Part III
“Treat her like a queen and she’ll treat you like a king.
Treat her like a game and she’ll show you how it’s played”
“Riddhima beta, you are going to the temple?” Dadi stated
“Yes, Dadi. Do you want to come?”
“No, I have not taken a bath yet. You go and pray to Bappa.” Dadi looked troubled
“Dadi, please come here” Riddhima led Dadi to her room. “Did you sleep well?”
“Sleep?” Dadi gave out a hollow laugh.
“How can I sleep when my home is falling apart? Ishani is getting divorced today. Vansh was saying they will get a divorce in a week. Because she is already pregnant with Sunny’s child and…and because Aangre and Ishani are were not husband and wife in true sense. Their marriage may get nullified”
“I spoke with Aangre yesterday.” She informed Dadi
“Aangre? How is he? In all this mess I forgot to ask him. He must be going through hell. His decision is not even taken into consideration.”
“He will be okay. Vansh told him not to sign divorce papers.” She said casually
“And you think this is wrong?” dadi asked her
“It is Vansh’s decision Dadi. He will never make any decisions that are bad for his family members. He will always try to protect them.”
“He can be wrong though. What do you think must be done” Dadi looked at her intently
“Whatever Vansh says. I am getting late.”
“Riddhima, please tell me truthfully what you think? I want to know your opinion” Dadi held her hand
“I think it is not fair for Aangre to be stuck with a partner who may never love him. He deserves an equal chance at love. Unless Ishani is ready to mend her ways, there is no use of keeping them together.”
She reached the door and turned “And Dadi I think sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.”
*****
Riddhima folded her hands as she prayed to Bappa. The crowd was comparatively less during morning time. With corona restrictions in place, it was better to reach here early.
Today no one was going to meet her. She sat in the temple calmly and marveled at how far she has come in this journey. If someone had told her a month back that she will teach all those brats lessons she would have laughed at them.
It was for Vansh she never did anything against his family. From the moment she fell in love with him everything she did was for him.
Always Vansh this, Vansh that, what will he think of her, what will he say to her, her insecurities and doubts on him. His insecurities and doubts about her. She was foolish to even think that it will be alright, she will get her happily ever after with Vansh.
The day he told her that heinous deed, he broke her. He made her go back to basics and think.
She did that sitting here, the very next day in this very temple. Did they ever love her? Kabir? Vansh? Kabir definitely not.
But Vansh maybe, she was not sure anymore. But then did she love any of them? Or was she just in the love with the concept of love? That shook her to the core. She was not even sure of her feelings anymore.
The base of any relationship is trust it is a piece of common knowledge. They never had that between them. Even when they said they trusted each other they never could explicitly trust each other. Such were their differences.
How did she hope to stay in a relationship that was so baseless from the start? She always dreamed her husband will become her best friend. Vansh was not even close to the friend category.
She asked for guidance and Bappa gave it to her that day. She was sitting here crying her eyes out on her misfortune when she heard shouting and fighting voices.
A poor man was beating his wife. People stopped him. The police came and took him away. When she entered the temple again, one old man who had also came down to watch this murmured something from behind her
“Sorry, but did you say something?” she asked him.
“Yes, did you see that man? He always hurts and beats his wife around here at least twice a week” he informed her conversationally and sat beside her
“What? Why won’t she complain against him? That is so wrong” she replied appalled at the news.
“They are poor beta. If her husband gets punish who will feed, her and her small children?”
“She can do something on her own. That does not mean he has got the license to hurt her” she felt very angry on the woman’s behalf
“That is what I told her, ‘To suffer injustice is a greater sin than to do injustice’ but people usually forget this thing when it comes to them. There is always a way out. You must keep your eyes open. I will take your leave now. Bye”
The man left her to think a great deal. Was not she is doing the same. Keeping aside Vansh and her relationship, if she looked at others, they always treated her like trash, and she endured everything for whom Vansh? For the first time in her life, she felt disgusted at herself, at Vansh for not being able to stand by her and that family…
*****
Angry would be an understatement, Vansh was livid now. Nothing was going as planned. He planned to punish Riddhima but why did it feel like he was getting punished instead.
He has his doubts about Riddhima, that she had a hand in bringing Sunny back home. But she never interacted with Sunny. If anything, she gave him cold shoulder. Was she telling the truth then? It was a pure coincidence that they went to the mall and found Sunny there. Ishani kept so tight leash on Sunny that it was impossible to ge hold of him.
He felt like he was experiencing his first days when they were on the cruise and he could not decode Riddhima. She was starting to feel like a puzzle again.
Maybe Kabir did this. Aahana told him that nowadays Kabir spent a lot of time with Sunny. Still, he could not shake the feeling that it was Riddhima’s doing.
What with all the sorry’s she said sorry to Ishani, Aaryan, and Chachi? Giving the same reason for everyone. Repenting mistake? Does she take him to be a fool?
Aahana suggested they attack her once again, get her scared enough to blurt out the truth. He was seriously considering that, but the problem was once she returns home, she will always stay with Daadi or in Sia’s room or with one or the other person from the family. There was no chance of getting her alone nowadays.
He called Aangre again. He was not answering the call. Just dropped him a message. ‘need some time off, will be back by lunchtime'
*****
“You are ready for mutual divorce?” Lawyer asked them
“Yes” Ishani replied promptly
He looked at Aangre. Vansh pressed his hand on Aangre’s shoulder and answered for him
“I don’t think he is ready for divorce”
Riddhima gave Aangre sympathetic smile and he looked away.
“Bhai, don’t you dare” Ishani stood “This is my life”
“Ishani sit” Dadi ordered before Vansh can say anything else “Aangre remember what we discussed today” she looked at him
Taking a deep breath, he said “Yes, I am ready for divorce” he could not meet Vansh’s eye. But he knew this was the right thing to do.
Both signed the papers…
*****
“Why did you do this dadi? That Sunny is not good for Ishani. Taking Aangre’s help I could have saved her like last time. I had it all planned”
“Till when Vansh?” Dadi questioned him
“Till when are you going to handle Ishani as if she is a baby. She needs to learn from her own mistakes. In fact, the same goes for Aaryan. Why don’t you let them learn from their own mistakes?”
“Dadi?” Vansh felt stung “I am doing this to protect them.”
“Did they ask you to?” dadi questioned “They are not children anymore. They will learn from their own mistakes as you did from yours. Did you think about Aangre once?”
“of course, I did,” Vansh said defensively
“Vansh, it is not fair to Aangre to be with a wife who does not love him. He does not deserve this. Look at them Ishani, Aaryan, Sunny and even Kabir and Ahana went to celebrate this divorce. Is this right behavior?”
Vansh's eyes hardened, even though Dadi was speaking this, these were Riddhima’s words. Riddhima did this. He stormed towards their room.
*****
“You manipulated Dadi. She told Aangre to sign divorce papers. For the first time, Aangre went against me” He clutched her hand tightly.
“I did no such thing. Dadi asked for my opinion and I gave it to her. Leave my hand. It’s hurting” Riddhima tried to push him
“Riddhima don’t play games with me you will be very sorry” He warned “and if Dadi did ask for your opinion why not lie, seeing as you are an expert at it” He taunted her
“I did not lie because I felt pity for Aangre. Maybe if you had seen what we saw, you never would have asked this”
“What do you mean?” he menaced
“Aangre saw Ishani and Sunny in a compromising state in Ishani’s room. Will you still ask Aangre to stay married to her?” Vansh staggered back
“No, you are lying”
“Well then ask Aangre”
“Just think about this once before, what if it was me and Kabir in Ishani and Sunny’s place? Would you still stay married to me or even wait till I kill Kabir” Riddhima mocked him
“Riddhima” Vansh shouted losing his cool “Never…You…Kabir. Don’t ever” He was so angry that he could hardly make a coherent sentence. He banged the door on his way out
*****
It was almost midnight when someone started hammering the door of their room. Vansh and Riddhima woke up with all the ruckus.
“What’s going on?” Riddhima asked Vansh but he already opening the door
“Vansh…”
“Chachu? What happened why are you here so late at night?”
“Vansh” Rudra chachu was panting “Aaryan, Ishani…Look what happened?”
“What…what happened to them?” Vansh was alert. They rushed out of the room. Riddhima followed them
“About time,” she thought
Everyone was present in the hall. Chanchal was crying constantly. Rudra switched on the TV
“What happened? Rudra? Vansh? Why are you crying Chanchal?” Dadi kept asking them
A reporter was saying “Once again the high-class people got caught carrying drugs. One of them is a CBI officer. What will happen to them now? If sources are to be believed this CBI officer brought the drugs to the party. His name is Kabir Sharma. Some High-end names are involved in this. Two of them are Raisinghania children. All of them were drunk driving when polic ecaught them.
The reporter continued to give the news. On-screen, they could see Ishani, Aaryan, Kabir, Ahana, and Sunny. They were made to sit in the police van with a bunch of other people
“Fu*k” Vansh cursed “How did this happen?”
“I will call the lawyer. Chachu, Aangre let’s go” He called few security guards to tighten the security
“Vansh…” Dadi felt faint
“Dadi” Vansh and Riddhima ran to her to support her. “Dadi trust me. I will make it okay. I have to leave now.” He looked at Riddhima she nodded at him in reassurance and he left.
It was after 2 hours she returned to her room after making Dadi sleep giving her some sleeping pills. Her phone was ringing continuously. She secured the door and answered the call
“You lied to me” were the first words the man blamed her with “You betrayed me. You said you are doing all this for my boss. To punish the Vansh and today he is in jail because of me.”
“Will you please listen to me? I can explain” Riddhima tried to calm him
“You used me; I will tell them the truth right now."
"Well, then why didn’t you?”
“What” he faltered
“If you really think I betrayed you, then why did you not go to the police station and complain against me? You had plenty of time”
“Because my job will come in jeopardy” he shouted
“Listen, I did not deceive you. Or maybe did but that was with good intentions. Now if you come to the temple tomorrow, I can explain. Trust me for the last time. If not, then I will come to the police station tomorrow and confess my crimes”
“Fine” He disconnected the call-in anger
Riddhima took a deep breath, picked up her blanket, and went to Dadi’s room
*****
She left from home early morning. Hardly 1-2 reporters were present outside. She wore maid's clothing and passed from the gates unnoticed by all.
Sejal was already present there with the man. Sejal hugged Riddhima, but the man was standing stoically.
She genuinely was feeling sorry for the stunt she pulled, she stood before the man and softly said “I am sorry, Mishra”
*****
Note:
I am planning to complete this story in next 3-4 parts max. Let me know your views🤗
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