"Haan! Sach hain ye, maine jhooth bola tumse. Main koi mahaan banke, tumhare khatir tumse breakup nhi kiya tha. Maine paison keliye hi shaadi kii thi. But I liked Varun anyways. He was an NRI and was already a successful businessman then. Uske saamne tum lagte hi kya the Raghav. Main kya karun agar tumne hamare fling ko itna seriously leliya?
Phir shaadi ki baat aayi... main tumhe mana kardeti but Varun ne saath jhagda ho gaya tha toh gusse mein haan bol diya tumhe. Ab mujhe kya pata tha tum uss baat ko bhi itna seriously leloge.. I liked Varun and he could provide for me unlike you so I did what was practical. I thought you will be depressed about it for a few days and then move on as usual. Waise bhi itna kya dukh gaya tumhe?"
Raghav didn't know what to say. How to react? He only stood there gaping at the woman in front. There was a distinct ringing in his ears which seemed to drown most of the background noises. Esha was heaving trying to force the breaths back in her lungs after her incessant shout. Tears were running down her face. Tears of frustrated anger. It had been days yet she wasn't anywhere near to what she wanted. All because of Raghav and his stubborn a** nature.
She had been trying to garner Raghav's empathy and win him over for the past few days which had resulted in a multitude of misunderstandings between Raghav and Pallavi, yet every time she failed to get her endgame as they made up somehow. But this time, she had successfully set them up to a major fight which resulted in Pallavi leaving to stay with the Deshmukhs for a few days. Esha had done a victory dance in glee while reaching the Rao mansion with her baggage of faux sympathy and to further cement her position only to be brushed away by a furious Raghav harshly.
Then her truth had been revealed.
She had lied to Raghav that her father who was the Comissioner of the Hyderabad Police force at that time had threatened to put Raghav in jail if she doesn't marry Varun. Raghav had felt tremendously guilty at that resulting in his subsequent empathy. And ironically Lakshmi Singh, whom Esha's father had mentored, had discovered her lie bringing the truth out to Raghav.
Thus the ensuing confrontation.
"But then.. why are you even.. why would you even lie to me.. I don't understand..."
Raghav was literally at a loss of words. It didn't make any sense. If she loved another man and had betrayed him, hurt him whatever.. why would she take the pains to conjure up a lie to gather his sympathy?
"Because I want to marry you now.."
Esha replied shamelessly.
Raghav looked bewildered. His head was spinning.
"Wha.. what? Why? I.."
Esha scrunched her face in disgust and spat her next words with as much venom as she could muster.
"Because Varun is a f**king idiot! He had inherited his father's wealth which he gambled away within a few years. And he doesn't know the b of business. We have gone almost bankrupt. And I am in need of serious money. I thought I could manipulate you into marrying me .... thinking how involved had you been with me at one time. Then I could divorce you within a month or two and take a share of this massive wealth as the alimony. But no... this idiotic Pallavi had to come in the equation in the middle complicating it.."
Raghav who had been listening to her rant in a numb shock at the level to which she could stoop instantly boiled up at the last sentence.
"Just shut the f**k up! You.. you disgusting... I don't even want to speak the words which are coming in my head at the moment. Don't dare to take my wife's name with that filthy mouth of yours."
He screamed stunning everyone at the sheer volume of his bellow. Esha recovered quite fast though, smirking poisonously.
"Of course Mr. Rao! Your wife! Quite a surprise I might say. To see any woman worth her salt staying with a person like you. I mean the money is good.. can't complain there... you have the goods too.. buttt.. anyone who knows you from the inside can see what kind of a piping hot mess you are. I mean.. who can blame me for not wanting to stay with a person whose issues have issues. I wanted a partner not a project.
You have so many insecurities and issues that tumhe koi theek karte karte uski life khatam ho jaegi. You are a chronic alcoholic, a murderer, an insomniac with breath taking anger management issues hanging by an inch of your fast descending sanity. You are a danger magnet. Anyone within five mile proximity of you gets their life expentancy fatally shortened."
She snarled at the last word enjoying the slowly rising pallor on Raghav's handsome face sadistically as he heard his truths being so cruelly bared to him. He wanted to protest, scream that he wasn't like that anymore.. he was trying to be better.. for her.. but his throat had constricted and his chest was feeling unnaturally tight. He couldn't breathe.
Esha was right. He knew it. He was an apoplectic mess of a man. Why would anyone want to marry him? Why would anyone want to love him, be with him? He married Pallavi forcefully so she had no other option. Maybe loving him was her choice. But she should be regreting it majorly now.
Why couldn't he breathe?
"Kya hua Mr. Raghav Rao? Muh mein dahi jaam gyi hain..ya sacchai hazam nhi hui.. kuch bol nhi rahe? You know what Raghav. I was a bit guilty initially that I might have treated you too cruelly.. but now, I am glad I didn't end up with you. Didn't your wife get shot recently? She almost died because of you right..?
Poor dear...I mean kya bhoot sawar ho gaya tha jo tumhare saamne kud gyi? Maana ki koi Devi maa nhi hain woh, but still anyone's life will be worth more than you. But waqt rehte akal aa gyi hogi. Kos rahi hogi khud ko tumse pyaar kar beithne keliye.. warna who would want to fall for an animal like you."
Esha didn't realise at once how her face snapped aside so violently. Then her cheek stung horribly and she realized that she had been slapped. She looked at the woman in front with surprised eyes.
Pallavi Rao's face was as white as her husband’s but opposed to his grief, her's was in fury.
A blinding hot white fury which was sizzling her very sinews in its heat which felt like it would burn Esha Madhvan down to her bones.
"How dare you!"
She spat within gritted teeth.
------------------------------------
To be continued...
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
