The Kashyup Redemption

xxiii. Hera

Monica shook her head. "Parth."

The man in front of her looked at her with an annoyed expression.

"All you've said of his behaviour to his sister who seems to be the epitome of goodness tells me that this man could turn out to be a monster. Any man who can't respect his sister or mother is a person who can't be trusted." Monica offers.

"I'm too late for that anyway. I've hurt her myself. How can I snatch it all away from her? She's trying to move on." Parth is fighting with himself.

"You said she is not happy." Isha rolls her eyes at him.

"She could be. Eventually. All she wanted was money and now she has it."Parth's voice is bitter.

"Then why did she love you Parth? Why did she love you enough to throw her whole future away? I've done what you didn't care to do Parth. I've asked Vidushi why she loved you. And she said you were the kindest person she has ever known, someone who deserves so much more. And she told me she was glad you did not get paralyzed." Isha hit him his chest "Fucking asshole. What kind of woman would throw away her chances of becoming a well-paid engineer for someone who hates her? She loves you so much that she doesn't mind you not loving her back. She thinks you don't love her, you never loved her."

Parth paled.

It was too much. Remembering his hands shaking. The helplessness. The fact Vidushi thought he did not love her.

"How did she tell all of this to a stranger?" Parth spat out, angry at her. At Isha. At everyone.

"Not a stranger. I'm technically her friend too. She's friends with Sahil. She needed to talk and I needed to know. Us woman have to stick together." Isha huffed "I want her in your life because that's the best thing for both of you."

"She must not have told you all the ugly things she has done. Well, she's not as poor and innocent as she must have told you. She cheated, lied and stole—"Parth let his anger and hate be poured into his words.

"Oh, she told me all that she has done. From the cheating, lying, stealing and even the video of you.Why do you think she stole all those electronics?She paid for your treatment by stealing. Knowing full well you would hate her even more. Knowing full well that she could be jailed or worse, expelled. Papa tells me you were always a smart child. You know what to do." Isha walked out of the room, all but dragging her mother out with her.

And just like that, he is forced to come face to face with his darker side.

The ugly parts of himself that he has denied all his life.

He is a selfish man. A hypocrite.

He is exactly like all those people he ridicules.

It was always hard for him to admit his mistakes.

And by only seeing Vidushi's flaws, he had wronged her.

He began to recount her actions. Her selflessness hidden behind her selfishness.

Her parents and Varun had tossed her away. And Parth had been no better.

No wonder she was with Ankit.

Misogynistic and conservative Ankit Agarwal had done what Parth could not.

He had given Vidushi a chance and tried to keep her happy.

And Parth hated himself for allowing that to happen.

He wished he had a punching bag in his room, so he could get rid of the anger coursing through his veins.

"Never mind. There's a lot of work that's on my plate." Parth made his way back to his father's study, to the pile of potential companies that they were considering investing in or taking over.

A familiar name on the list made him frown.

'Saniyal'

It was another punch to his gut.

He'd been so involved in his own life that he hadn't remembered to inform Randhir he was alive.

That was another delicate matter that he felt the need to handle, but he'd promised Sanyukta he would not meddle with Randhir and her life anymore.

He did not know how to walk that tightrope between being Randhir's friend and Sanyukta's friend, especially with the chasm that his coma had put between them.

He felt oddly responsible for everything that had happened; like his coma had been the catalyst for all the changes that took place in his friends' lives.

Sahil's confession that it was Parth's coma that had made him realize life was unpredictable and too short to be wasted on doing things that one did not love.

Sanyukta's estrangement from Randhir. Sanyukta's estrangement from engineering due to her misplaced guilt for being responsible for Parth's condition.

Randhir's disappearance.

And...

Vidushi's complete 360-degree whiplash-inducing transformation.

No, he wasn't responsible for the unhappiness he'd seen in her eyes.

She was responsible for her own fate.

And yet, Parth knew it was Vidushi not being with him that had made him take the risk of pressing that button. Had she still been his girlfriend then, he would have thought a million times before pressing that button, cared more about his own life, if only to spare her the pain of worrying over his safety.

If he still had Vidushi, he'd be calmer with the rest of the things because he never pretended with her and it kept him sane. She kept him grounded in a way that Tai Chi never could.

"Vidushi. It's all her fault. She is making me go crazy. Isha is right. There's only one thing that needs to be done with this situation." He banged his fist on the table.

"Work. Fucking work, I can't even concentrate right now." He grabbed his files again and made another attempt to read the important documents.

59 pages later, he had a smirk on his face and a business proposal for his father.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself.

All that was left to do was tell his father the truth.

And once he did that, there would be no going back, no pretending that the woman who had questioned everything he thought about himself was no longer a part of his life.

He had given up on the idea of pretending that she did not matter to him.

Now he had to make her see that she could no longer pretend that she did not care about him.