Spoiled • 18+ • Arranged Marriage Story

Twenty Eight

It wasn't her best handwriting but it was the best she could manage. He still said nothing and his eerie behavior was making her worried.

"And look! Look! I have a gift for you!" She tugged the album on the table and opened it. He did look at it. She opened the first page. "This is you as a baby and this is me."

And she opened the other page, it was pictures of her. And then she opened the page to where they were their teenage selves and she showed him it.

Sakshi's stomach fell when he looked at it and then when he looked at her, his eyes were so cold that she shivered. "Right. I'm off to take a bath then." He said and he grabbed his towel and walked away.

Sakshi stared at his back and then at the washroom door. She couldn't understand what had happened. She looked at the cake and the wax dripping from the candles. She bent forward and blew the flames off.

She blinked as she felt her eyes sting. She turned off the string lights and then she ripped off the streamers. Her heart burned and she felt heat coarse through all her body. She threw it all in the bin and when it didn't fit, she stuffed it in. She threw the cake down it too.

Her chest heaved and her eyelids felt heavy with tears. She felt like she would burst any moment now. Just then, the bathroom door clicked open and she could feel the soft pads of his feet. His back was to him and she followed him through the reflection in the mirror. He had changed his clothes. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and sweat pants.

Sakshi gulped down the knot in her throat. Blinking back her tears she sat at the dressing table. She took off her earrings.

Two could play that game and they both had played the silent game so well that they hadn't even spoken more than a few sentences to each other for five years. If he was going to act uncouth, she could act like that too.

She watched him sit on the bed and his head bent looking at the phone. She looked away with a haughty sniff and focused on tying up her hair. Then she heard, Myra's voice. It came from his phone.

"Hey, Sid! Happy Birthday. I am hugging the toilet right now...augh! Then there were some growls, "It will get better-" Then she heard Myra retching again.

Sakshi refocused on tying her hair into a bun but what made her see red wasn't Myra wishing him happy birthday but it was what came next.

He chuckled. She heard him and she saw him. His lips were curved in a smile. That was the last straw. She felt herself chuckle too. Her stomach churned with burning acid and she wanted to spill it. Why should I burn alone! She thought.

"Oh if I knew it beforehand, I would've invited some clowns to make you laugh! Why! I would've invited whores, they would've worked better!" She said in the sweetest voice she could muster.

She turned after tucking her hair into a bun and smiled at him. She beamed at him. His back was to her but she saw his back stiffen and his jaw grows taunt. Some part of her told them to stop but she couldn't. That was how she was. She hurt and she turned sharp and hurt back.

"Maybe, we can do that for your next birthday!" She said in the same sickly sweet voice.

He stood up abruptly and she flinched. Her stomach dropped. The confidence was the first to flee her and her anger had simmered into fear and settled like a stone in her stomach. He walked toward her and she froze. Her hands were chilled and she dug them into the folds of her saree so that they could warm up.

"Say that again." He said as he stood before she loomed over her. Then he bent forward. His breaths were hitting her hair.

"You're under this misconception that I need this marriage when you told me you'd need this marriage or the facade of it for your political career. So, try saying it again and I'll divorce you in a snap. Then your political career can go to hell for all I care."