Atonement | ✓

Chapter 2

He froze as he saw her standing there, her eyes wide open and her expression hurt. Behind Priyanka stood Anika, looking at him through her bloodshot eyes. No. No. She did not tell Priyanka all of it. No. No, she could not do that. No she wasn't allowed to do that. His heart skipped beats. NO.

"How could you Bhaiya?" Remarked Priyanka in a small voice..

"Priyanka, " he gulped hard. "I can explain."

"What?" She asked baffled. "Such a big thing, and you did not tell me!" 

Shivaay's heartbeats were growing slow, his heart was sinking. His beats said no. "PRI...

" You won the Businessman of the year again this year and you did not tell me! " Priyanka's tone grew excited. "But, see Bhabhi told me. I m so happy. " she hugged him. He looked at Anika, who smiled sadly. 

Priyanka quickly hugged Anika and left saying this needed celebration.

He stared at Anika once Priyanka left the room shutting the door behind her.

"What happened Shivaay? " Anika walked straight to him. She touched his chest. "Is it beating still?" She asked painfully.

He stood still. Unable to respond. "That's how I felt Shivaay, when you called Gauri. The difference was, I was begging at your feet to not tell her. What do you think Priyanka will do, if she knows about what you did to me? Slap you? Hate you? Break all relations with you? "

"Anika!" He screamed unable to even hear that. 

"Don't scream. I know the pain. You don't even know five percent of it. I told you, you are weak." she walked past him and settled on the bench by the pool. She fished out from her bag the notebook. She was sure just like past few nights she couldn't sleep. 

Gauri was struggling with her homework and had asked her to help her at it. A certain assignment. Gauri never took interest in literature this was for the cultural club she had joined. She started going through the excerpts from Mahabharata, the assignment was supposed to be a detailed explanation between a conversation and it's significance. She chose that of Arjuna and Krishna.

An hour later she closed the book and slipped into thoughts. She had read so much that it now was in her head. She was linking everything to her present situation. Wasn't she wrong in accepting the wrong? 

One line that pinched her was, "If you don't fight for what you want, Then Don't cry for what you lost!"

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Was she to be blamed to settle for whatever was meted out to her?

* * *

He woke up the next morning to not find her out. Where was she? Suddenly she had become important. Suddenly he had started associating her with himself. In a blink of eye, he had started considering the marriage. The same marriage whose existence he had wiped away. The same marriage whose evidence he had tampered with. The same marriage he had bad mouthed. She was his wife. A sudden need to be the husband , her husband and love her filled him. 

He was falling for her. He had fallen a while back but was not willing to accept it. But, now he wasn't unready to accept it. He was willing to open his heart to her. He did not for once care about anything except her. He wanted to be hers. Because he knew only she could complete him. The woman who could never kill her compassion for him, despite everything. Oh with what intensity would she love him! 

No one could love him better than she could. He knew. 

He went downstairs looking for her. He asked his brothers, they looked at him in silence.

He asked the guards and they informed him that she had left. He looked at his brothers hurt. Why did not they tell him?

Running up the stairs he quickly got dressed and left to bring his wife back. He would tell her how he wanted to spend his entire life with her. He would tell her he was willing to give her whatever she asked for. He would give her himself. He would respect their marriage and bring her home. Bring her home as his wife.

* * *

Instructing the servants to decorate the house he left. His car halted before her small house. She was better off living at the outhouse than here. Slamming the door of the car he walked up to her door. 

On the third knock she opened the door. Her eyes were empty. He couldn't understand. No pain. No happiness. No love. No hate. Nothing. Absolutely nothing in her eyes.

"Anika." 

She blinked like she did not know him.

Gauri came to the door and pulled back Anika slightly, standing before him. "Please get out of here without creating a scene. We have nothing to do with you!" She shut the door on his face. 

"Gau.." He stated at the wooden door. He knocked again. No response.

Again.

Gauri opened the door again. "What?"

"I need to talk, to , my " he gulped. "My wife!" He said with all dignity and a pride expanding in his heart. He always wanted that in a tiny part of his being. To make Anika his wife.

"No wife lives here." She was about to slam the door again when his hand offered resistance to the door.

"I need to talk to her. " 

"Don't make a scene Mr. Oberoi. Haven't you done enough already?"

"Let me talk to her once. I swear I will make everything alright."

Gauri stared at him with disgust. "Go away."

"She is my wife!" He said frustrated.

"Gauri!" She interrupted, looking at her sister. "Let him!"

"Di?" Gauri looked at her elder sister concerned.

Gauri let him walk in and shut the door.

Anika held his hand and took him to a room. Shutting the door. Gauri looked tensed. 

• • •

-Anami!