Chapter 5

AnushkhaA

@AnushkhaA

I know the pace is a lot slow but I need to set the stage. It will pick up after this chapter promise!!! 

Tell me in the comments whether I should try to complete this ff first or pieces of a cracked mirror? 

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Chapter 5

Pallavi felt her insides freeze at Krishna Rao's smug declaration. She looked at the boy closely and found no resemblance to Raghav at all. But he was looking so familiar to her. She didn't know why. She wanted to ask.. why.. how? But no words were coming out of her mouth. It seemed to have been cast in lead. 

Krishna Rao had obviously noticed this and how could he let go of this golden opportunity to snub her even more. 

"What happened my dear? Cat got your rapier like tongue?"

"How... this.. "

"Yes, this is Arjun Rao, the newest member to my party. I found him scavenging in the dump yard. He reminded so much of Raghav. The same determination, the same zeal to survive, the same zest of life. If he had any of Raghav's single minded focus and that insurmountable passion to succeed then I might have found my successor. Naming him after my favourite prodigy was a bit too much so I decided to name him after his brother. What do you think Mrs. Raghav Rao? He has potential though don't you think?"

Pallavi took a few moments to piece it together and as realisation knocked her back in senses, she felt her temper rise like boiling magma seeping out of the Earth's core. 

"You..you b*stard! You did it deliberately didn't you!!! Taking Arjun's name... you.."

"Of course I did it deliberately! My dear, you have come under some grand delusion that you can play this mental games of one-upmanship with me. Even that good for nothing husband of yours hadn't ever been equal to me in mind games and he is considered a master of mental manipulation. You on the other hand are just a novice. A naïve little minx in the battleground of elephants my sweet! Take care lest you be crushed under them."

Krishna Rao snarled. All the pretence of warmth snuffed right out of his raspy voice.

Pallavi fisted her hands tight enough to dig her own nails in her palm. She wanted to strangle the wily old man till his fat face turned purple and those jaundiced eyes popped out. For a moment her own violent thoughts took her aback. How could have her husband rubbed so much on her? But she couldn't see past the red.

"Mr. Krishna Rao! You are not even worth having your name taken in the same breath as my husband. Please, do not humiliate yourself further by issuing empty threats and playing these cheap two rupee games with me. I don't have time for your worthless idiocies. Please take your so called prodigy and get out before I call the security."

Krishna Rao growled and advanced and Harish immediately leaped in front of Pallavi in an effort to shield her. Pallavi pushed past Harish in the side and walked right into the old demon's personal space. She was at least a foot taller than him and she had every intention of using that to her advantage. In her position she loomed over the short heighted devil and let pure rage etch over her beautiful features. She has had enough of people playing with her sentiments and using her mild mannerisms.

"Listen to me you monster. And listen to me very carefully cause I am not going to repeat this. You may have at one time ruled a bunch of pathetic villages and played with the naivety of its residents but this.. this is Hyderabad. This is my husband's turf. Ergo this is my playground. I might by an ant compared to your elephant but remember an ant has the might t make an elephant dance to its tune once it enters its ear."

Her voice had gone dangerously low. So much so that Farhad who had just entered stopped in his tracks. He didn't remember hearing his sister in law speak like that to anyone ever. He wasn't aware of how much iciness she had collected inside her. Pallavi continued unfazed as she advanced towards Krishna Rao more, making him take a few steps back automatically. Later she would wonder how intimidating she could be that forced someone like Krishna Rao to involuntarily move away. 

"Do not live under any impression that because I am tolerating your undesired presence here in our lives because I can't do anything about it. I can. I can very well have you killed in front of a hundred people, in broad daylight and no one will be able to touch a single hair on my head. Know that, the only reason you are breathing the same air as me is because somewhere I still respect our age difference and the fact that I would rather avoid bloodshed. But if you do not stop interfering in my business then I will be forced to do something really bad."

Krishna Rao had almost reached the end of the foyer with Pallavi approaching him like a tigress, graceful and elegant even in her fury. She seemed to have perfected her pretence of ruthlessness to deal with Raghav's numerous rivals quite well. The so called Arjun Rao looked visibly awed and equally terrified of the silk clad woman with piercingly beautiful grey brown eyes. 

"So if you have one.. one iota of self preservation then run and do not turn back or else I will not be held responsible for bullet holes in your body. Artham Aiyndaa?"

She growled at the end making everyone's nerve ends stand in attention as if electrified suddenly. Krishna Rao swallowed visibly but put in an admirable show of disinterest as he shrugged her away in his usual way before making his way out with his palpably nervous protegee at his heels. 

Pallavi sighed in fatigue and turned to the rest of the overtly petrified audience and frowned seeing their frozen states. 

"Farhad? Harish..? Kya hua.. tum log mujhe aise kyun dekh rahe ho kaise main abhi tumhe khaa jaoungi..?"

"Nhi.. woh.. bhabi..hum.. aap.. aap upar jaiye naa rest kijiye.. main Naidu ko bolke khaana bhej deta hun...I.."

"It's okay Farhad. I am not hungry. Please bring those papers you said need my signatures. I'll be in Raghav's study."

Pallavi Rao made her way up towards the study leaving Farhad and Harish staring at her back at the ground floor. Harish sighed and looked at his friend and boss. 

"Farhad bhai... ye... Pallavi madam.. I mean. What is happening to her? She is behaving exactly like Anna, as days are passing. I am scared now.. what will.. what will happen if Anna never recovers?"

"Hush! Harish! Do not even entertain that possibility. All the changes you are seeing in bhabi, are just temporary. She is visibly and intentionally strengthening herself up, using harsher techniques and colder methods akin to Anna.. so that she could remain standing cause if she breaks down right now... I doubt she'll ever be able to stand up again."

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Pallavi hated how her eyes betrayed her letting the tears flow down her cheeks as she stabbed mercilessly at the poor chocolate fudge pastry kept in front of her.  This was embarrassing. She was angry, mad, furious... she wanted to shout and scream and rage, tear his hair off. But here she was seated in a Café' trying to murder a confectionary, crying her eyes out as her husband looked on helplessly. In fact had the circumstances been different she would have been amused at the look of desperation on Raghav Rao's usually perpetually angry face. 

It was strange how he portrayed all his emotions emoting only one of the lot --- anger. If he was sad, he was angry. If he was confused, he was angry. If he was in pain, he was angry. If he was happy due to some god forsaken reason, still he was angry. She had once reasoned all the anger hidden inside him could power all the industries of Hyderabad alone. His blood might have blackened by now. It was stranger that she has started behaving like him. Getting angry in her grief. 

But for some reason he looked extremely distressed. Maybe it was due to the fact that she had called him up in the middle of a very important board meeting to scream at him nonstop for fifteen minutes and then promptly burst into tears. He had sounded angry first (no sweat, that's how he sounds ninety percent of the time) but then frantic as she started heaving with restrained sobs. So as a result, he had landed there within ten or so minutes, God only knows breaking how many traffic rules and had whisked her away in this Café. 

They had been sitting here for ten minutes glaring at the pathetic pastry the waiter had fearfully delivered at the table, as if blaming the desert for all their troubles. Then she had again started crying making Raghav launch from his seat opposite her to drag it beside her. 

"Arre Saree ka Dukaan.. tumhara Ganga Jamuna Godavari phir chalu ho gaya.. mereko bataega bhi hua kya hain? See, I ran from a very important meeting only because.."

"Why?"

"Huh..?"

"Why did you run from your very very important meeting because I called..? You could have ignored me.. like you always do.."

Raghav looked at her perplexed suddenly and she felt like banging his head on the table. Pretending as if he genuinely doesn't understand! The nerve of the man!

"Pallavi what is wrong. Tell me.."

"What will I tell? Ask your girlfriend. "

"What!!!?"

"Wahi! Jiska naam 'Sweetheart' karke saved hain tumhaare phone mein.."

"Huh? Tumne mera phone kab dekha..?"

Pallavi looked away suddenly guiltily as he frowned. Raghav pulled her face back to face him gently with a finger on beneath her chin. She would deny it till she is blue in the face but his touch ignited something lying dormant in the pit of her belly suddenly. 

"Saree ka Dukaan... tum mera phone mein taakaa jhaaki kar raha tha... haan?"

His face looked serious but his eyes were soft and full of mirth. The look only reserved for her, as she had noticed. Even his voice sounded playful. Pallavi understood he was amused. That just made her madder. She snatched her face back angrily and glared at him through her dewy lashes. She would never understand how her anger ignites a wildfire in his soul. 

"I did not peep. I just happened to see your phone's screen while it rang this morning when you went for your shower. It flashed 'Sweetheart'."

Raghav looked like he was desperately trying to hold back his laughter at her petulant cild like tone. That was a sight in itself. She looked away crossing her hands across her chest. He grinned widely and took out his handkerchief and wiped away her remaining tears gently as she tried not to focus on how his fingers felt on her cheeks. 

"Tum pagal hain Saree ka Dukaan... Iss wajah se subhah se muh fulaake beitha tha? arre puch leta phir naa.. tab nhi pucha toh abhi.."

"Woh... Krishna bol rahi thi..."

"What..?"

"She was just telling... that you..."

"That I..?"

"You are good looking."

"Am I not?"

She looked at him critically and he raised an eyebrow waiting for the inevitable sarcasm coated reply. He knew his Saree Ka Dukaan like the back of his hand. 

"Yes. Tum kuch zyadaa hi good looking ho.."

She finished dejectedly shocking him with her uncharacteristic response. He blinked at her for a few seconds trying to regain back his form coming out of the shock while she seemed to be staring into his soul through those gorgeous grey brown eyes of hers.

"Are you quite alright Pallavi?"

"Yes... why?"

"Because you just admitted I am good looking."

"I never said you weren't."

"Okay..... so.... you are mad at me because I am good looking?"

"Yes."

"Huh..?"

"Yes! You are handsome and all the girls fall over you like you are some public property and I have to tolerate that day in and day out. And they speak about me like I am some ugly duckling getting the biggest pie in the pond and... you have someone saved as 'Sweetheart' on your mobile and..."

He chuckled stopping her furious tirade midway. She looked away embarrassed at her outburst. What the hell was she speaking? Raghav smiled and turned her face back again forcefully and caught her hands instead startling her. He seemed to be deep in thought as he ran his calloused thumb over her soft hands unaware of the havoc a simple action like that was making in his wife's chest. 

"Number one, I am not handsome. I just look like that. All those girls falling over my looks have never made me feel remotely handsome. Neither their hands, nor their words. I have always felt inadequate. The only time I feel beautiful is when I look at myself in your eyes. You, Pallavi are the reflection of any beauty I might posses in myself and my world."

Pallavi looked flabbergasted at his confession. He said all that so normally. Not as if he is revealing some mysterious truth of his life but as if it was a universally acknowledged fact. A normal daily life fact. As if he had felt that since forever. He was still looking at her hands, the motion of his fingers not stopping. 

"Number two, do you know the story of the ugly duckling? The other birds in the pond were all ducks and that little one was completely different from them. She was a swan among the ducks. They can never understand her beauty. Only a passer-by would notice the marked difference. You, my Saree Ka Dukaan are a swan surrounded by ducks. They can never see how beautiful you are. It is beyond them. You know a strange fact about the lotus flower? It always blooms in the muck yet not a single drop of it ever stains its petals. You are like the lotus. Never let the muck around you splash itself on you. Artham Aiyndaa Pallavi Deshmukh?"

"Rao."

"Huh.."

He looked up for the first time since his discourse and saw tears streaming down her face yet again but this time out of love. It shone candidly from her eyes, sparkled on her face and radiated from her body. She was pulsating with love. She looked into his eyes.

"Pallavi Rao not Deshmukh. Looks like you have forgotten that I belong to you now.."

"No."

She was startled at his soft admission. For a second he looked pained for some reason. It was a blink it and you miss it flash but it was there, on his face, in his eyes but ran away before she could gauge it completely. 

"You belong to no one Pallavi. Not the Sawants, nor the Deshmukhs and specifically not to me either. The only person you belong to, is yourself. The only person you are accountable to, you are responsible for, you have a duty towards is you. You have given me the privilege to hold a part of you, God knows why, but you did. And I will forever be grateful to our Creator for making you and thrusting you in my life."

He was stroking her face, her hair, while his words wove gentle knots in her heart. It has been three months of  what started as a forced marriage and changed into something very genuine. And neither him nor her had any idea when the equation changed. They just fell in love slowly, organically.. just like that. Doing the mundane little things in life. 

Her waiting up for him for supper. Him, watching an unbearably OTT Bollywood film with her. Her staying awake all night to put cold compresses on his forehead and chest as he burned with fever. Him pressing her feet every evening to relive her stress of running around the shop. Her hosting parties for his business allies. Him, accompanying her to saree shops and weavers all along narrow lanes and alleyways of the city. Them waking up in each other's arms despite putting a customary pillow wall between them. 

Yet neither had said the words. They never actually had to confess their love for each other. How could three words ever hold the ocean of adoration and devotion they felt for the other person? Telling that outright would be insulting. So they never did. But if Pallavi had had any doubts left in her subconsciousness of whether Raghav loves her or even if she loves him, today all of that flew right out of the window. She thought she might explode from all the affection she was feeling for the man sitting in front of her, his eyes and fingers touching her softly like the tips of dandelions. 

"Agreed. I belong to myself and I have taken the executive decision of letting you hold all of me Mr. Rao. Everything I posses, I have given you a right over. My body, my mind, my heart and my soul."

He smiled and brought their clasped hands to his lips. Her heart skipped a beat as his lips touched her hands. 

"Haan.. but you only belong to me, artham aiyndaa mere Ghamandi Rao!"

She ordered haughtily making him break out in a rare and beatific bout of chuckles. She loved seeing him laugh so freely, as if for those mere seconds no pain, no ache and no burden of past memories could touch him. His entire visage lit up and she revelled in it. 

"Artham aiyndi mera Saree Ka dukaan! Main sirf tumhara hi hain.. aur merepe saara haq sirf tum jataa sakta hain.. khush?"

"Very!"

"Good. Chalo, finish your neglected and possibly murdered cake... baapre Pallavi, did you stop to think how badly you disfigured the poor thing? Jalkukdi.."

Pallavi pouted first and then glared at him snapping her neck back.

"What jalkukdi!  I am no jalkukdi..."

"Haan haan... bekaar mein hi kuch bhi sochke sabka hawa tight karne mein laga tha pareshaan hoke aaj.. bechara Saree ka assistant. Woh zinda hain naa?"

"Raghavvvvv..."

"What?"

They smiled and finished the slaughtered cake happily and then walked out of the Café. Pallavi had her hand entangled in his, head on his shoulder as she tucked herself comfortably in his side. Raghav placed a kiss on the top of her head which had her sighing as they walked towards his car enjoying the cool evening breeze. 

Suddenly Pallavi remembered something.

"Raghav..you didn't tell me who is that contact whose name you saved as 'Sweetheart'?"

"You know the person."

"I do?"

"Yes. Guess."

"Keerti?"

"Nope."

"Amma!"

"Na.. one choice left.. lock karein?"

"Tum KBC dekhte ho?"

"Amitabh Bachchan ka voice modulation aacha hain.."

"Uff! Achhha.. kaun ho sakta hain...ummm... dht! I don't know tum hi bata do.."

"Farhad."

"Hain kaun?"

"Farhad."

"Raghav"

"Yes?"

"Farhad ka naam sweetheart karke kyun saved hain?"

Raghav turned to look at her while opening the car door and answered very seriously with a deadpan face. 

"Because he is the love of my life and I can't live without him. My entire life will become a massive apoplectic mess without Farhad."

Pallavi missed the slight smile on her husband's face as the last rays of the sun fell on them as she was left in splits because of the breathless laughter as they drove off literally into the sunset. 

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Pallavi woke up disoriented and with a start. She looked around her surroundings dishevelled and still in the hold of her dream. It was a past memory which had decided to visit her dreams tonight. Every day she lived a memory through her mind's eye trying to escape the bitter harsh reality surrounding her. She sighed and fell back on the pillows. She was feeling incredibly tired. Just as her eyes had doused her back in her dreamland when a series of beeping noises caused her another rude awakening. She looked aside in panic and saw Raghav who had been lying like a statue these three months suddenly start twitching.

She didn't know whether she should scream in delight or cry in relief or do both. She almost fell off the bed and scrambled towards his side and kneeled in front of him. Tears threatened to fall off her eyes as she threaded her fingers through his freshly washed hair. 

"Sweetheart... can you hear me? Raghav..? Meri awaz sun paa rahe ho..? Raghav..."

She rang the intercom but no one picked it up much to her irritation. She heard a whimper and fell beside him again. She saw him frowning and trying to breathe desperately. The machines were making scary noises and Pallavi thought her heart might explode in fear, excitement and relief. 

"Come back Ghamandi Rao! Come to me please... tumhaari Saree ka Dukaan bht akeli pad gayi hain tumhaare bina Rao... please come back."

She saw his eyes rolling under his eyelids and pressed his hand to her mouth trying desperately to speak through the lump forming in her throat. 

Suddenly a loud sound broke her reverie. She snapped her head around to locate it's source and her heart almost leapt to her throat seeing a shadow fall on the opposite wall. The light coming from the single bed lamp lighting at her side of the room cast an eerie pattern all around and she felt the machines start to lower. Raghav was stilling again and she wanted to scream in frustration yet she couldn't speak as a sudden fear spiked through her spine.

There was someone else in the room except them. She could sense him. 

"K..K..Kaun Kaun hain.. wahaan.. Farhad.. Harish..."

The shadow was approaching nearer and nearer and she felt her limbs start to tremble. The entire mansion was cast in darkness and she was damn sure Harish and Farhad had long left its premises. Then.. who was the man in the room?

The man came closer and she saw his face in the dim lights of the room and finally the lump in her throat gave way for her to let out an ear splitting piercing scream. 

TO BE CONTINUED.....