Gossip, Weddings, and Manipulation

Chapter 40 - Gossip

Parveen POV (Vivek's mom)

"Pradeep I have to call Sunita at some point in time. She has to know that our son is dating her almost daughter in law. You need to be by my side while I call. And you're going to have to talk to Deepak. You're going to have to convince him to accept this relationship. Vivek has finally found someone and I'm not going to let that gossipy sister-in-law of yours ruin my son's life. She has her own son to control she better not do anything to interfere in Vivek's life."

"Parveen calm down. We haven't even called them and you're already ready to fight. You don't even know if this is going to be a problem. You're already assuming the worst."

"Of course I'm assuming the worst! I know Sunita! She lives for stuff like this. I've always been nice to her and put up with all of her crap because she's your elder brother's wife, but I will not stay quiet this time. You're duly warned. If I have to pick between my son and her, it's my son!"

"Calm down, I'm dialing the number. I'll start the conversation."

Ring. Ring. Ring. "Hello."

"Hi Sunita bhabhi. How are you?"

"I'm doing well Pradeep. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. Parveen is also on the phone. Can you also get Deepak on the phone, we have some good news to share and we'd like to share it with you at the same time."

"Of course, hold on." In the background, "Deepak its Pradeep and Parveen on the phone. Hurry up and pick up the other line."

Click. "Hi Pradeep and Parveen. So good to hear from you. It must be good news if you're both calling. I hope it's about my other son, Vivek." Deepak said.

"Yes, it's about Vivek. He's met someone he's very serious about and he wants to marry her. We haven't officially met her yet, but she's from Toronto." Pradeep said to break into the conversation.

"Oh that is so wonderful! Who is she? I can get you any information you want on the girl and her family. I'll be happy to tell you if it's a good match and if the girl is from a good family. Because if she's not from a good family you should have Vivek end things before they get too far." Sunita gushed.

"I think you already know the girl quite well." I said. Sunita always got under my skin. I was going to be delivering this message.

"Who is the girl?" Sunita asked.

"Tara Khanna."

"Oh my god! You can't be serious. That churel (whore in Hindi). It wasn't enough for her to ruin my son now she wants to dig her nails into one of our other boys! She's after our family. You must stop Vivek before she cheats on him too."

My husband took over the conversation much to my chagrin, "Actually bhabhi, we need to discuss that. Tara is not entirely to blame for breaking Armaan's heart. I need you to hear us out before you make any judgments. I know what happened was terrible for all of you and now to hear that Vivek is involved with the same girl probably comes at a shock. But, I hope you'll be able to forgive all parties involved."

Deepak interrupted cutting to the chase, "But you still want Tara for Vivek?"

"Yes, as my older brother and sister-in-law we want your blessings for our son's marriage and your forgiveness."

"What do you mean our forgiveness?"

"The boy Tara cheated on with Armaan was Vivek."

I heard Sunita gasp. Oh god this sounded terrible, it was like it was out of some Bollywood movie.

"But, I thought the boy she was with was some Caucasian boy?"

"Armaan made that up to cover for Vivek. He knew if you knew it was an Indian boy you'd want to know who it was. The boys were also afraid that it would ruin our relationship and break up the family. They figured to give it some time before telling us. We just now found out about how Vivek pursued Tara." Pradeep paused so that his brother and sister in law could take it all in.

"This isn't Tara's fault at all. Vivek met her even before the engagement and kept pursuing her until she said yes. He met her on one of his visits to see Armaan. He kept going back to Toronto, calling her, sending her flowers and kept pursuing her until she finally caved in. Vivek takes full responsibility for what happened. I know you both must be mad and disappointed. But, Tara and Armaan's engagement was arranged and you know the young generation they want love and Vivek fell in love with Tara."

Now I at least knew why Vivek hadn't wanted to go to Armaan's engagement. He had made such a fuss. It's probably why he missed the engagement ceremony. It was probably too painful to watch Tara get engaged to his cousin. I sighed knowing everything made sense now.

"Of course you have our blessings and Vivek has our forgiveness. How can I not forgive my own son? Parveen and Pradeep you know Vivek is like a third son to me. At the end of the day, all we want for our children is for them to be happy and if Vivek is happy with Tara then that's all that matters. You don't need to worry about what people will say. Sunita has a heavy influence on what gets passed on and Sunita you will make sure that the story comes out that we wanted to hide this as a family until things died down. Two brothers going for the same girl. Being that both boys are in the same family, it was awkward to say anything initially. And, Sunita, make sure you first call Tara's parents first and apologize to them. The rest will take care of itself."

"Ji, of course. We're happy for Vivek and Tara." She stuttered. "Don't worry about anything here, I'll make the calls and in no time this will be yesterdays news and we'll be preparing for another wedding."

"Thank you both for understanding. I'm sorry things happened this way." I said and then we said our goodbyes and ended the call.

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Sorry this is a very short chapter and I know the last few have been short too - but I thought they belong as stand alone chapters.