Chapter 10

Part  8 B

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Mahi could see her brothers getting angry and her mother’s shocked face as they peered at Kartik and for a moment she thought it was all going to blow up on their faces. Of course, her family was modern enough to allow love matches but that doesn’t mean they would approve of every second man that claimed to be her boyfriend.

But five minutes in and the bastard had charmed away every single person in the room including the children who were now sitting on his lap, playing with the buttons of his shirt. Her father was laughing at something Kartik had said, while her mother was now fawning over him like he was her favorite child, whom she was meeting for the first time.  A special part of her mother’s affection that was previously only reserved for Mahi was now being besotted upon him for no reason. And it was making Mahi very jealous.

“What would you like for dinner, Kartik?”  her mother asked, a question that was previously reserved for Mahi as the youngest child of the family, was now his. Mahi gritted her teeth in annoyance and hoped that he would refuse to stay for dinner but, the arsehole just smiled and said.  “Anything would do Mrs. Acharya and thank you for inviting me to dinner.”

Mahi subjected him to scathing pointed look, hoping that he would take the hint and just leave but instead found herself looking at him stupid victory grin.

But of course it wasn’t  just “Anything” that her mother made, within an hour she had whipped up a delicious three course meal, including a fried starter and ‘Malpuha’ for desert. As if it was a fucking celebration or something.

With every passing moment, the slight annoyance was turning into a gaint ball of fury, turning her restless. ‘What the hell, was he really playing at?’ A few hours ago he had been threatening her to destroy this family! And now he’s joking along them, asking about his father’s health and her brother’s jobs as if he was sincerely interested?’ 

As the dinner was served there was nothing else discussed, but about his stupid bank. His brother’s as it turned out were quite interested to know how a bank is ran and of course the bastard Kartik answered all their questions, complemented her mother for the delicious desert and then stood up to leave.

Finally letting Mahi breathe a sigh of relief. But before letting himself out through the door, he stopped and turned around to ask something. “If you don’t mind me asking, where are you all planning to stay tonight?”

As if on a cue, everyone suddenly remembered about the same problem. Her bothers and parents exchanged a look before Tejas replied, “Well, we’d asked Mahi to book a hotel somewhere nearby but she had forgotten, so ….I suppose we’ll try looking for a room or two now.”

Kartik glimpsed at his watch. “Well, it’s quite late now and you might not find a room at all tonight, considering the extra tourists, due to Republic day. So, you all can stay with me tonight at my house, there are three extra bedrooms.”

They ought to have refused! Mahi wanted to bang her head on the glass table. ‘They barely know the man and are going to spend the night in his townhouse!’ For a moment she was so angry when she saw her brothers leaving with the kids and his father smiling as he entered into his BMW that she considered shouting the truth at the top of her lungs. That this man had promised to dig up the case of the stolen cars once again, to drag her brothers to court and destroy their lives.

But what then? She asked herself. Once she had done that and turned her family against Kartik Rao. What then? Would it stop him from doing exactly as he had threatened, to do? No! it would merely be another incentive to act against her and she did not want that. Because if there was anything that could stop Kartik Rao from acting on his threats then it would have to be a calm, rational discussion.

Today, she had lost her head with him and that had merely made him angrier. Perhaps, if she explained everything to him rationally, telling him the complete truth of what had happened – then he would rethink his decision of marrying her.

She bit her lip trying to get up to help her mother clean the dishes, who was staying with her tonight because of Mahi’s health.  

When she finally went to bed, her headache had returned and she could feel the fever coming back too. Taking a pill of paracetamol, she gulped it down with water and laid awake in bed, waiting for the right time.

It was almost 12 when her mother finally went to sleep but Mahi waited another hour just to be sure. At half past one, she slithered out of bed, picked up her laptop and went to sit on the kitchen table and start composing an email. ‘Dear Kartik,’

It was almost two, when she was finally done after reading and re-reading the thing a hundred times. She had explained everything very clearly in the email, that she had absolutely no idea what his family secret is and thus she cannot sell it to the press, explained about Arjun too with the bottom line that there was no reason for them to get married.

Her hand hovered over the keyboard in uncertainty for a single moment before she pressed ‘ send’. It was done!

She didn’t want to go back to bed and so she sat on kitchen table with her legs folded back felling sick to her stomach that had absolutely nothing to do with viral fever.

Fifteen minutes later, her phone started ringing off the hook, it was Kartik.

“What the hell do you mean, you won’t marry me?” His voice sounded husky and Mahi could imagine him lying in the bed.

“exactly what it sounds like, Kartik. I had told you a hundred times before and I am telling you now that I don’t know anything about your family. I have explained it all in the email, that you must have read. So, please stop this game.” Her voice shook but she forced the words out anyway. She needed to!

“Do you really think this is a fucking game for me?” He snapped. “It’s not! There are more than one life depending on my decision which still stands the same – Either you become my wife or I have that case opened again and dragged to court! The choice is yours.”

A chilling silence remained between them for many long moments before he spoke again, “So, which shall it be?”

The smiles and teasing were gone again, like the man she had met this evening who had seduced her in bed, kissed her senseless, befriended her brothers and played with her nephew and niece never existed, that he had only been fooling them all!

And Mahi really felt like a utter fool then, a hundred times his charming mask had fallen away and he had shown his true cold, calculative ways and yet Mahi had fallen for that temporary charming façade.

“I will marry you!” The tears silently ran down her cheeks, for she had made the same declaration a few hours ago to him, laying wrapped up in his arms while he had kissed her senseless and now again when her heart was breaking. 

“Alright then, we’ll get married the day after tomorrow, in the central registration office. I will make the arrangements for it.”

Mahi said nothing in reply to that, she didn’t have the strength to.

She couldn’t sleep that night, the wind howled outside. By three in the morning her fever had returned and she lay there in a daze till the morning watching the Republic day parade on her tv. She watched the flying fighting jets, the tanks and missiles moving behind the regiment of soldiers, walking in perfect synchrony of the drum beats and listened to the long optimistic speech of the PM and then the start of cultural programme,

Half way through her niece’s dance steps along with another 50 children, she finally went to sleep and woke up 3 hours later with her phone ringing. It was kartik.

“Listen, I have an urgent business in Mauritius so, I am leaving tonight and won’t be back till the wedding day.” His voice sounded cramped and unsure, a complete opposite to the confident and overbearing banker that he was. For a moment Mahi  thought of asking what was the matter with him and what this urgent business was, but then it was none of her business, was it? She bit her lip and didn’t reply.

“So, I guess I will see you on our wedding day.” He spoke again .

“I wish I didn’t need to.” She murmured more to herself but he heard her anyway and burst out laughing.

“Oh, you will need to see me for the rest of your life darling, get used to it.” And there the charming facsed was back on.

“Goodbye, dream about me, okay?” He asked in his husky, liquid seduction tone that sent a tingle down her spine.

“Oh, I’ll dream about you getting murdered in cold blood, for sure.” She snapped back, angry at herself for getting affected by his voice like that.

He laughed again, in that soft husky tone that takes her breath away every time. “Bye, see you then.” And the call was dropped.

Mahi laid back in the mattress, her mind travelling a thousand miles away as she checked her messages. Her brother had sent her two photos. The first one was all her family standing together in front of the Lal Kila with a crowd of thousands behind them but what nagged her most was that Kartik was in it too, standing with the kids in his arms as they smiled at the camera.

The second was at the India Gate, the fire of Amar Jawan Jyoti burning bright in the remembrerance of all the soldiers that have lost their lives fighting for the country. In this picture too, Kartik was there along with everyone else smiling as if he was a part of the family. ‘So, the bloody arsehole had went sightseeing with her family!’

“And now he’s off to stupid Mauritius, leaving her here two days before their wedding.” She muttered aloud in her dark room. And suddenly she remembered something else, something about the Disha Irani actress, she had met at the charity gala, who had been clinging on Kartik’s arms that night.

The next moment, her hands went to the search bar of her phone and she had typed – Actress Disha Irani on it and within seconds  the news came flooding in, Disha Irani was in Mauritius on holiday for a week before the shooting of the third season of her detective show.

She pressed her hands on her cheeks, only to find them wet with tears. She was crying.