Innocence, or Lack Thereof ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 3: Amen Omen

The most foolish thing that you can do yourself is that you follow the majority just because they are the majority. You loses yourself and your value if you follows everyone and abandons your ideas and principles and thinks that the only way to coexist with others is similarity ~ Riddhima Ghosh

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Weeks passed and Vansh was a man of his word. He made a point to see Riddhima every single day, even if it was only for a moment. He went through the motions of his everyday life, did business, talked with his sisters, ate, slept, cooked. But really, what he was doing, was biding his time until he could go find her again. He was utterly consumed by the look in her eyes when the sun hit them just right and they glinted charmingly, the loud, boisterous laugh she produced when Vansh said something amusing, but mostly, he was still enamored with the tender touch of her hand she had given him once and refused to again. There was softness in that gesture, sadness, regret, pain and loss also, of course, but also hope. She hadn't opened to him the way she did that one afternoon, but Vansh was determined, stubborn as the day was long, to try and bring out that honesty and vulnerability.

At the end of the first week, one of the other captains she had mentioned to him, Vyom, found his way into town, and there was a full day of celebration and rejoicing when news of further victory reached the ears of everyone in town, soldiers and civilians alike.

Vyom worried Vansh though. He was standoffish, quiet, mysterious to say the least, much like Riddhima. But it wasn't his behavior that made Vansh nervous; it was the sudden and profound infatuation he had inspired in his youngest sister. Sia, upon seeing him, looked as though she had been struck, and before Vansh even knew what she was doing, she went over and introduced herself. Vyom seemed shocked to say the very least that this woman was talking to him from nowhere and for no apparent reason, but her charm must have won him over. He was smiling and laughing with her as though they were old friends within a few minutes.

Angre and Ishani, for their part, were interacting far more than he thought they would, spending time together more frequently as the days went by. But he was their brother, not their father. If Ishani wanted to spend time with Angre, whom Vansh had discovered to be a great, terrifying man if provoked, but on the whole a kind soul, he would not stop her. And Sia made such an uproar about finding Vyom, how handsome he was, kind, intelligent…the list went on, that Vansh could hardly tell her not to see him if she chose it. Riddhima, in the short conversation he had been able to have with her that day, had told him that if ever Sia and Ishani were going to fall in love with men, she could not think of two finer than Vyom and Angre. And so he let go of as much worry as was possible for a protective older brother to do, and let each of them pursue their respective men if that was their wish.

It amused Vansh to watch them go about their particular dances of seduction and entrancement. Ishani was ever the lady, but audacious enough to be considered somewhat of a tease, and Angre followed her around like a love struck fool. It became obvious after that first week that he had lost the will to do as he pleased and lived solely to bend to the will of Ishani. That of course, suited her just fine.

Sia went about her luring of Vyom in a completely different way. She was not shy, didn't pretend to be a proper lady, in fact it seemed she delighted in the measure of freedom Riddhima had introduced to the little town in which they lived. She had no problem in telling Vyom exactly what she thought of him, informing him on several occasions that she thought he was 'absolutely charming', 'ridiculously handsome' and telling him she hoped he didn't have a wife or lover anywhere because that simply didn't fit into the plans she had. And of course, Vyom being friends with Riddhima, found her style absolutely captivating, her honesty refreshing, and assured her no woman had yet ensnared his heart that would prevent her from doing so.