Anika is lost in thought as she watches the Oberoi Mansion disappear in the darkness behind them. It is as she realises with a pang that Shivaay is back there, that she finally acknowledges her feelings, the feelings that she'd underestimated in between the water throwing and the black coffees, the smouldering stares and the many arguments. For now she knows what she had believed to be an attachment, an apprehension of the loss of a favourite toy was in fact love. She now knows that she loves Shivaay. Somewhere in between the past couple of days and the sham of a wedding they had, she realises that she has fallen irreversibly and irrevocably in love with him. How she could have, she doesn't know. Was she a masochist, she wonders. She had known the other side of him, the side she had first seen, had faced the brunt of that side, the same side that had come out tonight and yet she had begun to fall. Then she had seen the other side, the protective and fiercely loving and caring side, the vulnerable side and that had completed her fall. The wedding and what preceded it had ensured her fall and burial. She knows she loves him but she hates him too. Is that even possible, she asks herself. She laughs quietly as tears continue to fall on her clasped hands, she's in love with a man who she also hates who also happens to be her husband for a day. Seems like a plot for a good soap opera.
She is now his wife, soon to be ex-wife. She lets the word run through her head savouring it for the first time. Wife. Shivaay's wife.
Omkara watches Anika from the corner of his eye. He meets Rudra's worried gaze in the rear view mirror from time to time. He looks anxious. Om knows it's time he breaks the silence. His head hurts from all the questions he has. What? Why? Was this the only way out? And most importantly, how? Before he can say anything though, Rudra decides he's had enough of his Anika didi crying.
'Didi, please tell us what happened. Please. Why did you agree to this? You believe that marriage and rituals mean something right, then why? Is it because you love bhaiya? You've loved him for a while right? But did you really agree to this just to protect him again? How much didi? How much will you do for our family? What about you? Won't you be hurt and you're sad.. we can see that. What happened didi?'
Om is silent, he couldn't have framed his questions with quite the enough earnestness that Rudra had so heart wrenchingly put forth. He waits.
Anika is torn, she knows his brothers want to know what he's done, for them to be able to help the situation but she doesn't want them to be angry with him. She doesn't want them to be disappointed with him. She doesn't want him to be alone. The way she'd been for a very long time before Sahil. She realises almost immediately though, that she can't protect him anymore, she'd done that over and over again. He'd taken all that he could from her and left her empty. She may have fallen in love but if any semblance of the old Anika was to remain she'll have to pick herself up and dust it all off. That's what she always did whenever life pushed her down and that's what she would do even now. With this, she has once again accepted the blow life in the form of Shivaay Singh Oberoi has dealt her and she being Anika will deal with the blow once again and will be on her way. Love will not fail her, it will not make her weak, she consoles herself.
She wipes her tears and begins. She tells the brothers everything that their brother did, what led to the marriage and how their brother got his way. She watches as Omkara stops the car and closes his eyes in disappointment as Rudra stares at her like he's just seen something he finds repulsive. She knows it's too much for them. The threatening to kill an innocent child, the manhandling, the rape insinuations, the abuses and the accusing, the planning, the complete emotional detachment and the lying. All of it. Things they thought their brother wasn't capable of, at least beyond the boardroom.
As she relives it all, she wonders how she could still love him. How she could love him so much that it physically hurt.
The brothers want to apologise to her, want to say something but are ashamed to start. What makes all of it worse is that even though she never says it, they can see it in her eyes -the fact that she loves him. She loves him and their brother hadn't even let her maintain the dignity she deserved to maintain. He didn't let her walk away with the proud gait she has always maintained. He has effectively destroyed her.
They reach her house in silence. They haven't said anything. They don't need to. She knows they can't help her. She'll have to help herself. And it's alright. She's always done it and she always will. She's just glad they were ready to listen to her. Hear her out and not think the worst of her. She gives them a watery smile and waves goodbye. She turns around quickly and runs into her house, opening the door with shaking hands, not risking turning around to see them watching her. She enters and shuts the door behind her while sinking to the ground as she finally cries to her heart's content as the day which should have been the happiest of her life comes to a close.
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