AMARANTHINE

Act III (vii) : Love Happens

  "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." 
~ Friedrich Nietzsche  ~

______________________________________________

Shaurya had also not faced the morning in the best of his moods and Reyansh's insistence that he would have to drive down for the wedding to obtain his answers had not gone down well either. He would have driven down in any event but would have preferred to have some answers immediately rather than wait the additional hours it would take to reach there.

When he reached the house, he immediately made his way to the terrace unwilling to waste even a single minute more and was surprised to see that Ishaani had followed him. She placed a tray with sandwiches and coffee in front of him and said, "You will need your strength."

He raised an eyebrow, and in a tone that brooked no nonsense, countered, "I need answers."

"Yes, but once you hear us out, you could be tempted to strangle me, so you would need your strength."

Shaurya narrowed his eyes and Reyansh trembled, he knew that look but Ishaani was unfazed, settling herself across Shaurya and motioning Reyansh to sit beside her, she said, "You want to know about Aabha. She always was and always will be your weakness; you will never forgive anyone who would hurt her. But first, let us tell you your story."

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Shaurya heard them out in silence, till Ishani finished. 

He closed his eyes as he remembered the fire in Aabha's eyes when she said she hated him and had immediately corrected herself to say that she hated herself and the idea of love. 'So was she never in love with him, no that could not be possible, Reyansh had been very firm about her feeling for him and he could see the warmth with which his family treated her, she must have loved him too. That left him with only one possibility; he must have hurt her so badly that she did not want to have anything to do with him'. He dropped his head into his hands, there was no point taxing himself; those memories would not come back. Wearily running his hands through his hair, he asked, "Tell me, Rey, if we did love each other and were engaged, how come there is no evidence, not even a single photograph? Except for those rare ones at your engagement, why are there no other ones?"

"She did not like being photographed much and you would do anything for her. I am sure your personal phone has a few hundred of them but it is password protected. You had taken another connection so that you could talk to Aabha and yet be available for office-related calls. When the doctors said that we should not stress you, I had that connection surrendered and kept the phone with me and I erased her contact details from the one you use for your office calls. It was only when Aabha came back that I placed that mobile and that package in the secret compartment. I do not know what it is, but I had taken it from your laptop bag."

"And the engagement, did we really have one?"

"You would have had two ceremonies if we could have had our way, but then neither of you wanted the elaborate public ceremony." 

Reyansh could not help grinning at Shaurya's zapped expressions. "You had an impromptu one when you had proposed to her. It must have been a 'no-holds-barred, no-expenses-spared' extravaganza. None were privy to the details except what Aabha shared with Ishaani, but I did see some of the bills. The rings were nice, double infinity sign with your names inscribed on the inside, I know about them; you had shown them to me. You had both yours and hers made, and I had joked that you had got them cheap, just plain gold with no expensive stones. I will never forget your answer, Bhai, you had said, 'Aabha does not like precious stones and fancy stuff, she will understand. Gold is resistant to heat and acid so is a symbol of immutability, eternity and perfection. The infinity sign is common for both romance and mathematics, this ring is an amalgam of both our natures.' Ishaani later told me what Aabha had told her; that she had almost cried when she saw the rings."