Age Old Love (Complete)

Part 2 (End)

She trembled seeing his rage. She had never seen Vikrant so angry. He was the easygoing one. Even when they had fought after getting married where she had accused him of a foul play to eliminate his own brother from his path to GET her, not even then was he so furious. He had tried to argue for his innocence but she was beyond listening to that night. That night had played in her mind a thousand times in last two years. She remembers him telling her again and again that his Virat bhai's accident was a freak one. He was crossing the road in front of marriage hall and a drunken truck driver hit him. That it was her father who had proposed his name for marriage so that his daughter does not get tagged inauspicious. He TOO did not want to get married a few hours after losing his only brother. That he did it all so that two families can stay friends and the business relationship does not crumble down either. That he loved his brother more than he can express. She remembers all of it. If only she had heard it then.

But why would Tara Shekhawat listen? Why would she see that he was equally innocent in the game destiny had played with them? She had lost her fiancé and was asked to marry his younger brother who she knew harbored romantic feelings for her. That was more than enough for her to dump all the blame on Vikrant who was battling with much more profound loss than her at that moment.

And how would she see when she was SO blind that she never noticed until she started living in this room among Vikrant's stuff that the handwriting in which those love poems were written was not Virat's. It was Vikrant's. When she never stopped to think that it was Vikrant who knew her favorite flowers of different seasons, not Virat. That it was Vikrant who knew of her secret hideouts in this haveli, not Virat. She never gave it a thought how Virat would reach those places to flirt with her when she was alone. Lost in her own world she never gave it even a single thought. That it was Vikrant who was helping his brother in wooing her in spite of loving her so much. He was playing cupid for them while dying inside every day. She had just read his love confession in his diary one day and had pounced on him. Accused him of being an immature immoral and good-for-nothing friend and a brother. Taunted him to behave according to his age. Even slapped him.

His fault was that he was nice to her. His fault was that he loved her. His fault was that their parents chose his brother to be her groom in spite of it being him who was her fast friend. His fault was that he was younger than her. In society's eyes, in her eyes, he never stood a chance. She had never dreamt of a man younger than herself as her prince charming. In no fairy tale romance does a princess marry a man younger to her. And hers HAD to be a fairy tale life like always, right? And it was. Vikrant's uncalled for feelings were nothing but a roadblock in it. How conveniently she ignored that this younger man only saved her from a life of misery. That all he did that night was uphold her and her parents respect in the society like a true knight in shining armor. And how did she repay him? She dies some more every time she recalls what all filthy things she had yelled at him and accused him of on the wedding night. Tara heaped down on the floor sobbing bitterly. She does not deserve him. She just does not deserve him.

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When the maid informed Vikrant who was working sitting in the living room that she cannot find bindni sa to tell her that lunch has been prepared, he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. It was Sunday and he was at home. His parents were out of station for a wedding in extended family for a week. If he had thought that being alone in the house with her would change their equation somewhat, that she would have to talk to him without the shield of Maa sa and bapu sa, he could not have been more wrong. The girl was stubborn to the core. Without an elder to oversee them, she was avoiding him like plague since last three days. They might as well be stark strangers considering the number of time they see each other or talk to each other every day. One and a half months he had been home and she still refuses to behave any differently than she behaved on his first day back here. He was getting more irritated by her behavior each passing day.