Page 85 of The Unwanted Husband
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Later that evening, she sat silently in the living room of her brother’s house, not wanting to talk or eat or do anything for that matter. She couldn’t get herself to go to bed and sleep through the night, especially knowing that the man she was going up against had deep pockets and a high influence on the judicial system.
She was lost in the details as she looked through the newly submitted evidence, when she heard Ashok clear his throat and that made her look up.
“You wanted to know why my knuckles were bruised?” Ashok’s voice was playful.
She knew he was trying to distract her from the analysis paralysis she was going through in her mind. “No, I don’t,” She winked. “I want to be worried sick about what’s going to happen with the case.”
He snickered. “I’m still going to tell you. And if you don’t pay attention, I won’t answer any of your follow up questions.”
She wanted to know but she didn’t want to discuss that particular topic at that point. She only shook her head and went back to looking at the files that had the new evidence that was submitted by the great Mr. Saini’s defense lawyers.
“Did you know there is a new manufacturing unit that Randeep Corp has set up in Vietnam?” Ashok’s voice was casual but it sent tremors through her as she looked up at him.
Randeep Corp was Aman’s family business and she could not figure out why Ashok was mentioning them. “What?”
He shrugged. “What? I thought you were busy reviewing the evidence.”
Isha put away the file and turned to face him. “Why are you talking about Aman’s family business?”
“Because that’s the only way I can explain the bruises on my knuckles.” He let out a laugh.
Isha’s mind was spinning. “Ashok, what happened?” She took his hand to look at the bruises that were still raw. Like his skin got scraped that day.
He leaned closer to her. “No one gets to be disrespectful with my wife.” The intensity in his eyes shook her to the core. The words were what she heard but the inference behind the simple statement shook her to her core.
“Ashok…what…did you meet Aman?” Her mind was swirling and yet that was the only conclusion it could come to.
He nodded in response. “I felt the need to introduce myself as your husband.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “And? You punched him? For what?” It was a wild guess but what else could it be?
Ashok leaned closer in his seat and reached out his hand. “Come here.”
If Ashok’s goal was to keep her from looking through the documents over and over again, he had succeeded. She walked over to where he sat and like it was so natural, he took his hand and tugged on it and she literally fell into his lap.
Her face was level with his and he repeated, “No one gets to be disrespectful with my wife.” His hand went to her cheek. “No tears for anyone or anything.”
The intensity in his voice made her throat dry. She remembered the time she was emotional about being away from him and instead of confessing to that, she had given a different reason for her sadness. She did not expect Ashok to do what he did.
She suddenly felt guilty about lying to him and not being open about her feelings. There was also joy around Ashok confronting Aman for what he did. She wanted to come clean but she was worried it would complicate the crap out of their situation.
“Ashok,” she started to say and lowered her eyes, not able to look at him as she began to speak the truth. “I…I wasn’t being entirely truthful about why I was upset the night I told you about Aman.”
She felt his finger on her chin. He made her look at him but did not say anything. He waited like he knew she needed the time to speak and instead of pressing her for the details, he took the back of her hand and laid a series of kisses.
“Ashok,” her breath hitched when she realized what she was going to tell him would be an admission that she had not made to herself and that she would put him in a bind that he did not sign up for. “I’ve been…,” she said struggling to find the right words and it frustrated her to the point where she let out a sob.
Like he read her mind, he ran his fingers into her hair and pulled her into a soft kiss as if he was coaxing her to talk.
“I want you,” she whispered against his lips, her voice breaking on the words. “I want to be with you all the time and it terrifies me; it terrifies me so much that I dread the thought of going back to San Francisco.”
The confession tore from her throat, raw and bleeding. There was no controlling the torrent of emotions anymore, no dam strong enough to hold back the flood of the need and desperation that consumed her.
“I know this is not how it’s supposed to be,” she pulled back, her hands trembling as they framed his face, memorizing how his face felt against her palm. Her eyes were wild with panic,with an emotion so fierce it felt like she was dying on the inside. “You were the unwanted husband, the burden I had to bear, the situation I had to endure. But now...”
Her voice shattered completely, reduced to fragments of pain and longing.
