Hasta-prāpya-stabaka-namito bāla-Mandāra-vṛkṣaḥ

Chapter Sixteen

"Siddhesh Sawant!" Raghav shouted, and Damayanti jumped off his lap and ran to a corner of the den, where she turned and looked at him with worried eyes. "You egoistic middle-class nobody!" Noticing Damayanti's defensive stance, Raghav got up and walked over to her, and she dodged him.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" Raghav called out, exasperated. "I was coming over to comfort you, but you don't understand me. Just like your Amma, you're frightened by me, and you want to run to Mandar. Well, the door is closed. You have to learn to trust me in here, or you'll be miserable."

"Open the door first." The quiet voice was Raghav's own, but he turned around to make sure.

"Where have you been all day, Luṅgīvālā?" Raghav saw his alter ego sitting behind his desk, his face woebegone. "You look like your dog just died."

Damayanti growled at that remark, and Raghav realized that she was hiding behind the desk, maybe at Luṅgīvālā Raghav's feet.

"Open the door, Raghav Rao," Luṅgīvālā Raghav repeated. "You've made it through the day courageously. You made the right choice so many times. This one's easy."

Raghav opened the den door and stood back, expecting Damayanti to run out. She didn't.

"Now, sit cross-legged on the floor." Raghav did as Luṅgīvālā Raghav said, but Damayanti didn't come to him.

"Be patient," Luṅgīvālā Raghav advised. "She needs you to comfort her, just as much as you need to comfort her. Now that the door is open, she can trust you."

"I want my whisky," Raghav muttered. "I've waited for it all day."

"You were saying, about Siddhesh Dādā?" Luṅgīvālā Raghav reminded him.

"Siddhesh Sawant had the audacity to end a call with me. With Raghav Rao! I said that I would give whatever Pallavi wants from me, and he didn't even think about what I could do for her, or for him and Vahinī! 'We will always look after her. You take care of yourself,' he said! He meant that I'm on my own! I'm nobody to him, so he won't miss me! He ... he even said something about me in Marathi to my dog! He treats me like ..." Raghav got distracted when he felt Damayanti climbing into his lap.

"Like someone who intruded on the family where Pallavi didn't want him." Luṅgīvālā Raghav offered, as he sat down face-to-face with Raghav. Raghav recalled the first time he had seen Siddhesh, who had stood back while an indignant Pallavi told Raghav to leave Manasi's saṃgīta.

"He has forgotten that his own sister told him, I brought her safely home that night," Raghav retorted. "Maybe no one else, but Siddhesh Dādā should believe me when I say, I love Pallavi and I'm trying to change for her."

"Yes, Siddhesh Dādā heard what Pallavi said about you, but he also saw you shaking Vijay Deshmukh and shouting at him. Dādā and Vahinī both heard you accusing Pallavi of claiming an abortion to blackmail you. If a man spoke to Celli like that, if you thought he could be violent with her, would you forgive him?" Luṅgīvālā Raghav cupped Damayanti's face in both of his palms to reassure her, while Raghav stroked her back and haunches, trying not to be too forceful, although the thought of someone misbehaving with Kirti was unbearable.

"You thought, Siddhesh Dādā and Pavani Vahinī liked you, just because they smiled on video chat when Pallavi introduced you to them as her husband, and they asked you to take good care of her." Luṅgīvālā Raghav's tone was wistful; he was sorry he had known better. "What choice did they have? Pallavi was on her way to them, she was almost home, where she would have been safe from you, when you convinced her to give you thirty days in Mandar's name. Dādā and Vahinī had to act supportive, if they wanted Pallavi to ask them for help the next time you made her miserable."