The hall downstairs remained silent.
His words hung hard in air.
Five days deadline to bring the culprit. Any evidence.
No one, not even a single person left the room. If it would be Rushaan, Dadi would have scolded him, even detach from the relation. But it wasn't the usual troublemaker this time.
It was someone, who was out of the list.
Dhar Amogh.
Dadi, who rarely spoke, remained silent. Her eyes were staring at Dhar. Not furious, not disappointed. But that same stare which was more deadly than any other expression. It would have been better if she slapped him even, shouted on him.
But that cold silence was more terrifying than Vivaan's.
That wasn't interrogation. That wasn't even suspicion. That was a simple... detachment of a mother and her son.
On the contrast, another relation was also harmed. Harder than this one.
Rushaan was usual troublemaker. Everyone knew that too well. Clubbing late nights, behaving on impulse, egoistic. His list of troubles went from breaking a club area to ruining many souls of those whom he dated. For none of it was what those females thought. For him, it was a transaction, revenge or just a script he enjoyed acting.
But this time, his eyes were moistened. Not broken. Never broken.
From a realisation. That he too... was someone's puppet.
He continued to clench and unclench his jaw.
At this moment, he felt like the side character who was getting more praise and recognition than the main cast. He was an actor himself. And yes, his pride wounded every time his co-stars got more praise, but never once did he lose that fame. Never once he was casted aside.
But here? Here he was that side character who was indeed praised at the moment... but all along... he was an outcast.
He took a step ahead, and without wasting any moment, bent in front of Ayesha- who was sitting on the sofa with badi dadi.
He didn't say anything for a moment, just hung his head low.
Hesitating, he looked up at Ayesha, almost broken, almost... ruined for the first time.
"I am sorry."
His tone grew heavy. None of the tears slipped down to his cheek. But the change in tone spoke way more than his apology every could.
"Sorry for everything. I can't change overnight, but I won't ruin you anymore... I won't ruin my wife anymore."
He hung his head down again, fighting the urge to let himself vulnerable.
For a moment, he rested his forehead on Ayesha's knee. Meanwhile her? She was too confused. What was with the sudden change? but inside her she could feel that... this man, was really broken.
She had all right to hate him. To dislike him.
But did she have the right to hate a man who was never loved? who was always taught that definition of a relation was nothing more than transaction?
She wasn't witnessing Rushaan Amogh's breakdown...
She witnessed the breakdown of the ego, of the false definitions... of the illusion he always believed.
She forwarded her hand, to run it on his hair once. To remind him that, he wasn't alone. That even though she was angry with him as his wife, but as a human? she was supporting him today. Because today... this actor wasn't acting. He faced a reality that, to his own parents... he was a pawn.
But before she could reach him, he stood up and rushed from there to their shared bedroom.
She stared at him, noticing his disappearing figure.
Badi dadi fixed Rushaan's father under her stare, her hand silently holding Ayesha's hand to support her.
"If what Vivaan said was true... then consider that you don't have your grandmother anymore. The day I die, don't even show your face on my funeral. I'll be ashamed to have such a grandson."
"Ma..." Rushaan's grandmother, Dhar's mother said to badi dadi- who was her mother-in-law.
"Don't say that for someone like him." She pressed her lips in a thin line before saying. "When he'll lose his right to call me his mother, what right he'll have to call you his grandmother."
Dhar's wife stepped forward furiously.
"Then toh divide the property right now only. You all are separating us from the family? then separate completely. We don't want to live in your grace."
But the moment she said, she regretted it. She paused for a moment before saying, perhaps this would soften the old woman's furious heart.
"Rushaan will also go with...."
"No, my husband and me aren't going anywhere." Ayesha declared calmly.
"Who are you to order me?" Rushaan's mother glared at her, offended that she even spoke against her.
"The wife of my grandson." Grandmother said again and signalled Ayesha to attend Rushaan.
"Disperse everyone. Five days will be enough for me to decide what Dhar's wife said." Grandmother announced coldly and without waiting for a moment, took badi dadi with her to their room downstairs.
The hall started to lose the gathering slowly. One by one, everyone went away, until only Dhar and his wife were left alone. Each glance, each eye, was of disappointment.
However, none of them explained themselves- that were they disappointed that Dhar was accused, that Dhar was the culprit? or were they disappointed that... Kruthi was under care, still alive?
"They are over-reacting. It's not such a big thi..."
Rushaan's mother's words were cut off by a sharp stinging sound.
Dhar looked at her with barely supressed anger, her face tilted down, the sting of slap still fresh.
He looked at him with teary eyes.
"Why did you have to say that? WHY?"
She flinched.
"Can't you stay silent? why do you always have to meddle in between?" Dhar continued in his furious tone. His hands trembled beneath the facade of normalcy, but his actions failed to maintain that facade.
"What if ma really separates us out of family? I was changing the sequence, but you always have to open your mouth on wrong time."
He pointed his finger at her.
"If that happens... I am divorcing you. It's not like you were any important for me."
He turned around and rushed from there while making hasty calls.
"Yes, Mr.Ghosh. I need some cctv footages, files of all our rivals..."
His voice trailed off with his disappearing form.
But his words, his actions and...
His slap...
Were deep down imprinted on the soul of the woman he promised to share a life with.