The cop went through the bail papers and gave a long direct glance at the man sprawled insolently in the chair facing him and his lawyer. Devrath Dixit. He'd heard about the businessman of course. Who wouldn't! His name along with the success of his company were a regular feature in the business section of the newspapers and his social life, in the entertainment section. And after all these years of service, nothing surprised him, especially if it was related to politicians and / or these ultra-rich people. In other words, people who believed themselves to be above and beyond the law. The lawyer had been there with the bail papers in hand and it was barely eight in the morning. Money talks, walks, runs and flies too. Either the reporters had something better to cover or they were having a rare day-off, there was no crowd of mikes and flashing cameras waiting outside the station.
"Sign here please," he passed on the file to Dev, who barely glanced at it before scribbling his signature. If there was repentance, the cop sure didn't see it. All he could see was impatience and anger. "You may go now."
That was all Dev needed to hear. He sprang up from the chair and strode out of the police station. Whatever he'd imbibed the previous night to numb his pain and anger had lost its effect. How dare she! How dare she interfere in his life and on top of it, get him arrested too! Harassing and trespassing indeed! He would show her what those meant! Sonakshi Bose and her ego! Seven years have added arrogance to that mixture. Thanking and asking him to drop him back at the hotel in the same breath, he got into his lawyer's car.
"Maybe you should go home and sleep it out, Mr Dixit," the lawyer gently suggested.
Dev ignored him. Barely heard him, truth be told. He was simmering inside. Had been that way since the previous night. Words and images of Shruti and Sonakshi overlapping in his mind, boiling his insides.
Tum ek rude, badtammeez aur obodhoro insaan ho. Tum buss ek mamma's boy ho. You're a spineless man!
Sonakshi Bose! I'm coming! He was a ball of fire by the time the car screeched in front of the hotel. Fairly leaping out of the vehicle, he strode towards the lift. A few moments and he was banging on the door of Sonakshi's room. And kept banging until he heard the snick of the lock. With a rough growl, he pushed it open rest of the way and barged into the room, ignoring the maid.
"Sonakshi Bose!" he shouted her name.
He took one more step before everything in him came to a screeching halt. That's when he heard and saw simultaneously. A small scared whimper and an absolutely terrified little girl standing in the middle of the room, clutching at her toy and staring at him with eyes wide as saucers. Both of them stared at each other for a span of endless moments.
"Sir?" the maid's tentative voice brought him out of the stupor.
"I...I'm...I'm sorry," he gentled his voice, took a step back and apologised to the little girl who was still regarding him with wary eyes. "I guess I came to the wrong room. Sorry Sweetheart, I didn't mean to scare you."
The little girl straightened her shoulders, although she didn't leave the toy that she'd clutched to her chest and met his eyes bravely. Almost daring him. The kid sure knew how to bounce back, he thought, a warm smile transforming his face. Gentling it. Softening the hard, angry lines.
"It's Miss Bose for you. Who are you and why are you shouting for my mamma?"
Dev's heart hit pause button at those words. Did the girl just say... "Mamma?"
The maid, with a panicked look on her face, tried to shush the little girl but she was completely ignored.
"Yes. Dr Sonakshi Bose is my mamma and I am Miss Suhana Bose."
The words hit him with the force of a sucker punch and Dev staggered back, his back hitting the partially open door.
"Are you not feeling well?" The little girl asked. "Oh I know! You wouldn't have had your breakfast and that's why you are about to fall down. Mamma says breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Along with breakfast, we should have milk or juice..."
"Aapke papa? Wh-What...What's your Papa's name?" Dev cut through her words with his question.
That got her dander up. "Hai koi. Obodhoro. Aap ko kya? And I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. If you want to talk to my mamma, you need to make an appont...appoint. Ment." She corrected her pronunciation just like her mamma had taught her.
Dev had absolutely no memory of walking out of the room or how he got into his room that was straight across hers. He had no idea how long he sat there staring into nothing while in his mind's eye, all he could see was the little girl's face. Sonakshi's daughter. His daughter? He had a daughter? And he didn't know? Or did Sonakshi adopt the girl after the divorce? Then why would the girl...Suhana say Obodhoro when he asked for her father's name? Was he a father and just coming to know about it? How old was the child? Six? Seven? He mentally made some calculations. Did it happen in Shimla? That meant Sonakshi had been pregnant when they got divorced? His social and financial influence made sure the process had been quick and trip to the court, minimum. No kids, signed pre-nup and the hefty lawyer fee meant it wasn't dragged either.
Once the success of her business had reached him and she had been termed as the budding brilliant entrepreneur by the media, he'd made sure he never read any news that was related to her. He had no desire to even think about the woman who'd promised him the world but left him at the first sign of trouble. The woman who mouthed the words I love you in the darkness of the night but refused her trust in the light of the day. The woman who had known every single thing about him and his efforts to make a happy life for them yet called him spineless loser.
But did she sink so low that she didn't deem it fit to inform him that he was a father? Of all the betrayals Sonakshi had heaped on him, this was the worst. This hit him the hardest. A below the belt kick that he didn't deserve.
Thoughts whirled around him, like a tornado, uprooting his sanity. And then he heard the sound that he'd been subconsciously waiting to hear. The soft ping of the lift doors opening followed by tapping of high heels.
"I will go through the reports and give you my feedback. But be sure to have everything in place by the end of the day. Thank you." Sonakshi barely ended her call before she was grabbed and pulled. She opened her mouth to scream when her senses instinctively recognised that touch, never mind that it had been seven long years since she'd last felt it. Known it. With a rough sound of anger, she tried to pull her arm free.
"What the hell! How dare you?" she screamed, when, instead of freeing her, Dev pulled her into his room and banged the door shut. "Let me go this instant Dev Dixit or I swear I'll..."
Pushing her against the wall and caging her with his body, he growled. "Save your rant Sonakshi. Now answer me. Your daughter - is she mine?"
A hint of shock and fear flashed through her eyes before defiance replaced both. She met his eyes unflinching. "Why do you want to know?"
"Damn you Sonakshi!" he grabbed her arms and shook her. "Answer me!"
"You are hurting me." His grip immediately relaxed at her calm statement but he didn't completely release her. "These caveman tactics might be appreciated by your girlfriend but not me. Let me go."
"I will not let you go until you answer my question. Did you adopt her?"
"No." Try as she might, she couldn't hold back the sense of achievement that flooded her eyes. This man and his mother had made her feel inadequate. Incomplete. Failure. Disappointment. In the lone darkness of the night, their words still haunted her memories.
The guy who had ignored her tears all those years ago suddenly caught that look in her eyes. "That trip to Shimla...did you get pregnant then?"
"No." She had been pregnant before the Shimla trip but early enough to not show in the tests taken at that time.
"Who is Suhana's father?"
"I am everything to her."
"Is she mine?"
"She is mine!"
"Am. I. Her. Father?"
"Donating a sperm doesn't make one a father."
"Name Sonakshi!"
Sonakshi squared her shoulders and met his eyes straight. "Devrath Dixit."
Dev had thought he had been prepared. He had braced himself to hear her say those exact same words. Yet the truth hit him in his chest. It twisted his insides until he didn't know whether he was standing or sitting. Until he thought he was seeing the world totally upside down. Love for his daughter and hatred for her mother competed with each other. He wanted to run into the next room and hug his daughter. Touch her. Lift her up into his arms and never let her go. He wanted to choke the life out of the woman in this room. He had a daughter and she never told. Not once in all these six long lonely dark years. He had a daughter and she hid his daughter from him. Love and hate battled. Love won. Barely. With a soft curse, he whirled and strode away from Sonakshi, his hand already on the door.
"Does she know who her father is?" he growled through a jaw locked in fury.
"Yes." He almost threw her away from him. "Where do you think you are going?"
He didn't turn back. "To my daughter. To see her. Talk to her. And take her with me."
Sonakshi had been prepared for it. His statement didn't surprise her in the least. Once selfish, always selfish. "You can't do that."
"Watch me."
"You can't do that because you have absolutely no rights on your daughter."
"Talk the rest to my lawyer."
"Your lawyer will agree with me. He was the one who made that pre-nup agreement, wasn't he? The one you had signed before passing it on to me for my signature? The one which had the clause that if there were any children from our marriage, on the account of divorce, Mr Devrath Dixit is in no way responsible financially or otherwise for that child or the mother."
The door Dev had almost opened, clicked shut. "What?"
"Oh please!" she scoffed. "Don't try telling me you don't know anything about it."
"I didn't. I don't." He saw her look of blatant mistrust. "But then you never did trust me or my words, did you?"
"Trust? You are talking about trust?" All the pain, the sense of betrayal, the anger that was festering in her heart came pouring. "You were the guy who had said you complete me Sonakshi. You are enough for me one night and demanded my promise to make that 7% into 100% right the next morning. When I asked what if it doesn't work, what had been your reply? Do you remember? I'm sure you don't. This is not the time to think about all that Sonakshi. Just promise me. I was scared and looking at you for some reassurance, that is what I got from you Dev. A callous disregard for the pain and turmoil I was going through. You were the guy who'd said, it's not your family and my family. Our family. And when your mami and maa were insulting my baba, calling him a gold digger and a thief for something you did, you did nothing, absolutely nothing to stop them. You slapped my baba. But I knew you. Knew it wasn't deliberate but he was my baba. I had so something. And when I tried to return the money, you thought I was insulting your mother. How is that an insult? I accidentally stumble and fall on your mother because you pushed me. But you thought I did it deliberately. Where was that trust that you speak of? You, in front of your whole family, told me to get out. Not just you. Your mami and Vicky told me to get out. But I stood there, crying."
Sonakshi swiped an impatient hand over her cheeks, angry with herself for wasting more of her tears on this man.
"Waiting for you to say something," she continued, swallowing the hiccup. Damn if she would shed more tears. "Waiting for you to stop them from saying those words. Waiting for you to stop me from leaving. You never said a word. Not a word Dev. Vicky threw me out of my house. He threw my parents out of their house. He threw those pre-nup papers on my face. He knew about them. Are you trying to tell me you didn't? Still...I kept calling you. I called and called. Not once. Not once you answered."
"I wasn't in a state to answer. I didn't know." Even to his own ears it sounded lame.
"Why? Because you were drunk? How would that solve anything? If you thought my family was yours, ours, why weren't you there standing beside me? You can go behind your family's back to loan money to my brother but you can't come out in the open and support us at a time like that?" There was no hint of tears in her eyes as she said the next words. "I couldn't let my daughter go through the same. That's why I didn't tell you. I didn't want my daughter to be thrown out of her father's home."
Sonakshi didn't care that Dev seemed to have turned into a stone. Staring at her with a glazed, stunned look on his pale face. She'd never wanted to speak or even think of her past but now that she started, she realized she couldn't stop. So she got it all out.
"You regretted falling in love with me. You regretted marrying me. Right? If I had any doubt on those words you'd said to me that night, the pre-nup had cleared it. You genuinely believed I'd married you for your money. You had it all in place. The pre-nup that stated that me and my kids had absolutely no right on you or your precious money. It was ready and signed by you. So don't talk about trust Dev. That word doesn't sound right coming out of your mouth."
Chest heaving with the let-out of all the pent-up emotions, she waited. Waited for him to speak. When he didn't, she walked up to the door and opened it. "You were thankful that I couldn't get pregnant. You said I would make a bad mother. But I am a good mother. I love my daughter enough to give her a choice with no pressure from my side. Even at six I let her take her decisions. And I respect those decisions. She earned that respect from me. I told her about you. Offered to bring her to you. She refused. Goodbye Dev."
****
"This will not do Ishwari. You need to eat properly or you will end up spoiling your health even more," Mamaji pleaded with Ishwari.
"I had my lunch bhaiya. I can't eat more. I'm not hungry," came the despondent answer.
"What is it that you want? Tell me that. Because mopping around is not going to solve anything. Tell me what you want and maybe we can..."
"I know what maa wants."
Ishwari raised her startled eyes to her son. Her Dev. He rarely came home these days and when he did come, it was more of a formality than with affection. He never spoke to her like he used to before. And certainly not in the middle of the day. She couldn't help but hope. Maybe today he will...
"Dev, come inside beta. How are you? Are you hungry? Shall I get you something to eat?"
"You always wanted grandchildren," he said, completely ignoring his mother's questions. "Ghar ka chirag. Vaaris. Maa wants vaaris to take the family forward. Don't you, maa?"
"Yes beta but..."
"You got your wish maa. You have a granddaughter. My daughter. Mine and Sonakshi's."
"Granddaughter? My granddaughter?" Ishwari's face was a mirror of shock. "But...but I thought you said Sonakshi can't conceive!"
Dev's shrug was nonchalant. His eyes were anything but. His smile full of derision. "Maybe your God heard all your prayers."
Ishwari caught Dev's arm, turning him to face her. "Where is she? Where is my granddaughter? Why didn't you bring her home? And Sonakshi! How could she hide such a thing from us? How could she deprive your daughter...my granddaughter of her rights?"
Dev's eyes were cold. So cold. Freezing cold. "Sonakshi didn't. You did. You wrote away all my responsibilities and my daughter's rights when you got my signature on those pre-nup papers."
Ishwari shook her head. "No Dev. I told you before and I'm telling you again. Whatever I did, I did it for this house. Our family. You and your sisters."
That was all it took for Dev to explode. The coldness to turn into a raging inferno. "I thought you wanted vaaris. You threw a tantrum when you found out that she was not pregnant and can't conceive. At a time when I should've been with her, trying to reassure her that it was not the end of the world, you made it all about yourself. And I let you. I ran after you. Consoling you. You forced me to agree to the treatment. Why? Only so that you can make me write off all my rights. Ignore all my responsibilities."
"Dev!"
"And you had these papers made before our marriage. You didn't even know that she would have trouble conceiving. You never accepted Sonakshi and would never have accepted any child of ours. You didn't want my child to have any rights and me to have any more responsibilities. I should only take care of you and your daughters. Never my child. Never my daughter."
"Dev beta, no!"
"Yes!" He countered with a snarl. "You didn't want me to go on my honeymoon. You said Neha would feel bad. And when you sent us to Shimla? Neha didn't feel bad then? My birthday. I left her alone there waiting for me while you all planned that stupid midnight celebration. Not one. Not one of you wanted to wait for my wife or even enquired about her. Why? You didn't care. Whom am I blaming?" He cursed, slapping his palm over his forehead. "I didn't speak up that day. I was party to it all."
Face flushed with rage, he pointed his finger at Ishwari. "You told me it was riwaaz to address my mother in law as maa. I refused. I distanced myself from her knowing how much it would hurt my mother in law yet ignoring. And when I accidentally slapped baba, why didn't you talk about riwaaz and sanskaar then instead of making it about how I hid things from you and hurt you. And I let you. I let you make it all about yourself again."
Dev looked at mamaji who hadn't spoken a word since Dev had entered the room. "Vicky is in charge of one of my companies, right, mamaji?" Mamaji nodded. "How much is it worth?"
"Four hundred crores."
Dev turned back to his mother. "Vicky handles my four hundred crore company maa. Why make an issue of five crores that I had lent to Sonakshi's brother? It was a business decision. I invest in different ventures. I never discuss any of those with you. I never ask you before investing. Then how was this any different? How were they different? How was Sonakshi different? I should support my wayward brother but not my capable wife and her brother?"
Dev's shoulders slumped in defeat. "All these days...all these days I blamed Sonakshi because she didn't trust me and my love for her. But did I ever do anything to deserve that trust? No. I didn't. I never did. I thought I chose her yet she left me. But fact is I left her. I left her all alone. Because you turned everything and made it about yourself. And I let you." Hands tucked into his faded jeans, he looked at his mother. "Now you have your grandchild. But you won't know where she is."
"Dev!" Ishwari slumped on her bed and sat there, tears rolling down her cheeks. But those tears did nothing to move her son.
About to leave the room, he stopped at the threshold. "Tell me something maa. Did you do all this because it was Sonakshi or would you have done it irrespective of the girl? Did you not want me to get married to Sonakshi or did you not want me to get married at all? Or have my own life. What did you want from me?"
He didn't wait for the answer as he strode out of the room and the house, leaving behind dead silence. Mamaji waited for Ishwari to speak. She didn't.
"Dev used to worship you Ishwari. Yet in the last seven years you barely saw him once or twice a week. Now, after listening to everything, I'm not sure if he would even want to come back home again. And frankly, I wouldn't blame him."
****
"Mamma, I miss dida and dadu!" Suhana said, without looking up from her drawing book.
Sona stopped typing on her laptop. "I know Soha. I miss them too. But you know what? My work here is almost done. Let me send this document and we'll see when is the next available flight to Kolkata. OK?"
"Yuppie!" Suhana yelped and ran over to hug her mamma.
"Now tell me. Are you hungry? There's still time for your dinner so you want some juice to tide you over until then?"
Grinning at her daughter's eager nod, she got up to get the juice but took a detour when the doorbell buzzed. A quick glance through the peephole and she opened the door to the room service attender. "Yes?"
The guy politely extended the huge bunch of colourful flower bouquet. "Good evening ma'am. This is for you." Sona stepped aside. He placed the bouquet on the table beside the entrance and extended a neatly folded piece of paper to her before bowing a little and departing.
"Wow! Flowers! Who gave them mamma?"
Sona opened the paper.
I know a lot has happened and I don't deserve even a minute of your time. But... Can we talk? Please? - Dev.
Hope you all "LIKED" it. Do let me know. Will be waiting.
Here is the link for part 2 updated by Divya (fanktlk)
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Mythology
Chakravarti Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan
Shiv Shakti
Anupamaa
