An Estranged Wife

Chapter 8- Something More Or Something less

Anger to the limit where she wanted to blast her husband with an atomic bomb clouded her. Her hands itched to strangle him through his neck while her mouth wanted to blabber all the colourful words at him continuously but with the way he stood in front of her like a scared child, was one reason he was still saved from her wrath for making another dumb lie to her regarding his stay after being thrown out by his mother.

Sameer shivered under her scrutiny, but he didn't dare to raise his head to peek a glance at the three people who were ready to beat the shit out of him.

"You won't stop lying, right?" Pari, started shooting daggers at him; her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for him to say something but all he said was a muffled apology.

"I'm sorry."

She smacked his bicep harshly making him wince.

"I'll beat you with a broom, Sameer."

"It'll itch bad," he dared to argue with his angry wife.

"Mom, you get me a broom only. I'm going to sweep all his lies today. Stupid man."

"When I asked you that day that if you've something or not then couldn't you've tell me straight away that you kept aside everything for alimony and you bought a room in a slum. Why did you lie again?" She shouted.

He squirmed at his place.

Earlier in the day when he agreed to her settlement whole-heartedly, his father-in-law had offered him to come to his place to collect his stuff, but he denied outrightly making Pari suspicious of him. Unknown to him, she had followed him thinking that something was amiss, or he might be fooling her again only to discover that all these months he has been living like a beggar in a place where he might've not even stepped if he was still lost in the power of his status.

Furious, as ever, she had marched in his one room house only to look at the mess the place was. He had been shocked to find her there; she hadn't uttered a word to him then, but she had grabbed his bag, thrown all his stuff in it, and marched out of the place not even giving him one chance to explain that he was totally ruined by his own mother that there was nothing he could do now. Before he could even get his hand on his savings, having the upper hand, she had told the bank not to give him any access to his accounts.

He had begged her then to at least let him have some so that he could carry the procedure forward, and she had given him only the amount that he needed to pay to Pari; rest all was taken away by her because she considered herself the owner of his life to decide what he should've or what he shouldn't.

He hadn't really argued with her because he knew it was useless to remind her the facts that it was his hard work that she wanted to own.

She had shown him that there was nothing above the satisfaction of your inner desires, not even the bonds of blood.

While his wife; his sweet wife cared for him even though he was nothing to her but an asshole all this while.

"Put red chilly powder in his eyes. He would forget lying."

"What the hell Mom-in-law! That's sheer cruelty." He yelled at her idea while Pari gave him a victorious look.

"I so love this idea, Mom."

"Honey brown eyes dipped in red chillies."

He looked at her horrified; his looks shifting from her to the other two people.

"Why're you all making it such a big issue?" He asked not getting their logic to even get mad at him.

"These small lies only give birth to bigger lies. Why don't you learn from your mistakes that hiding stuff is not good? Couldn't you have been honest with me for once and you were saying to me that you want to be the listener of my story. How do I talk to you when you can't even open up in this small thing? It's not a big thing, but these small things; small talks only create relationships. When will you understand this?"

"To heal me also you need to be honest with yourself because we can't let go off our past until you adopt the path of honesty."

Ashamed that he failed again in his attempt, he looked down getting her point.

She walked past him and sat on the steps of her porch looking at the dazzling stars that've started to appear as the evening progressed.

She felt him sitting beside her. For few seconds none of them said a word, unable to take the silence, he started, "I thought I deserved it for leaving you on the floor when you were ill and even after that."

"By hurting yourself physically, I doubt you can erase the mental trauma I faced in those moments. All I want from you is just your togetherness as a partner for the time that is left with us. By doing these things, I feel like you're trying to gain my sympathy to forgive you, but the point is I don't even want to sympathise with you. I want to let go off you entirely and you also have to let go off me entirely."

"I won't be able to forget you ever Pari." He said lowly looking straight at the empty path on which he had to walk alone now.

She swivelled her head to peek a glance at him; in that moment she witnessed the devastated man who was tired of his broken relationships.

"Why?"

"Because even though you programmed yourself to love me for a few days; you were the only one who actually cared for me genuinely. Neither did my Dad cared for me nor my Mom did. They both thought about themselves and their pain; they didn't think of what I was going through. But I don't care now of what they think or not." He explained in a sad voice.

"What do you mean by I programmed myself?" She asked confused.

"Alright don't punch me but I made this assumption after seeing my friend and his wife."

"What assumption?"

"See, when a marriage is finalised, our state of mind develops a code to accept that person as the only one in our lives. You start forcing yourself to make them as the centre of universe of your life, and just one meet, few talks, and people suddenly think they're in love. Love doesn't happen when you programme yourself to like someone because they've come to see or because they're going to be your partner, you have to revolve your world around them. Love happens unexpectedly whether people agree or not. If every arranged matrimony was based on love for years, then why suddenly the couples decide to get divorced?"

"In love, no matter how much of arguments are at the end of the day you would find yourself in the warmth of that person not at the end of the bed unable to sleep. I'm not saying, marriage doesn't bring true love, but it only happens after people programme themselves that no matter what happens they have to fall in love with this person and make them their life. And when the bubble breaks, then relationship goes down the hill."

As complicated as his words sound, they held the deepest honesty. Of course, it was the way she had started to like him in one look.

"You mean to say that if we don't like our partner in one go then it's not wrong?" She asked his static point.

"Absolutely. Why do you have to burden yourself with falling in love in one approval; why not go with the flow and see if you could feel truly for the other?" He replied.

"Is that the reason why you never....," She left her sentence in half way unable to bring the words to her mouth.

"I never forced myself to like you Pari. With all the things going in my head, falling in love was not even in my mind. But I don't deny that now when I see you each day, I like you as the person you're, In fact you're better off as only Pari rather than my wife."

"It sounds crazy coming from me but it's the truth that even we men today like those women who know how to achieve something in life, and not those who just want sugar-coated words from us."

Amazed by his explanation, she complimented, "I never knew you can talk sense too."

"I think your company is pretty nice for my head to get back on track, Mrs Malhotra."

And for the first time they smiled together seeing the other as nothing more than the eye-opener of their lives. 

Their healing process has started finally, though it is a different approach which I'm bringing forward. It's not an attempt to give him a chance but to show something different which would be revealed later. 

So did you liked the chapter guys? Do give your votes and opinions of the conversation they had. Its the first genuine talk they had. Did you like it.