"Even if you don't marry Anika, how much of a bas***d do you have to be to put Tia through such misery? Shivaay, you would do anything for the people you love and care about, no? Surely you must at least care about Tia to be marrying her. So think about it this way, if she loved someone else as much as you love Anika, would you want her to just try to forget about him and marry you anyway? Would that be fair to anybody?"
Shivaay shook his head. He had stopped crying around ten minutes ago, was now in a phase of stunned silence.
"Exactly. And if you truly love Anika as much as I believe you do, then how can you possibly do this to her?"
Shivaay shook his head again. Mutely agreeing that he couldn't do this.
Omkara knew his brother well. He knew that once Shivaay recovered from this complete shattering of his shields, he'd put them up so quickly and so fiercely that nobody would ever be able to get through them again. Omkara knew he had just this minuscule window of opportunity in which to persuade Shivaay to do the right thing. Convince him that to cast Anika aside and go ahead with marrying Tia would be a travesty for everyone involved.
He also knew that Shivaay himself would probably prefer that Omkara did absolutely nothing, told no one.
But therein lay a fundamental difference between the two oldest Oberoi Brothers.
In always taking everyone else's burdens onto his own shoulders so they would never have to bear it themselves, Shivaay had unintentionally instilled a firm belief in Omkara that a problem shared was a problem halved. Subsequently, the more people with whom the problem was shared, the smaller the problem would fractionally seem.
"Shivaay, go to your bathroom and wash your face. Change into some fresh clothes. I'm going to come back here in fifteen minutes with Rudra, Priyanka and Soumya."
Shivaay made a noise of protest. "Yes, I am going to bring them. Because I can't fix this myself, I doubt you'd even let me try. We all know about you and Anika, Shivaay. If you didn't want us to know you should have tried to keep your outrageous flirting less public."
Shivaay spluttered and the sound made Omkara's heart sing. When he had first opened the door to Shivaay's room that evening, first held him while he cried, Omkara had been afraid that he would never be able to pull his brother out of such a deep well of misery. To see a sliver of the Shivaay he knew and loved fight through, even if just to make an incoherent sound of indignation... it gave him hope.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Dearly departed, we are gathered here today."
Soumya smacked Rudra around the back of the head before snapping at him to shut up and sit down. "The phrase is dearly BELOVED, Idiot Singh Oberoi. And they say that at funerals, not interventions."
Before Rudra could retaliate, Omkara slammed a notepad down on the table, silencing everyone with its blatant demand for attention.
"We are here because the time has come for us all to step up and repay Shivaay for all that he has done for each and every one of us, by stopping him from ruining his own life."
They all glanced at the man himself as he stared blankly at the glass of water in his hands. Not knowing what else to do, Priyanka had draped a shawl over his shoulders and patted his arm before taking the seat beside him.
"So we're here because bhaiya has finally realised he's in love with Anika didi? Well it's about time." Rudra dug his elbow into Shivaay's ribs from the other side of him. It hurt him to see his elder brother like this, a vacant shell of the vibrant presence he usually was, and so Rudra did what he always did when he was hurt: he tried to turn it into a joke.
It was how Rudra Singh Oberoi survived.
"I don't suppose killing Tia is an option?" he mused, earning him an exasperated eye roll from Soumya. "No, I don't suppose so. Her 'positive vibes' would probably shield her from our evil intentions anyway." He grinned as this time Sumo Somu let out an involuntary giggle.
"Or at least warn her we were coming," she added and Rudra nodded.
"So now that we've eliminated murder," Priyanka spoke directly to Omkara, deciding that was probably for the best, "we do still need to discuss what to do about Tia."
"Om bhaiya could seduce her, OMG and then I could seduce her and then all three of us could hold a huge dramatic intervention where we reveal we know that she doesn't care which Oberoi she marries, so long as she gets her hands on the Oberoi fortune."
"Rudra, if you make one more utterly ridiculous suggestion, I'm going to ban you from this discussion."
"Who'd be seduced by you, anyway?" Soumya muttered.
"Er, look who's talking please."
"Do you think just explaining the situation to her would work? I mean, surely Tia doesn't want to marry someone who wants to marry someone else?"
"Prinku, I don't want to patronise you but that's a very naive way of thinking. We Oberois exhale money. A lot of women in Tia's position would be willing to overlook much more than Shivaay loving another woman in order to get their hands on that kind of wealth."
"But it's just money!"
"We can sit here and say things like 'it's just money' purely because we're in the rather privileged position of never having known the struggle of life without it."
Priyanka blushed, chastened. Omkara ruffled her hair affectionately. "You're a good person, Prinku. And you want to see the good in everyone else, it's our job as your brothers to make you aware that the shadows exist."
"And to step in like irritating, overprotective knights in shining armour to fight them off?"
"On occasion," the two siblings exchanged a small smile.
"So are you saying that talking to Tia is out?"
"Not exactly, just that it might not be enough."
"Tia has never been anything but understanding. If we noticed something between Shivaay bhaiya and Anika, don't you think Tia did too? I think we at the very least owe her an explanation."
"What do you suppose we should- could you two stop arguing for just one minute please." He addressed this to Rudra and Soumya who had somehow begun debating whether kidnapping Anika and Shivaay and locking them inside a cabin until they resolved all their issues was feasible.
"What do you all suppose we should say to Tia?"
"Well, we should explain that we all love her and would have been delighted to have her as our new Bhabhi. And then say that Shivaay bhaiya loves Anika and so sadly can't marry her anymore whoops sorry, nothing personal. No worries and we'll be sure to send loads of 'positive vibes' her way." Rudra was giggling.
"Can we pretend for just one moment, that Tia Kapoor is not just a joke to be laughed off and forgotten? She is a woman who was looking forward to marrying a man who by all means and appearances, she gets on with and cares for and who in turn gets on with and cares for her. In our society, that is far more than most people are afforded. She is now about to be told that not only is her wedding to this man not happening, it's because her fiance has fallen in love with someone else. While in a relationship and knowing he was due to marry her. It's difficult to see how she won't take that personally. Not to mention the impact it will no doubt have on Tia's future prospects. Lest we forget that whatever the outcome of this whole mess, it will be Anika and Tia's reputations and behaviour which will be called into question and subjected to the malicious court of public opinion." Omkara's tirade was met by stunned silence.
The silence continued as Shivaay suddenly moved. He put the- unsipped- glass of water down on the table in front of him and rose to his feet, the shawl slipping off his shoulders. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialling a number from memory.
The phone almost rang out before someone answered.
"Hello?" Shivaay all but barked into the phone.
A female voice responded but none of them could figure out who it was.
"I'm coming over."
Protests.
"No. No. Fine. I'll be there soon."
The beeping sound to indicate the other person had hung up.
Without another word to anyone, Shivaay Singh Oberoi left the room.
Udne Ki Aasha
Anupamaa
