Discordance

Chapter Forty-One

Not telling her about Ishika was the third and probably the biggest mistake of his life, the other two had been done unknowingly but this one he had made with his full cognizance. He was an idiot, he should have just opened his mouth and told Akshara about it but he really felt like the walls were closing in on his heart the moment he spotted Ishika.

He couldn't give a flying fuck about her presence in the house and her returning back to his life because to him she was so inconsequential that it wouldn't have mattered. It was the anxiety that had his heart in a chokehold about Akshara. She had only just begun to accept him and return some of his affection, they had just taken their physical intimacy to another level, she could talk in front of him and share her concerns with him, how could he ruin her now?

He hated the sight of that stupid ring on her finger but to him it felt like a sign that she wanted to be in his life and in turn wanted him. If he went up to her and told her that Ishika was his ex she would lose whatever little trust she had gained in his love and he was selfish enough to not want that.

That night he had pulled his arm away from Ishika but it had been too late because Akshara had run away to their room already but it wasn't too late for him to yell at his sister and her friend.

He had warned both Ishika and Anisha to stay the fuck away from him and his wife, going as far as to tell Anisha that he would move out without a spare glance if she made Akshara cry but he couldn't really stop Anisha from inviting Ishika to stay with her in her room, this was her house too unfortunately. He just hoped this would all blow over after the engagement in the next few days and Ishika would leave for her house or go back from wherever she had come from.

It was only a matter of couple of days and he could try and hide it from Akshara but it didn't sit right with him. She trusted him so much to always be there for her, he couldn't just lie to her. Abhimanyu felt insane, his mind constantly spinning but he did know that he had to tell her somehow. Not telling her and having her find out on her own would bleed him dry. In that moment, he wished he had never met Ishika and never had her be a part of his life because whenever he told Akshara, she would immediately pull away from him and nothing he said or did would ever make her understand that she was his one true love, he only had his eyes set on her. If someone placed a gun to his head right now and asked about Ishika, he wouldn't be able to describe a single physical feature of hers. However, even if he lost his eyesight tomorrow, Akshara's face and body down to every tiny mole and birthmark was seared in his brain and heart.

No, this had gone on for a day and if he didn't tell her now, she would think that he was actively hiding it which wasn't the case, he had just needed time to navigate it and tell her in a way that she didn't run away. Feeling secure in his decision, he made an appointment with the jeweler to select a new ring for her next week and texted her that he needed to talk to her tonight and suggested that maybe they could eat dinner outside.

When his texts remained unanswered for a long time, he began to worry. She had told him that morning that she was going to the shelter and normally she responded pretty frequently. Had she somehow found out and ran away? A pit of dread formed in his stomach, and he suddenly felt nauseous. He tried not to think of the worst case scenario but yet somehow Akshara's tearful face kept popping up in his mind. Abhimanyu kept pacing in his office, almost wearing the carpet thin.

Finally deciding that he should at least take a break and go get food, he stepped out and began to walk toward the cafeteria. However, he had to rub his eyes and pinch himself to check that he wasn't dreaming as his feet came to a standstill right by the lobby where he saw Akshara in a blood soaked kurti, her hands covered in blood and her eyes haunted as she stared at some piece of paper in her hand. The blood began to roar in his ears as Abhimanyu ran with a thudding heart towards his wife, almost hitting multiple people on his way there. Please please please let it be someone else's blood he prayed selfishly before skidding to a halt in front of her and grabbing both her arms harshly turning her face up to him.