In a bid to save the man she loves, Amrit ends up making a deal with the uncompromising Kuwar Veer Pratap Singh. Bound by mutual weaknesses and wounds they hide from the world the two goes from unwilling pretenders to unlikely allies. Sometimes, it...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Summary: Truth at last. ◇◇◇
Shrigar 1923,
Mahendra meanwhile had a very productive morning with his estate agents and returned for a late breakfast inquiring gently if Rani Sahiba had send word requesting for food or not.
They were planning to go on a few weeks retreat - to either London, where he still had unsettled matters or Italy where Nalini currently had her heart set upon.
He was still in the pleasant haze of travel plans and general trivialities as he entered his study and paused.
Nalini sits behind his desk, upon which sits a bound volume he knows with a single glance came from king's annals. She looks up as he enters, flames in her eyes.
"Aaiye, Rana sahab," she says, rising slowly. Her voice is all wrong, void of its usual warmth - it makes his nerves crackle with uneasy energy.
"You said you would answer any question and I just had to ask. Let me ask you one question. How long have you loved me?"
"Yeh kaisa sawaal hai Nalini -"
"What am I to you? An obsession? A goal? Or a trophy against a stupid race with Chandra?"
"Nalini -"
"You send my father to war!"
Mahendra shuts the door behind him and bolts it. He raises a hand in front of him like one reaching out for an anger beast, seeking to coax it.
"And I have regretted it immensely. I was young Nalini - I knew no better."
"Not even when he kept writing to you to reconsider? Think of my mother - think of me?"
Mahendra sighs.
"Or were you thinking of me?"
Something about his face changes, yet Nalini continues.
"Chandra was right! Manorama was right! You are obsessed with me. Just like how Kaveri is obsessed with Chandra. You Pratap Singhs don't know how to love. You only know how to reduce someone into a state of having no choice but to -"
Bam!
Mahendra slams a hand on his table, the noise it makes brings Nalini's rattling accusations to a halt. Caged between him and the table she looks up at his furious expression.
"You came to me on your own Nalini," he says slowly, calmer than ever. "Kaise - kiss tarah, chahe toh hum yaad dila dein?"
She's disgusted by her own reaction to his touch. A gentle finger tip drawn down the side of her face makes her breath catch and her heart to race.
