Chapter 31

2 years ago

varshaoforange

@varshaoforange

—Friday, February 4, 2022, 9:30AM—

Dev closed the office door behind him. He’d wanted to tell Imlie that Aryan wasn’t a bad guy. That she shouldn’t give up on him because of this. Dev didn’t know the whole story, only bits and pieces that Aryan had let slip, but he knew that Imlie used to be married to Mr. Tripathi, and he didn’t know if that meant that Aryan was about to lose a friend over this. He’d already lost so much.

The office was silent, except for the hum of Aryan’s computer and the general chatter of people working outside the office that filtered in. Imlie didn’t know what to say, what to do, where to start. She wasn’t looking at Aryan. She found a spot on the floor, and stared at it intently, as if it would give her the answers she was looking for, as if it could tell her what to do.

Aryan’s head was trying to think about two things at the same time. Images of Arvind dying flashed along side every moment he’d spent with Imlie the past few weeks. But every thought ended with Aryan thinking about Imlie’s expression when Dev had revealed why he’d come to Bhaskar Times. He finally braved another look at Imlie, hoping that he’d figure out what to say.

“Imlie—“ Aryan started, but he didn’t know what to say next.

Imlie looked at him, her tear stricken face still in what looked like a combination of shock and grief.

“Don’t. I don’t want an explanation. I don’t want excuses. Just…don’t.”

Imlie turned to the door and moved to leave.

“So, what? You’re just going to leave. You don’t want to talk this through?” Aryan asked, his voice hopeful but smaller than he’d ever heard it before.

Imlie spun around, “Talk?! Talk this through?! Aryan Singh Rathore. The Great Aryan Singh Rathore, runner of ten businesses, the only man in the world who gives out words as debt…wants to talk…to me? What exactly brought this on? For every day that I’ve known you, actually almost every minute, you’ve never wanted to talk to me. So why now?”

Aryan took a step towards her, “Listen to me, I didn’t force Aditya to do anything—“

Imlie stepped back and put her hand up as soon as Aryan had tried to come close to her, “I said I don’t want your justification. And I don’t want your false accusations about my priorities or my beliefs right now either. If you’re not going to fix this. I will.”

Aryan didn’t let her step back any further, he grabbed her arms again and pulled her close to his face. She averted his eyes.

“Let go of me, Aryan. I said I don’t want to hear it.” Imlie gritted through her teeth, fighting his grip.

“No. Listen to me. What are you going to do? You can’t fix this. This isn’t even something you have to fix.” Aryan said. At this moment he would have pleaded with her not to try to undo what he had done. Not because he thought she would succeed, no matter how resourceful he knew Imlie could be. But because, she would once again get sucked into the never dying black hole that was Aditya Kumar Tripathi. Once again, she would claim to be doing something for the Tripathis, like she did when she wanted Malini’s truth out, but Aditya would use it as yet another chance to get her back. And when she didn’t succeed in putting out the fire Aryan had helped light, she’d end up burning in it as well. He could picture her working three or four part time jobs, toiling away, completely destroying herself to help the Tripathis. And then, she’d fall for Aditya’s lies, again.

Imlie glared up at him, “If I decide to do something, it gets done. I don’t need to justify myself to you. You didn’t.”

Aryan glared back, his anger bubbling to the surface again upon seeing Imlie’s stubbornness, “What is this sick hold he has on you? What does Aditya Kumar Tripathi have that you just can’t live without—“

Imlie shot back, “I’ve told you. So many. Goddamn times. This isn’t about Aditya. This will destroy the whole—“

“Bullshit!” Aryan yelled, “Bullshit. What right do they have to call themselves your family? What exactly have they done for you that you’re going to destroy yourself, your future, your everything, for them?”

Imlie looked stricken, “How dare you? You have no right to tell me who I can and can’t see as family. You have no right to judge any one of them. You’re not some white knight, you’re not in the right here—“

Aryan interrupted her, “I don’t give a damn if I’m right or wrong. I wanted justice. I got justice. Have you ever seen someone burn alive? Have you seen your sister so traumatized that she refused to eat. For days, after Arvind died, she wouldn’t eat. Not until she fainted and the doctors had to insert a feeding tube. Have you seen your mother cry so much she had trouble sleeping, trouble breathing? Arvind didn’t just die in front of me and Didi, Imlie. He was burned alive. He was murdered. Do you understand?!”

Aryan’s voice broke, tears falling freely now. His grip on her loosened, and Imlie broke free. She looked at his face, and wiped his tears.

She pleaded for him to see reason, “Aryan, this doesn’t fix that. This isn’t justice. This won’t bring you peace. Arvind didn’t die because of Aditya. Please, don’t do this. You told me once, that,” Imlie put on a deep voice, “Aryan Singh Rathore nainsaaphee bardasht nahin karta. This isn’t insaph, Aryan.” (Aryan Singh Rathore doesn’t tolerate injustice. Insaph = justice).

Aryan’s eyes met hers, he wavered. Before him was this woman, this aggravating woman. Who, on a good day, divided her time between singing made up songs, dancing, cooking food, and eating that same food as if no one had ever fed her before. And instead of doing a hundred other things she could have done in this situation, destroy his office, scream at him, threaten him. She was standing in front of him and begging. Begging not just to undo what he’d done to help who he considered an enemy, but because she thought it wasn’t right for him. He couldn’t see it, he didn’t deserve her concern, nor did he want it, and he definitely couldn’t see her beg.

“No—“ Aryan began, wanting to tell her never to beg, for anything.

Then someone started clapping. Both Aryan and Imlie looked to the source of the sound. Aditya was standing in the doorway.

“Wow. How many times am I going to have the pleasure of catching you two in the office like this.” Aditya sneered.

Imlie stepped back from Aryan. Aryan saw anger in her face again, but it was mixed with guilt. He turned to Aditya.

“What do you want, Aditya?” Aryan said. He was exhausted, and he didn’t want another session of this man’s nonsense to hurt Imlie even more.

“I just came to drop off this.” Aditya walked to Aryan’s desk and placed an envelope on it.

“What is it?” Imlie asked, the worry evident in her voice.

“Nothing too important, just my resignation. I was initially just going to resign because I didn’t want the dishonor of being fired. But now, after hearing your conversation, I definitely can’t keep working here, can I?” Aditya glared at Aryan, turning to face him.

“Aditya, don’t do this, this isn’t—“ Imlie started.

Aditya interrupted her, “I don’t need your advice, Imlie. But I’ll give you some advice before I leave,” he raised his hand and pointed at Aryan, looking at Imlie, “this man is a sociopath. He has made up some insane story that I am responsible for his brother-in-law’s death, and on top of that he’s decided he has the right to ruin anyone’s life to get his revenge.”

Imlie walked in between them, she saw Aryan’s eyes blaze again, and his fists were clenched. She gently pushed Aryan back, expecting more resistance, but he didn’t fight it.

Aditya laughed, clapping his hands over his mouth in mock shock, “Wow, Jodi ho to aisi ho. First, your boyfriend commits fraud to try to ruin me, and now you stand here, preventing him from using his fists. Don’t you see. He’s been using you from the beginning. He hasn’t done anything for you out of some friendship or because he loves you, Imlie. This is all part of his master supervillain plan to carry out his misguided revenge. He purposefully did everything for you that would make me jealous, make me misunderstand. This was all his plan!”

Imlie turned around, one hand still lightly on Aryan’s chest, “Shut up. Shut up, Aditya Kumar Tripathi. All you do nowadays is misunderstand. First you misunderstood me when I begged you to see Malini’s real character. Then you misunderstood me when I started working here. Then you misunderstood my friendship. And now you’ve even begun misunderstanding in your job.”

Aditya took a step forward, “Excuse me.” His voice was dead quiet not, furious.

Aryan wanted to punch the man right now, but Imlie’s hand, it steadied him. A silent plea to stand still. He looked at her, from his view of her face he could tell she was more furious than she’d ever been. More angry than she’d been a few minutes ago when they were alone.

“Yes, Aryan is wrong. He is wrong to think revenge against you will achieve anything, except destroying my family. He is wrong to think it will make him happy. He is wrong to think that it will make his family happy. But you’re not in the right, Aditya. You’re not a child. You’ve been reporting for ten years. You should have never made this mistake. You should never have been in such a rush to publish this. Also,” Imlie was in her stride now, “if you have ten years of experience writing about dangerous people in power, you should have realized what Khanna was right off the bat. So you should have thought about anything besides your own bruised ego when writing this article. You shouldn’t have been arrogant, like you were in front of Khanna outside earlier. Didn’t you think, for one second, before sending over the final version, that maybe you might have missed something? Maybe if you didn’t double check it, you were risking hundreds of peoples lives. I’m not a businessperson, but I know one thing after reading your article, there was no mention of the thousand or so people who work in that firm. There was no mention of the dangerous impact that Khanna could be having on thousands of different peoples’ financial futures with his actions. Didn’t you think, this man is so corrupt that he’s hiding thousands of his own company’s money, I have to make sure to get this perfect?”

Aditya tried to interrupt her, “I wouldn’t have made any mistakes if Aryan hadn’t instigated me into writing the story in the first place.”

Imlie smiled, “Wow. This is the imaandaar patrakar, Aditya Kumar Tripathi. Shoving his responsibility onto someone else. No, Aryan shouldn’t have instigated you. No he shouldn’t be denying to help you in this lawsuit. But you…you should have thought twice. Or even once, before finishing this so fast.”

Aditya twisted his mouth in anger and glared at Aryan, “What did you do to her? What did you do to her that she is so blind?”

Imlie shot back, “I’m standing right here, and I can see just fine. Talk to me if you want to say something about me.”

Aditya looked at her, “Imlie,” he tried to keep his voice calm, “he is playing you. He is not your friend here. Everything he’s done—all you are is a pawn to him!”

Imlie finally took her hand off Aryan’s chest and turned completely to face Aditya head on, “Today is the day. I thought it would have been the day you accused me of shooting Malini. But no, today is the day that I realized you never understood me at all. I am no one’s pawn. Not now, not ever.”

Aditya stepped back, “I can’t believe this.”

Imlie stepped towards the desk and picked up the resignation letter. She tore it in two and threw it in the trashcan, “You’re not resigning. I’ll find a lawyer, and we’ll fix this. But you can’t resign right now. Not when Badke Kaka and Papa have so much debt to deal with—“

“They are not your family, Imlie!” Aditya shouted, “And don’t you dare try to show your face at my house or in front of my family again. Not after this.”

Aryan stepped forward, his fury reaching his breaking point, “Aditya!—“

But Imlie stopped him, and shook her head, she looked at Aditya, “You, in fact no one, gets to decide who my family is.”

Aditya stormed out of the office.

Aryan looked at Imlie after Aditya left, “Thank—“

Imlie interrupted him, “Don’t thank me. Everything I said was true. You are wrong, this is wrong. And if you don’t help me fix it, I won’t forgive you.”

She glared at him, she knew Aryan was in a lot of pain right now, but that didn’t excuse his actions. Especially when the impact of those actions would not just be on her family, but on Radhika, someone completely innocent here, and Aryan himself. He had to stop this for his own good.

The image of Imlie breaking herself in service of the Tripathis flashed across Aryan’s mind again. Then the memory that never left his thoughts, Arvind burning in that car.

“No.” Aryan said.

“No?” Imlie asked, “Do you not see how wrong this is?”

Aryan looked at her, “I already told you, I don’t care if I’m right. And if all you’re worried about, really, is the Tripathis, I’ll help them after this. But Aditya Kumar Tripathi deserves this. In fact, he did this to himself.”

Imlie felt like she could cry again. In front of her, stood the most stubborn man she’d ever met in her life. But behind that stubbornness, that anger, was just fear, pain, and sadness. It broke her heart to think that she would have to break what he’d done, it would hurt him. But not stopping this, Imlie knew it would hurt Aryan more.

Imlie sighed, “Tell me, did you plan this all by yourself or did you tell Didi all about it? Did she help you? How about Kaki Maa?”

Aryan felt as if Imlie had slapped him, “What—no, why would—“

Imlie nodded, “Right. You didn’t tell them. Obviously not. Because they would have stopped you. They would have stopped you just like your friend Dev said he would have stopped you. You know you’re wrong, that’s why you didn’t tell anyone. In fact, that’s why you didn’t tell anyone about the pain you’re feeling either. Because if you’d have shared that pain with anyone, instead of forcing it to change into rage, instead of letting it eat you up from the inside, someone would have stopped you. You like to call me stubborn, right. Well, you’re worse—“

Aryan shot back, “So you know that if I decide something, it happens too. Don’t try to stop this, Imlie. Nothing is going to stop me, not even you. I didn’t tell anyone, because I don’t need my pain to make my loved ones weak. And I don’t want my pain to make outsiders think I’m weak. ”

Imlie laughed, running her fingers through her hair, “You know. You kept telling me. You kept saying it, ‘Hum dost nahin hain,’ but I’m the stupid idiot. I didn’t believe you. So I’m an outsider? Am I your enemy now too? I know. I can see your pain, but that doesn’t excuse any of this. And that doesn’t excuse you not telling me. I’ve shown you every little broken piece of my life. My whole existence is laid bare to you. But you don’t see me as an equal, so why would you do the same? I guess I have no right to tell you what to do.”

“So you believe Aditya after all? You think I used you? That I could—“

“No!” Imlie shouted, grabbing his collar, hoping beyond hope that he would see reason, see past his anger, “No. I know you didn’t use me. Because, you told me once. You said you’d never need anyone else as a pawn in your battles. And even if you did, you wouldn’t use me. But that’s not a compliment, Aryan, that’s not a compliment on your character. You didn’t use me because you didn’t think I mattered at all. And now, now you’re using me.”

“What?” Aryan’s head was spinning, everything was going wrong, and the one living person he thought he could save from Aditya Kumar Tripathi, he didn’t know if he could anymore.

She shoved a finger in his chest, pushing him backwards, “You.” She pushed him again, this time with both hands, “You are using my friendship. You’re using the understanding I have with you, the trust I have, my sympathy, my loyalty, my gratitude — you’re using all this to try to force me into not stopping you. You’re using your sister’s pain, your mother’s pain, to try to convince me this is right—“

“Don’t!” Aryan yelled, “Don’t you dare.”

Imlie smiled, “What? Don’t like your actions laid out before you? Do you think Didi and Kaki Maa are going to support you in this?”

“They won’t be able to stop me, Imlie, even if you tell them.” Aryan said, suddenly afraid of facing Maa now.

Imlie lifted her chin, in mock agreement, “Right. Of course. The Great Aryan Singh Rathore, he can do whatever he wants,” Imlie shook her head, “You’ve made two mistakes in this great plan of yours, Aryan. First, you underestimated me and the value my family has. Second, you’re underestimating your own family now. You’re the one that told me, don’t you remember?”

Aryan looked at her, confused.

“I’ll remind you,” Imlie said, smiling, “You said your loved ones, they’ve never hurt you, and they never will. So do you think they’ll let you destroy yourself like this?”

Imlie turned to leave, but added before she left, “I’m going to find a lawyer and fix this, but first, I’m telling Didi and Kaki Maa.”

Aryan walked to the door faster than her, his hand on the doorknob, and he looked at her, “I’m telling you one last time, don’t try to jump into this fire. I don’t care what you tell Didi or Maa, but don’t try to undo this. It won’t work.”

Imlie pulled his hand off the knob and opened the door, “I don’t care if I get burned, what you don’t realize is that I’m saving you from burning yourself.”

She opened the door and walked out, leaving Aryan standing there.