Chapter 25 #2
Kushal leaned forward, resting his hand on the older man’s. “The last time you asked me to marry your niece, I couldn’t say no to you. But this time… if I don’t say no, we’ll just hurt each other more. Let it happen, Sir. It’s best for all of us…especially for Arundhati.”
“And what about you? Will you be able to live without her?”
Kushal’s gaze dropped to the floor for the briefest moment, the question slicing through whatever armour he had left. But he didn’t answer. He simply turned and walked out of that open door, never realising that someone had overheard every word.
The woman herself.
She had heard everything. Every word, every pause, every refusal to fight for her anymore.
She wanted to feel relief. After all, wasn’t this exactly what she had wanted?
For him to stop resisting, to let her go?
But what pooled in her stomach wasn’t relief.
It was a hollow, aching void that made it hard to breathe.
Inside, Raj Verma almost stumbled to his feet, drained and heavy-hearted. That was when Arundhati stepped inside, her own tears hastily brushed away as she reached for him.
“Uncle, sit down,” she murmured, guiding him back into the chair and pushing a glass of water into his hands.
“I’m fine,” he said, though his voice betrayed him.
“No, you’re not,” she countered softly, pouring him a glass of water and pressing it into his hand.
He looked at her for a long moment, as though searching her face for answers she wasn’t ready to give.
She didn’t meet his eyes. She couldn’t. The truth was, if she did, he would see too much…
the confusion, the sting of Kushal’s words, the part of her that wanted to chase after him and demand why he was giving up now…
when she didn’t know if she even wanted him to.
But she didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
Because for once, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to win this fight anymore.
*****************
A day before the Divorce Court Trial
Arundhati stood outside Kushal’s penthouse.
It had been three days since he told her to come and collect the things she had left behind.
Three days since he’d made it clear, without raising his voice, without any trace of his usual ego, that in court tomorrow, he would agree to the mutual divorce she had fought for.
Her fight. Her choice. And yet, her hands felt heavier than the leather strap of her bag as she reached for the elevator.
She had come straight from Verma she wouldn’t melt without making him work for it. And he would. His gaze dipped to her mouth, then back to her eyes as he tightened his hold.
“You,” he said, drawing her even closer until their mouths were a breath apart, “look devastating enough to ruin me.”
Before she could react, his lips claimed hers…
a soft, lingering kiss. He pulled away just to return again, deeper this time.
Her arms wrapped around his neck; his hands tightened at her waist. His thumb traced lazy, sensual strokes over the curve of her waist, sending shivers up her spine as the kiss grew hungry, unhurried but intense, until a loud knock broke through the haze.
“Aru? Kushal? The priest is here!” Raj Verma called out from the living room.
They pulled apart, breathless. That had been their first kiss… slow, intoxicating, and far too easy to get lost in.
Returning to the present, Arundhati’s fingers trembled as they traced the maroon saree. The ache in her chest deepened with every heartbeat. She couldn’t stay in this room. Not with the scent, the silence, and the ghosts of what they once were pressing in on her from all sides.
She placed the saree back on the bed. Her tears blurred the room as she turned away, wiping at them in haste, needing to escape before the walls closed in completely.
Without a word to him, without so much as a glance toward the other room where she knew he was, she slipped out.
The quiet thud of the door closing was the only sign she’d left.
It wasn’t until that sound reached him that Kushal stepped out, drawn by a sudden, inexplicable pull. He walked to the bedroom and stopped at the sight before him…the bed was scattered with her sarees and jewellery.
Not a single thing was missing.
She had left but she hadn’t taken anything.
She couldn’t.