He slammed his hands onto the table and lunged, his fingers like iron as they clamped around my jaw. He forced my face up, his grip bruising, his thumb digging hard into the sensitive skin of my throat. He didn't scream anymore. He didn't say a word. He just pinned me with a stare so glacial it froze the marrow in my bones.
The silence was deafening. In his eyes, I saw the ghost of the nine-year-old boy who never knew why his mother didn't want to touch him. He didn't let go, his gaze promising that if I breathed one more word of that ink-stained hatred, there would be nothing left of either of us.
But I was beyond fear. I was empty.
“Go on, Saurav …” I whispered, giving him a broken, tragic smile. “She hated you so much she took her own life because she couldn’t bear to see you in it anymore.”
I felt his grip slacken. A single, heavy tear escaped his eye and rolled down his cheek. My own heart, which I thought had turned to stone, fragmented into a million pieces. His breath came in ragged, wet hitches as he stared into my soul.
“See who’s cursed now?” I whispered, though the victory tasted like ash. “Your father spent his life begging for your love, Saurav. All you did was shout at him, demanding the truth. This is thetruth he was trying to save you from. This is the 'secret' he took to his grave.”
“Please… please stop…” he begged, his voice a hollow wreck. He let go of me, his hands falling limp at his sides.
The adrenaline began to drain away, leaving only a cold, sickening guilt. How could I do this to him? He collapsed, his knees hitting the hardwood with a dull thud. He grabbed his head, his fingers clawing at his hair as he struggled to breathe. “She couldn’t… she wouldn’t do this. She loved me. I loved her. She used to write me letters! Every month from the city!”
“Those were from your father,” I said, wiping the hot tears from my own cheeks. “He wrote them for you. He spent years faking her affection so you wouldn't have to feel the hole she left behind.”
Saurav looked up, his face a mask of total devastation. “Is there anything else? Any other truth you want to kill me with?”
I took a shaky breath, the final blow trembling on my lips. “She’s… she’s not in the city, Saurav. She never made it out. She’s buried in the backyard, under the rosebed. Your father couldn't even let her go when she was gone.”
He didn't wait for another word. He scrambled to his feet and broke into a blind run, crashing through the back door. I followed him, my legs feeling like lead.
I found him in the garden, collapsed over the blooming roses. He was digging into the dirt with his bare hands, sobbing, breaking completely apart into the soil.
I retreated, step by agonizing step, covering my face with my hand. I wondered if I could ever take it back. I had wanted him to feel my pain, but as I watched him shatter, I realized I hadn't made us equal. I had simply destroyed whatever was left of the man I once loved.
_______
Chapter 42
KAVYA
I had only one week left with Saurav, and I was determined to cherish every second of it. But since our confrontation a week ago, he had become a ghost in his own home. He remained indifferent, avoiding me at every turn. Most days, he stayed buried in his room or locked away in the study, drowning in the paperwork of his late father’s business.
Uncle Dhruv had managed things well enough, but the company still needed Saurav’s signature on a thousand different lines. Despite the stress, Saurav refused to sell. He planned to take the reins fully in five years, once he retired from the air force.
His coldness was killing me. I walked through the halls of the villa, desperate to hear his voice, to know he’d be okay once I was gone. I wanted to explain that I wasn't leaving out of anger. I was leaving because I could no longer endure the way he had treated me over the last three months. I remembered the one time he had tried to ask about my life. I wanted to tell him everything, but I had chosen to hurt him instead. Now, I lived with the guilt of knowing I had ripped his soul out when I told him the truth.
As I walked down the hallway toward his study, his voice drifted through the door, sharp and clear.
"Yeah, I miss that too," he said. "I’ll be back next week. I can’t wait to sell this shitty villa. It gives me the creeps. It just reminds me of everything I want to forget, Yashvi."
A sharp pang struck my chest.Yashvi.I recognized the name instantly. Tanya had sent me photos of Saurav with a woman and that woman was her. I read her name tag on her uniform, the same woman who had interrupted my video calls with Saurav, the one who looked so comfortable standing beside my husband in every picture.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and knocked. Saurav turned, his expression flattening the moment he saw me. "Okay, I’ll call you later," he muttered into the phone.
"Coffee?" I offered, my voice small.
He gave a curt nod. No words. No smile. Nothing.
I turned to leave but stopped at the doorway, the question burning a hole in my tongue. "Who’s Yashvi, by the way?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Were you eavesdropping?"
"No," I lied poorly. "I just heard the name."
"She’s my batchmate," he replied, turning back to his desk.