The Distance Between Us

Chapter Forty One - Bad Blood

Abhi left Nikki & Riddhima alone, albeit reluctantly. He understood that they needed some time to themselves to come to grips with what had just happened, alone, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to leave them. He wished his damnedest that he could have done something to help them, but sadly, when it came to Armaan, there wasn't much that he could do.

Things were good between him & Armaan now, had been since they'd met in New York, and even the last days that Armaan had spent in Sanjeevani before the shootout had them behaving cordially, if not exactly friendly with each other, but that didn't negate the fact that with Armaan, Abhi had got off on the wrong foot, and things had stayed that way for a long time. It wasn't like either of them had purposely harboured the animosity towards each other (okay, so maybe they had, but both of them were stubborn assholes and knew better now). The circumstances that surrounded them those few months hadn't helped. At all.

So, yes, Abhi was pretty clueless about all things Armaan still, but he wasn't ever clueless about how important Armaan was to both his wife and his best friend (because, of all people at Sanjeevani, Riddhima was his best friend), how important he'd always been to both of them. And, to find out that the one person they'd both trusted so much had betrayed them so badly had to hurt. It was even worse because now Armaan was thrown into the equation, and after everything that had happened in all these years, Abhi knew that Sid was not going to be able to weasel his way out of this one.

He didn't want that to happen either. Abhi had always thought of Sid as his little brother, ever since they were kids, and he was really fond of the boy, which had made him make questionable decisions in the past. He'd let a lot of things slide where Sid was concerned and he shouldn't have done that, he knew that now, but there wasn't much that he could do about the past. He could, however, do something about the current situation, and there was no way he was letting Sid go scot free for what he'd done.

Sid was sitting on the top of the stairs leading to the living room, looking dazed, when Abhi found him.

"Come with me. Now," Abhi ordered Sid, not giving him a chance to refuse.

Silently, Sid obeyed. They walked outside the house till Abhi found a quiet corner. He looked around to make sure he wouldn't have an audience before turning back to Sid.

"What the f**k, Sid!" Abhi exclaimed.

Sid didn't say anything, merely looking down at the floor, unable to meet Abhi's gaze.

"How could you? Actually, how dare you?" Abhi questioned.

"Bhai..." Sid trailed off helplessly, not knowing what to say. He knew what he'd done was wrong, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"You do know that tampering with someone's mail can send you to prison, right?" Abhi asked him.

Sid looked up, alarmed. "Really?!?!?!"

Abhi looked at him as if he'd grown a third head. "Did you or did you not live in Houston for years? How do you not know this?"

"But... but... but I... I thought that federal laws in India weren't the same as America!" Sid exclaimed.

"Well, let me enlighten you, then," Abhi replied sarcastically. "Yes, you can be sent to prison for what you did."

"OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!" Sid exclaimed. He'd made a mistake because he was jealous. He hadn't thought through. He hadn't thought about the consequences. But that was the issue, wasn't it? If he'd actually given it some thought, he'd have understood, even then, that no matter what, Riddhima would never be his. She'd been married to him for almost a year and a half and never ever tried. Okay, that wasn't true. She had tried. But, she'd realised that she couldn't do it. So, why would she one day wake up and change her mind, when she had ample opportunities in that time when they were husband and wife?