The Unwanted Wife (Published)

Chapter 2

Niyati gulped, shaking her head.

"Anyway, you can rest easy for now. Don't work yourself up over what all I said, it is not good for the baby. Nothing is happening for a year at least, I can guarantee that. With elections looming ahead and Abhay Rajvansh scandal looming behind him, Uday Rajvansh is in a very precarious position at the moment. He will not want to open another front for himself. Then his mother's happiness is also to be considered. So, right now you concentrate on eating healthy, staying happy and taking good care of yourself. I didn't want to leave you ignorant to possible future scenarios, that is all. We will talk again when I come next time."

"You will come... next time?" Niyati asked, surprised. She had thought that she will be on her own now that Anthony uncle had fulfilled his promise to his sister.

"Of course. I will not leave you alone to face them. You have nothing to fear. It isn't everyday one comes across an honest soul like yours, my child, and I am glad I figured that before making a wrong judgment call. You are my responsibility now. My sister has given you in my care and I will not let either of you down."

Something heavy lodged itself in Niyati's chest. No one had ever felt responsible for her. She found herself incapable of handling this compassion shown to her. So, instead, she concentrated on the strength those words gave her. Later, in solitude, she will savor Anthony uncle's kindness. Again, and again, and again, she knew.

"Thank you, uncle. It means a lot to me," aloud she said.

"Don't forget that I am only a phone call away. Between here and Delhi, it will take me less than two hours to reach you if you need me."

"I know," Niyati smiled.

"And what all I said might just turn out to be my paranoia. But doesn't hurt to stay prepared, does it?"

It does not, Niyati silently agreed.

"So no reason to worry right away. Kaveri Devi will bend backward to keep you in a good mood right now. Your only job is to stay happy and take care of yourself, okay?"

Niyati nodded.

Anthony affectionately patted her head, "See you soon. God bless you!"

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Will God truly bless me this time? Niyati thought maudlinly. Tough, considering there was no prior evidence of such benevolence from the Almighty in her life, she told herself in the next breath.

It had been two hours since Anthony uncle had left. After a change of clothes, and after a super healthy yet delicious meal under Kaveri Devi's cautious supervision, she was taking rest on the older lady's cajoling insistence. On the most comfortable bed she has ever lain on. In, what was without question, the most opulent room she had ever been in. The curtains of this room must have cost more than all her life savings. And she was going to live here now.

In her marital home. Her first ever family experience.

But without any love.

Ironic, considering all she'd ever wanted was some love.

But there still was no love for her on this earth. No sense of belonging in her fate.

Not to any person. Not to any place. Nowhere.

She was cursed to be unwanted.

Since the beginning.

Left on a dumpster as a newborn, on a dark rainy night, in the suburbs of Bhandup in Mumbai twenty-five years back, was how her life had begun. Not even a note begging for compassion for her was found on her. She was coldheartedly abandoned by someone, just like that. Who? Her mother? Her father? She would never know. When she was around eight or nine years old she had woven a fantasy reason in her mind that she had been kidnapped from the hospital by some evil woman to spite her parents. That someone will come looking for her one day. That she will reunite with her mother who had been waiting for her on tenterhooks with a heart full of love and concern for years. But as she grew up and acknowledged the hopeless heartbreaking manner in which this world worked, she put a full stop to all the silliness. Nobody was searching for her. No use twisting the facts she didn't really know and couldn't really change. She was an unwanted baby, and that was probably the real truth. An unwed mother probably left her on the garbage dump to save her own face.