Chapter 10- Priyas Birthday
Vinaya learned it was Priya's birthday because the palace stopped speaking.
No proclamation announced it. No bells rang. No flowers appeared in the temple.
The silence itself told her.
At breakfast, Vikram's chair remained empty.
Queen Lakshmidevi barely touched her food.
Ranveer stared into his cup.
Even Balram had nothing foolish to say.
Vinaya finally lowered her spoon.
"What is today?"
The siblings exchanged glances.
Lakshmidevi closed her eyes briefly.
Parvati answered.
"Priya's birthday."
Vinaya immediately understood.
"Oh."
"She would have been twenty-five," Kalyani whispered.
Twenty-five.
Vinaya looked toward Vikram's empty chair.
"Where is he?"
Ranveer's expression hardened.
"Where he always is today."
Priya's chambers.
Vikram had begun drinking before noon.
By evening, three empty bottles stood on the table.
He sat on the floor beneath Priya's portrait with his back against the bed.
"Happy birthday."
His voice was rough.
He raised his cup toward her.
"You always hated when I forgot."
He laughed bitterly.
"I never forgot."
Not once.
When Priya turned sixteen, he had ridden through a storm to Chitragarh because she had accused him of caring more about military training than her birthday.
At eighteen, she became his wife.
At twenty, she was dead.
Vikram drank.
"I married her."
The portrait smiled.
"Vinaya."
He stared into the cup.
"You would like her."
That thought had been tormenting him.
Vinaya was nothing like Priya.
Priya filled silence.
Vinaya listened to it.
Priya demanded attention.
Vinaya seemed embarrassed when she received it.
Priya challenged him loudly.
Vinaya could destroy an argument with one quiet sentence.
Different.
Entirely different.
And increasingly difficult not to notice.
Vikram poured another drink.
"I don't love her."
The declaration sounded defensive even to himself.
"I won't."
The room spun slightly.
His gaze found Priya.
"Is that what you wanted?"
Silence.
For the first time, anger surged through grief.
"You told me not to let it destroy me."
His eyes burned.
"Then you died."
He hurled the cup.
It shattered against the wall.
Vinaya heard the crash from the corridor.
She stopped.
She had spent the day avoiding the western wing deliberately.
But Lakshmidevi had asked a servant to take Vikram food hours earlier.
It had returned untouched.
Now another crash came.
Vinaya looked toward the guard.
"Has anyone checked on him?"
"He ordered everyone away, Your Highness."
"Of course he did."
She should leave.
Vikram had made his wishes regarding Priya's rooms perfectly clear.
Then came a heavy thud.
Vinaya's irritation disappeared.
She pushed open the door.
"Vikram?"
The room smelled strongly of liquor.
Broken glass covered part of the floor.
Vikram was beside the bed.
He looked terrible.
"Go away."
"No."
His head lifted.
"Did you just tell me no?"
"Yes."
She approached carefully.
"You are drunk."
"A remarkable observation."
"You're bleeding."
He looked at his palm as though noticing the cut for the first time.
"Apparently."
Vinaya sighed.
"Sit still."
"Leave me alone."
"You have been alone for five years."
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Vikram stared at her.
Vinaya immediately regretted them.
"I'm sorry."
He laughed once.
"Everyone is sorry."
Then he reached for the bottle.
Vinaya took it first.
His eyes narrowed.
"Give me that."
"No."
"Vinaya."
"You have had enough."
"Do not tell me what I have had enough of."
His voice rose.
Vinaya flinched.
Vikram saw it.
Something in his face collapsed.
"Go."
This time the word was quiet.
Vinaya looked at him.
Not Crown Prince.
Not the cold husband who had humiliated her.
Just a grieving man sitting beneath the portrait of a woman who would never grow older.
She set the bottle away.
"I'll clean your hand first."
"Why?"
The question stopped her.
"Because you're hurt."
"After everything I've done to you?"
Vinaya had no good answer.
So she gave him the simplest one.
"Yes."
Vikram stared at her.
And sometime after midnight, when Vinaya finally helped him toward his own chamber, neither noticed how unsteady his steps had become.
Until something crashed behind the closed door.
Vinaya turned back.
"Vikram?"
There was no answer.