Prithvi... [Volume 4]

Chapter 84

 

Prithvi watched interestedly as astonishment join the already volatile mix of anger and hurt on Nandini’s features.

It was easy to decipher the thoughts that had motivated her to buy this absurd thing for him. And it was fun to fling the ball right back into her court.

“Give it back if you didn’t like it,” Nandini said stiffly. It was not enough for him to scowl and swear at her first real gift. He had to make fun of her too.

He complied immediately by throwing the toy to her. “Thanks. I didn’t want to go downstairs just to put this in the trash can,” he grinned at the splotches of red on her cheeks, and waited gallantly for her to launch something sharp-edged and lethal at him.

Nandini caught the kitten and looked at its sweet, vacant face.

There was no gentle prickling in her eyes to warn her. She was rigid with anger one minute, and crying silently in the next.

In a flash, Prithvi was by her side.

“I was joking! Just joking!” he said hurriedly, shocked and uneasy. He grasped the side of her face gently with one hand, and quickly wiped the tears gushing down her face with the other, determinedly stopping them midway. “I wasn’t going to throw that stup – that thing! I swear I -”

She flung the toy to the floor, and hugged him.

A new bleakness clouded Prithvi’s eyes on recognising the true reason for her breakdown. His arms closed around her tightly, and his fingers tenderly caressed her hair.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. 

 

“For what? You were a child at the time,” she said softly, keeping her eyes closed and savouring the warm comfort of his embrace. Her tears had stopped almost as soon as he had held her, and the awful sense of being overwhelmed had passed.

Clasping her slender arms, he detached her slightly from himself to look intently into a pale and composed face.

“You’re really not upset?” he asked doubtfully. With me?

Smiling faintly at the unspoken words that he was too egoistic to utter, Nandini said,

“If my father was alive today, I’m sure he would have forgiven and forgotten. He was angry with them for not taking good care of you. He wanted you to have a good childhood. He loved you. And I love you,” she sighed resignedly, moving ahead to bury her face in his shoulder.

She really didn’t resent him, Prithvi reflected in cautious relief. In fact, he could discern that she was already in the process of overcoming the hurt.

That wouldn’t have been the case some months ago. It would have taken her longer to come to terms with it.

He had done this to her. He had made her accept ugliness and nasty shocks as a routine part of life…