting, he was moody, resentful and ready to blow-up at the drop of a hat.

Khushi had caught him blasting his secretary on the phone one day because she forgot to pack his laptop charger. Another time, he was yelling at a contractor for not remembering how many workers were employed for a night shift. Things had gotten so bad, that he even managed to scream at Lata the other day for making his coffee too hot.

It was ridiculous.

But Khushi knew better than to intrude. Despite living in the same apartment, he made sure not to say a word to her, so she understood very clearly that her voice was not welcome in his life. And in case she misunderstood his silence, he also made sure she stayed away through cold hooded glares anytime they crossed paths.

That was enough for Khushi to live out of the house as much as possible. Having acquired her own set of keys to the apartment, she was finally free to go anywhere she wanted, whenever she wanted. She took full advantage of this small liberty by often visiting a library she discovered in the neighbourhood. She spent hours there, burying herself in books to keep herself from feeling the fire in her heart.

It was on one such evening when she had returned from the library that she heard it: voices echoing from the den.

Khushi had never dared to go into the den before. Lata had told her very early on that it was Arnav’s office, which he preferred to keep locked on most days. Having heard that, and experienced Arnav’s outbursts now and then, she didn’t even bother to go inside.

However, today it was inevitable. If they had company, she had to make sure she played her part well. So, she grudgingly treaded across the hall to the slightly ajar door and listened in silence:

“I’m serious Arnav! How can you still be looking for her?” It was Lavanya, who was standing in one corner, arms crossed and her face irate.

“Just drop it Lavu – I had enough of these lectures!”

“And clearly none of them made a difference to you,” she fumed. “What exactly is your problem? Myra is gone. What part of that do you not understand?!”

“EVERY PART OF IT OKAY?! EVERY BLOODY PART OF THAT SENTENCE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!”

Khushi bit her lip, somewhat used to hearing his frenzies by this point, while Lavanya inside jumped, shocked.

“I KNOW SHE IS GONE!” Arnav thundered. “NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT MORE THAN ME! SO STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!”

“Arnav, calm down-”

“No, I am not going to calm down! Do you think I like hearing this every day? Either it’s Maa asking me how Khushi is, or Di demanding me to go apologize to Khushi or you telling me how stupid I am behaving with Khushi! Why don’t all three of you save yourselves the trouble and just go adopt Khushi?!”

“We are just trying to help-”

“WELL I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP! None of you are helping by suffocating me with your demands! Ever since I was little, it’s always Chote do this, Chote do that, but has any one of you realized that Chote is now old enough to make his own decisions?!”

Lavanya appeared alarmed to witness her brother’s towering rage. Stepping towards him, she said in a much gentler voice, “I know you are stressed Arnav, but we just want you to be happy-”

He let out a maniac laugh. “Happy? Tell me Lavu, I am all ears! Tell me how I am supposed to be happy?!”

“You just have to give it a chance-”

“Give a chance to who?! The Raizada Industries for failing so badly in my hands? Or to the press who don’t let me forget that our shares are at an all-time low because of my incapability? Or to all of you, who are standing with a gun to my head? Who should I give a chance to?”

“To Khushi-”

“Khushi, Khushi, Khushi! Is that the only thing that matters to anyone anymore?”

“She is your wife-”

“SHE IS NOT MY WIFE!”

Lavanya jumped a second time, failing miserably to keep the situation under control. “What happened to you?” she asked, her voice pleading. “Since when have you become so resentful about everything, about Khushi? Why are you so angry with her?”

Arnav gritted his teeth. “As if you don’t know.”

“I don’t… last I checked, Myra was gone, and you were moving on with Khushi. So what happened now?”

Arnav angrily ran his hands through his hair. “Myra is gone because of her,” he muttered bitterly. “And she can never come back to me because of your supposedly-perfect-Khushi.”

It seemed even Lavanya needed a minute to process that. “That can’t be true, you and Myra were done Arnav. Don’t you think you are just struggling to hold on?”

“Of course I am not struggling to just hold on-”

“Then why are you blaming anyone and everyone for your situation? Even you know Khushi probably has nothing-”

“She has everything to do with it! Please just stop defending her for one second and look at it from my perspective!”

“I am looking Arnav,” she answered, earnest. “I am trying very hard to understand why you are so upset… but you aren’t making it easy for me by screaming your head off.”

Arnav took a deep breath, her words finally breaking through his fury.

“I’m just done with this crap Lavu… no matter what I do, no one is ever satisfied. Papa will be coming back to the company from next week and I already know what everyone will tell him. I keep trying to reach Myra, but she won’t give me a chance to explain. I try to go home for some peace of mind and all Maa can talk about is how disappointed she is.”

Lavanya went forward to grasp his arm. “You know that’s not true… I heard Jeejaji talking to Papa myself, no one in the company blames you for the shares. It’s just a phase, it will pass soon.”

Arnav simply shrugged, unconvinced.

“And Maa is Maa… overly emotional. Since when do you take her seriously?”

“That’s not the point Lavu-”

“Then what is? Myra? Have you ever thought that maybe she doesn’t want to be found?”

“Don’t start that again-”

“Arnav, I am on your side here-”

“Then act like it! Myra is everything to me…. You know that. How can I just stop looking for her?”

“Fine, let’s just say you do somehow find her, then what happens?”

For that, he had no response.

“You see? You are so angry with everything and everyone that you are not thinking this through. I know you don’t love Khushi and believe me I know what you had with Myra was real, but that doesn’t change anything. Why are you trying to dig up doors you cannot close?”

Khushi had enough.

Stepping away from the den, she retraced her steps back to the front door and left without another thought, having finally figured out what was it about Arnav’s tone that had made her feel so unwanted that day in the Raizada mansion.

Only, the answer didn’t make her feel any less wretched.

_____________________________________________