AarYa OS "Sinful Night". Chapter - 4, Page - 14

He remembered when she had stormed into the men's locker room to demand answers from him for his behavior. From her actions it was clear that she still had no idea about what had happened between them that night in Mumbai. 

Her questions had made him blurt out in anger the truth of that night. "You made me drunk and in that drunken state you seduced me which led to us sleeping together". He remembered how her face had turned. As if she had seen a ghost or had received one of the most heartbreaking news of someone's death.

She had become numb, and had sat down while he had gone ahead with that boxing match. All throughout the match she had the same stunned expression on her face. 

They had returned home after the boxing match and she hadn't uttered a word. Not even to the kids also. She had kept quiet, had kept her distance from him. When Buaji had asked...no ordered her to apply ice on his wounds, she flinched and couldn't do it. When they had talked with Ma on the phone, that time also she had done small talk. 

When she was playing blindfold with the kids and she had collided with him, after removing her blindfold she had looked at him as if he was a stranger. Her bangle, Arpita's bangle had gotten stuck in his Kurta, she couldn't wait to remove it. When their hands touched, she had flinched as if she had touched a stranger.

And now in their room, she had decided to sleep on the sofa. Her distance, her aloofness was bothering him. She was awake and he was getting agitated. The silence in the room was worse than the thunder on a stormy night. When he couldn't take it anymore, grabbing his file and his notepad, he left the room and went into the living room with the thought that work might distract him.

He was wrong. All he did was keep thinking about the events of last few weeks. Opening his notepad, he started pouring his heart in it. He wanted to get things off his chest, things that he couldn't share with anyone. Well there was no one to share with now, for he had lost his best friend in that Mumbai trip. His best friend, his Aarti Ji. The one who had betrayed him the most. 

He started writing down everything that had happened before, during and after that Mumbai trip. 

From their fun filled days with the kids on the beach, in the house, at Essel World, to their drunken night, to the repercussions. These repercussions let to his outbursts and that boxing match. By the time he had finished writing he was exhausted and slept right there on the couch. Yet he couldn't sleep peacefully. Even after pouring his heart on those pieces of paper, his heart and mind were not at peace. At the first ray of dawn he got up. It was time for him do something for his restless condition.

At breakfast he told Pankaj that he had to go back to Mumbai as he had got some wedding organizing contract. He had to leave the very same day.

After he left Aarti felt a void in her heart. Yes it was true that things had changed between them. That after the revelation she wasn't able to look him in the eyes. She didn't have it in her to face him after what she had ended up doing in a drunken state.

Having no recollection of that night was also adding more guilt to her already guilty heart. She could only understand why he wanted to stay away from her, for she was the one who responsible for this distance between them.

It had been two days now since he left. As if he had taken her life with him. She couldn't concentrate on anything. She couldn't laugh, smile or play with the kids like she used to. All she did was waited for his phone calls which were only for the kids. She never answered his calls as she couldn't talk with him with the fear of another rejection, another humiliation from him. 

On the third day when he called at night, as usual she handed the phone to the kids and went out of the room. After a while she went back to check on them. She had entered the room when she heard his voice. Ansh had put the phone in speaker mode. She was hearing his voice after three days.

He was laughing at one of the jokes that Ansh had told him. His laughter filled her ears and her heart. She decided to let them talk for a little more. As she was about to leave she heard him asking. "How's your Mumma?"

They told him that she has stopped playing with them. "If she's stopped playing with you then you have to try hard to make her play. If she's not smiling and laughing like before then it's your responsibility to make sure that she laughs and plays with you. Promise me that you'll take proper care of her. That you'll make sure that she eats on time, and sleeps on time. If she's afraid to sleep alone then you must sleep with her. Promise me that you'll do this for your Mumma!"

They promised. She realized that the tension between them was taking its toll on their kids. She decided that she won't let their kids suffer because of them. She started playing, smiling, laughing, eating, and sleeping with them.

Now it was a week since Yash had left for Mumbai. Ma and Bauji had returned from Delhi where they had gone for Ma's knee surgery. That night after dinner Bauji asked him when he's returning back, he said that he had got another project so it'll be a while. 

Aarti's heart sank. She cursed herself for pining for a man who had no feelings for her. Yes he had asked the kids to look after her. But that was about it. Not once had he shown any desire to talk with her. If he wasn't bothered then why should she bother!

Next morning she was cleaning the kids' room when Gayatri called her. "Bahu Yash is on call and he wants to talk with you."

Aarti's hand shook, her body trembled as she couldn't believe what she had just heard. Was it a dream or was it real? She heard Gayatri calling her again which meant it was a reality. Leaving everything she ran to her. Handing her the phone Gayatri said. "He needs some urgent file which is in his drawer. You talk with him. I don't understand all these things."

All her hope, her excitement came shattering down. She took the phone and heard his voice. "Aartiji please find that file for me and courier it to me immediately." He explained to her which file he needed.

She went in their room and scoured his drawer. She found the file and gave it to RamDulare to courier it. She started rearranging the drawer; a notepad fell down and opened. She bent down to pick it up.  

As she picked it up, her eyes fell on one of the lines. She saw her name in it. Out of curiosity she opened the first page. She sank in the chair after she read the first line.

"I've lost her. I've lost the most precious person in my life. My best friend. My Aartiji"

She closed and locked the door and sat to read what Yash had written in the diary about her. She knew reading another person's diary is not the right thing to do, but as he had mentioned that he loved her, she couldn't resist herself from reading it. And technically it was not a Diary but a Notepad.

The very first lines broke her heart...

Yash's entry...

Why?... Why did she cheat me? The person, whom I trusted the most, gave me the most unbearable pain. I thought I had experienced enough pain after I lost Arpita. I thought there was nothing in the world that would give me this immense pain. But I was wrong. She proved me wrong.

This pain, this hurt is worse than the last time. I loved Arpita but she never hurt me! Never cheated me. But Aarti Ji... Aarti... She's hurt me in the worst possible way. 

Why am I feeling this much hurt and pain when I don't even love her? Or is it that I love her... Yes I love her. I don't know how it happened! When it happened! But she made me fall in love with her. I'm in love with my wife, my Aarti... If only I could leave this betrayal behind and embrace her. But it's not that easy...

After Arpita left me, I felt this void in my life, in my heart. I was sure none could fill it. But she did. She removed all traces of Arpita's memories from my heart and made a place of her own. Sadly I realized it, my feelings, my love, after she betrayed me in the worst possible way. I realized it when I almost lost my life in that boxing ring.

Ever since the demise of Arpita, my whole family was after me to get married. They wanted to get my Punar Vivah. I never showed interest in second marriage, as I wanted to stay loyal to my one and only love, Arpita. My parents told me that I'll need a companion to spend the rest of my life. I needed a living woman, not a person who was no longer alive.

I knew they wished well for me, but I was not ready. When they couldn't convince me this way, they found another way. They used my own kids to emotionally blackmail me. I had to finally agree for Punar Vivah, for my daughters, as they needed a mother. 

I found out Aartiji too was a widow with a son who was of Palak's age. The first day I met her, when we got arrested and I dropped her home, I saw her playing in the rain with her son, My Ansh. Yes I had immediately fallen for that sweet child and had accepted him as my son. I saw how caring and affectionate Aartiji was towards Ansh. That assured me that she was the right choice. I was convinced that she'll love my daughters the same way she loved her son. And she had proven me right. Yes it took her a little time, but once she accepted Palak and Payal as her daughters, she became their real mother. 

We faced so many obstacles before our PV, which were mainly created by my parents. Like when they wanted to change her name to Arpita. I was shocked, I was baffled. How could they even think of giving my beloved's name to someone I barely knew? And what would Aartiji feel? Her whole world was about to change on top of that my parents wanted to change her identity also!  I almost had it out with my parents, but there was no point in making them see sense. For me Arpita was Arpita and Aartiji was Aartiji. That's what I'll call her it doesn't matter what others call her. 

Second obstacle was my mother didn't want Ansh to come with her. Was she high or something? Being a mother, who was looking for a mother for my daughters, how could she even think of separating a mother from her own son? That also so that she could give motherly love and affection to my girls? This was beyond my imagination.

I don't know why Aartiji hid this matter from me. I found out about it after our PV. This time I was not going to let my parents have their own way. From the moment I met that little boy, he had become my son and I, his father. There was no way any of our kids would live without any of their parents. I took Ansh with us to our home, much to my parents chagrin. 

On our wedding night, after we crossed all the embarrassing hurdles left in the room by Prateek, when I lashed at him and declared that no one would and could take Arpita's place in my life and my heart, I didn't even bother to find out how Aartiji must've felt about it. I had assumed that she too had married me for the sake of her son just like I married her for my girls.

She not only accepted my decision but was happy with it. I took over my fatherly duty for Ansh she took her motherly responsibility for the girls. Ansh had already accepted me as a father. The girls were not ready. What I failed to notice was that my own mother and Buaji were instigating them against Aartiji and Ansh. They disliked Ansh to this extent that Ma locked him alone in the storeroom. Aartiji still kept quite.

But she didn't keep quiet when I changed Ansh's school without talking with her. The result was he ran from school and got kidnapped and I ended up taking a bullet for that innocent child. Well I'd take any bullet, anytime for any of my kids, including Ansh.

While I was unconscious Aartiji left the house with Ansh.

Yes I brought them back home after his running race. But till date I don't know why she left. The truth is that I never cared to ask her. As long as they were back, I was content. We kept our distance as husband and wife, but not as parents. What I liked the most was that she let me have my space and initially didn't interfere unless it was something related to our kids. 

But slowly she started interfering, like when she tried to imitate Arpita during Palak's birthday. My anger knew no bounds. She had done what I never expected from her. Later she apologized and promised me that she won't repeat it again. Only she did.

This time she didn't try to become Arpita to take her place. Instead this time she tried to take her place by remaining Aartiji.

I would have given that place to her, eventually, had she not played with my feelings by lying and deceiving. I could have never guessed the real reason why she wanted to go for that Mumbai trip. She had made a promise to Ma that in this trip she will change me and make me hers.

She had changed me in a big way. How I never realized that I was slowly getting attracted to her is beyond me! Yes I was slowly falling for her. What started as a relationship for the kids, had turned into friendship, was now turning into attraction and love.

The day she wore that pink suit and threatened to go back to Bhopal with the kids if I don't stop my office work... I couldn't take my eyes of off her. I did something that shocked both of us. I switched off my phone and gave it to her. I felt much lighter that day. I played with the kids. I taught her pottery. She cooked my favorite dish which I relished to my heart's content.

I don't think I ever trusted anyone the way I trusted her. When she said we were friends, I accepted that friendship with my whole heart. But coming to Mumbai had started to confuse me for what I was really feeling for her.

On one side, I had started to open with her, had started to relax in her company. On the other side I was afraid to be alone with her. The more I tried to stay away the more she was attracting me.

The day on the beach... How could I ever forget that day! I ran after her to catch her without realizing that I was falling hard for her. We ran and fell on the beach trying to catch our breath. I had never felt so relaxed and at peace. She broke that peace and brought a storm in my heart and mind, when she said she was in love with me.

It hit me like a hundred feet huge wave coming from the ocean. I sat there not knowing how to react. She was the one who spoke first by saying that she was only joking. I don't know what had shocked me the most, her claiming that she loved me or her claiming that she was just joking? Either way she had managed to bring a tsunami in my heart. I had to get out of there, away from her. 

Only I couldn't. Later that evening, when she asked me to remove that chewing gum from her hair, I wanted to... I so wanted to touch her back that my fingers ached. The same yearning I felt when I woke up the next morning and saw her sleeping so peacefully next to me. Even that one strand of her hair was not disturbing her peaceful sleep. Only it was disturbing my peace of mind. Once again my fingers ached to remove that strand from her face as it was obstructing my view.

There were several more incidents where I was drawn towards her. At first it bothered me. Soon I wasn't bothered anymore. I just wanted to enjoy my time with her. So much so that even I danced with her during that Kolhi Festival.

After the dance I heard her talking to Ma on the phone that she had managed to change me. She was successful in keeping her promise to Ma and wanted a huge reward for that.

I was so happy that I didn't pay much attention to the meaning behind her words. If only I had...

If only I had then I wouldn't have ended up making the biggest mistake of my life. I slept with her. Yes that was the biggest mistake of my life for I slept with her in a drunken state. She and her friend, or was he an accomplice? Aman made me drink Bhaang in that Shiv Temple, after which I lost all my senses and committed the biggest mistake of my life.

Only at that time it wasn't a mistake, it was passion and desire for her that had slowly built up in me ever since we came to Mumbai. She was an equal participant that night. I demanded and she fulfilled all my desires. 

I don't know when she got up and got dressed and went to sleep. All I know is that when I woke up I had nothing on me, except for her. 

I woke up a happy man the next morning. I was ready to accept and confess to her that I had fallen in love with her. Sadly my happiness didn't last for more than a few seconds as I remembered her conversation with Ma.

She had succeeded in fulfilling her promise to become mine, or rather make me hers.

It hit me. It hit me hard. Was this her plan all along? To entice me by wearing all those dresses, cooking for me, and playing with me. Was all that an act, just to make me sleep with her? So that I could give Ma another grandchild?

Could she stoop this low? Yes she had. Our coming to Mumbai, her friend Aman's arrival, their closeness was all to make me jealous. Then making me drunk and seducing me, was all part of her plan.

The tsunami of her betrayal and deceit had hit me and hit me hard. I don't think I had ever felt this much pain as her betrayal made me feel. In one night, I lost my best friend and my wife, with whom I had fallen in love. Not even Arpita's death had shattered me to this extent that I had lost all ability to think rationally.

I don't know how we traveled back to Bhopal. All I know is that I was changed. Yes she had managed to change me. Only instead of making me a better person, she made me the worst person in the world. I loathed myself. I hated her.

On top of that she claimed that she had no idea how she had hurt me. How is that even possible? I mean she had a physical relationship after so many years, so shouldn't she have felt something, anything the next morning when she woke up? But she stood firm in her claim that she had no idea what she had done.

With every passing second I was losing my mind. The more she tried to come near me to confront me, the more I kept pushing her away. I had become... No she had turned me into a monster that I couldn't recognize myself. This Yash was no longer a human being but was a demon that pushed his wife and insulted her in front of the whole family, including the kids. I had become a stranger to my kids, to my family to myself. When she couldn't take it anymore, she went away with the kids.

Her going away infuriated me more. As now I got more time to think. The more I thought the more I was losing my mind. I was in love with a deceitful woman. One with whom I had committed a sin. Yes sleeping with her in a drunken state was no less than a sin.

I can never forget that Sinful Night of my life...

What if I had made her pregnant? My heart fluttered and then stopped beating when this thought came in my mind. What if she's pregnant? How would I accept and face the child? The child that was conceived by a drunk father and a deceitful mother.

Why Aartiji, why did you do this? I kept asking myself. When I had started to trust her, to love her, she cheated me. To fulfill a promise to my mother, to my father, to my family, she had Broken My Trust along with My Heart. 

I couldn't punish her for what she did to me. But I had to punish myself for trusting her and sleeping with her and then abusing and molesting her. And the only way to do that was to give myself as much pain as was possible. That was through the boxing match. 

Each time the opponent hit me, whatever pain I felt was nothing in front of the pain that she had given me.

Now I have no one left in my life that I can call as my best friend, my lover, my wife. For the woman whom I loved the most, turned out to be a woman who had Broken me and My Trust in her. Yes I'm still in love with her... With Aartiji. But I don't know if I can ever trust her again. If she can play such a deceitful game with me and lie to me, would I be wrong if I think what else she's been hiding from me or lying to me about?

No I don't think there's a way I could ever trust her again and mend my Broken Heart...

Back to Present...

Closing the notepad, Aarti sat there in numb silence. 

He loves me... Yashji loves me. He has confessed in these pages that he loves me.

She wanted to jump with joy. To scream at the top of her lungs and let the whole world know that her husband loves her and she loves him.

But she couldn't do it. How could she when that person thinks that she had cheated him, deceived him and seduced him to get in bed with her? How can he even think like this about her? Was she this shallow? But then she had given him every reason to think this lowly about her. She had made him think that she did all this at the behest of his mother. Only she didn't. But would he trust her now, after what he thinks about her?

This is what he's been feeling ever since their Sinful Night in Mumbai. That is what he's called that night. Only it was not a Sinful Night for her.

Yes she still has no recollection of that night, but when you love someone so deeply, so profoundly, how can you term a night spent in that persons arms as Sinful?

She had to make him see that whatever happened that night was a result of love and not deceit! But he won't believe a single word that she'll say now.

She remembered the last couple of lines in the notepad...

"But I don't know if I can ever trust her again. If she can play such a deceitful game with me and lie to me, would I be wrong if I think what else she's been hiding from me or lying to me about?

No I don't think there's a way I could ever trust her again and mend my Broken Heart..."

She shut her eyes as tears filled them. He was right. There was so much more that she's been hiding from him and his family. The bitter truth about her past. Now it was time to bring out all those lies in the open. She was ready to face every consequences. But she won't lie anymore! Won't hide anymore!

She picked up her phone and dialed Shobha's number and asked her and Bauji to come over immediately. Shobha understood that it was something major and serious. They were there in less than half an hour. 

Kids were in school. Aarti had gathered the whole family in the hall. She told them everything related to Prashant and all the lies that were being told to hide her true identity and get her married to Yash.

Bua was the first one to speak and react. "MBKK... I was so right about this woman and this family from the very beginning. They are nothing but a bunch of liars and cheaters".

 "I take full responsibility for all the lies that have been told to all of you. Whatever Shobha Ma and Dubey Bauji did they did it for my and Ansh's happiness. But a lie is a lie".

"I'd say throw her out of the house. That is her punishment". Suggested Bua. 

"Before you throw me out, please let me meet Yashji one last time. He needs to hear the truth and that should be from me".

"No we won't allow you to go anywhere near my son." Gayatri blasted. "You've done enough damage now I won't let you stay in his life for one more second."

"Please let me go to Mumbai and tell him the truth myself. I'm his culprit and I should be the one who should tell him the truth. I promise once I tell him everything, I'll leave him and this house forever and would never look back."

Before Gayatri could say anything, SP spoke. "Let her go Gayatri. Yash hates lying and liars. Once he hears how they have betrayed him, he himself will throw her out. As it is he's already not talking with her. After this, there's no way he'll see her face ever again. He won't miss her. Yes he'll miss Ansh but he won't miss this woman."

 "I have a request to make. Whatever happened Ansh was not at fault. Please don't separate that innocent child from the only father he's known in his life, and that is Yashji. He loves Yashji. For him he's his father and you all are his family. If you are ready to keep him I'll legally hand the sole custody to Yashji and won't ever claim any right on Ansh or even Palak and Payal."

"We will think about it" Replied SP curtly. 

After that Aarti didn't waste a single minute. She packed her bag and left for Mumbai...