Sometimes Hate is Enough

Chapter 08

Shyam

When I woke up today, I had no idea that everything I had worked so hard for would come rushing back on my face.... If someone had told me that today I'm going to admit everything I've done, I would have laughed... I would have laughed until I had choked myself in it. Because there's no way it was going to happen... But here we are...

I clenched my jaws with irritation as I listened to the drama that all the Raizada's had due on their accounts and glanced up with a frown on my face.

Anjali sat on the sofa, crying like she had just lost her favorite doll, while Mami and Arnav tried to soothe her down. And Mama and Akash stood near me like they were going to stop me from running if I tried. Which, honestly, I have no intention to do. At least not... now.

I shifted my gaze away from them because I could feel a headache growing. Soon, I found Nani, the only intelligent person in the whole Raizada family, sitting opposite me while slowly sipping from her tea while her left hand slowly stroked Laxmi's head... I mean, who keeps a goat as their pet? Rich people and their...

"Anjali Bitiya, calm down. Stress is not good for your baby." Mami said from my left, but I didn't look up as I huffed out a sigh and kept my eyes on my shoes with my arms resting on my knees. Princess... Such a princess.

I felt a prickling sensation that someone was watching. When I looked up, I again found Nani looking at me and I waited to see anger or a sense of betrayal... But it never came. Instead, she was... just looking. She looks like she knows something—something even I don't know or something that I don't want her to know... I felt my heart beating a lot louder than usual. As if at any moment, it's going to start banging on my ribcage. Suddenly, I felt something I hadn't felt in quite a long time... Fear.. Fear of losing something.

I had almost forgotten how it felt... How it tasted.

I looked straight into her eyes to show that I was not scared. That I was anything but scared... She held my eyes for another second, which felt almost like a minute, then placed her tea cup down on the coffee table and spoke.

"I don't think you are going to deny your actions anymore." A statement.

The whole room around us fell into complete silence by the time she finished, while I also kept my mouth shut. I could feel eyes judging me, but neither did I care or turn to them as I held her eyes. Why is she so calm? How is she so calm? What does she know?

"Why don't you start from the part where it involves both the Raizada's and Gupta's?" She added while taking my silence as an agreement.

I stared at her for one more second before looking down at my hands and saying, "What do you want to know?"

"Were you and Khushi engaged?" Mami asked.

"We were." I nodded slowly as I remembered the night we got engaged. The night when I was sure that she was going to be mine forever and she would have been, if I hadn't ruined everything and all my chances with her. I ruined my own happiness with my own hands. But it's not the end. Not yet... I sighed slowly before looking up at her again and saying, "But Khushi broke it after she got to know that I was married."

I turned my gaze at Arnav, where he sat beside Anjali. Completely still. He looked shocked. I had expected that much from him, but what I didn't expect was to see a shade of guilt pass over his face. And I would be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling happy to see him like that. I felt satisfaction and something I couldn't name. Something good.

"You didn't even tell her that you were married?" Akash asked the obvious. His voice was shocked.

I mentally sighed before shaking my head slowly at his level of stupidity. No wonder Payal left him at the wedding.

"She didn't know much about me back then... But she had only said yes because Bua Ji had asked her to do so since her father was sick." I said, avoiding his very obvious question, which he already had answers for.

I don't care what he or anyone else thinks about me. But what I actually did care about... was her. And I didn't want anyone to blame her for something she didn't even do. I might've done a lot of things to get hate or have ruined people's lives somehow, but that was completely on me. Not her.

"But...you said you loved me? How can you do this? How can yo...?" Anjali asked, looking at me while she continued to do her ridiculous sobbing episode.

"I never loved you. All I loved about you was your money." I interrupted before turning my gaze away from her because I couldn't stand to look at her. She might be beautiful, but she was nothing but an eyesore at this very moment.

"And now that you don't need her money since you've already taken enough for a lifetime, you want to divorce her." Arnav said as he stood up from his seat.

"I might have taken money from her, but I never saved any of it." I said as I looked at him.

"Then why did you want to divorce her?" Mama asked from behind me.

I turned to look at him with slightly raised brows before asking, "You want to keep a son-in-law who cheated on your niece?"

"I want to know the reason." Arnav said.

I again turned to him and held his eyes for a second before giving him a lazy smile and saying, "You already know the reason, Arnav. After all, you were the first to discover this. Isn't that why you broke Akash's wedding?" I paused as I noticed him growing still, then added. "Isn't that why you threatened Khushi? Isn't that why you tried to force her to marry you?"

"Chote, you... you knew about this?" Anjali asked as she turned to look at him. She really doesn't know a single important thing, does she? Arnav kept his slightly widened eyes fixed on me. You weren't expecting that, were you?

"Why don't you tell your Di that you had the biggest misunderstanding of your life at Akash's wedding?... Why don't you tell everyone that you, the great ASR, were wrong about me and Khushi having an extra marital affair?" I added as I stood before taking three steps toward him. "Why don't you tell them that your one mistake ruined Akash's chance to be with Payal?"

I looked at Akash over my shoulder before again facing him. He stood like a statue as all the eyes in the room turned to him.

"Tell your sister that you tried to brush this whole thing under the rug by forcing Khushi to marry you. Tell everyone how she ruined your plan just by saying a simple no."

When he and everyone stayed silent for quite a minute while looking at each other, I felt myself smile as I swept my eyes over everyone present in the room while saying, "It looks like you Raizada's have a lot to catch up on with each other. Including your mistakes. Although I admit that I, myself did a lot of things and lied a lot, but among everything, one thing was and will always be true..." I looked Arnav in the eyes before finishing. "... My love for Khushi."