Rishi and Lakshmi One-Shot Compilation

The aftermath

Context: in wake of Rishi's betrayal and Lakshmi's heartbreaking discovery, she returns to the Oberoi Mansion after striking a deal for his life. Only this time she has nothing left to give.
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She doesn't quite know how to look her husband in the eye anymore standing in the heat of accusations and fights that she no longer wishes to be apart off.

Her mother-in-law is unrelenting in getting her to stay, but the woman will not apologise and her voice grows far too hoarse from the crying and the screaming she subjects herself too in trying and perhaps failing to get them to see the light.

The truth that they are nothing more than a bunch of conspirators.

She is half proud when she rips the confrontation in half, shouts her piece so loudly that everyone is forced to take a decisive step back. Her anger reaches a peak that has her chest heaving and body trembling and it is with her words, with the curses she hails upon their name that has the realisation dawning.

She doesn't decide straight away to stay; takes her steps towards the door that she had once stepped through with her husband at her side.

She ignores the screams that come from behind her from his grandmother and mother, she pleads deaf to the words the pandit utters as her feet bleed to mark her journey out of the house, and just as her foot hovers over their doorstep, her arm is held in place by her husband's grandfather and her mother-in-law's father. Her eyes ghost over to him and as he turns her back around she sees the same anger, the same hurt mirrored in his eyes.

He raises his hand first against her husband who has the decency to look ashamed in front of his grandfather. He is given a rude awakening through the accusations that follow and as her mother-in-law attempts to intervene she too is met with a similar fate as her son. The force of his slap is enough to cause her mother-in-law to shed a tear and as he calls her out for her treachery and deceit she stands back in mild satisfaction.

Her husband's grandfather casts the remaining family members a look of disgust before standing before her with his hands in a pleading motion.

"My child forgive me." He states warmly, but her hands hang lifelessly at her side, unable to extend forgiveness she does not want to give.

Her gaze falters in respect instead, as a tear falls out of her eyes followed by another  until she finds herself collapsing in on herself. Her husband attempts to reach her, but she pushes him away harshly and no one can come to fault her for that.

With great difficulty the elderly man comes to his knees before her. "My child I will fix this. I will do right by you and you shall be honoured as the rightful daughter-in-law of this house. As Rishi's lawful wife."

"And if I don't wish to be?" She asks perhaps sharper than intended.

"Then I can only ask that you let us compensate the pain we have given you as a family. Let us atone for the sin committed."

"Are you able to return the love I gave to your grandson? The love I gave and exhibited thinking that he was my husband? Are you able to give me all those moments I have wasted in his company thinking that there was nothing but trust and companionship within our union? Are you able to rerun the shattered heart I had given to your grandson at the time of our phera's where he vowed to keep it safe and whole? Are you able to give me the respect, the status I had as my father's daughter back?"

She stands rather roughly then, and looks her husband dead in the eye. "Are you able to reverse time to the cursed day I met your grandson? Are you able to go back in time to stop me from ever meeting him?" She shakes her head as she turns to the side, eyes closing and tears spilling at the memory of the first time they had collided. She wonders if he too is thinking of the same day, and as she looks over to him, she sees the fragment of the memory shinning in the tears that fall from his eyes. He begs her through his gaze, but she turns to the side and breaks whatever connection festers through the contact.