Pallavi left the Cafe with Raghav following her. Pallavi was walking really fast and it was difficult to match her speed. He finally caught hold of her. She was crying. He knew that he was responsible for her condition and he did feel guilty but clearing things were more important to him at that moment.
He held her hand and took her to his car as there were standing in the middle of a busy road. Upon reaching his car, he asked her to sit and drove to his mansion. The entire ride was silent until Raghav spoke ,
"Saree Ka Dukaan, I don't want to live in this bubble of misunderstandings and that's the reason I called you to meet me. A lot has happened because of which we hate each other. This needs to be cleared and it requires us to speak and it will take time. So, please inform your family that you will be late otherwise they will worry for you. "
"Okay."
Pallavi called her Baba.
"Hello Baba, Mala yayla ushir hoil."(I will be late home.) Pallavi told her father.
"Barr.. kay zala aaj yayla ushir ka? DSE madhe sagla theek aahe na? Tula kahi zala nahi na?" (Why would you be late today? Is everything okay in DSE? Is everything okay with you?)Her Baba asked concerned.
"Ho sagla theek aahe. Aaj me ani Krishna baher jaycha vichar kartoy mhanun yayla ushir hoil. Jevaycha me karun gelele aahe sakali te fridge madhun ghya ani aai nahiye mhanun jast goad khau naka."( Everything is okay. Me and Krishna are planning to go out and so I will get late. I have prepared food in the morning and kept it in the fridge. Don't eat lot of sweets because Aai is not there. ) Pallavi instructed her Baba as she knew that he will eat sweets if aai is not there to control him.
"Ho ga maze bai." Baba replied laughing.
"Okay Bye."
Raghav was listening to all this and was secretly admiring the bond she shared with her Baba. He wished he also had a person like her in his life who would care for him. Little did he know that soon she was going to be that person in his life.
They reached RR Mansion. He led her towards his den and instructed all the househelps to not disturb them.
"If you are done instructing everyone would you start speaking. "She said as she also wanted to know what had happened all these days.
"Yes." He took a deep breath and started.
"I had gone to my amma's house to invite her for an award function and she had agreed to come with me for the first time. I was very happy to take her with me. I could also see in her eyes that she was proud of me. And at that exact moment the media barged into her house and asked her the most inappropriate questions. You tell me which mother would liked to be asked about her son's playboy image? She could not handle the pressure and had a heart attack. It was first time in years that I saw my mother being genuinely happy because of me and it was destroyed within seconds because of this news. She had to go through a lot of pain because of me in the past and now it had affected her health too. If she had not received blood on time she would have died. "He had tears in his eyes while talking about that day.
She kept a hand on his shoulder and said soothing words to him.
"She is okay now Raghav, right ? That's what matters." She did not know what else to say. She gave him a glass of water and started patting his back to calm him down.
Once, he was calm he continued, "I was shattered. The last thing that I remembered about that night was me feeling dizzy and after that everything went blank. I don't know when that Anjali came and captured me and her in that position. It was impossible for her to do it all alone. Somebody was involved with her. And that's when you came in the picture. I knew that you were doing the catering for the function and we did not have a really good history. So, I thought that you might have helped that Anjali for your own revenge. Plus, I found photos of you smiling with her, that angered me more. By the time I could take any action the news had spread like fire and Anjali had fled away from Hyderabad and you were the only suspicion left. "
Raghav told her the entire truth. Initially, he had decided that he would let Pallavi describe what she did that whole day but seeing her clueless he told her the truth.
"But why would Anjali flee away? She was your girlfriend , right? So, she should have been with you in your hard times. Also, her face was not at all visible in the pictures. There was no reason for her to disappear. "Pallavi felt sympathy for Raghav but she was also confused about Anjali's behavior.
"She was not my girlfriend for God sake. She was just another random Chipku ladki who wanted to have a hook up with me." Raghav was annoyed with Anjali being referred to as his girlfriend.
"Ohh. But then if she hooked up with you then why would she want to leak your pictures?"
"Saree Ka Dukaan, do you pretend to be so naive or you really are?"
She gave him a confusing look and now Raghav facepalmed himself because now he had to tell her the Anjali story from the beginning.
"She was already engaged to somebody else but she still tried to seduce me in my showroom when her fiance was in some other section and I denied it. Then, she invited me to her Bachelorette. I went there as I was very bored. There she again tried her luck. But she tried it on the wrong person. I had already told Farhad to inform about her to her fiance if she tries to hook up with me again. She did that so, I took her to my room..." He was about to say further when he saw Pallavi's scared face. He chuckled at her innocence. Ignoring it he continued,"I took her to my room and let her continue whatever nonsense she was saying. The cctv camera was already connected to Farhad's phone and he showed it to her fiance. By the time he reached here, he was fuming with anger and broke off the engagement. The next day she again came to me to seek answers for my behavior but I again insulted her by saying that she was a cheater and I don't like people who cheat. " Raghav concluded.
Pallavi did not know how to react. She was numb.
"Pallavi will you speak something. " Raghav broke the silence after a few minutes.
"I..I don't kn...know how to react. This is something going above my head. I never knew that you were the victim here. When people around me said things about you I thought it to be true. I never even thought that you were also wronged. The girl who did this needs to be punished, Raghav. If you would have let the police investigate at that time only, things would have been different. Nevertheless, we can investigate now."
"Saree Ka Dukaan, my amma had a heart attack. I couldn't think beyond it. The only thing that came to my mind was revenge so I took my revenge from you instead of properly trying to know the root cause. "Raghav told her.
"It's okay Raghav. Now that you are trying to search this, I will help you. Don't worry everything will be fine." Pallavi said trying to calm Raghav.
"I shall take your leave." She picked up her bag and left his den. Turning back she said, "Thank you for trusting me Raghav. "
Author's Note - I am kind of not satisfied with this part but I tried writing it convincingly. Hope you all like it. I am planning to wind this Anjali drama in the next chapter itself. I have a few things in my mind which do not involve a lot of drama. It is mainly going to focus on Raghvi but other characters will also be bought into the picture.
Date - 23rd April 2022.
