Pride vs Prejudice

Chapter 18

"You are finished."

Ria woke up with a start. She turned to look at the time. It was just midnight; she had gone to bed sooner that night. She wiped the beads of sweat on her forehead and got out of the bed.

From inside her room, she could hear sounds­­–sounds of fighting. They were at it again. She didn't go out to check it. She didn't want to. Instead she went out into the balcony hoping to block it out.

It had been 5 days since the incident but her brother's cold words were still echoed in her head. They bothered her more than even the shoving. His cold voice. She quickly rubbed off the goose bumps that had erupted on her arm.

5 days. She hadn't been sitting quiet. She wanted to know what was happening–and why? But she had nothing to go on. Not one thing.

Her talk with her mother resulted in a tirade over Kapoor name being a bane for the family; it seemed to making her children crazy. Ria was soon captured in that avalanche and declared to be the next one going her brother's way. Ria had gotten away from there but one thing was clear–her mother was now a danger zone!

Ria's next source of information wasn't all that pleasant either. While she did have sort of a warm relationship with Shikha as her Bhabhi now, in reality they had been walking on egg-shells around each other. Going to Shikha meant trading that in.

Shikha had gone on her own rant of how Lav was too stubborn to listen to anyone and too ambitious for his own good. There was no turning her back from that path once she had made up her mind. Ria hadn't expected otherwise. It would have been better to come out of that conversation empty handed. Ria had, instead, come back with a headache.

Her sources of information after that had progressively become worse. The last one she had gone to–her own brother–had thrown her out of the study and slammed the door on her, last night.

She was desperate. So desperate that she had spent the entire day pondering over the last name on her list of potential sources. It was the worst one of them all. The worst one ever!

She had exhausted all her avenues. If there was any morsel of information that could help her now, it was with the other side–the dark side.

But reaching out to him would be nothing short of crossing over herself.

He wasn't exactly her number one enemy now. He had helped her out of a mess once. True.

But equally true was that he was the one who had humiliated her–opened her up for humiliation from others! Some memories are etched too deep within the heart for their marks to go away with time.

They may have worked together in that one situation, but there was confusion that they were very much back in their mode of rivals–biggest rivals.

She was the one who needed help right now. Only her. It wasn't the deal of equals. It would come with consequences.

It would mean disregarding the past. The pain. Her self-respect. Forever. Because once she asked for his help–and she knew he would make her beg for it and take great pleasure in it–there would be no going back.

He would never stop rubbing her face it. It would be something held over her like a sword all her life–with no way of knowing how and when he would want to make it even.

Then there was her brother. Nothing would hurt him more than her going to his enemy for help–even more so if he was for him. To him it would be surrendering to the enemy. To him it would be biggest betrayal of his life. They would never be the same.

On side there was the well-being of her brother–probably his survival, his marriage and happiness of her family which was getting torn over the worry for Lav.