Chapter 40
DAKSH
Rage rode him as he got out of the cab. He stared up at the imposing facade of the beach facing bungalow that had been his childhood home.
It reeked of benign neglect, genteel money, and of days of bygone glory.
His family had come from money but it had been mismanaged, mishandled and in most cases just thrown away in the wake of bad choices.
Hence his father’s obsession to infiltrate the Thakkar family like a B-grade spy from a third rate movie. He wanted to marry into his safety net before the world glimpsed the decay behind the public image they projected. Unfortunately, the decay in his soul was visible even without effort.
Ashish had fucked up but his father…his father was the rot that destroyed a person from the inside out. Daksh should know. Prasun Mathur had hollowed him out a long time ago.
He input the code for the front door and entered, shutting the door behind him.
The silent gloom of the house was enough to give anyone the creeps.
He took the stairs two at a time, arriving on the first floor in record time.
He turned right and smashed his fist into the door of the first room on that side.
He heard something fall on the other side before some cursing ensued. A moment later, his brother opened the door, bleary eyed and hungover.
“Let’s go,” Daksh said tersely, grabbing Ashish by the collar of his grimy shirt and pulling him along.
“What? Where?” Ashish flailed in his grip but couldn’t break out of it.
A second later, they’d made it to their father’s study.
Daksh shoved the door open, saw the room was empty, and then continued down the hall.
This time when he pushed the door to his parent’s master bedroom open, he found them both unwinding in bed.
“What? What is this about?” Prasun blustered as he shoved out of bed and got to his feet. Daksh’s mother followed suit, her anxious face giving Daksh a moment’s pause before he remembered the shit his father had pulled earlier. Before he remembered the absolute devastation on Vedika’s face.
“My debt is cleared,” Daksh said, letting go of Ashish’s collar. His brother stumbled away from him, rubbing an aggrieved hand over his neck. “Right? We’re even? That’s what you said.”
Prasun grinned. “Yes. Yes.” He rubbed his hands together in glee. “You’ve managed to do what even this useless fellow couldn’t do.” The last was said with a look of askance in Ashish’s direction. “Once you marry the Thakkar girl-“
“Her name is Vedika,” Daksh interrupted. “And I won’t be marrying her.”
Prasun stopped talking, his smile slipping away. “What do you mean?”
“It’s simple English. I won’t be marrying Vedika. Just like he,” Daksh pointed to Ashish, “won’t be marrying her either.”
“Like hell you won’t,” Prasun snarled. “You were fucking her today-“
“What?” Ashish snapped. “You did what today?”
“Don’t.” The single, frigid word stopped Prasun from repeating his statement. “One more word,” Daksh said, his voice a lethal blade, “and I’ll slice your tongue off and hand it to you.”
“How dare you?” Prasun was almost apoplectic with rage. “Nobody speaks to their father this way.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not my father.”
Words that had always been known but never been spoken before landed in the room like an unexploded bomb. The silence in the room expanded like a lead balloon. And then soft, muffled weeping filled the room as his mother started to cry.
Prasun advanced on him, anger and bitterness twisting the expression on his face.
“You bastard,” he hissed. “You have the audacity to bring that up.
After all these years? I paid for your education.
The same education you pissed away by failing like the fucking retard you are. I fed you. I clothed you. I-“
“I’ll pay you back with interest,” Daksh said, his tone bored.
Prasun sneered. “Will you? How?”
“I’ll pay off Ashish’s loans.” Daksh saw his brother stiffen from the corner of his eye. He turned and looked at his crying mother. “And I’ll pay to set you up in a home of your own. One where you don’t have to tolerate him.” He said the last bit with a jerk of his head towards Prasun.
“She is not going anywhere!” Fury laced each frustrated syllable, his father’s livid face twisting with emotion.
“That’s for her to decide,” Daksh returned. “I just need her to know, it’s an option.”
“She doesn’t need the seed of her sin to do anything for her.” Prasun’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “You are the biggest curse to ever befall our house.”
“Am I?” Daksh asked. “Personally, I always thought that was you.”
He met Prasun’s angry, red rimmed eyes. “I loved you. You are the only father I’ve ever known.
So, I didn’t know any better than to love you.
But you have never shown me anything but hate.
I could never understand why you kept me around.
” He looked at his mother. “I never understood why you didn’t have an abortion.
Why would you bring the child of your affair into your marital home? ”
She sobbed harder, her chest heaving with the force of her emotions. “Because,” she whispered, between gasps, “he couldn’t have children. I didn’t have an affair. He made me –“ Her words dissolved into a broken wail and she bent over in anguish.
Horror flooded Daksh as the ramifications of her words swept through him. He turned to where Prasun was standing, a flush of shame rising in his cheeks. “You forced her to…” he couldn’t finish the sentence, “Just so you could have a child? Does that mean Ashish isn’t yours too?”
That didn’t make any sense. His father loved Ashish, always had. There had been no doubt in their household about that.
“He was a miracle,” Prasun said, the words coming out with difficulty. “We didn’t expect one but, one day, God blessed us, blessed me with him.”
And Daksh had become the only cuckoo in the nest.
The twisted nightmare that was his family had him reeling back from them. “I’ll pay Ashish’s debts off,” he said, “and then you’ll never see me again. Mom?” He waited for her to look up, to meet his eyes. “If you ever need me-“
She shook her head violently. “I won’t.” Tears streamed down her face but he could still see the conviction in it. “This is my home. This is my family.”
And Daksh was not a part of it. The words couldn’t have been clearer even if she’d shouted them at him. He met Ashish’s tortured gaze.
“You don’t have to pay off my debts,” Ashish rasped. “I’ll get myself out of the hole.”
“I want to,” Daksh admitted. “Let me do something for my conscience. I’m sorry if I hurt you…But Vedika…I’m not sorry for loving her. I never will be.”
Ashish stared at him for a long moment and then he nodded. It wasn’t absolution but it was something.
“Stay away from her,” Daksh told Prasun, enunciating each word carefully, “or I’ll plaster every last sordid word of your family story in the media and the society circles you love so much.
You try anything with Vedika, anything, and I swear to you, I’ll repay every moment of hell you put me through for all these years with interest.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Prasun snarled.
“Watch me,” Daksh said simply.