Chapter 1

varshaoforange

@varshaoforange

Setting: It’s been a month since Aryan has joined the Bhaskar Times as CEO, since Imlie was selected as a featured writer, and Malini was just ousted from the Tripathi house (in this story it was in front of Imlie, Aryan, Narmada, and Arpita, as well as the whole Tripathi family.

Imlie watched on as Aditya basically dragged Malini Didi out of the Tripathi house. This was everything she had hoped for, fought for, begged for. She had been trying to reveal Malini Didi’s true character to her family, especially Aditya, for ages now. Ever since she found out exactly what Malini and her mother’s planned to do to get Aditya to leave her. Even at her lowest moment, when Aditya signed the divorce papers, she still wanted him and the family to understand that Malini was not to be trusted.

But Aditya hadn’t trusted Imlie, not right after Malini had accused Imlie of shooting her, not even when Malini actually told Aditya she had fraudulently sent the divorce papers. Aditya never trusted Imlie. She realized that now. She finally realized that because of the way the two of them had gotten married and the way they had fallen in love there was no way for Aditya to ever trust her. Aditya had loved Imlie against his better judgment. It always seems romantic when characters like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice claim to love someone “below their status.” But really what they’re saying is, “you don’t deserve my unconditional love, so be happy with what you receive from me.” Aditya never saw Imlie as an equal. The past month at Bhaskar Times revealed that to Imlie.

Her eyes glazed over the sad and shocked faces of the Tripathi family. Rupi Didi looked smug as Malini hovered at the threshold of the house, begging Aditya for a second chance. Papa couldn’t say a word, his eyes wouldn’t meet anyone’s. Aparna was silently crying tears of rage and despair. Imlie could forecast exactly what the family would say to her soon. “We should have believed you!” “You’ve always been the most filial daughter of this household. Even when you were our daughter-in-law.” “We never should have let you leave.” She couldn’t take it. Their regret felt like recrimination, even their appreciation would feel like a stab at Imlie’s failure to keep her husband. She knew, even at her lowest moments, her brain told her this wasn’t her fault. But every time she passed Aditya in the halls at work, every time their eyes met, her heart felt like it was in a vice. The guilt overpowered her. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t hate Aditya. But finally, today, after seeing her ex-husband throw his new wife out of the house, she found she was unable to love him anymore either. Imlie grew up with a mother whose love had cheated her. She grew up seeing her whole town belittle her mother because she was cheated and because her mother had put her trust in the wrong person. So for Imlie, the basis of love, of any relationship, was trust. She had trusted Aditya through everything, even when he hadn’t looked twice at her, even when he had resented her. But Aditya could never trust her. She thanked her heart for letting go of “Babusahib.” She never wanted to call anyone that ever again.

Aditya shut the front door. A taxi had come, and he had told Malini to take it to her mother’s house, or to the nearest police station to turn herself in. He turned around, and his gaze met Imlie’s. The two seconds her eyes looked into Aditya’s were the longest two seconds she’d ever experienced, they were also the most painful. She tore her eyes away; she had to physically turn around. The day’s excursions had been too much. First there was the brothel, then attempting to scare Anu and Malini Didi into revealing the truth, and then almost dying again. She tried to steady her breath, but she couldn’t. She started to hyperventilate and feel dizzy. She swayed. It felt like her heart was in a vice, being squeezed so tight she might die. Her vision started to blur. And then she fell. As she was falling, she felt someone’s hands grabbing her, attempting to steady her. Amazingly, her breath steadied. She took a deep breath in and the scent of leather, pine, wood, and pepper flooded her senses. She knew that scent, she’d smelled it for the first time in a temple, countless times at her office, it was the last scent she could smell as she fell asleep these days. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Aryan Singh Rathore holding her up.

“Imlie, come to your senses. Are you okay? Should I call a doctor.” Aryan said all this very fast.

Imlie smiled weakly, “Why are you so worried about me? I’m fine.”

Aryan stiffened, “I’m not worried, I just—I want to make sure my employee is okay. I still expect that report on the brothel in Hindi and English on my desk tomorrow, and I can’t get it if my featured writer is incapacitated because of her stupid ex-husband.”

Arpita cleared her throat, “Aru. Bhai, I think we should leave now. Even if Imlie doesn’t need a doctor, she needs rest, and a change of clothes.” Arpita wanted her brother to be happy more than anyone in the world, except maybe her mother, but she knew this wasn’t the best time for her brother to start his love story.

Narmada chimed in, “Yes Aru. We should go home. You and Imlie haven’t eaten anything all day.”

Aryan looked at his mother and sister, and instinctively, he let go of Imlie. She stood awkwardly next to him, putting her hand on the edge of the sofa to steady herself, just in case.

Aparna spoke to Imlie for the first time today, “Imlie, I don’t know how to begin to ask for forgiveness. Not just for me, but especially because of what my son—“

It took all of Imlie’s willpower to speak up and interrupt Maa, “Maa, there is no need for a mother to ask for forgiveness. I did what, I thought, was necessary for my family to be happy.” She looked at Aditya briefly, “And what I thought you all required was to make sure you wouldn’t be separated from your son. That’s it.”

Aditya hadn’t budged from the doorway, but upon hearing Imlie reference him, he started to walk towards her, “Imlie.”

Imlie closed her eyes. How she had longed to hear her name from Aditya’s voice in that tone for so long. But today, her name sounded like an insult in his voice.

“Mr. Tripathi—“ both Imlie and Aryan had started to say, and then they looked at each other, and stopped. Imlie had to fight the urge to laugh. She also saw what was the hint of a smile on Aryan’s face, but it was gone the second she tried to catch it.

Aditya recovered from the insult of seeing Imlie and Aryan on the same page and tried again, “Imlie, I know I have no right to ask for forgiveness, so I won’t. Let me ask you—no please let me beg you for a punishment. That’s all I deserve. I took our beautiful relationship and I let it be destroyed. I believed Malini because I thought she was my only friend. I started to see things that weren’t happening just because she told me. I questioned you because of the trust I had in someone untrustworthy. I shouldn’t have—No. I can’t make any more excuses, all I can do today is beg for a punishment. But maybe in time—“

Out of the corner of her eye, Imlie saw Aryan clench his fists and his ears were getting redder by the second. She had to say something to end this and get him out of this house. But she couldn’t look at Aditya anymore.

Without raising her eyes, she interrupted Aditya, “Mr. Tripathi, I don’t have anything left to give you. Not punishment, not forgiveness, not lo—nothing. I will say what I have already said, anything I’ve done in the past month has always been for my family,” she looked at Aparna and walked towards her, taking her hands and wiping away the tears streaming down her face, “I did this to keep my mother’s faith in her love, in her upbringing, and in her family. I am and always will be a daughter of the Tripathi family. And where I come from, daughters will do anything and everything to protect their families.”

She sighed, and before she could cry, Imlie smiled and looked at Narmada kaki, “Kaki, let’s go. Back home, I’ll make the spiciest dahl and softest rotis you’ve ever had.”

Imlie picked up her bag from the sofa, and started to walk to the door. As she passed Aditya he tried to reach out to her, but Aryan swiftly walked in between Adi and Imlie, blocking Aditya’s path. Imlie didn’t notice as Aryan caught up to her stride, all she wanted was to get out of this house today.

Everything else seemed out of focus to Aryan on the walk to the car. Not just other people, but noises too. He didn’t hear his mother trying to be chirpy about dinner, nor did he see Arpita attempting to cheer up Imlie by asking her about her article for tomorrow. All he could see was Imlie, and how her steely faced expression was hiding an immense pain. A pain that he assumed matched his pain at losing Arvind. He doubted Imlie actually meant anything she had said to Aditya today, he knew that while she was the strongest woman he’d ever met, she was incredibly weak when it came to Aditya Kumar Tripathi. That man had destroyed Imlie; he had taken away her smile, her trust, her faith in the world. Everything. And he knew, as he watched Imlie put on her seatbelt, as she smiled weakly to his mother and sister, that he had to everything in his power to prevent her from being destroyed by Aditya Kumar Tripathi again.