Just to clear any confusion....
The italics part would denote a timeline from the past
" I don't know Shehnaaz. Nahi maloom muhje. She is not the person you met. She is not vicious, I know she is hurt, I know I have hurt her. Our marriage failed because of us, especially because of me. Anay and a guy before that, I knew she was sleeping with them. But it didn't matter to me, I had been doing the same for years. Kyu? Nahi Pata. Par despite all the love we claim, uske saath belonging feel nahi hai, yrr. I liked the way she was, well behaved, soft spoken , calm, kind all of those things, I thought a good wife should be. But when we eventually git married and started living together, I couldn't find the spark. It was like I had married to the idea of a good.woman. She was okay, she would see home, the food, the other things and I just felt that was not what I needed, even though I had wanted that. Pata nahi, kab kaise, I started drifting. She would complain that I was workaholic, that I paid her less attention, didn't pamper her. I am sure she was right, but I am just not that person.We began to fight, argue. I would stay away from home, would visit her for sex and slowly even that started to come from outisde. As things went downhill, she began to change. She would behave weird, have public outbursts, she would yell in front of guests..." he was speaking and then fell quiet, his head lowered as he looked into the mug his hand held.
He lifted his head up and looked at the woman sitting ahead of him. She was quiet, a stark opposite to her usual demeanor she had an empathetic expression on her face. She was only person, he knew capable of hearing what he was about to say. She knew the lure of darkness, she knew the power of the other side. She wasn't herself walking down the right track, she knew being wrong in a situation didn't not make a wrong person. She understood that there were no whites and blacks, she knew there was no evil and good.
"I have actually hit her, Shehnaaz. The allegations of domestic violence are true. I still remember the slap, the thudd of that still scares me. I remember pulling her by an arm up the staircase in front of fifty people. The remember pushing her to the wall, as my hand gripped under her chin. The remember the grip of my hands on her hair. I remember her cry in pain that time. I remember her stained face. I remember the monster I had become. I don't remember how and why I became that, but I did. There was a party at our house, she had asked me to be home early that night. She had called people, made all arrangements, done everything so perfectly. But then there I was...." he beagn reciting an old story.
Sidharth had woken up late that morning. He had hit the bed late, three back to back deal closures with a short informal meeting with a client in bar, ending in extra marital sex with a woman he had met in the bar. It had been years to this, him and his wife, were married for name sake, they had started from love to eventually drifting to a compromise, where Bhavya had his money and name and he had a wife to have an heir with.
"Hmmm!" He turned around to look at Bhavya, she lay naked in the bed. Siddharth and she desperately needed a child, a validation to their complete relationship, an emotional anchor to Bhavya, the sense of being a complete woman to Bhavya and an heir to Sidharth. He was billionaire and the kind of wealth that he possessed had been amassed over generations, so an heir was mandatory and he was desperate to have that. And no matter how much sex was available to him from ourside the marriage, only a wife could give him a child. He wanted her pregnant and she too did. They had been trying for the same for months without any success.
Sidharth looked at Shehnaaz. She had pulled her legs up on the sofa,her legs held close to her body, maybe even she was bracing up for the cold of his story. She didn't speak anything or change her expression, but her eyes were keen to know.
