Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 186 - Goodbye

He ran out the iron gates, and saw that Sidharth had gotten into his car. Shehnaaz had followed behind him, and was now sitting in the middle of the backseat. The empty spot next to Shehnaaz was for Rita.

Before Rita could get in the car, however, Anand reached out and grabbed hold of Rita’s coat-sleeve.

Before exiting the house, both Shehnaaz and Rita had put on their coats.

Shehnaaz wore a knee-length down jacket. Rita wore a lavender cashmere coat that was light, but cosy. The cashmere coat was in a straight, baggy cut, but it did nothing to hide Rita’s voluptuous curves underneath.

Anand looked at Rita with an expression that wavered between sorrow and joy. He held onto her
sleeve, unwilling to let her leave.

Rita, however, had given up on Anand after everything she had seen and heard that evening. The love she had for him had died out after witnessing his intimate
gestures with Kirat.

She took hold of Anand’s hand and pushed it away. She brushed her coat, and said: “General Shukla, please mind your manners.”

“Rita, do you hate me?” Anand’s eyes were a little wet, but he fought off the tears. After so many years of sorrow, the revelations that evening were just as shocking to him as it had been to Rita.

“General Shukla, what reason do I have to hate you?” Rita arched an eyebrow as she pulled her coat together. Her heart was aching, but she did not think it was necessary to show it.

Anand closed his eyes. “That means you hate me. I know you very well, Rita—you always try to appear calm and composed when you’re trying to hide what you actually feel, deep inside.”

“Oh, you actually know that?” Rita let out a long sigh. “You know me so well, and yet you chose to believe the lies of others when I was unable to speak for myself. You chose to divorce me.”

“…Rita, do you honestly believe that I was stupid enough to believe that you and my brother had an affair, just because of a few letters?” Anand’s voice was
solemn. He was about to reveal a secret, and he wished he did not have to do it. He had been determined to protect his dead brother’s reputation, but if revealing the truth was the only way to resolve the misunderstanding between him and Rita, then so be it.

Rita was the one true love in Anand’s life. But he had loved her too deeply, and the depth of his feelings had backfired on him: the moment he saw those
letters, it had seemed to him that his deepest, most secret fear had come true. He had been afraid that she would leave him, so he had decided to take the initiative and leave her instead—he would mercilessly extinguish his feelings for her, before she could break his heart.

Rita looked straight ahead. She said nothing.

The winter nights in the imperial capital were exceptionally cold. It was a moonless, starless night.

The entrance to the Shukla residence was lit by a single street lamp. Rita’s face appeared pale and entirely devoid of expression in the harsh light.

Anand looked at her hesitantly. He said bitterly: “… Rita, did you know? The night before our wedding, my brother told me, in a fit of drunken honesty, that he was in love with you. He said you were the only one for him… But
you chose me instead. Do you know how happy that made me? How touched I was that you chose me over him?”

“My brother was a genius. I looked up to him ever since I was a young boy. My parents only ever cared about him, they didn’t care about me. But that was okay, because I admired and worshipped him, too. I didn’t mind being his sidekick, his lackey for the rest of my life.” This was the first time Anand had spoken about his complicated feelings for his brother. He had never mentioned it to anyone, not even to Rita when they had been happy newlyweds.