Chapter 23The last thing Maan had been expecting was a knock on the door so late at night. Putting his beer can down he walked out of the room and downstairs to the front door. After undoing the lock and pulling the doors open, he looked out to see a veiled, female figure dressed in yellow standing on the doorstep. Only her eyes were visible, drawing his attention to them. As she walked in and shut the door, Maan felt like it was a dream, that he had seen those eyes in his dreams before. Without even realizing, he lifted his hand to her veil and slowly pulled it down, revealing her face fully.
Upon seeing who was actually standing there, Maan came out of his trance like state with a very loud, "Tum!"
"What are you doing here like this at this time of night?" he questioned with a mixture of anger and confusion.
"If anyone saw me coming here, it would be very difficult," Geet replied softly.
"And still you came?"
"I had to talk to you. You can't keep calling my house like you did tonight, otherwise there will be problems. I can't go to Amritsar just yet, so please don't keep asking. You don't know, but I..."
Maan didn't even let Geet finished before he stated, "Oh, I know. I know everything."
Geet frowned, before saying, "You can't know. I never even told you why I wanted to sell you my land."
Turning his face away slightly, Maan smirked, before turning back and saying, "One doesn't always need to be told things in order to understand. It is very obvious from your behavior that you are trying to find a way to elope with your boyfriend, someone your family obviously doesn't approve of. What I want to know is, why didn't you do this earlier, instead of waiting until your family forced you into marriage with some stranger? Did you ever stop to think what the consequences would be? The lives that would be ruined by your actions? No, why would you do that? Why would you care about anyone else as long as you get what you want? You are the kind of person whose face I don't want to see, let alone know anything about. Just get out of here!"
"Listen, I am not going to leave here that easily," stated Geet firmly to Maan's back, before moving to come in front of him. "I need your help and if you would just let me explain..."
"Neither will I give you any help, nor do I want your explanations. After everything you and your family has done, the grief that Dadima will go through once she finds out the truth, do you really think that I would give such a shameless person like you any consideration? I feel sorry for that guy, because he obviously doesn't know what a manipulative, treacherous, dishonest, greedy girl he's hooked up with!"
Geet had heard more than she could tolerate out of Maan, his words too vile to ignore. Before she even thought about what she was doing, her hand had raised ready to give him the slap he deserved. Still that blow never took place, as even in these circumstances Geet couldn't bring herself to hit another person. Lowering her arm slowly, an angry determination came over her face as she contemplated the arrogant person standing in front of her.
"You were correct. Hitting another person shows nothing but weakness, and is a mistake, something that I will never do again. Neither will I ever expect help from a person like you who is so big but has such low thoughts!"
Maan watched angrily as Geet walked out the door without looking back, wondering what his life had come to. One thing was certain, he couldn't depend on this girl doing the right thing. It would be better if he got his team of lawyers back in Delhi to investigate and search a solution. They might be able to discover some way that Munshiji was unaware of.
The next morning, after taking a run, he was on his way to the Handa haveli with no solution found by his lawyers. That meant that he had to find some way to convince Geet to go with him. While driving through the village and looking ahead on the road, he saw a familiar figure dressed in yellow standing in the middle. She was holding her dupatta nervously and glancing around, as if she was looking to meet someone.
He didn't even bother to think about who she might be meeting as he quickly got out of his jeep. Nor did he care anything about the look of concern and even a little fear that flashed across her face when she saw him advancing towards her. All he cared about was that Geet Handa was not going to get away from him this time. He made certain that his actions showed that by trapping her against a tree when she tried to walk away.
"Let me go," she pleaded softly, not looking into his eyes.
"What do you think of yourself?" Maan demanded, tired of her constant evasions. "You tell what you want to do, and I will just quietly let you do it? Just because I don't hit women, that doesn't mean that I let them get away with giving me orders. Understand?"
"I don't understand what I'm supposed to tell you," Geet replied in a way that Maan felt she was trying to escape by posing ignorance.
"I will tell you what to say. You have until tomorrow to agree to go with me to the Registry in Amritsar." When Geet tried to protest, Maan put his hand over her mouth, not willing to listen. "Don't say another word, because after evading me for so long, you have lost the right to say anything."
Looking into her eyes, it was like she was trying to speak to him, but he didn't want to understand. "There's no point in trying to explain anything to women, since you all only ever respond to being ordered, isn't it?"
Provoked by his words, Geet pushed off his hand angrily, saying, "I'm tired of you continually touching me like this. Just stay away!"
"I seem to remember having this conversation before. That time I thought it was just your feminine ego, but now I realize the truth. My touch is offensive and not allowed, but there is someone who can touch you, who you want to touch you, right? Someone for whose touch you are willing to go through any kind of deception just to be with them, right? Are you scared that if he finds out someone else touched you, he won't want you any more?" It wasn't the words that he said, so much as the way he said it that had Geet glancing down, tears starting to form in her eyes.
Rather than halting his sarcastic tirade, her tears only instigated Maan further. "Listen, stop playing this crying game, because tears have no affect on me. For the last time, you have until tomorrow to agree to come with me to Amritsar. After that, I will come and take you away in front of your entire family. No one will stop me, and not only that, but I will tell them everything I know about you and that boyfriend of yours. Do you understand?"
Maan could see the tears continuing to fall down her cheeks, but that didn't stop him from turning around and walking back to his jeep. He had vowed to himself that he would never again be taken in by female tears, and he intended to keep that vow. No, he had laid out his position in terms that were so clear that even Geet Handa could understand. That was enough.
Geet placed her hand in her stomach in an attempt to quell the uneasiness that had set in ever since Maan left after making his last threat. She wondered how she would deal with his increasing insistence that she go with him to Amritsar. She didn't entirely blame him for his anger, as she had agreed to do it, but she didn't understand why he couldn't be more patient. Then there was the misunderstanding he had about who Gurvinder was to her. It was upsetting that he thought so badly of her, but she couldn't worry about trying to explain to him when she had other things to worry about.
"Geet didi," called Rajji as she came running up from behind, "here I am. But I don't understand why you wanted to meet here instead of at home."
"Because we need to sneak back into that house without anyone finding out that you didn't stay at school for lunch. We're lucky that Tayiji and Dolly bhabhi are going shopping today, but if anyone else should see us, they might find out that we are planning to search Brij veerji's room. That would be a disaster!"
Taking a deep breath in an effort to clear her mind from the recent encounter with Maan, she said, "Chal, Rajji. We don't have much time."
Precap"Geet didi, can't Jeejaji help us?"
"No, Rajji. There is no use asking him for help. All he knows how to do is assume."
"Geet didi, doesn't your Mamaji do something with detectives?"
Edited by laxmi2010 - 13 years ago
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