Nawal - Missing Moments

14. Marriage Counselling

Disclaimer : I have no idea what happens in a marriage counselling or what the court mandates are. This is all hypothetical.

14. Marriage Counselling

It had been some days since Pandya Store had been demolished and Natasha was thrown out of the Makhwana house after signing the marriage annulment papers. Things had been...quite dreadful...to put it lightly. Natasha had been admitted in hospital for having a panic attack. Dhawal had almost had a nervous breakdown. Discussions on how to proceed with their divorce were in full swing. And everyone was in shock about what was happening....except Amba and Amrish, who were behaving like Diwali had come twice this year.

Dhawal was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. He had been in this position since past 15 minutes and was showing no signs of moving. He had just come up to his room after a gruelling discussion with their family lawyer about his divorce. He had asked Dhawal on what grounds he wanted to get his marriage annulled and listed all the possible valid reasons accepted by the court in these cases.

With every reason that hit his ear, his blood had boiled a little more and his heart had broken into even more pieces.

Were these the only things left in the world for a couple to get divorced? They had to hurl accusations at each other in front of the society? He had to point fingers at Natasha, her character, her upbringing in front of everyone? Was it just not enough for people that two people decided to go their separate ways? There had to be reasons for them. Specific reasons that were already decided by the law.

Amba and Amrish had discussed each and every reason with the lawyer in front of him. What was feasible....what was not. What they could get away with and what could be thrown back in their faces. How to label Natasha as characterless...how to prove her infidelity. He had felt like cutting his ears off instead of having to listen to these things. He had literally burst out in anger when the lawyer had suggested bringing in a fake guy to prove she was having an affair. Tears of rage were on the verge of erupting from his eyes. He was feeling like this was a very very bad dream that he was unable to wake up from. He was having a very hard time believing that his Mots and Maa were discussing all these things as if they knew nothing about her. As if she was a stranger to them. After all the things she had done for this family... After all the things this family had done to her...Did nothing matter anymore to anyone?

What had he done? What kind of hell had he put himself and her in? If he had known that he would have to resort to these things, he would have thought of another way to convince Mots to come back home. Somehow he would have. But there was no going back now. He knew that there was no other option left in his life for everything to go back to how it used to be...for others. For Mots. For Natasha. For him? It would never be the same. He didn't think his life could ever go back to how it was before Natasha. It would always be now things that happened before Natasha and after her. She would always be centre of the change in his life. Is in fact, the centre of change in his life.

After numerous rounds of unbearable discussions, Dhawal had declared that he would not for the life of him say anything derogatory or false about Natasha. He would rather kill himself than do that. He agreed...albeit very reluctantly to go for the clause that their marriage was not consummated. It was the literal truth but more than that, it was the only reason that did not hurl accusations at her. That kept her safe from the filth that was expected in the name of divorce.

He had agreed, but the shame of declaring this in front of the world was eating him up inside. Not because he was ashamed of how they still hadn't developed physical relations even after this long. It didn't matter to him and he knew he could handle whatever people might say. But because he knew how this would affect Natasha. Wherever they were in their personal relationship was only known to them and now it would be splashed all over for people to gossip about. Why couldn't they consummate their marriage till now...they would wonder. She would feel betrayed, he knew that and it was creating an intense ache inside him. But he had already wronged her to such a level that he thought maybe she would just add this to the list of things she hated about him and hopefully, move on. No matter what reason they gave for their divorce, people were going to gossip and he would rather they gossip about both of their intimacy issues than just only about her character and fidelity.