The Divorce | COMPLETE | AbhiGya SS by mina

Abhi stared at the divorce paperwork and sighed in frustration. His lawyer had just left, assuring him that it was an uncomplicated case and everything would be resolved quickly. Abhi felt rather that it was a never-ending headache. Uncomplicated? What a joke.

As per Aaliya's plan, Abhi had kicked Pragya out of his life as soon as Purab and Aaliya were on the plane to their honeymoon. He had warned her the night before to have all her things packed, and then he'd simply brought her down to breakfast and told Daadi it was over between them.

Daadi had immediately and insistently objected, but it was actually Pragya who convinced her to accept the separation. She spun a careful story explaining that the two of them had been hiding their differences due to Aaliya's wedding, but they'd had problems from the start. She didn't mention Tanu or Purab; she simply described to Daadi how they were too different to make a life together. Daadi begged them to reconsider, to give it more time, to not be so immature, but in the face of Abhi's stubbornness and Pragya's patience, she had not succeeded.

After that, he had driven Pragya to her mother's home. He hadn't planned to help her explain the situation, but at the last minute he decided to go inside with her. The conversation with Pragya's mother went much the same as the argument with Daadi, except that at the end Sarla had suddenly turned cold and angry and curtly told him to leave. She declared that if he didn't need her daughter, they didn't need him either.

Something had compelled Abhi to take one last look at Pragya as he left. Their eyes had met, and held, and for a few long moments he couldn't remember why he was walking away. She'd had his back all morning, and suddenly it felt like he was abandoning a teammate. Then their eyelock broke, and he saw her too-serious, chashma-framed face and boring behenji clothes and stiff schoolmarm posture and remembered that she'd never been the right woman for him.

It had been three weeks since that day. Daadi still wasn't talking to him, though now that Aaliya was back she would at least still sit at the same table with him for meals. Purab had moved into the mansion rather than Aaliya joining him at his apartment; Taiji had some sarcastic things to say about that, but no one had really expected Aaliya to leave the comfort and extravagance she was used to. Finally, Abhi had his bhai jaise dost back, but something had changed. The easy trust between them had been replaced by a careful game of pretending that nothing had ever happened. Abhi was frankly getting tired of it. At least when the Chashmish was around there had been someone he could share his frustrations with - well, with her it was more like taking out his frustrations on her than sharing, but still. It was better than the creeping loneliness he had begun to feel.

And then there was this divorce paperwork. Abhi simply couldn't understand it. Pragya had asked for nothing in the settlement. She had waived the right to alimony, and she wasn't look for a lump-sum payment. She had even sent someone to return the jewels and saris Daadi had given her, but Abhi had sent them back, knowing that Daadi would be even more hurt if she saw them returned to the house.

Pragya had even been the one to start the divorce proceedings. Two days after Aaliya's wedding, her lawyer had sent the paperwork to his. An uncontested divorce, due to irreconcilable differences. All he had to do was sign the affidavit and stay away from her for 6 months.

As he read and re-read the papers, he kept wondering, why was she making it so easy on him?

Abhi had put off reviewing the documents for many days, but now his lawyer was insisting they had to be filed without delay. Part of his mind, the part with Tanu and Aaliya's voices, wanted him to just sign and be done with it. But another part of him, the part with Daadi's heart, just felt unsettled. And then there was his own confusion and curiosity from living with the Chashmish for several months. Try as he might, he could not deny that Pragya had only ever behaved the way you'd expect of such a plain and modest girl. She had been honest and she had been loving. She had taken care of his Daadi, bonded with his niece and nephew, and even arranged his sister's wedding to her own ex-lover. It just didn't make sense.

Abhi thought of the times he had found Pragya and Purab alone together. He remembered her saying "Yes, I love him." But yet, he had never caught them even looking yearningly at each other, and that made him wonder. If Purab had loved her so much that he'd tried to break his engagement to Aaliya, why had he been so comfortable accepting Pragya's marriage to him? And why, if Pragya loved Purab, did she look so happy giving him away to Aaliya?

He remembered the night she was drunk. What she'd said about Tanu, as if she were jealous of her wifely rights. What she'd tried to say about Purab loving some other girl. And how she had teased him about kissing Tanu. Claiming that she had never been kissed herself...

But he'd been drunk for that part, so maybe his memory couldn't be trusted...

Still, it bothered him.

And then there was the money. She had not spent any of his money while they'd lived together. She hadn't asked for an allowance or charged anything to his accounts. And aside from the gifts from Daadi for all the functions, she hadn't shown off any new or expensive clothes or jewelry. All she'd brought with her were her rainbow of anarkalis and her heavy books. That was all she'd left with too.

And now she wasn't asking for anything, as if she was perfectly content to go back to being a middle class lecturer, supporting her family with her small salary. She could easily have requested some financial compensation for the divorce; given their unequal wealth, the courts would expect him to provide at least a token amount. And if she was as scheming and selfish as he had thought, she could be getting streams of money from Daadi just to stay on as her bahu, or demand a settlement from him to keep their problems out of the press .

But the inexplicable Chashmish was doing none of that. Instead she seemed to want a cold, quiet, quick divorce. As if none of it meant anything at all to her. As if she just wanted it all behind her as fast as possible.

And he couldn't stand it.

~continued in Part 2~

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 - First Half | Part 3 - Second Half | Part 4 Teaser | Part 4

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