*tw: infidelity*
Segment #12
Samarth woke up with a start. The same dream again. He knew his attraction to Veronica was beyond his comprehension, but he hated that his mind thought it was ok to manipulate Veronica in any way, even though it was subconsciously. But one thing was clear, he had to see her, even if it was one last time, to give her, and himself, some closure.
_______
Abhay threw his head into the pillow, and the woman next to him groaned in her sleep. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"Good morning."
"Good morning." He kissed her forehead. It was something he did with Veronica, it was a small pretense he maintained with her for about a year to convince her that he loved her, even though he was out of love.
"Coffee?" Jiya asked him as she got out of bed, and he nodded.
He looked at her, the woman he was in love with. He wished his family understood her, but they could never get over Veronica and her perfections. For them, she was the perfect trophy wife, and they expected him to keep up with the pretenses.
They expected him to hide his relationship with Jiya from everyone. But he was done- he was sick of the lying, the cheating, the fake kisses. He couldn’t even make love to his wife. How did they expect him to stay with her? So when she sent the divorce papers, he was more than happy to sign them.
Even after the divorce all they cared about was their respectability and reputation and were in damage control mode. They tried to make it look as if it was all amicable and the divorce happened due to irreconcilable differences.
But Abhay knew better. It was ironic in a way, he divorced his wife to get away from pretending. But he still had to pretend. For the sake of his family’s phony reputation.
Jiya was everything he had wanted in a partner, but most importantly, she wasn't needy, like Veronica, whose world used to start and end with him. She had been getting annoying which had pushed him into putting in late nights at work, and when he met Jiya at her product launch party, and they hit it off, he knew it, he couldn't pretend with Veronica anymore.
"I should get going, my flight's in half an hour. Some newbie at the office has their presentation today." Jiya said, breaking his reverie as she spoke to herself. He nodded.
______
Veronica came back home, dejected. The previous day's events affected her presentation. Her boss had been kind enough to give her some more days to prepare better. Sighing, she threw herself on the sofa when the doorbell rang. She opened the door, hoping to see the delivery man with her food, but it was Samarth.
"We need to talk."
"No, we don't!" She closed the door, but he held it.
"Please." He whispered, and she looked at him. Her heart was beating fast. It used to happen a lot with Samarth around during the last six months. His brown eyes looked into her hazel ones, pleading. She let him walk into the house.
There were times when just seeing him would make her feel at peace, in these six months, he had been the only one, apart from Saikat, whose presence brought some semblance of peace because he was the only one who knew what she had done, but had not judged her, not hated her, instead had held her when she would fall apart.
"What?" She snapped at him, and he looked at her.
"Would you have believed me?"
"Is this your defense for lying to me?"
"No, I just want to know, would you have believed me?" Veronica looked at him, confused if she should be honest.
"At first, no. But after I got to know, yes." Samarth nodded.
"Because I trust...trusted you the most. I trusted you with my darkest, broken pieces, and you didn't mind them, but now I wonder if I can trust you again."
"I am sorry. I thought you wouldn't believe me, and I was glad when you found out the truth, the whole of it." He said, looking at his hands.
"Is it true? Do you..." She stepped a little closer to him. and he nodded.
"From the day we met in the first year," he answered.
Edited by oh_nakhrewaali - 12 months ago
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