Chapter 38
A week later – Verma it was her ego and pride that had probably been hurt.
Before he could respond, the glass door clicked open and Arundhati walked in.
She wore a striking lavender saree today, her hair tied neatly, the faint line of sindoor gleaming against her dark locks. The red tint of her bindi drew his gaze upward before he could stop himself. His heartbeat steadied only to spike again as his gaze dropped lower to her lips.
She carried a file in her hand, but Kushal wasn’t looking at the file anymore. He was looking at her, the woman who had his heart and who somehow managed to own every space she entered, whether it was the courtroom, their penthouse, or this office.
With their due honeymoon nearing, the heat when they were around each other, the simmering tension of getting back home into their bubble and making love, undid him even with a single look at her.
Her eyes met his briefly as she walked over to him.
Even Devika, mid-rant, paused, glancing between them.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Arundhati said professionally, as she set the file down in front of him. “These are the disclosures from Parth’s counsel.”
Kushal nodded, forcing his gaze back to the papers. “Thank you, Mrs. Nair,” he said smoothly.
Devika’s eyes darted between them again. “Ah,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “So this is the famous Mrs. Arundhati Nair. No wonder you two win every case together. Quite the power couple, I see.”
His lips twitched, just slightly, but his gaze never left Arundhati, who shot him that warning look for admiring her so openly before their client.
She turned back to Devika.
“So, Mrs. Malhotra,” she began evenly, “before you go further with your story, let me save us all some time.”
Devika blinked, caught off guard.
Arundhati flipped open the folder, revealing photographs and printed statements. “We ran our standard fact-check before drafting the petition. And it appears you’ve been… less than honest with us.”
Kushal arched an eyebrow, quietly watching. Ever since Devika had approached them, Arundhati had begun to dig for clues if this case was really as honest as Devika was proposing it to be.
“What do you mean?” Devika demanded.
Arundhati didn’t flinch. “I mean, your husband, Mr. Parth Malhotra, has no other woman in his life. We checked. His phone logs, travel records, and social media patterns everything is clean. The woman you accused him of seeing, Reena Patel, is his business accountant, happily married, mother of two, and we have had the employees and some common friends speak for her too. There’s no extramarital affair between them. ”
Devika opened her mouth to speak, but Arundhati didn’t stop.
“And about your claims of domestic abuse, your mother-in-law, whom you described as ‘controlling and cruel,’ is in fact one of the sweetest women I’ve heard about.
Your own family and friends have testified to how she’s always been supportive towards you.
That she loves you just like her own daughter.
We even went through her social record, had their house helps speak about her nature and they were all praises, even the ones who don’t work for your husband’s family anymore had only good things to say about her. She’s hardly abusive.”
Kushal exhaled quietly through his nose, hiding a smirk. He loved this side of Arundhati…the fire under her calm exterior.
Arundhati went on, flipping another page. “And your sister-in-law? The alleged ‘slap’ in the club? We got the footage. There was no slap. What actually happened was you threw your drink at her and walked out. Which, in legal terms, Mrs. Malhotra, would make you the aggressor. Not her.”
Devika’s painted face twitched, first in disbelief, then in defiance. But before she could find another accusation to throw, Arundhati closed the file softly and folded her hands on it.
“Look, Mrs. Malhotra,” she began. “We don’t know what exactly happened between you and your husband, which has compelled you to seek a divorce, because all that you have told us so far are only lies.”
Devika’s eyes darted between the two lawyers before she finally exhaled and let the truth spill out.
“We’re poles apart,” she said bitterly. “He’s…
dharmic, traditional. I’m not. He wants a quiet, simple life; I want people, movement, travel, attention.
He’s happy in temples, I’m happy in parties.
I don’t think we’ve ever matched, not once.
So what’s the point of living together and wasting each other’s lives?
I feel caged in his home, trapped in his family’s world. That’s the truth.”
She hesitated, glancing down at her manicured fingers, twisting her designer bracelet. “And I know this truth will never get me a divorce easily. Our families are too strongly bonded. That’s why I had to lie. It was the only way to be free.”
Silence fell for a long beat.
Kushal and Arundhati exchanged a long look, the kind that said they’d seen this before. Another marriage on the edge, not because of betrayal, but because of stubbornness, pride, and the refusal to bend.
“Parth won’t sign for mutual consent,” Devika continued.
“He says divorce is a failure, that it’ll ruin him and his family’s image.
And his family’s image is everything for him.
Can you believe, no one has ever had a divorce in their family so far?
So, tell me, what choice do I have? If I say the truth, that we’re just incompatible, I’ll never get out.
But if I accuse him of cruelty or infidelity, I at least have a ground to stand on legally.
You call it lying; I call it surviving and getting my freedom back. ”
Arundhati couldn’t stop herself this time. She turned to Devika.
“Mrs. Malhotra… every couple is poles apart, but they still learn to live under the same sky. The problem isn’t that you’re different. It’s that you’ve decided difference means defeat.”
Devika’s lips parted, startled at the bluntness as Arundhati continued.
“You call your husband’s simplicity a cage.
But sometimes, that simplicity is what saves you from chaos.
The quiet people in life, the grounded ones, they don’t dim your shine, they protect it.
Maybe you’re too angry right now to see it, but one day you might look back and realise you walked away not from boredom, but from balance. ”
Kushal watched his wife with a faint flicker of admiration in his gaze, the same admiration he always felt whenever he saw her handle a case.
“Divorce isn’t just about signing papers and splitting wealth,” Arundhati continued.
“It’s about two people agreeing that there’s nothing left worth saving.
And from what I’ve seen—” she paused, meeting Devika’s gaze directly, “that’s not what’s happening here.
You and your husband aren’t separating because of abuse, infidelity, or neglect.
You’re separating because you are not willing to try blending into each other’s lifestyles.
Because both of you stopped trying to listen before assuming the worst. And that, Mrs. Malhotra, is not a valid reason to destroy a marriage. ”
Devika’s shoulders stiffened, her eyes flickering with both guilt and irritation.
“I’m not saying your emotions don’t matter,” Arundhati went on, softer now.
“They do. You’re angry, hurt, disappointed…
that’s valid. But you also have to see the consequences.
Once you walk into that courtroom, you can’t walk back out as the same two people.
Divorce changes everything, not just your name, or your finances, but the way you look at love ever again. ”
Devika folded her arms tightly, glaring back at her.
“Think about it,” Arundhati added. “If there’s even one percent of love or emotional compatibility left between you and Parth, talk to him.
Don’t make this about winning. Because once it’s over, there are no winners, but only two people who learn to live with what they’ve lost. You’re not wrong to want your freedom.
But the way you get it matters. Lies may win you a battle in court, but they’ll destroy your credibility, and ours too, in the process. ”
“Now you are talking like my in-laws,” Devika snapped. “You’re my lawyer, not the Malhotras! You’re supposed to defend me, not interrogate me! I’m paying you, remember? And if you can’t win this case my way, there are plenty of other firms that will!”