The whole Rane mansion was decorated like a newly wed bride. The happiness and joy of the festival of lights was contagious, and it spread around the house as Diyas, fairy lights, candles and so much more but there was one person in the house whose smiles were fake, her happiness was made up and even the glow of Diwali couldn't mask the sadness and exhaustion on her face. It was her second Diwali in the house, she had been the daughter in law of the house for more than two year and everything was still the same. Her husband didn't even bother to look at her now, unlike initial days when he would at least annoy her. He would just look at her with a strange look in his eyes which now she was sure was hatred. If she even dared to ask him anything he would blow a fuse and create a scene in front of everyone. "Taayi , I am hungry, can I take a Laddoo from there", Aruhi seven years old daughter of Pallavi said to her. She was her only reason to live these days. She was the only one in the house who didn't pity or hate or mock her, she just loved her for who she was and that somehow gave her strength but soon she would be deprived of this as well. His daadi (Aao Saheb), had decided that Pallavi and her family need to move to the USA with Aruhi. She made all sorts of excuses like they need a better standard of living, that schools here weren't good enough, even that Malhar's hate wouldn't let him have a normal life, but she knew why she was doing it. She had heard her telling Aao Saheb on the phone that she didn't want her Grandchildren anywhere near a "Baanjh". She wasn't shocked really. She knew. She has often said that to her face when no one was around. Even though this hurts her but she would never say anything to her. What could she even say? That she wasn't infertile? That her husband of more than 2 years won't even touch her? That she was a 23 year old married virgin? No,that'll just make things harder for her. So she kept mum. Like she had been for all these years, like she had kept mum when Malhar had told her that Sampada ran with Atharva because of her help, like when he told her that he wants revenge that's why he married her and she will have to stay in the house until he take revenge , when he would come home drunk and then throw her out of the room saying she didn't deserve to be there, she just kept mum, all these years of silence was finally getting onto her, she had started to look and feel exhausted all the damn time. She had given up on her life and now all she did was fulfil her responsibilities of being the daughter in law of the house. She had stayed in the house despite everything, the taunts, the hates all for her love for but now it all seemed pointless. Then, she thought that her love will be enough for both of them but now she realised that it is not and it never will be, she could feel her heart bleeding every second of every day and there was not a thing she could do to fix it. She was so helpless and vulnerable.
Swara came down to see Kalyani talking to the Aruhi, she was just about to give her a Laddoo when her grandmother, came and took her away saying too much sweet isn't good for her. Of all the people in the house Swara (elder sister of Malhar) was the only one who truly understood what she was going through and she felt guilty of destroying an angel's life. Only if she had known earlier,she never would have allowed for the alliance. She could not believe that her own brother had teared her apart. Malhar didn't know that she knew the truth about their relationship and that hurt her all the more. Her Malhar was lying to her for the past two years and there was not a damn thing he could do about it other than lending Pragya a shoulder to cry on. There were days when she would come to her room, put her head in her lap and cry for hours and she would just pat her head until she fell asleep. The sheer helplessness that she felt on such days was eating her from inside. She wanted to talk to Malhar, reprimand him but Kalyani had made her swear on her not to ever tell Malhar anything. She would just stand there and look at her getting more and more vulnerable day by day. Kalyani just wouldn't leave, no matter how much she forced her to, she'd say that she had nowhere to go, that she wanted to be able to cry her heart out and the only place she could do that was her lap, no other place was left for her. Nobody would want her now except for her and that she didn't want to burden anyone now. She just sighed looking at her saddened state and left.Kalyani saw Malhar come into the house with gifts for everyone and just looked away. For some reason she couldn't ever bear to look at him today, she felt too raw, as if all wounds, old and new had opened up and she didn't know if she'd be able to take another one so she had been avoiding him all week long. She'd even moved out of his room last week so she could have some peace. She was tired and any more cruel or even stares would break her and she just might fall to his feet beg him to give her whatever leftovers of his love for Sampada and she would live a lifetime in that. Malhar looked at her turning away from him and felt another part of his existence turn dark. He just couldn't bear anymore of her pain now. He knew marriage to him had only brought her pain and agony but he wanted to give her all the happiness in the world now. He had avoided her for so long thinking that she might leave, that she will go back to her family and lead a life free of the pain but she didn't. Initially, after he found out that Kalyani hadn't helped Sampada to ran away. He was ashamed of himself. Here she was, fulfilling her responsibilities of being his wife like she was made for it and he was talking Revenge from her. He married her to destroy her life? What was wrong with him? He'd decided that he would divorce her. She didn't deserve this. But when he found out that Swara could be in koma if Kalyani left her so he decided that he would ask Kalyani to stay. He knew it was selfish but he couldn't let her go then. He needed some moral support so he decided he will ask her to stay until he decides what happens next but gradually he became used to having her around so he never told her what he felt for her. But then things started getting out of hand. People were continuously questioning him and Kalyani regarding kids and he flipped. He'd just lost one baby and having another one now would be out of question. So he did what he thought was best, hide. He stopped going to family gatherings or functions. He worked day and night and before he knew it, they were already married for 2 years. He started wondering what was going on. He saw that Kalyani had also stopped going out. She wasn't even meeting her mother. She just stayed in the room and look out the window for hours. He was getting scared for her. She had this glassy look in her eyes like she was dead inside and that was when he started noticing that she looked like hell. He decided that he needed to make her come out of it so he started bickering with her but it didn't have the effect he wanted. He was the only one fighting. She would just cover away and this wasn't right. Then he thought maybe he should take things up a notch and he started to yell and scream in order to get a reaction out of her. But the result was the same. This continued for a few days until she completely moved out. He panicked. He knew that the step he took was wrong.he just had to talk to her and things would've been sorted. Why did he have to be so stupid? Things were starting to get out of hand now. He had to come clean. It was now or never for him. He had seen Aao Saheb take Aruhi away from Kalyani and felt a pinch. During the one week she had stayed away from him he had talked to Sarthak, and Anupriya and actually got to know what was going on. He had no idea that his irresponsible and selfish behaviour had caused her so much pain. He'd seen her with the kids in the house, she was a natural with them, and kids take a liking to her immediately and she was being kept away from them because he refused to touch her? How was he supposed to fix that? He went outside to bring gifts for everyone. He bought a beautiful red saree and a lot of jewellery for Kalyani. He knew Kalyani wasn't into these things but he had to start somewhere. He looked up to her again and saw her go upstairs. He face fell, she wasn't gonna forgive him easily, he knew that but what he didn't know was that she wasn't even going to let him ask for forgiveness.
