21

Manik

"I was thinking Nandini and I should go to the upcoming office party as a couple. It will be the perfect event to let everyone know she is my wife," I tell my parents, smiling as they nod thoughtfully.

This might be a cheap shot, involving my parents to make Nandini come with me to the party, but I don't care.

Anything to stop her from going to the party with anyone else.

"I agree with you, Manik. I think we should let everyone know about our daughter-in-law now. We didn't hold a reception party after your wedding because you did not want your marriage to be a big affair. But I am glad to see you ready to introduce your wife to the world," Dad tells me.

I contemplate for a second after hearing what Dad said because I realize this will significantly impact my and Nandini's lives.

There will be media at the party too, and if I announce Nandini being my wife, not only Samrat and my employees but the whole world will know about it.

Would it be fair to make such a decision without telling Nandini about it?

I am still thinking about it when Mom starts speaking. "Did you talk with Nandini about it? She had said she did not want anyone in our office to know she was your wife. Did she also change her decision?"

"I have not asked Nandini yet," I reply, about to elaborate further when I hear her voice.

"Not asked me what, Manik?"

I see Nandini walk toward where we were seated in the living room, a mild curiosity marring her face.

"Manik wants to introduce you as his wife at the upcoming office party, Nandini. I think it's a great idea, too," Dad tells her, and I notice the instant change on Nandini's face.

Where there was a mild curiosity a second back, there is only disbelief and anger now.

Still, she schools her expression and starts speaking. "But, Dad. I don't want that. Everyone in the office will start getting conscious in front of me if they get to know I am their boss's wife. I don't want that to happen."

Hearing Nandini's tight voice, I understand she is trying to contain her anger in front of my parents.

"But that's bound to happen one day, Nandini. After all, you are Manik's wife, our daughter-in-law, and everyone in the office is eventually going to know that," Mom says, and Nandini's angry mask slips for a second, something akin to hurt flashing through her eyes.

"I know it will happen eventually, but I don't want it to happen now, Mom. I have just started working at the office and have made some friends. I don't want my relationship with Manik to make awkwardness seep into our friendship."

"If you feel that way, we can hold back the announcement for a few more months. Maybe we can host another party after a few months to introduce you as Sisodiya's daughter-in-law when you are ready," Mom says to Nandini and turns at me. "Right, Manik?"

I nod at my mother and look at Nandini. She has tightly balled her hands into fists, and I understand she is doing that because she is angry.

It is amazing that I have started to notice these small things about her.

Like how she balls her hands into fists whenever she is angry. How she starts clenching and unclenching her fingers when she is nervous. How her whole face becomes flushed whenever she is irritated or angry. How her—

I snap out of my musings when Nandini calls me. "I need to talk with you about tomorrow's meeting, Manik. Shall we go to your office?"

I frown because there is no meeting scheduled in the office tomorrow. Nevertheless, I nod at her and follow her as she ascends the stairs to go to my office.

***********

Nandini

"What the hell, Manik? How can you decide such a thing without even telling me about it first?" I ask Manik, feeling my whole body go warm due to anger.

"If I had asked you, you would have said no," he says, and I feel my anger rising.

"Of course, I would have said no. Why would I want to be introduced as your wife when our marriage will end in a few months?"

"That is what I am saying, Nandini. Why do you want to end our marriage?" He asks, and I am about to reply to him when he speaks again, not giving me a chance to say anything.

"I know I said before that this marriage meant nothing to me, but now I want to give it a chance. In fact, you should also want it and be happy about it. After all, no girl wants her marriage to break, right?"

I exhale loudly, looking at Manik with nothing but disbelief echoing in my mind.

"Hmm, you are right, Mr. Manik Sisodiya. I should be happy," I tell him. "I should even start dancing in joy because my so-called husband, who married me for revenge, called me an unwanted wife on our wedding night, and also accused me of being a gold-digger, suddenly wants to give our marriage a try."

"Nandini, why—" he begins, but I cut him off.

"Shut up, Manik. Just shut the fuck up," I say, surprising Manik as well as myself, as I have never said that word before.

Well, I have never been this angry before too.

"Are you even hearing yourself? Are you even processing what you are asking of me?" I ask him, wanting to shake him hard to drill some sense into him.

"First, you said this marriage meant nothing to you. Now, you want to give this marriage a chance. Why?" I glare at him, raising my hand to stop him from speaking when he opens his mouth.

"I know why. It must be because you are now done taking your revenge and feel guilty about ruining my life in your bid to do that.

"You would not have even felt guilty if you did not know about my past. But now that you know, you must be thinking, 'Poor Nandini. She didn't get love from her parents and was even molested. So, I better pity her and keep her as my wife.' Right, Mr. Sisodiya?" I dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from punching the man in front of me.

"Nandini, you are mis—" Manik begins, but I again interrupt him.

"You want this now because you feel guilty. What if you regret some other day for getting yourself bound to me out of pity? I am sure you will then tell me to get out of your life.

"After all, that is what you do. Play with me on your whims," I say, my anger steadily rising with each passing second.

"Well, guess what, Mr. Sisodiya. I refuse to be a part of your play anymore. I don't care if you want to give this meaningless marriage a second chance because I do not want to. Drill it in your mind." I start walking toward him.

"I.do.not.want.to.be.your.wife," I punctuate every word as I look straight into his eyes while walking toward him.

***********

Manik

Turning away from me, Nandini is about to walk toward the door when I hold her hand and pull her back to me.

She collides with my chest, a surprised gasp escaping her lips as she holds my shoulder to prevent herself from falling.

"It does not matter whether you want it or not, Nandini, because you are already my wife," I smirk as she fumes at me.

She tries to free her hand, but I tighten my hold.

"I did tell you that this marriage was unwanted for me on our wedding night, but that does not change the fact that we did get married. With proper rituals."

She starts pushing me with all her strength, and I let her go.

After moving back a few steps, she opens her mouth, and from the look on her face, I understand whatever she is going to say won't be pleasant for me to hear.

So, I start speaking before she does.

"I will be honest with you, Nandini," I begin. "I do not know why I want to give our marriage a second chance. Maybe it's because of my guilt, maybe something else," I pause, taking a deep breath.

"But I know I won't regret this decision. I honestly want to see where this will take us," I say, but she shakes her head.

"I do not want to see, Manik," she tells me. "I can't start afresh with someone who used me as a pawn for his advantage.

"You made that decision on your own and ladened me with it on our wedding night. Now, too, you are doing the same--deciding on your own and wanting me to go along with it.

"I just can't envision my life with someone who only thinks about himself, doing everything according to his convenience, not for once taking me and my feelings into account. I just can't.

"So, I am telling you for the last time, Manik. Let go of your stubbornness of making this marriage work because that will never happen." Saying that, she walks out of my office, and I don't stop her this time.

Nandini

Waking up, I open my eyes and immediately press on my forehead to lessen my headache.

Unable to sleep after having a talk with Manik last night, I had tossed and turned the whole night, only falling asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Even Manik did not come to the room the whole night last night.

“I wonder why he didn’t come.”

I shake my head the moment that sentence escapes my lips.

I don’t care why he didn’t come. I don’t want to wonder anything about him.

Sighing, I climb down from the sofa, about to get the first aid box so I can take a pill for my headache.

But I gasp out loud when Manik suddenly appears before me.

“What the f—” I don’t complete the sentence, just hiss due to the sharp pain I feel in my head.

“Hmm, you are getting used to using that word.” He looks at me with an amused expression on his face.

I only shake my head, ignoring him to get to the bedside table, but he forwards a cup toward me.

“What is this, Manik?”

“A cup of coffee for my lovely wife,” he tells me, and my eyes widen to such extent that I feel them about to come out of my socket.

“What is the meaning of this?” I inquiringly peer at him.

“Well, I made a cup of coffee for you, and brought it for you. That’s the only meaning of this.” He says, a smile on his face, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“I don’t have time or energy for your games this early in the morning, Manik,” I tell him. “I have a headache, and I also need to get ready so I can get to the office in time.”

“Oh, that’s great that you have a headache,” he says and I raise my eyes at him.

“You think me having a headache is great?”

“Oh, no, no.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t mean it that way. I meant coffee is great in curing headache. Try it?”

He forwards the cup toward me but I ignore it and walk ahead to take the pill.

Once done, I walk to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready, completely ignoring Manik and the coffee he made for me.

Manik

Seeing Nandini entering the bathroom, I take a deep breath and take a sip of coffee I brought for her, knowing that she would not be drinking it.

“Well, I hadn’t expected her to drink too.”

I know this will take time.

After everything that has gone down between us, it will definitely take some time to make things normal between us.

When Nandini told me all those things last night, I thought hard about it.

Infact, I thought about it whole night and came to the conclusion that she was right about everything she said.

It was me who had decided to marry her to take my revenge against Myra and Raghav. On our wedding night, I even told her this marriage was unwanted for me.

Then, after I was done taking my revenge, it was again me who decided to give our marriage another chance.

It has always been me who has been deciding everything in our marriage, never giving her the chance to express her feelings about those decisions.

So, I have decided that this time I won’t force her to give me a second chance.

I will only show her that I have changed for the better and really want to try to make our marriage work.

It would be then her decision whether or not to stay married to me.

Well, I am going to be so charming that she will definitely choose to stay married to me.

I smirk at that thought, taking another sip of the coffee.

***********

Nandini

“Manik told us that you would be going to the ball with Samrat,” Mom says to me as I sit beside her in the living room after returning from the office.

Although the tone of her voice is normal, I still feel uneasy as she peers at me.

“Umm, yes, Mom,” I begin. “Since no one in the office knows about Manik and I being married, Samrat asked me if I would like to go to the party with him. I said yes because he has become my good friend since I joined the office.

“I hope it’s not a problem?” I reticently ask her.

Although Manik’s parents have been good to me, I wonder if they would be disappointed if their daughter-in-law went to the party with someone else rather than their son.

“Of course, Nandini. It’s not a problem.” Mom warmly smiles at me. “We have known Samrat for a few years now, and he is a good man. Since you cannot go to the party with Manik given that your relationship is not known to your colleagues, it’s good that you are going with Samrat, who we know and trust.”

“Thank you, Mom,” I smile back at her, sighing in relief.

“Since only sixteen days are left for the party, you should start shopping for the gown you will be wearing for the ball,” she tells me and my relief suddenly vanishes.

“Dress?”

“Yes, Nandini. Manik told me you would need to go shopping because you do not have a gown that you can wear to the ball,” she says, and that surprises me.

Why is Manik worrying about whether or not I have a gown to wear to the ball?

I do not get time to ponder on it more because Mom starts speaking again.

“I can’t believe I totally forgot about you needing a gown, but I am glad that Manik thought about it,” she says. “It is good that he is so thoughtful toward you.”

I resist my urge to scoff when I hear her.

Manik and thoughtful? So not true.

Since I cannot voice that thought to my mother-in-law, I only smile and nod my head.

“It is really nice that Manik thought about it, Mom,” I tell her. “But I was thinking of going to my own tailor to have the gown custom made.”

That way it will be cheaper, and won’t cause any dent to my savings.

“No. That won’t do, Nandini,” Mom says, making me frown. “This is the first big even you are going to after your marriage with Manik.

“Yes you won’t be going with him, and no one there will know that you are Sisodiya’s daughter in law. Still, I want you to look your best.

“That is why I have called my friend tomorrow at our house. He owns a boutique and will be designing a gown for you.”

“But, Mom—” I begin to deny when she interrupts me.

“No buts, Nandini. I have already decided it. And I have also told Manik to let you come home early tomorrow so you can give your measurements and talk with my friend about the type of design and color you would want in the gown. Ok?”

Looking at her firm demeanor, I understand there is no use trying to persuade her otherwise.

So, I only nod at her, hoping I will be able to pay for the gown from my savings when I will leave this house after divorcing Manik.