Chapter 19
W ith Asmee at her grandparents’ for the weekend, Rachanna decided to spend the entire weekend at Anirudh’s. She made all arrangements. She informed Bhanu and her in-laws that she would be visiting some friends for the weekend, so that no one came to her house looking for her. She had asked Usha to not come to work for a couple of days.
Anirudh made arrangements for having her over as well. He stocked his kitchen. He ordered dinner for the night. He dimmed the lights, lit candles all around the living room and dining room. He put on a wonderful room freshener. And he made a point to take his grandmother to the doctor for her regular check-up a day earlier so that he could have his weekend free. As there was no danger of her visiting him at his house, he did not have to lie about his whereabouts.
Rachanna arrived at Anirudh’s house late Friday night after most of the people in the society had locked their homes. Whether they had retired for the night or not was not her concern. As long as everyone had their doors and windows locked, she was safe.
In spite of all her precautions, just when Rachanna was about to enter into Anirudh’s house, she heard a voice calling her. She turned. It was Mrs Reshmi Dey.
“Hello, Aunty,” replied Rachanna, dejected that she had been caught.
“Are you busy?” She asked, looking meaningfully at Anirudh who had just opened the door.
“Not really. I was just going to talk to him,” replied Rachanna, pointing to Anirudh.
“Oh! Chat,” said Reshmi, her tone not hiding her disbelief.
Rachanna looked defiantly at her. “Yes. Chat. Would you like to join us?”
“What? No…” replied Reshmi, taking a step back.
“Come on. It will be fun,” insisted Rachanna, humour dancing in her eyes.
“No, no. I will catch you later,” she said, hurrying along.
Rachanna smiled. She looked at Anirudh who was holding back his laughter.
“Too bad she’s gone. It would have been fun, wouldn’t it?”
Anirudh shook his head. “God, no!” He exclaimed.
Rachanna shrugged. “It would have been a new experience at least. Too bad she was not game.”
Anirudh laughed. “You have become…. I don’t know…more daring.”
“Yes. I used to be a scared even when I did nothing wrong. Now that I am doing something wrong, I don’t mind being brazen about it. Strange.”
“Does this feel wrong? What we are doing?” Anirudh asked as he came closer to her.
“Oh God, no!” She said as she rushed into his arms.
***
They had a wonderful dinner and then lounged in the living room, with soft jazz music playing in the background.
“That was the most wonderful dinner I’ve had in a long, long time,” said Rachanna, sighing happily.
He shook his head. “Tsk, tsk. The perils of eating one’s own cooking.”
She glared at him. “I cook just fine.”
He laughed. “Hmm… Asmee might disagree.”
“As if I care. By the way, I went to her school today to collect her progress card.”
“What did they say?”
“The usual. No problem regarding her studies. Brilliant child and blah blah. But she does not sit in a single place. She keeps changing seats, going to the restroom very often just to have an excuse to chat with her friends, etc. It seems that she is everywhere except in the seat that is assigned to her.”
Anirudh laughed. “I am glad she is not taking after you then. You were a nerd.”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“This education is all wrong. Too many rules. Too much stress on the kids. We should do what the foreigners do. Like they do in Denmark. Or the US.”
Rachanna shook her head. “I don’t agree with you there. I think Indian education is perfectly fine. It teaches us perseverance. It teaches us to compete with each other in a healthy way. It teaches us that it is not the end of the world if we fail. It teaches us failure. It teaches us how to handle success. A first rank one time does not mean a first rank every time. It teaches us to sit in one place and study. Do you know how hard that can be for some people? Because sitting in one place and getting your work done is a very critical skill. It teaches us so many things.”
“Hmm…very true.”
Rachanna sighed. “Visiting the school always brings back memories of my school days.”
Anirudh shook his head. “Unfortunate. I am sure you would not have enjoyed school much, considering you were a nerd and all.”
“True to an extent. You know…I look at these kids, boys and girls, talking together and laughing…”
“Asmee and her friends?”
“No. The high school kids. The teens…”
“Okay?”
“I honestly miss that. I never had a boyfriend. I mean…not in the romantic sense but more like a friend who was a boy.”
Anirudh raised his eyebrows. “Never?”
She shook her head. “No. I was not very sociable.”
“As opposed to now?” Anirudh asked, looking serious. But the wicked sparkle in his eyes gave him away.
Rachanna swung her hand and hit him on his arm. “Of course, as opposed to now. I have a lot of friends nowadays. Look who is talking! They called you poochandi when you came to live here. Remember?”
Anirudh laughed. “That did not happen! Come on. The only place where it did happen was in my grandma’s head.”
She shrugged. “Well, it could have happened. Anyway, I am nothing like you. I am very sociable.”
“Okay, okay,” said Anirudh, laughing and throwing his hands up in surrender. “If you say so…”
Rachanna glared at him. He only laughed harder.
She continued, “Anyway…I really miss that, you know. I want to go back to school just so I can hang out with guys.”
“Why didn’t you talk to guys?”
“Throughout my school life, I believed I was not pretty. So, my logic was that the guys wouldn’t want to hang out with me. I thought guys only wanted to hang out with beautiful girls.”
“You thought you were not pretty?” Anirudh asked, raising his eyebrow.
She made a sad face. “Yes. It’s sad.”
“Didn’t you check yourself out in a mirror?”
“I did. But my mother always used to make remarks that were not very kind. ‘This dress makes you look fat’, ‘are you sure you want to put your hair that way?’, ‘Look at your hair! So messy’. All those led to me thinking I was not pretty.”
“I am sure you were the most beautiful girl in the entire school.”
Rachanna looked at him and sighed. “If only I had known…”
He laughed. “I cannot believe guys let you be.”
“Yeah, that is strange. I don’t know why they never talked to me. Very strange, now that I think about it. Not one guy approached me. Not one! Even as a friend. I mean, if I was beautiful, they would have approached me, right? You approached me.”
Anirudh’s eyes widened as he realised something. “You know what? I know why they did not approach you.”
“You do?” Rachanna asked, surprised. She leaned forward. “Why?”
“You have a very I-am-too-good-for-you-back-off vibe.”
She was taken aback.
“No, I don’t!” She protested.
He nodded his head. “You do. You do. You totally do. That day, when I approached you, all my friends warned me that I was going on a fool’s mission. They said you look like someone who thought too much of herself and would never date someone normal like me.”
“Is that really the vibe I give out? That’s sad. I am glad you did not take their advice.”
Anirudh narrowed his eyes at her, as he stroked his cheeks thoughtfully. “Are you?”
“Well,” replied Rachanna, rethinking.
Anirudh laughed aloud. He then nodded and said, “Let’s just say it is complicated.”
Rachanna laughed. “Yeah, right, that fits.”
He screwed his eyes at her and shot back, “No, it doesn’t! Well, just because you were married does not invalidate what we both shared that day. It was still love.”
“Well…”
“You should see it from my perspective. I met a girl and fell in love with her within three hours. And I truly believed the love was reciprocated. We shared a beautiful night together. From where I stand, there was nothing wrong about it.”
“Alright, alright! I agree…”
Anirudh looked pleased. “So, no dates in school. What about in college?”
“Samay was the first and only guy I dated.”
He was shocked. “Oh my God! Really?”
“Yeah. He was this college stud. Football player. One of the most popular guys in college. He badgered me. He followed me. He was absolutely crazy about me!” Rachanna laughed before she shrugged and said, “And I? I was so flattered…”
“I can imagine. But what I cannot digest is that you have never dated any other guy.”
“I haven’t. And that was one of the misgivings I had. Samay knew about it. That is why Samay forced me to go out and enjoy myself when I came to Goa. ‘Maybe dance with a guy. Maybe go on a date’. That was what he said.”
He lifted his eyebrow slightly. “Very broadminded of him.”
“Yes. And that was the only time I dated another guy,” said Rachanna. She looked into his eyes and shook her head. “It did not go well.”
Anirudh laughed. “I won’t say that. It went pretty well for me.”
Rachanna chuckled. “Well, it was pretty disastrous for me! Pretty disastrous.”
Anirudh laughed again.
She continued, “I tried to have all the dating fun I had missed in my life in that one evening with you. I wanted to genuinely enjoy that date with you…to make up for everything I had missed.”
Anirudh nodded, looking serious. “That you did.”
“With disastrous results! And that is why, I decided never to go on a date ever again.”
“Oh! Is that why you never dated after Samay?”
“Yeah…what do you think? I also had Asmee. I cannot jeopardise her life.”
“But I must say one thing…”
“Yeah?”
“That night was a pretty amazing one.”
She had a faraway look on her face as she thought about that night. She shook her head. “It was the worst night of my life.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Okay, let me rephrase. It was the worst decision I’ve made in my entire life.”
“You were drunk.”
“However drunk I was, I should not have forgotten I was married.”
“Hmm…”
Rachanna moved to lie down on his lap. He ran his hand through her hair.
She looked at him. “I mean…I could have had a horrible marriage. I could have had a husband who abused me. I could have an absolute psycho for a husband… Whatever the reason might be, nothing gives me an excuse for cheating on my husband. Marriage is sacred…”
“Do you often do this?” He asked quietly.
“What?”
“This. You keep saying such things to yourself that either make you feel guilty or bad about yourself. This constant self-criticism makes you lose your own self-respect.”
Rachanna was taken aback. However, when she pondered over his words, she nodded. “Yeah. Almost constantly.”
“Aah! Continuing the good work that your mother started, I presume?”
She looked downcast. “I tend to do that, don’t I?”
“You most certainly do. Almost impeccably.”
“I should stop.”
Anirudh smiled as he nodded. “That would be good.”
A few minutes of silence passed in which Anirudh’s gaze never left her face. He could almost read her thoughts in the changing expressions of her face. And he loved what he saw. He loved that he could read her like a book.
“Do you think I am a bad person?” She asked, a look of desperation in her eyes.
“No. I think you are the most beautiful, caring, most wonderful girl in the whole world.”
“All that and yet, I am not that intelligent, right?” Rachanna asked.
Anirudh laughed. “Asmee told you that?”
“She told me the day you said it.”
“I also told her that you were the most loving and caring person in the whole world.”
“I know. That is why I never confronted you about that.”
He smiled. “I certainly do think you are the most wonderful girl in the entire world.”
She grinned. “You do, don’t you?”
“I most assuredly do. I think you should also stop with all this negative self-talk and start to see who you really are. It is a terrible thing…when one cannot see oneself clearly.”
She sighed. “I will try. But it is going to be hard.”
“Yeah. Till then, I will keep whispering sweet nothings in your ears.”
“Thank you,” she replied, laughing.
“I can also show you how much I love you.”
Rachanna giggled. “I would very much appreciate that, too,” she said as she leaned in to kiss him.
***
It was Saturday evening. Rachanna and Anirudh were watching TV. They had cranked up the air conditioning and were snuggling in a blanket in front of the TV.
“I am hungry,” said Rachanna.
“Should I order something?”
She made a face. “I am tired of eating out. Can we cook?”
“Hmm…we can make poha .”
“Do you know how to make poha ?” Rachanna asked, surprised.
“Not as well as you but I can manage.”
“Aaah! Good to know. Let’s cook then.”
“Won’t it be easier to just order?” Anirudh said, stretching lazily.
“Come on. We have only been sitting around the entire day,” said Rachanna, sitting up.
“That is why I want the rest of the day to go the exact same way,” replied Anirudh, not moving.
“Come on! Haven’t you heard? People who cook together have the best romance.”
He, with a faint smile on his face, exclaimed, “Aah! It’s like that, is it?”
“Yeah. Let’s test it today. Do you have potatoes?”
“Eh? No.”
“Okay, go and get some then. Wait, let me take a look. I will make you a list of things I need. You can get them for me,” said Rachanna as she got up to go to the kitchen.
Anirudh glared at her. “I am supposed to go to the store because I am the guy?”
Rachanna stopped in her tracks and turned to him. “Well, no! You are supposed to go to the store because you are the host. And because no one can see me here.”
Anirudh frowned. “But I don’t want to move from here.”
“Move, move!” Rachanna said, as she sat beside him again and started to shake him. “And get me a bar of chocolate, too.”
“My God! Now I know how Asmee feels around you,” he said as he reluctantly got up.
Rachanna grinned and set out to make him a list of things to get from the store.
***
“Welcome back!” Rachanna greeted as she opened the door with a big grin and her arms wide open.
It was not Anirudh. It was the beautiful girl Rachanna had seen talking to Anirudh before.
Embarrassed, she pulled the folds of her nightdress closer to cover herself. “Sorry…I thought…”
The girl looked embarrassed as well. Rachanna noted that even when embarrassed, the girl looked incredibly beautiful. Rachanna’s heart burned with jealousy.
She managed to say, “Anirudh is not here right now. He has gone to the store. Do you want to come in?”
“Thanks! Don’t mind if I do. I just want to talk to Anirudh for a few minutes.”
“Oh! No issues. Come in. Make yourself comfortable,” said Rachanna, moving to let her in.
The girl walked in and sat on the sofa. Rachanna’s heart was heavy. Anirudh did say they had nothing going on. But seeing that girl at his house made her heart ache. And to be seen in such a flimsy nightdress by her! Rachanna burned with embarrassment and jealousy.
“He didn’t tell me you were coming,” she said, trying to justify herself.
“Yes, I did not tell him I was coming. I just want to give a few things to him. It will hardly take a few minutes. I did not mean to disturb you…” she said, flushing deeply.
“It’s okay. Ummm…excuse me,” said Rachanna as she rushed inside. She dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, and re-joined the girl in the living room.
“Coffee?” She offered.
“No,” replied the girl, shaking her head. “Are you…are you Anirudh’s girlfriend?”
“Well…” said Rachanna carefully, “I think you can call me that.”
“I am his brother’s girlfriend.”
“Oh!” Rachanna replied, shocked. All of Anirudh’s statements suddenly made sense to her. She felt deeply ashamed to have thought ill of the girl and Anirudh, especially after Anirudh had promised her that there was nothing between them. She felt like a fool. At the same time, her heart lightened up. She felt a sudden rush of gratitude and love towards the girl.
The girl continued, “I mean…I used to be…before he passed away. I am Esha.”
“I am Rachanna.”
“Oh! Rachanna!” The girl replied, a look of recognition springing into her eyes.
“Yes. Why? Has Anirudh talked about me?”
“Yeah, yeah, he did. You are the widow, right?” The girl blurted. Then, flushing, she added, “Sorry…did not mean for it to come out like that.”
Rachanna steeled herself. She smiled and said, “Yes, I am. I am the widow.”
And as usual, the word tore through her heart and made it ache all over. An uncomfortable silence descended in the room. Neither knew what to say.
“Do you want some water?” Rachanna asked finally.
“No. Are you happy?” Esha asked, looking into Rachanna’s eyes.
The sudden question caught Rachanna off guard. She understood what the girl meant. “I…I…yeah, I guess.”
“Were you able to move on?”
Rachanna looked straight into the girl’s eyes. If anyone else had asked her the question, it would have irritated her. It would even have made her angry. But coming from Esha, the question felt very …natural, very justified. Rachanna understood that Esha just wanted to know if what she was struggling for was achievable or not.
“Yes,” replied Rachanna.
“Were you able to forget him?” The girl asked, hope already shining in her eyes.
Another inappropriate question. And yet, appropriate.
Rachanna took a few moments to answer this one. “No. I don’t think anyone can forget. He is a part of my life. He was and is an integral part of who I am. Such a person cannot be forgotten.”
“Oh!” Esha was almost disappointed.
“But we can move on. I think we are allowed to do that,” replied Rachanna, smiling.
A deep sympathy ran in waves between the two ladies as they sat in silence for many moments.
***
Anirudh was surprised to see Esha when he returned.
“Hey, Esha!” He greeted with a half-hearted smile.
Esha got up. “Hey, Ani. I just wanted to return a few things.”
She handed a large plastic bag to him.
“A few of Akhilesh’s things. I could not bear to throw them away.”
Anirudh took the bag. He took a brief look inside and nodded. He then looked at her expectantly. Esha looked back at him for a few moments and then nodded slightly.
“My parents have started to look for a match for me,” she answered his unasked question.
Anirudh’s smile broadened. He said in relief, “I am glad. You should move on.”
Esha looked back at him and thoughtfully nodded. Then, she said, “Well, I guess I should get going.” She took a slight step towards him, then hesitated and stayed back.
Anirudh closed the distance between them and hugged her awkwardly.
Esha stepped away from him and said, “Thank you, Ani. For being there. I don’t know what I would have done if you had not been there.”
He nodded. A look of pain, almost despair, passed across his face. And when he spoke, his voice was choked up. “Esha…I want to apologise to you. I am really deeply sorry. It was my fault. I should have met him that day. He would have been alive if…”
“No, no,” Esha interrupted him, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault. He begged me to accompany him on that trip. If I had, we would have spent the night there in Mumbai. But I didn’t. Due to some stupid, silly spat I had with him…”
Esha’s eyes started to water too.
“It is not your fault…” insisted Anirudh, rushing to her defence as she had rushed to his.
“Well, it is not yours either. I think it was just fate. His time was up. That’s all. We have to absolve ourselves and move on.”
Anirudh nodded. “You know you can always call me if you need anything, right?”
She nodded. “Yes. I know.”
“Invite me for your wedding. I will come.”
She looked at him for a long, long time before her eyes started to tear up again. Then, she shook her head. “Actually, no. I am sorry, but I don’t ever want to see you again in my life.”
Anirudh paled as he looked at her in shock. Rachanna’s heart stopped too. She could sense the turmoil that Anirudh must be undergoing as Esha declared her intention. Was she blaming him?
Esha understood his reaction. She clarified, “It’s not that I am angry or anything. It’s just that…you remind me too much of him.”
It took a few moments but then he finally nodded, relieved to have been able to understand her point of view.
“Have a nice life, Ani.”
“You too, Esha.”
Esha did not leave. Instead, she looked into Anirudh’s eyes for a long, long time before she finally tore her gaze away and almost ran away from him. Anirudh looked at Rachanna. Unable to bear the sadness in his eyes, she hugged him.
Then, after a few moments, Anirudh said, “That was Esha. She was my brother’s fiancée.”
“I know. She told me.”
After a moment, Rachanna asked, “Anirudh, will you tell me about your brother later? When you are up for it?”
Anirudh nodded. “Yes.”
“Thank you. But…I just don’t understand one thing. Why was she looking at you with so much love in her eyes?”
“She was not looking at me,” mumbled Anirudh, shaking his head.
“Then?” Rachanna asked, frowning.
“She was looking at my eyes. I have my brother’s eyes.”
***
“You have to talk about your brother,” said Rachanna, after an unusually quiet dinner.
Anirudh did not have a proper dinner. He was lost in thought, ate very little and Rachanna suspected that he hardly registered what he ate.
Anirudh looked at her as if she was speaking an unknown language. He then sighed and nodded. He took out his phone, opened his gallery and passed the phone to her. “Check this folder. That’s Akhilesh.”
Rachanna took the phone and looked at the photos with interest. “I remember him. He used to visit your grandmother.”
Anirudh nodded. “Yeah.”
She looked at a close-up photo of Akhilesh smiling pleasantly at the camera. “Wow. He does have your eyes.”
“I know.” Anirudh sighed. “It is sad that he is dead, and I am alive. He was the better of us both.”
“Don’t say that…”
“He was. He was the brilliant one. And the popular one. He was always surrounded by friends. Everyone liked him. It was hard to find anyone who had a bad word to say about him. He was very caring. In fact, a bit too much. You know the way he cared for our grandmother.”
“What did he do?”
“He was a journalist.”
“Oh!”
“And the best one too. He was engaged to Esha. They both were such a lovely couple, so very much in love. They had begun to plan for their wedding. He had just bought a house. This one.”
“This one? This house belongs to him?” Rachanna asked, surprised.
“Yes. The interiors were done by him. He was in the processes of furnishing the house…” Anirudh sighed before he continued, “I cannot believe he is no more. Sometimes, I pretend that he is still alive and that he is staying in some other city. And that he is not talking to me because he is angry with me or something…”
Rachanna could see the turmoil in his eyes and yet did not know how to console him.
“And he is dead because of me!” He spat out, looking at her.
Rachanna was not able to understand. “I thought he passed away in an accident. What happened?”
Anirudh sighed. “I told you about that video of Karan and Anshu, right? I was heartbroken. For a few days, I shut out everyone from my life. I went into depression. I refused to answer Akhilesh’s calls too. At that time, he was on an assignment in Pune. So, he drove to Mumbai to talk to me. But I refused to talk to him. He asked me if it would help if he stayed over with me.”
He ran his hand over his face before he continued, “And I shouted at him to mind his own business.” He shook his head and went on, “I guess I was a bit envious of him. He had an amazing girlfriend, a wonderful job and nothing was wrong with his life. And I did not like him looking at me with pity. Some screwed up logic like that. I did not realise all that then. I see why I behaved that way only in retrospect. Anyway, I told him to get lost. And unable to talk to me properly, he drove back to Pune that evening itself. If only I had talked to him. If only I had let him stay over…”
“It is not your fault. You did not know.”
“I thought I was suffering. I thought my problems were the biggest in the world. God had laughed in my face. ‘You thought that was big? Take this now!’ I believe that was what God said to me. When Akhilesh passed away, I just could not believe it. I did not know how I survived…”
“It was not your fault, Anirudh.”
“My problem with Karan and Anshu was nothing compared to the grief of losing my brother. So what if my girlfriend had cheated on me? I could have moved on. I could have got another girl. I got you, didn’t I? A girl who is a thousand times better than Anshu. So what if my business partner cheated on me? All I had to do was sell my shares and walk out, showing them both the middle finger.
“I could have done anything in my life with the resources I had. In retrospect, that incident did not stop my life like my brother’s death did. I gave that incident with Anshu and Karan too much power over me. I thought about it over and over again…I thought about it too much…I gave it too much strength. For what? All it resulted in was Akhilesh’s death.”
“You were not at fault. At that time, you did not know…”
“I should not have behaved like that with Akhilesh. He was only trying to help. That poor guy! He drove hours to meet me, and I refused to even talk to him. Even if I had refused to talk to him, I could have let him stay over. I should not have let him drive back at night.”
Rachanna took his hands in hers. “Anirudh, listen to me! This was not your fault. Like Esha said, you have to forgive yourself. You did not know.”
He sighed. “I guess she was right. We have to move on. But I was with that guy from birth. Technically, even before our birth. I knew him like no one ever could. And he knew me like no one ever could. Especially not Anshu or Karan. Akhilesh was so much more than thousands like them put together. To think I let him go to his death because of those two…”
“Anirudh! Get this into your head. You did not know. You did not cause that accident. You did not decide to drive at night. It is not your fault.”
He sighed. “I guess…I have to accept it. But it just kills me to think about it. After his death, I just lost it. Till then, I was staggering from the pressure of not having a girlfriend and of losing a business I gave 5 years of my life to. But add the weight of losing a brother to it…I could not handle it. That is why I gave up my friends, my work and my entire life in Mumbai and shifted here.
“I lost all purpose in life and I guess I came here looking for something that gave me a semblance of a purpose. I resolved to do everything Akhilesh was doing. I took up everything that he was committed to. I resolved to look after patti . There were some environmental issues he was looking into for an article. I have employed a few people to look into it. And this flat! He never got to live in this flat after buying it.
“He wanted to start his married life with Esha here. I offered this house to Esha, but she refused to take it. So, I live here now. Trying and doing everything I can to forgive myself. But the most important task of all was that I must convince Esha to move on. He would have wanted it. He would have wanted Esha to be happy.”
Rachanna looked thoughtful for a few moments. Then, she asked, “Do you know for sure that he would have wanted it?”
He frowned. “What? For Esha to move on?”
“Yeah. Do you think…maybe…just maybe he would be happier if she dedicated the rest of her life to his memory and never moved on?”
Anirudh looked at her, stunned. It took a few moments for him to pull himself together. “No! I am sure he would have wanted her to move on. He loved her too much. Her happiness mattered to him.”
“Hmm…I wonder.”
Anirudh asked shrewdly, “How about Samay? What would he have wanted you to do?”
Rachanna shrugged. “Frankly, I don’t know.”
“If he loved you truly, he would have wanted you to move on.”
“We assume that is what everyone would have wanted. But is it really true? I don’t know…”
Anirudh looked at her, still shocked at her line of thought. “I know Akhilesh, and I know he would have wanted Esha to move on.”
Rachanna looked down at her nails as if they’d suddenly caught her interest.
He asked shrewdly, “Is that why you are so hesitant to marry me?”
She looked at him awkwardly. “No, no, I am sure Samay would have wanted me to be happy…”
“You have lived the last five years of your life with just his memory…”
“I know. I know…,” she said, shrugging. “I…I just wondered. That is all.”
“I am sure Samay must have loved you truly. I am sure he must have wanted you to move on.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” replied Rachanna, shaking her head and smiling. “He would have. He really did love me. Undoubtedly. He would definitely want me to be happy.”
But the catch in her throat and the way she evaded her eyes told Anirudh a different story.