Conflagration

Chapter 4: Friendships are a Blessing

A few days later: Tripathi Nivas

Imlie dropped her bag on the bed she shared with her mother and lay down on the threadbare bedspread in exhaustion. It was mid afternoon and the visit to dadda's lawyer had been less than fruitful. The trial date kept getting adjourned and there was no new evidence that they had been able to dig up to prove dadda's innocence. Delhi police had done a hack job of pining a bunch of political kidnappings against her dadda along with inciting locals against the government. He was going to be transferred to the custody of Maharashtra police shortly and Imlie knew if that happened then there would be no hope of ever getting him out of jail. Her dadda had made many enemies in the police department when he had raised his voice about their brutality against the tribal people in Gadchiroli.

Disheartened she stared up at the crack in the ceiling and ignored the loud noise the ceiling fan made as it whirred trying to cool down the hot room. Theirs was a small room in the corner of the Tripathi house that used to be a storage but had been quickly cleaned up when Imlie and Meethi had come at the behest of Pankaj uncle to stay with the Tripathis to allow them to follow Satyakam's case.

Even though Pankaj Tripathi was gentleman, his family was another matter entirely. The matriarch was Pankaj uncle's wife Aparna Tripathi whose life seemed to revolve around kitty parties and malicious gossip. Her daughter Rupi had followed in her mother's footsteps and abhorred talking to someone like Imlie and her mother who she considered nothing more than the house help. Pankaj uncle's eldest son lived in Australia with his wife and rarely came home to visit which left the youngest and the most vile family member according to Imlie, Aditya Kumar Tripathi. 

He was spoiled rotten by Aparna's love and seemed to think everyone existed to fulfil his needs and wants. His wife Malini was the only child of Dev and Anu Chaturvedi a wealthy couple with more money than they knew what to do with. Malini spent more time at her parents home than her in laws only making an appearance when there was a special occasion at the Tripathis.

Imlie had been witness to the many arguments between husband and wife because Aditya couldn't stand that Malini was the CFO of her father's company and therefore wouldn't wait on him hand and foot. According to him Malini did not respect him enough because he was just a junior executive in a pharma company. 

Imlie had often wondered why the husband and wife did not opt for divorce if they couldn't stand each other. When she had first come to the Tripathi house, Aditya had barely paid heed to her. He spent most of his time at work or hanging out with his friends at bars or nightclubs often staggering home late. She had considered him a harmless drunkard until that night, her lips twisting in revulsion at that horrible memory.

Imlie had woken up thirsty and noticed the jug near the bedside was empty. She had wandered into the kitchen looking to fill the jug when Aditya had staggered in and spotted her in the kitchen. Her stomach roiled recalling the expression change on Aditya's face when he had seen her standing in the kitchen with her hair down in her night suit sans dupatta. He had sauntered over to her and stood so close she could smell the alcohol on his breath. It made her want to puke but Aditya had lifted his fingers and grazed her jaw in a familiar way before drawing out her name in a sibilant whisper

"Immmmlllliii.. you are so pretty, I could eat you quickly and no one would know so early..."

Imlie had pushed his hand away, thrown him a fulminating look, stormed back into her room and bolted the lock tightly ignoring his drunk calls. Since then, Aditya had made it his mission to accost Imlie at every opportunity. He would deliberately brush his fingers against hers when she served food or wink at her suggestively while talking about the kind of clothes he liked to see on a woman or stare at her lewdly while she went about her household chores.