His mother’s clear annoyance at her response confirmed Aditi’s suspicion. It didn’t take much for her to understand that Leela was deriving some sort of sick pleasure from hurting her. Which was why, despite the absolute misery of seeing Rian with a woman she would never measure against, she was not foolish enough to believe this terrible woman. She may only have known Rian for a few months, but she knew him well. He was not a liar. He was not a dishonest man. She would bet her life on it.
“You must be an idiot,” Leela snidely remarked. “Or desperate. Do you really think he’d pick you when he could have someone like her?”
Done with being demeaned, Aditi wiped all traces of emotion from her face. She squared her shoulders and looked the older lady straight in the eye. “Whether or not you like it,” she bit out, the chill in her tone matched only by the expression she maintained, “hehaspicked me.”
“For how long?”
“Forever. And now, you need to leave.”
Leela’s face turned purple. “How dare you say that to me? This is my son’s house!"
“Then come back when your son is in residence,” Aditi shot back, thoroughly fed up. “Right now, you’re annoying me and I have no wish to put up with your presence.”
“How disrespectful!” Leela screeched, her claws gripping her leather bag like she was about to throw it at Aditi.
She pinned Mrs. Shetty with a warning look, knowing that she was prone to physical violence.
“You have done nothing to earn my respect.”
“This attitude doesn’t befit you,” Leela spat, her face contorting in fury. “You are pretending to be a good, well-cultured girl, aren’t you? Do you think I don’t know what happens with a young man and woman in the same house? Spreading your legs to entrap a rich boy is an old trick. What next? An unplanned pregnancy?”
“Mind your tongue!”
“That hickey on your neck tells me I am right.”
“What I do with my private life is none of your concern,” Aditi calmly replied, refusing to be shamed by a woman she didn’t know.
“You’re sleeping with my son to trap him!” Leela agitatedly shouted.
“Leave before I call security.”
“Class always shows,” she hissed. “Rian will realise he’s making a mistake with you. Once the novelty in the bedroom wears off, you will be discarded just like his other girlfriends.”
Before Aditi could respond, a familiar voice cut in, shocking both ladies into turning around.
“Years have gone by, Leela,” Chitra began, dropping her bag on the ground next to her as she walked toward them both. “But your tongue remains as venomous as the most destructive poison. You drove my son away from me, and now you try to drive Aditi away from Rian.”
She reached out for Aditi’s hand, patting it reassuringly.
Leela turned to Chitra, her anger now finding a new target.
“Ishould have known you would be here too. Have you no shame, living off the money my son makes?”
“Have you no shame, calling him your son when you have not been a mother at all?”
“You have always driven a wedge between us!” Leela cried. “That’s why he doesn’t listen to me.”
Aditi glanced towards Nanamma, wondering if such an accusation hurt her. To her surprise, Chitra seemed borderline bored. As if she’d witnessed this drama in the past and had judged it subpar.
“Rian is an adult,” Nanamma snapped. “If he listens to me, it is because he wants to. Not because I forced him.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care if you do. You have always seen problems and conspiracies where there have been none. You are a sad and dissatisfied person, Leela. Your soul is rotten,” Chitra declared, making no attempt to hide her distaste for her daughter-in-law. “You think everyone is like you. When you are not happy, you make sure no one else is. But my Rian? He is happy with this girl here. I will not let you take that from him.”
“Hah, the threats of an old, powerless woman are meant to scare me?”
“No,” Aditi cut in, her patience at an end. “But the right hook of an angry doctor who knows which bone to break should terrify you. Now leave!”