CHAPTER TEN
"Rey Shut Up please! You know If I knew I would be in this situation If I don't tell her then I would have done that long back. But that time it was all too much for me too." Swayam said."Yeah I know. The whole thing isn't very pretty." Rey agreed to him and sighed.
The sound of footsteps broke their conversations and they faced up to see Sharon entering the room with a tray of tea and snacks for both of them. Swayam, like in reflex got up and rushed towards her and took the tray in his own hands.
"Sharon. . . Why. . ." Swayam was about to again start with you don't have to do this things but thankfully for Sharon, Rey was around.
"Swayam your wife is pregnant, not bed ridden you know." Rey said and Swayam glared at him to which he rolled his eyes and got up.
"Sharon I am on your side but the guy is right. . . I am saying this more because he may kill me for encouraging you to roam around." Rey winked at her and she giggled.
"It's okay Rey. It's been long that I actually made something. Swayam just tells me to rest all the time." Sharon said eyeing at Swayam expecting a reaction but he busied himself in making tea instead.
"Fine. I will leave both of you to talk here. I will go." Sharon said and both the men watched her as she left.
Sharon walked a few steps when she realized she had forgot to pick up the business journal from the study which she wanted to read. She turned again and was about to enter when Rey's voice caught her startled.
"I don't understand what kept you from telling Sharon the truth about Amaira? You had time!"
"I wasn't ready. Rey, it took time for myself to digest it. And then when I did I wasn't ready. I had no idea how to confront Sharon with the truth and while I was at it the trip happened and then those pictures. . . Everything got ruined." Swayam said frustrated.
"I understand that Swayam. But you have to understand Sharon's plight too. She loves you and according to her you have betrayed her trust. And with your silence over all matter, it seems fair to be frank. Why don't you just tell her? I mean she is going to be in distress I know but at least she will have you by her side."
"Rey what is this you think? Get one lose two or three or whatever it is? I am beside her anyway. I am not leaving her. It took me a whole lot of deal to beak the barriers Sharon had made around herself in the past and I will not let her succumb into that again, ever."
"And how does this distance between both of you is going to help your cause?"
"She cannot hide anything from me. I can read her in and out. I can support her even being at a distance. But there is no else who can do that. And I am scared with truth coming out She would return to her old ways. Rey I know what you are saying is right, that I should tell her the entire truth but the time is critical right now, she is having a child in her womb. I cannot do that to her, not right now." Swayam said as his voice quivered.
The room fell silent after the conversation. Every word that Sharon heard from the duo left her stunned. Her eyes brimmed with tears when she heard Rey's voice again.
"Fine I get your point here. But what about the pictures you mentioned? At least you could tell her something about it. I know it's all interrelated and blah blah blah but still you could have maybe what made up a story, oh my god you could have at least denied the forge when you know the truth."
"Who made you a lawyer Rey? Made up story really? A lie to protect another lie? You think anything would suffice her except truth? No. Plus she came to me asking about them but I was stunned. I never knew about such pictures, I don't know from where they actually came from. I was too stunned to react and Sharon took my silence wrongly to my guilt and after that whatever happened I didn't have the guts to tell her anything except the reality."
"Can I see those pictures? Do you have them?" Rey asked, his voice casual.
Sharon's breath came into her throat as Rey's words registered in her mind. She waited breathlessly for Swayam's answer but all she heard was the sound of six footsteps, tinkling of keys and the drawer open and then close.
There was a long pause in between and Sharon's heart pounded in her chest. She knew what was happening. Rey was seeing those pictures. The dreadful memories crossed her mind, tears ran down her cheeks and she waited with bated breath as the silence endured in the room making her wait torturous.
"I don't blame Sharon for not trusting you, you know." Rey said slowly, the causality gone.
"Nobody would blame her Rey." Swayam replied, his voice as calm as an ocean. The calmness in her voice chilled Sharon.
"But I do. I do blame her for not trusting me. All the years of love, endearment, care, promises. . . She chose to forget all over a stack of photos. She suddenly made me question myself if everything I did for her was futile and did she ever trust me? Haven't I given her enough love to have that kind if belief in me?" Swayam said in the same manner.
Sharon felt like a whip has been clashed over her heart and it stung so bad that she became choked suddenly.
Swayam was Rey's best friend but that didn't mean he cared any less about Sharon. She had been a source of fun, motivation and support throughout the time he had known her and he seemed enraged at Swayam's statement.
"Swayam how can you compare your own troubles with her? You cannot blame her for not believing you after seeing this. She is the one suffering from uncertainty!" Rey said angrily.
"And I am not? Is that what are you trying to say Rey? You think she is the one suffering alone. Do you know about the guilt which comes to you when you haven't done any wrong? Do you know the temptation that rises inside you when you have the power to set everything perfect for your own self but you control it for someone else's better tomorrow? No. You Don't. You do not know Reyaansh." Swayam questioned him suddenly angry as his eyes brimmed in front of someone for the first time in the four long torturous months. Rey stayed quiet. He didn't have an answer for him or maybe he did and that was no.
Swayam took a heavy breath and sighed controlling his anger knowing Sharon was in the home and any disturbance here would cause her to check the room and he didn't want her to listen to any of this. Only if he did know it was already happening.
"It's not easy Rey. I know she is hurt, I know she is scared but I never thought I would be standing here. I thought after some time has passed, after she has got some clarity from the initial shock she would believe me. She would trust me but it didn't happen, I feel like with time she has just distanced herself from me." Swayam choked with his words and Rey dared not talk. He knew it was the first time Swayam was actually voicing out his feelings and he didn't want to interrupt him.
"It's not easy to see that accusatory look in her eyes every time I look at her. She cannot even stand with me in one room. We cannot have a conversation which does end without her taunting me. It's almost like we have gone back in time, just this time the magnitude of hurt which I feel is ten times more. I wanted to give her the most beautiful nine months of her life but I am not able to. My baby is growing inside her and not once Rey. . . not once I have felt him in these months. She says she may leave me . . . why doesn't she understand I cannot live without her. If she considers me as her world then why does she think my feelings are any different? I love her Rey." Swayam broke down and Rey got up and hugged him. He has just once seen him broken like this back in college and it was not easy for him then, and it wasn't easy for him now.
Sharon kept her hands on her mouth to prevent any sound of her hiccups as the tears streamed down her face as her mind stopped working. Was she really ignorant all this time? How come she never saw the longing in his eyes? Her body shivered but there was no end to the heaviness of her heart. She gulped the lump formed in her throat and cried silently.
The silence in the room was heavy as Swayam got himself together and Rey just sighed. It had been a long time that he himself dealt with his own feelings, he himself have ran away from them whenever they knocked but looking at Swayam, hearing him he could see where he had gone wrong. Maybe he was ignorant. If he would have tried to see through the words of Kria then things might have been different for him. The thought became too much for him and he knew it was too much for Swayam too. So he decided to change the topic.
"How's Amaira?"
Swayam sighed and rubbed his palms over his face trying to get himself together.
"Not well to be honest. Whatever happened has left her in depression and the doctors have diagnosed her with a disorder." Swayam told him and Rey appeared shocked.
"Oh god! Have you met her since then?"
"No. I haven't. I cannot leave Sharon alone here. Plus we are trying to see if she can be shifted here." Swayam said and Rey nodded processing the information.
"Sharon looks happy about the child, I mean she is glowing." Rey said out of nowhere bringing a smile on Swayam's face.
"Not only glowing. I have noticed few changes in her. You know what she has started eating oranges because I guess my mother told her its good for the baby."
"Dude, you're kidding. She hates oranges." Rey said shocked with the information.
"I know. And you know she has started reading books all related to baby care." Swayam told him smiling.
"You're joking. Oh Damn! I could never get her to read even the first book of Harry Potter and she is. . ." He felt speechless and Swayam laughed at his expressions.
"Call for Stephie. She is Sharon's caretaker. She is the one who actually got her those books. They share a very good bond you know. Sharon is happy around her and when she is thinking about the baby and that makes me happy." Swayam said and sighed wishing if he could have been in the list too.
Rey understood his feelings and patted his back.
Sharon made her way to the drawing room, her eyes were wet. She wanted to think about Swayam but her mind had so much that she wasn't able to concentrate on one thing. She wiped her tears and sat on the sofa thinking about everything and nothing. It looked like a lot of time had passed when she heard a voice, Rey's voice, her name.
Sharon looked up to find Rey looking at her suspiciously.
"What happened Shar?"
"Rey. . ." She wanted to ask so many things but nothing came out of her mouth. But a teardrop did come out of her eyes.
Rey held her close by the arms and wiped it with his thumb.
"Raiprakash, your husband is a hopeless lover. He can give tough competition to Romeo you know." Rey said bringing a smile on her face leading to a soft chuckle.
"Do not trust your eyes always Shar. What you see is not necessarily the whole truth everytime." Rey tried to make her understand in closed words.
"And then why do you worry when I am here. Just a few seconds and I will be taking the cause of your tension out of this house and will find the root of it." He said and winked at her leaving Sharon puzzled.
That is when Swayam came out from the study and walked towards them.
"Here the book that you wanted." Swayam handed a book to Rey and he tapped the book smiling at Sharon. Was he taking those pictures with him? She wondered.
"Fine Sharon I will leave now. Your husband has given me a lot of work of do.Official work." Rey stood up but then something striked him and he turned to Sharon.
"By the way I heard from a friend of mine that Swayam went to watch the F1 race alone without informing me. Is that true?" Rey asked and Sharon looked at Swayam who looked shocked and pleaded through his eyes to say NO.
"I think I got my answer. Now, that you went to F1 race alone you must pay for the consequences." Rey said to Swayam and turned to Sharon.
"Shar, Swayam told me that the textile factory is running in a loss since you have stopped going. Thanks to him." Rey said and smirked at Swayam who looked stunned.
"Whatt???" Sharon stared at Swayam shocked who looked speechless.
"Okay. . . Continue your staring game after I go. Sharon you take care of yourself, smile a lot more than what you are doing now and beat the shit out of him please." Rey said, his last wish like a plead at which Swayam dragged him with himself out of house.
Sharon sat there processing this new information along with the heaps of revelations that she had come across today.
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Indian Idol 16
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