Part 16
He felt like he has become from most important to least important person in her life. And this was upsetting him more than he thought.
"She is my wife. Isnt it her responsibility to atleast inform me of her whereabouts." Virat replied with gritted teeth as he felt anger rising in him once again.
"But..." Ashwini tried to say something but Virat didn't let her complete.
"Where is this pub? I am going to get her back."
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"Karishma, I am telling you its too late see the time its already 11.00 pm Virat bhi aa gaye honge ghar. I think we should leave now." Sai said to Karishma.
"Chill yaar Sai. see the ambience, the music, abhi toh time hai enjoy karne ka.... for once forget everything and enjoy. Come lets dance." Karishma said and pulled her to the dance floor.
A man was watching Sai since some time now, "Sunny yaar ye kamal ka item kaun hai?" That man nudged Sunny, asking for the details.
"Aniket, Mind your language. Wo Sai hai, meri cousin." Sunny answered.
"Oye yaar naraaz kyu hota hai. Sorry galti ho gayi. Achha apni cousin se intro toh kara de." Aniket requested.
"Leave her alone. She is not interested in guys like you and she is married." Sunny brushed it off and went to join his sisters on the dance floor but Aniket followed him.
"Oye mujhe kaunsa isse shadi karni hai par kamal ki cheez hai yaar thoda aish toh kar hi sakta hoon iske sath." Aniket thought and ordered some soft drinks as he was already making a plan in his mind.
Aniket mixed vodka into one cold drink. He followed Sunny and joined them on the dance floor. He introduced himself as Sunny's friend and offered all of them soft drinks. Both the girls looked at him with disinterest but couldn't rudely say no also as he was Sunny's friend. The girls looked at Sunny for confirmation and though Sunny knew how Aniket was but he thought its only soft drinks and he himself was present with his sisters so Aniket wont try anything. Sunny nodded at them so they took the glasses. Aniket very slyly gave the spiked drink to Sai.
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Sai started feeling light headed as the alcohol started to affect her nervous system. She felt like her mind is free from any sort of burden so she decided to forget everything and enjoy for a while. She kept dancing not even realizing that Aniket was now dancing too closely to her.
Virat entered the pub. He scanned the whole area, the dance floor, the bar, the lounge but couldn't find Sai anywhere. Then again he started scanning the whole area this time slowly and his eyes landed on a girl in black short dress who was dancing with some despo looking boy. Her back was towards Virat but what caught his attention was her long hair and something about her seemed familiar, like he knew that girl.
"Could she be Sai? No....Never seen her in such dresses that too dancing like this without any care with some random lecherous dude." Virat wondered. Then the girl turned towards him while dancing and his heart stopped beating for few seconds as he realized she was indeed Sai.
"Wow, She looks so stunning in western dress." His angel side said dreamily.
"Don't you think her dress is too short? How dare she wear such a revealing dress in a place like this and look at the way that pervert is trying to get close to her." Devil side spill venom.
"But she is enjoying herself. Don't act like a jealous and possessive husband." Angel side reprimanded.
"She is your wife. She belongs to you only. She has no right to put herself on display for everyone to see her like this." Devil continue to poison his ears.
Aniket saw that Sai was completely under the effect of alcohol now so he took his chance and came near her as he put his hands on her waist almost hugging her. Virat lost his calm after seeing that.
"What are you waiting for? Punch that guy on the face and drag your wife out of this place." Devil fueled the anger more.
Angel tried to stop Virat by giving wise advice to deal the matter maturely but Devil's eyes blazed with fire as he glared at him with uncontrollable fury that Angel hid himself below the bed fearing for his life again.
Virat did exactly what Devil had suggested and he pulled Aniket with a jerk and punched him hard on the face. His nose started bleeding.
"Hey! What the f**k?" Aniket asked as he groaned in pain.
"You dare touch my wife again and I'll break your hands and legs too." Virat threatened and Aniket was smart enough to not indulge in fight with a taller and more muscular man than himself, he backed off.
Virat pulled Sai with him dragging her out of the dance floor. She bumped into him looking all scared and startled. Virat sniffed as she came near to him. He could smell alcohol from her breath.
"Do you drink?" Virat asked her for confirmation because as far as he has come to know Sai, she wasn't the one who enjoys getting sloshed which means either she mistakenly had liquor or that pervert might have did something.
Sai just kept looking at him with big innocent eyes not even understanding what he is saying.
"I asked you something? Do you drink alcohol?" Virat shouted now not getting any response from her.
Sai shook her head in no vigorously as finally the meaning of his words got in her head.
"I had couple of cold drinks. Aniket brought it for me." She replied, her tone still slurred due to the effect of alcohol.
Till then Karishma and Sunny also came running behind them.
"What happened Virat? Why you punched that guy. He was Sunny's friend and he was just dancing with Sai." Karishma tried to explain.
"That great guy you are talking about have spiked her drink and you guys didn't even notice. He was touching her inappropriately and you two were busy dancing, lost in your own world." Virat said as he remembered the way Aniket was leaning on Sai.
"What?" Karishma was all shocked. Then she tries to concentrate hard and remembers that Aniket do giving creepy vibes to them.
"You guys are her cousins. She came here with you. She was your responsibility. How could you be so careless?" Virat asked but Karishma and Sunny really didn't have any answer except hanging their head down in guilt.
Virat took Sai out from there. Sai shivered as the cool night breeze touched her. Virat saw this and removed his jacket and covered her with it. He made her sit in the car and took her to home.
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Both were quiet on the way back to home. Once they arrived, Sai fidgeted with the door lock but Virat was quick to help her. He also helped her unbuckling seat belt. Sai got goosebumps when he came very close to her but then she hiccupped due to alcohol and got embarrassed. She put her hand on her mouth to stop the hiccups.
Virat came out of the car and helped Sai. She struggled to walk on her own because of her high heels and dizziness. Virat picked her up in his arms and brought her in their room. Sai kept looking at him with her innocent big eyes. She wanted to explain her situation but right now, she couldn't mustered up courage because she could clearly see Virat was still angry on pub's incident. She thought she will talk to him after sometime. Virat softly placed her on the bed, instructing her not to move anywhere. He came into the kitchen and made lemonade for her.
"Here, have this, you will feel better." Virat said as he gave her the glass. Sai drank it silently. After sometime she felt much better but alcohol was still messing up her brain.
She thought now is the right time to talk. She tried to explain her situation, "Are you still angry with me? I swear I didn't want to go but everyone forced me and I don't know what was in that drink?" Sai said as she looked at Virat with a hope that he will understand her.
"I don't want to talk about it." Virat replied as he was still angry and he didn't want to say anything to her which will hurt her.
Sai was hurt by his cold behaviour. She felt that she needed to talk it out now or else she will be suffocated. Why is that he always prefers silence over a good conversation? Why he treats her like princess in one moment and then throw her back to the ground from the clouds in very next moment.
Today also he was doing the same but today was different, Sai was not sober, she couldn't hold it anymore as the alcohol gave the much necessary push to all the bottled up emotions and they erupted like a volcano and started flowing through her eyes, "Why you always push me away? Kyu mujhse baat nahi karte? Why you avoid me?" She almost shouted.
Virat was taken aback momentarily but then he understood its the alcohol which is talking. "Sai, calm down. You need to relax. Bhul jao jo hua." He moved closer to her and tried to make her sit on bed again.
But she was not in a mood to back down now. She needed answers tonight. "Dekha, aap phir se wahi kar rahe hain. Baat ko yahi khatam kar do, bhul jao etc etc. Us din bhi aapne yahi kiya tha. Us din college mein wo award mujhe mil raha tha lekin aapne mera naam cancel karwaya aur mujhe wajah batani bhi jaruri nahi samjhi aur phir aap mere dosto se dhang se bhi nahi mile aur mujhe bewajah rudely baat ki aur is sab ki koi explanation bhi nahi di. Agle din se hum log aise behave kar rahe the jaise kuch hua hi nahi tha. Kyu Virat kyu?"
It was a shock for Virat that she knew about the whole award thing. "Who told you all this?"
"Principal sir told me, he didn't intend to but I guess he spilled it casually. But that's not important. The important thing is, that why you didn't want me to win?" Sai cross questioned.
Virat let out a deep tired sigh. He couldn't believe her principal was so stupid. "That nutcase told you I canceled your name but didn't tell you why I did it?"
"No he didn't. You tell me why you did that?" Sai was not backing down.
"Because I was a f**king chief guest there. And you are my wife, everyone knew it. If you have won directly and I had to announce your name, it would have looked like you won not because of your talent but because chief guest was your husband. But look what happened, your friend refused to take that award and nominated you, everyone supported it and you got what you deserved at the end, thats what matters the most." Virat explained his predicament.
"I got the award because Ajinkya was my friend, he had the courtesy to give award to deserving person but what if he wouldn't have done that?" Sai still wanted to argue.
"So what! You could have lose that award. Big deal! Does a random award in some small time college function gives you so much validity? You are very talented person Sai, I am sure there will be hundreds of much bigger and genuine opportunities where you can prove yourself. But think, if I had given that award directly to you, it would have raised questions on your talent and my credibility and I am sure that you wouldn't have enjoyed a one bit. Itna to tumhe jaan ne laga hoon main Sai." Virat stated the obvious.
Sai was silent for some time. She closed her eyes and remembered how she had overheard some of the gossip girls of the college even before that function concluded that there is high probability of her winning because Virat is her husband. She knew Virat was right at his place. She had misunderstood him. But she still didn't get why he didn't prefer to talk about it? Why he behaved rudely with her at the end? And today, nothing going to stop her. She will confront him till he spills what keeps going inside his mind.
Theek hai, maana ki aapne jo kiya uske peeche valid reason tha. Chalo is baat ko yahi drop karte hain. Lekin baki mauko ka kya? Kyu aap mujhse kate kate rehte hain? Kyu mujhe aisa lagta hai jaise aap hokar bhi mere sath nahi hain. Kabhi aisa lagta ki aap bhi meri taraf kadam badha rahe hain aur phir agle hi pal aap itne durr ho jate hai. Aap samajhte kyu nahi....kitna pyar karti hoon main aapse....intezar karti rehti hoon kab aap ek bar meri taraf dekh kar muskurayenge....tadapti rehti hoon kab aap mere kareeb ayenge, Roz sochti hoon kya aisa karu ki aap khush ho jaye aur aap hai ki hamesha mujhe khud se durr rakhte hain. ." Sai cried.
She had let out all that was bothering her. In return, she expected his explanation, his guilt ridden words and action, his defense mechanism kicking in and he backing out of this argument or may be he will try to calm her down. But she didn't expect that she will get an equally emotionally charged outburst and that too without alcohol effected slurred tone like hers.
Virat also vent out his bottled up frustration, his emotions, his confusions for the first time, almost screaming. "Because you confuse me, you challenge my each and every belief, you make me restless, your unconditional love makes me feel guilty...guilty of not having same feelings for you. I thought I knew about love but you changed my perception completely about it. I thought I liked bold, extrovert and modern girls and you are totally opposite but when I saw you I understood that beauty lies in carrying oneself with grace not in just wearing revealing outfits. I was not fond of cliche Indian cultural symbols, all rituals, customs, idol worship etc use to irritate the hell out of me but when I see you doing all that I cant stop myself from admiring you every time. You look so perfect the way you are. When I see you I can't stop staring at you when I don't see you, I become restless. I couldn't even start my day properly today as you were not there. I used to find it awkward when you gave me all the attention and kept dancing around me all the time to do everything for me but when I couldn't see you whole day I was so lost....I couldn't even concentrate on my work. I was angry that why you chose to gave importance to other people and things today and not present with me." Finally Virat ended his monologue.
And Sai was speechless. She kept listening to him as she first time realized that she has definitely made her place in his life. May be he didn't love her but has acceptedher as his wife.
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to be continued....