Part 7

Part 7 A

There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome."

"And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody."

"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is wilfully to misunderstand them.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

For the next few moments silence prevailed in the room, only the ticking of the wall clock and the sound of a crying baby from somewhere near the market, surrounded them.

The horns of the cars and bikes bleeped in the background and the shopkeepers hollered the prices to attract the shoppers, downstairs. But absolutely no sound came out of either of them and then suddenly Mahi burst out laughing, her eyes watering with the mirth and her heart fluttered as she looked at his grim face.

“Oh God!” She threw hear head back as another bout of chuckles burst forth and continued to do so until the sharp pain in her forehead reminded her of the head ache and forced her to stop.

“I am sorry but if that was a proposal I will have to politely decline it!” She had to bite the insides of her lip in order to stop herself from starting to laugh herself to death.

“I was not joking!” Those seething words finally broke Mahi out of her revive and made her look up at the man standing in her drawing room.

His eyes were no longer calm but had turned darker, his face reddening and his mouth had made a stiff grim line and all her mirth evaporated instantly.

‘He was not joking!’ She glimpsed at his handsome profile from under her lashes, unable to control the erratic trend of her heart beats. She could not understand what or why he was saying things like that, but wanting to know and dreading it all the same.

Like every other girl, she had dreamed about her marriage from an early childhood too. Entertained dreams about a strong, handsome husband and wished for the fairytale and the magic of love.

She looked at him again, suddenly with her heart in her throat. He was strong handsome and everything else she had wanted in her husband and she knew that he wanted her. He had always wanted her from the very start – it was clear from the way his dark eyes used to sweep through her from head to toe, lingering at her curves at every instance that they met. So, is that why he was proposing?

Her breath hitched in her throat and she was vaguely aware of her hairs rising in awareness at the nape of her neck, because without an ounce of shame now she could confess that she wanted him too, had always wanted him – as a lover and as a husband.

All this while after she had first met him during that interview she had tried hiding the fact from him and from herself too that she wanted him – wanted those dark eyes to look at her but at no one else, wanted those strong hands to hold her like last night and never let go!

‘Is that how he feels too?’ She wondered silently, flushing as that familiar awareness and ache gripped her like always when he was nearby.

‘Could he feel those things too?’

Butterflies fluttered in her chest, making her slightly light headed as she wondered what would he do, if she said ‘yes’ now?

‘Would he come to me and take me in his arms and kiss me?’ She watched him silently as he watched her. ‘And would it make him smile at her, those dark eyes lighting up in happiness, if she said ‘yes’?’

Her throat was as dry as sahara desert as she tried coming terms with it all. Questions, reservations, hopes and dreams all mixed up together making a heady combination.

He no longer looked angry, his calm eyes were once again surveying her features trying to deduce her reactions and Mahi felt a bit bad for laughing like that at his proposal at first. She shouldn’t have done that.

Her lips ached to say ‘yes’, wishing to be swept up into those strong arms at once when all of the illusions shattered at once, all her dreams and hopes dying a swift death listening to his next words.

“I know about your brothers and all about their previous shady business of stealing and selling cars in the black market.”

“Wh-What?” Never in a thousand years had she expected to hear those words from him just after having been proposed.

“How- How do you know that?”

Kartik noted with a grim satisfaction that at least she hadn’t tried denying it.

Last night after he had seen her at the charity gala with Arjun and then saw that message on her phone, he had became sure that she now knew the truth about his family, that he had painstakingly hidden away from the world for so long and now it could all break out, any moment Mahi Acharya choses to broadcast it to the world and so, he had been forced to do what was absolutely necessary to stop her from doing it.

Last night he had called on a private investigator and had paid him heftily to dig up every single detail of Mahi Acharya’s life from her birth, to her family and friends in hope of finding any kind of dirt or mystry or anything at all to hold over her head and stop her from destroying the future of Assure Bank and his mother, his poor mother.

And by the grace of God, he had found it – she had two elder brothers – twins in fact, Tejas and Chirag Acharya who had been involved in a shady underworld gang from Mumbai who stole and sold cars in black markets all over the country and 6 years ago Tejas and Chirag had been arrested along with three other gang members and although the evidences were clearly against them, it wasn’t enough to prove them guilty and put them behind bars and so the twin brothers had been released by the court.

But the story was damning enough to re-create the scandal and gossip that had once plagued their family’s name, at least he hoped so.

Because he was about to make the most crucial deal of his life using that information. He was going to make Mahi Acharya his wife and shut her mouth forever from speaking about his family.

“It doesn’t matter how I know about it…..but what matters is that, now I do! About the gang where they worked, all about the illegal dealings that they made.”

“Then you also should know that their names had been cleared by the court!” She cried aloud but he didn’t stop.

“Yes, I know but if you refuse to marry me now, I shall have it all dugged up once again. Get my lawyers on the case, pay a hefty price if required to have the whole case reopened!” Mahi felt as if she was bleeding out from inside, her wounded eyes roaming over his blank cold face as she felt something crushing her heart, something sharp twisting and turning inside her making her unable to breathe.

‘God! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!’ She gaped silently. ‘Why was he doing this? Why?’

‘No!’ She can’t let him do this to her! She had to stand up and not let him steamroll over her. Mahi told herself suddenly remembering what Arjun had told her about Kartik.

‘That’s what he is good at…scaring people by threatening them , blackmailing them…you know the sort.’

Well, now she knew exactly what kind of man he was! She seethed internally thinking that she had almost said , ‘Yes' to marrying him without knowing him at all.

‘Oh god!’ Her headache had returned with vengeance, a dull ache throbbing in he skull that was increasing every second.

“Why? Why are you doing this?” She asked although she had already guessed the answer.

“I can’t let you ruin my family’s name, the future of assure bank and my mother’s life – all of which depends vitally on the fact that you keep your mouth shut now and forever and I see no better and permanent way of keeping you silent than to keep you as my wife.”

His voice was cold and empty as if he was talking about buying a new lock for his chest of secrets, now that the old one has been lost and Mahi’s head was hammering so loud that she saw black spots in fornt of her eyes, as he continued speaking.

“Either you marry me and become my wife or I shall have your parents and brothers go through hell before I destroy you completely. So, which will it be?”

The dark spots were now widening, the light in the room slowly went dimmer as Mahi finally let the darkness engulf her senses.

‘She wanted to hear no more!’