FF: The Road to Redemption- Step 9- Negotiate from Nothing- Pg 38 - Page 19

Am waiting to see where the road to redemption leads to, it's going to excruciating for Shivaay, no doubt. And I am loving it!😊😃

LOL at anikas timing ahahah she's going to advise them ofc but now she witnessed another obro with sindoor on

Shivaay is alao trying hard to get forgiveness from anika...

Plzzz cont soon

Chap 6- So the tales of Sindoor Singh Oberoi continue. I just love Mishraji!! Loling at that guys antics!! And Shivaay lets him take a selfie!! Isn't Shivaay just a soft marshmallow inside that iron exterior?!

Ani sees through the whole of Siddhart's plan!! Isn't Mallika a sweetheart? I always liked her( against popular opinion) and the way she used to try and make Shivaay see how Shivika were made for each other...So waiting to see how Ani is going to play along!

Rudra is so...I dont know what to say, he is sweet and loving and can really articulate his thoughts. He doesn't hide or mince words and can really say what he means or thinks. I think its his complete honesty and his words which are tactful and yet honest that has managed to keep him sane and the bond of Oberoi brothers from breaking, and now saved his own marriage too. (well atleast crossed the first major hurdle anyway!!) How easily he had confessed to loving Soumya!! Shivaay really needs to take a page from Ru's book and learn how to put his feelings into words!! Sigh!!

I was rofling at Ani's entry!! Poor girl, like Ru once said on the show, Ani's destiny in life seems to be to get the Oberois out all of their crazy problems!! Thanks for 2 chapters!! But still cant wait for the next one!!

"Come in, Anika."

Again, she wondered what it was that always alerted him to her presence when he had no conceivable, logical way of knowing she was there. What was it he'd said to Omkara and Rudra? He could 'sense' her.

It was a shame, wasn't it, that this 6th sense was only skin deep and the idiot had absolutely no idea what was going on inside her head?

She walked in through the open doors and went over to where Shivaay was sitting on one of his settees, laptop open on the table in front of him, the rest of which was covered with various sheets of paper.

"Do you need anything?" he looked up at her.

"No I just- Soumya's doing something in her room and needs to be alone for a bit."

"Anika, are you trying to tell me that Soumya is mastu-"

"If you finish that word, Mr Oberoi, I swear to God I'll drown you in the pool. No of course not. But she needs to be alone for a while and I can't very well go and sit in anyone else's room at this time of night, can I? Dadi has a honing beacon built in for situations where she can hunt me down and guilt trip me. Can you even imagine? 'A wife should stay with her husband, Anika beti. The marital bed is where the bond of marriage becomes the bond of love.' Dear Lord."

"Can you stop insulting my Dadi, please?"

Anika raised a hand to her chest, looking affronted. "I would never insult Dadi, you ignorant garden shed."

"Fhat the wuck did you just call me?"

"An ignorant garden shed. Anyways, I wasn't insulting Dadi, merely very accurately mimicking her."

Shivaay sighed heavily and closed his laptop. "Do you want to sit down and wait here while Soumya finishes... whatever it is she's doing?"

"Yes please."

Shivaay gestured to the seat opposite him. Anika looked at it, then took the one diagonally across from him instead. Shivaay heaved another sigh. "Must you go against everything I ask?"

"Yes. And it's not as though you ever really ask me to do anything, do you? You just kind of command me to do things and then force me to obey. So I like to take these small victories as and when I can."

The words sounded so matter of fact coming from his wife's mouth. She didn't sound angry, or upset or bitter- just resigned. Indifferent.

To his own astonishment, Shivaay found that somehow, this hurt worse.

"Mr Oberoi, I have a question I've been meaning to clarify with you."

"Yes?"

"The day you forced me to marry you..."

"Yes?" the words stung, but they were the truth and if Anika wanted to say them, then he would let her.

"You made a rather bizarre accusation."

"I said a lot of... rather bizarre things that day. What specifically are you referring to?"

"You said that I- you said that I'm the kind of woman who would sleep with anyone for money. Now, for the longest time I thought you'd just lost a marble or two when you snapped that day, but in the aftermath of our wedding you made a few more comments on my self-respect- or lack of it- and several other comments regarding my honour. I'm curious, were you referring to something specific?"

She could tell from the look in Shivaay's eyes that she'd hit the bullseye. She could also tell from the way he avoided directly meeting her gaze that he already knew he was wrong.

"What was it?"

"It's not-"

"Well I know it's not true." Anika shrugged. "But I want to know what it was you thought I did. What was it that made you so angry you put me through this misery? This torture? No. Before that- why did it make you so angry in the first place?"

Her voice had started off calm, almost pleasant. But that last question was the first chink in her armour. The first crack of her facade.

"Even if I had slept with someone for money, you were the one who was engaged. You were the one about to get married. You were the one who didn't stop me when I said yes to-" Her eyes widened as the truth struck her. "Daksh. Daksh?!" Her voice was shrill as she jumped to her feet, unable to stay seated any longer.

"That day," she paused, pointing an accusatory finger at him, her other trembling hand rising to her mouth. "That day you smashed your hand against that photo frame. The night before you came and grabbed me and sent me home even though I had so much work to do I was drowning in it and then the morning after was when everything changed." Everything was falling into place. "I came back that night, didn't I? You found out. You heard I stayed in Daksh's room. You didn't even take the time to find out I had come back for Soumya. Stayed with Soumya. No. You assumed I'd stayed with Daksh. Despite everything you knew about me, you thought that I would sleep with Daksh for money?"

Anika was shaking with rage, with hurt, with... relief? She wanted to simultaneously burst into tears and laugh hysterically as she looked down at her husband's face, his silence all the confirmation she needed.

"And for that, you put me through all of this. What right did you have, Mr Shivaay Singh Oberoi? What right did you have to think that of me? To get so angry that you destroyed my life because of a misunderstanding you didn't even try to clear? Hahahahahaa! Of course, I understand. The money. The 15 lakhs Daksh gave me. Did he tell you it was some sort of payment? Of course he did. He's the same class as you. Why would he lie? Why would anyone in your f**king society lie? Tia didn't lie to you, did she? So why would Daksh? Of course a middle-class piece of road trash like me would be the one at fault, the one willing to do anything for money or to climb above my station. How could you? How? Just..."

Anika was crying. Her pride in tatters, her trust destroyed, her heart broken.

"Were you angry that I sold myself, Shivaay, or just that I didn't sell myself to you?" Her voice was quiet. So heartbreakingly hurt that it broke Shivaay's heart just to hear it. "How much would you have paid me to spend one night with you, Shivaay? 20 lakhs? 50? 1 crore? How much am I worth to you?" Wiping away her tears, she turned away from him and walked towards his wardrobe, opening her side of it and pulling out a pair of jeans, a shirt and a jumper. All clothes she had brought with her from her old home.

She took off the bangles, the earrings, all of the rings which weren't her trademark moon ring-bracelet and placed them on the table in front of Shivaay. She grabbed the clothes and went to the bathroom, quickly shimmying out of the dress gifted to her by Priyanka and slipping into the well-worn more familiar ones which hugged her like an old friend. She went over to the basin and washed her face, pressing her cold hands to her eyes to try to cool them.

As she went back out into Shivaay's room, Anika slipped her feet back into Chandni and slowly walked over to the dressing table. She took off the mangalsutra and placed it carefully on the tabletop. She looked into the mirror, reached for her part and smudged away the sindhoor.

No more.

She walked back over to a motionless Shivaay Singh Oberoi and looked down at him one more time. "Meeting you will always be the biggest regret of my life, loving you will always be my worst mistake."

His head shot up, his eyes brimming with tears as they met Anika's now clear ones.

Picking Chikni up from the floor, Anika swung the bag over her shoulder. "Goodbye, Shivaay."

And without a single further look back, Anika walked out of his room. Out of his home.

And out of his life.

Step Nine- Negotiate From Nothing

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I don't think a redemption story could ever work without Anika knowing exactly how badly Shivaay messed up and what exactly he needs to redeem himself for. I also know that we are very unlikely to get a moment where Anika just walks out of the Oberoi Mansion in the show, but realistically this is the only appropriate response to everything Shivaay has put Anika through.

I hope the previous seven chapters set Anika up as the kind of woman who would be able to put the pieces together for herself. I just thought it'd be much more powerful to not give Shivaay any opportunity to sugarcoat or apologise and just have the truth and the betrayal be overwhelmingly hurtful for Anika... enough to push her to leave him.

And now, dear Readers, his real redemption track can begin. 😆