Vodka on the rocks

Part - 5

This is an alternate track after Episode 105. What if, Milind had not called Pallavi and she couldn't reach before she could stop the fiasco? What if Raghav had actually gone through with Vijay's demands? It is kind of unthinkable but I guess by now you all have come to know, that angst is my cup of coffee..

"Dada ye aap kya kar rahe hain!!! Damad hain woh humara.. aap.."

"Milind chup ho jaa, aaj tu kuch nhi bolega. Zara main bhi toh dekhu ki Raghav Rao apne wadon ka kitna pukka hain.."

Vijay's mocking smile did not faze Raghav at all. He had become immune to his interim father in law's vicious taunts. He was on one knee, all his sharp long limbs focussed at a perfect ninety degrees to the ground, his expensive suit jacket flung at the handle of the couch and his shirt sleeves rolled up. 

His expression was set in that perpetual fury but there seemed to be something extremely disconcerting in his gaze. For the first time, the Deshmukhs couldn't see the ever present inferno in his charcoal pupils. For his eyes looked almost milky for a change, as if not present in this dimension of reality at all. 

It was as he had been transported back to the past. Ensnared in the claws of inner demons refusing to let go of him. 

He was looking truly frightening. 

Vijay could feel the unease starting to crawl up his spine as he saw Raghav pour the water on to the brass plate from the jug. Even though he had him where he had always wanted to see him, at his feet... it didn't feel like he was the one in control still. 

Instead the head of the Deshmukh clan felt like he was a lamb caught in a stump with a hungry lion waiting to sink its jaws into him at his feet. 

But woe betide him if he let even a single shred of nervousness seep through. Vijay had desired breaking this abomination of a man's pride and vanity for so damn long that he could tolerate playing the villain if it meant he could win their game of one upmanship of ego. 

Milind and Amrutha truly looked distressed as Sulochana and Manasi just kept on looking with a baleful glee which seemed almost sickening to the former two. 

Raghav had started washing his feet. His long nimble fingers dexterous and surprisingly efficient as he seemed to do this task with just the precise skill he used while polishing his beloved diamonds.

"Raghav please.. don't do this. You don't have to do this.. please.. Dada ne gusse mein bol diya.. Raghav.."

But Milind's protests went unheard and Vijay felt just a fraction of delight at the solemn silence from the usually bombastic man in front. Raghav's body was stiff like a bow string pulled too tight and for a moment Amrutha felt like he might just snap and break into two. 

There was no hesitation when he drained off the water from Vijay's washed feet and wiped them off with the hand towel they had so graciously provided him. The Deshmukhs looked on with curiosity, excitement, an ill begotten joy and a wrenching horror as Raghav Rao proceeded to take a sip of the remaining water in that brass plate. 

He raised an eyebrow at Vijay's dumbstruck face and dropped the plate with an almighty clang on the ground before rising up fluidly from his position as if he had done nothing except perhaps tied his shoe laces. There was an ominous silence in the room as he ripped the jacket off the handle of the couch before giving Vijay a look which could have raised him to the ground had the owner of it possessed any supernatural abilities. 

"I have kept my end of the deal. Ab dekhna ye baaki hain sasurji ki aap apna wada ka kitna pakka hain."

With these last words which seemed to reverberate across the walls he stormed out leaving Vijay feeling scarily discontent. He didn't feel the elation of a hard earned victory. Instead all he felt was an inexplicable yet gut wrenching shame.