Page 162 of Lawfully Yours
*****************
It was finally the weekend. Kushal popped open a beer and settled on the leather couch, his eyes fixed on the football match flashing across the massive plasma screen. He leaned back, legs stretched out, remote in one hand, the occasional sip of beer in the other.
Arundhati wandered into the living room, barefoot. Football was never her thing, but the thought of being away from him tonight was worse. So she slipped onto the couch beside him, her hands folded neatly in her lap, eyes pretending to follow the game.
Every so often, she stole quick glances at him… the sharp line of his jaw as he clenched it during tense plays, the way his brow furrowed, the little sighs he made when his team missed a chance. But he never once looked at her. Not a word, not even the faintest acknowledgement that she was sitting right there. Just football, beer, and silence.
Minutes stretched. The match dragged on. Soon her eyelids grew heavy. Against her will, her body gave in to exhaustion. She shifted, unconsciously leaning toward him until her head rested lightly on his shoulder.
That’s when he froze.
The muscles under his shirt went rigid, his hand tightening around the bottle. She could feel the change instantly, both the pause in his breathing and his hesitation. For a moment, herheart fluttered wildly. Maybe… maybe he’d soften. Maybe he’d do what a husband who still cared, who still loved, would do.
So she kept her eyes shut, feigning sleep, waiting.
If he carried her to their bedroom,theirbed, the one he’d barred her from, it would mean something. If he took her to the guest room, it would still mean he cared. Either way, she wanted to know.
But the worst happened.
The TV clicked off. The living room sank into silence, broken only by the faint clink of him setting down the empty bottle. Then, gently, he shifted her head off his shoulder, propping it against the couch cushion behind.
She held her breath, still pretending to sleep, until his merciless voice reached her.
“Go back to your room and sleep, Arundhati. Good night.”
There was no warmth, no softness in his tone. Just that loads of male ego.
She waited for footsteps, then the sound of his bedroom door locking shut. Only then did she snap her eyes open, glaring into the dim shadows of the penthouse. He was behaving like a stranger. That sting was brutal. She forced the tears back and headed back to the guest room.
*****************
Enough was enough now. An entire week had passed since she had shifted to their penthouse. Despite sharing the same roof, there was no movement, no progress in their relationship. She initially had decided to win him back with dignity, stubbornness and fire. But none of it worked. Now, she would have to escalate her actions to bring the desired reactions from him, and she knew exactly what she had to do next.
It was around 11:00 a.m. at Verma & Associates. Kushal sat at the head of the long mahogany table in the conference room to lead a full-house meeting with all senior lawyers.Raj Verma wasout this morning for a court session, so the responsibility had fallen to him. Updates on some of the firm’s top celebrity cases were being reviewed.
Everyone was present except Arundhati. He wondered why she was late today. She was always on time. They were still arriving separately to work, even though they left from the same building every morning. He wasn’t blind to her soft, deliberate efforts all week to bridge the gulf between them, but he’d made sure she didn’t succeed. The irony was, every cold reaction he gave her burned him too.
He started the meeting without her, and in half an hour, the door opened, and there she was. Arundhati was draped in a plain, satin lavender saree that clung just right and was holding a file in her hand. For a moment, Kushal’s throat went dry. It had been so long since he’d seen her draped in one, and God, he had always loved her in it…the grace, the allure, the way she carried it like it was made only for her.
Conversation faltered as almost every head turned, eyes following her as she stood at the door.
But that was not it. Kushal wasn’t ready for what he saw next. It wasn’t just the saree, though that alone was enough to undo him. But today, there was something more.
The undeniable streak of sindoor in her hairline. She wasn’t just wearing it; she was flaunting it. Declaring to the world, without words, that she washis. That she intended to remain his.
For a beat too long, he forgot to breathe as she walked with calm grace to the only empty chair beside him, apologising softly for being late, then slid into her seat. And only then, she looked at him, gave him the faintest, sly smile, the kind only a wife would when she knew she had scored a hit.
She was playing with fire. She knew it. And she was right.He was affected.
He swallowed hard, forcing himself to tear his gaze away when he realised the entire team was now watching him, catching every flicker of his reaction. Gossip was the last thing he needed.
He cleared his throat, opened his file again, and continued as if nothing had happened. “Okay, let’s move to the pending case of Ahujas… I want a full update.”
But it was useless. Every few seconds, his eyes betrayed him, flicking to her. And there she was, not looking at anyone else, but only at him. Watching him lead, her gaze brimming with a quiet pride. Pride that looked achingly like it belonged to a wife.
He reached for his water bottle to buy himself a breath, sipped too quickly, and put it down harder than intended. How could he focus on case updates when the woman across the table had just raised their silent battle of wills to a whole new level?
Arundhati’s eyes gleamed in quiet triumph. Yes, she had turned the game one notch higher. And Kushal, no matter how much he pretended otherwise, was already losing control.Finally!
