This is two weeks after 'Femme Fatale' . I have tweeked the show track in this way that Raghav and Pallavi's association got revealed in the worst possible way by Sulochana. And Vijay Deshmukh threw her out.
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CARE
Pallavi still felt the dormant pain lying in her heart shoot up her trembling bones agonizingly as the prior events leading to her current predicament flashed in front of her eyes.
The Deshmukhs.. her apparent family stood like an unforgiving military formation in front of her as heaps of insults and unsavoury comments were hurled at her. She took on the barbs bravely stifling her winces with each of their hurting words which tore into her chest like a barrage of arrows. They were accusing her of sleeping with the owner of their shop. To say she was dismayed would be saying less. Just because some of them (read, Sulochana Deshmukh and her daughters) had seen her laughing with Raghav, they had conjured up a baseless accusation of her having an affair. She had looked around towards her supposed parents for support but all she saw was a heart-breaking repulsion in her Vijay Deshmukh's eyes and a blank look on Sharda's face.
She had hidden her whimper of pain successfully behind the strong defence she threw at them. They had no solid evidences to go with their allegations. They raged more, brought about her real status unforgivingly revealing their true colours soon enough.
"You are Mandaar's widow Pallavi! I expected you to behave like one. I thought you knew how to stay within limits but you turned out to be an utter disgrace! I knew Sharda was giving you too much leeway."
Vijay Deshmukh had thundered making the words dry up in her mouth in shock. This.. this was the man she considered her father? This was the same family for whom she bent backwards to provide for? They didn't wait a second to... To her relief she saw Sharda shut up her husband with a shout. Maybe, her Aai... her mother was the genuine one amongst these vultures. But that relief was hilariously short lived. Sharda did defend her but the words she spoke unravelled the singular greatest mystery of her life. Such a tragic secret which broke her completely.
Sharda raged at her husband that because of his, this behaviour they had lost their son. She revealed how Mandaar had turn half crazy in his obsession for Pallavi, how he used to stalk her and he.. he was the one who had killed Devyaani. Sharda knew all this, all these years and yet didn't see it fit to tell this to her. She spent days mourning the loss of such a monster? Pallavi finally found herself discovering what it truly meant when they said the ground beneath one's feet is taken away. Everyone stood rooted to the spot, shocked and bewildered.
Pallavi found herself begging her father for a chance to prove her innocence. She begged and pleaded yet to no avail. Vijay Deshmukh caught her slim wrist in a vice like grip and dragged her like a rag doll ignoring Sharda, Milind and Nikhil's loud protests and threw her out of the door like a used refill of a pen and slammed it shut on her face screaming at her to never darken his door after this. She curled into herself on lying on the foyer of her so called house feeling every fibre of her frame ache. She couldn't move for a long time. After what had seemed like centuries she had wiped her tears resolutely and had gathered her failing strength to stand.
After that she had found herself wandering the streets of Hyderabad aimlessly and directionless like a vagabond. The still stuck tear tracks on her pale face had frozen like ice shards pricking onto her delicate skin. The moon was illuminating a path for her in front as she kept dragging her protesting feet to a destination unknown.
The Deshmukhs' acerbic words still eating away into her heart like acid. She almost got hit by a car.
She heard him shouting her name from behind. She didn't stop. She didn't want to stop. She heard him calling out to her. There was a different quality to his tone. It sounded hoarse like a clogged pipe filled with a rotting moss. She could taste blood. Maybe it was from the cut on her lower lip which split when she fell face first on the ground. She huffed in controlled mirth thinking how reality breaks your jaw as well as it breaks your heart. He was onto her the next moment.
She didn't quite remember the words they exchanged. There might have been a decent amount of shouting and spiteful words exchanged and she might have nearly torn off his collar and spat some rather choice and frankly speaking, brutally underserved words. There might have been a rather unbecoming comment about his bedroom escapades and the reason his family abandoned him and still are in absentia. She might have seen some of that inferno in his eyes die out at her harsh words and might have felt a pang in her heart. But at that moment she frankly didn't give a damn. She was bleeding and she found it unfair that she would be the only one to break despite it being his fault that she was currently in that situation.
"Me! Your so called loving, righteous family found it prudent to throw their daughter out of the house in the middle of the night without a thought or care about her safety on a mere few words and you are telling me..! Have you lost your bloody marbles! Those selfish people don't give a damn about you despite the fact you slave away from dawn till dusk to meet their exorbitant demands. And so what even if you were having an affair... your business is your business and that should be none of their business!"
"Things don't work that way in proper society Raghav! There is a regard and permissions and a hell lot of other things to consider! It isn't your underworld where you can do whatever filthy things you want and get away with it."
She screamed and saw him roll his eyes.
"Proper society! What propriety do you see in your society Pallavi! Do educate me. This society which labels you a culprit for killing your husband because of an accident which happened in his wedding night? This society which stifles a young woman's dreams and desires forcing her to don a white garb like a shroud of a carcass for a dead man who is probably rotting in his grave anyway? Or this society which cannot accept a woman befriending a man solely on the reason for company without attaching malice to it? Forgive my insolence Pallavi but I'de rather live in my world of free reign like a king than serve a hypocritic society like a slave. "
His words rang painfully true and Pallavi found herself at a loss of words even though her anger and frustration clouded her eyes and her brain as she spat out the only things she knew could pierce through that unbreakable armour he wears to bleed him like her. His cavalier attitude had begun to grate her nerves. Never mind she refused to entertain the possibility of him finding her out of the blue. As if he cared!
"What do you even know about anything other than yourself Raghav Rao! Logo ke dil mein naa dusre logo keliye hamdardi hoti hain.. feelings hoti hain.. tumhaare paas toh ye sab expect karna hi bekaar hain.. jiske paas dil hi nhi woh kya jaanega ye sab. No wonder your family wants nothing to do with you. I don't blame them for hating you.. no self respecting person worth their salt would ever love an inhuman b*stard like yourself. You don't know how to love. "
She saw the raging fire etched on his handsome eyes instantly snuff out like blood draining out from a mercilessly slaughtered animal. She could feel her heaving breaths stutter for a moment as she realised in her muddled brain that she has crossed a line somewhere. But she was too wrapped up in her own sorrow to consider his at the moment. She turned to go and found herself crashing into a hard chest the next moment. His cologne washed over her soothingly like a blanket and she felt her racing heart start to calm down. She hated the instant effect he had on her.
"You can come with me in your own violation or I can forcefully drag you from here. The choice s yours."
"Don't forget I am a trained martial arts expert. I will not be bullied into.. RAGHAV!"
She found herself getting raised into the cold night air and simultaneously being flipped as a hard shoulder dug into her flat stomach punishingly. She was winded for a few seconds, shocked into silence and felt herself moving. Then she realised what had happened. The nerve of the man. He had flipped her over his shoulder and was walking towards his car. She kicked and screamed and might have slapped and scratched him by the time they reached his mansion.
"Shut up!"
He thundered menacingly like an icy venom hitting her in the chest and she closed her mouth finally. She was fatigued. Exhausted from the all the emotional and physical upheaval. She allowed herself to be carried bridal style dismissing the ensuing embarrassment of being seen hanging like a limpet from his chest by Farhaad, Harish and numerous of his house helps. She dimly registered him barking swift orders to his men while climbing up the stairs with her silently quaking frame. She hated being this weak, this helpless but somehow she loved being in his arms. He felt solid, warm, like a steady presence in her whirling world.
She found herself being lowered on the soft silken sheets of the bed. She observed him closely as he flitted in and around the room like a prowling panther. It was weird how she always compared him with all types of feline beasts. He was strong, muscular and wiry but had a certain grace while he moved. An elegance befitting the masters of dance. He was a mixture of the two, grace and savagery. Another oxymoron... she had to stop staring now before it starts getting creepy. Though she wasn't sure he was watching her watching him currently.
He came up to her suddenly and she flinched involuntarily. He flopped on the ground beside her shocking her effectively. He had a cotton filled with antiseptic in his hand. He brought it to her split lips and she hissed in pain. He blew air on the wound with a surprising gentleness cleaning the blood off from there. She found herself gazing at him in awe as he slowly cleaned the little scrapes of injuries from her hands, her elbows where she grazed them on the ground and lifted her saree till her shins to clean that.
"You want to have a shower?"
He asked her gently. She broke out of her trance and nodded sheepishly. He knew her well. She hated being dirty and almost had an OCD for showering. He nodded and got up fluidly and moved towards the door looking back for a moment.
"Help yourself to my bathroom and cupboard."
And he was gone in a blink leaving her staring at where he was a moment ago.
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Pallavi felt slightly human after a long bubbly shower. She guiltily thought about how money could somehow give you certain happiness despite the popular quote stating otherwise. She came out of the shower smelling eerily like him. She has to admit, the man had taste. She had used his toiletries unabashedly and somewhat vindictively as well. Well, she wouldn't deny he smelled great... she kind of liked his fragrance. And the thought itself made her face turn red in an instant. She rummaged his wardrobe for something suitable and found a pair of black tracks and a grey hoody. She had to roll the waistline quite a bit for it to fit her and the hoody kind of enveloped her slight torso completely but she felt comfortable.
His clothes on her felt so right. Too right.. she edited in her mind uncomfortably. She was sitting on the bed when she heard a knock.
"Are you decent?"
"Yes."
He entered with a tray and she felt foolish sitting on his oversized bed, wearing his oversized clothes smelling like him. She saw his eyes darken considerably taking in her appearance but he chose not to comment and Pallavi was infinitely grateful for it. He kept the tray on the bedside table and looked at her pointedly. She made a face looking at the food on the plate and turned towards him.
"I am.."
"Not hungry. I know. Koi bhi cheez ho jaae.. tum ladki logo ka bhook mar jataa hain.. melodrama ka dukaan! Chup chaap nigal lo jo bhi diyaan hain.. warna wahi pe jaake phenk dega jahaan se uthayaa tha.."
She glared at him furiously and he levelled her with one of his equally furiously. The stare match went on till she finally bent feeling her stomach give an embarrassing rumble. The betrayer! She saw him grinning at her victoriously as she started nibbling on the food he had brought and a weird warmth spread through her chest seeing his smile which like usual made his face glow. He should smile more often, she thought.
She finished her food diligently while he was checking something on his mobile engrossed prowling around the room characteristically.
"Tumhe nhi khaana?"
"I've had dinner. Ho gaya.. now go to sleep. Your body needs rest. Kal sochenge kya karna hain.. mereko tumhara bakwaas excuses nhi hona Pallavi.. shut up and close your eyes like a good girl and go to sleep."
She frowned and almost pouted in frustration. He was having none of it. Rama came and took away the tray and he gave on last look at his phone before coming towards her. She thought he would definitely hit her now, seeing the serious look darken on his handsome face. She quickly laid back down and pulled the covers till her neck like a frightened kid and closed her eyes obediently.
She heard an amused chuckle and felt her face heat up yet again. Still she didn't open her eyes willing him to go away now. But she could sense him bend down over her. Her heart raced in fear and a strange excitement as she scrunched her eyes tightly clutching at the hem of her blanket. She felt his long fingers thread through her half dried hair soothingly and her knotted muscles relaxed automatically. It was as if he could command her body in any way he wants.
She felt his lips leave a feather soft kiss on her forehead. It was fleeting like the wings of a butterfly falling on her skin before it fluttered away. She was almost disappointed at the lack of contact. But she welcomed the oncoming peace and warmth which flooded her body at his gestures and almost missed his last words before a tired oblivion overpowered her.
"I know how to love Pallavi. I only wished I hadn't..."
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