Fatal Attraction

Part 21 - Leap

An observant eye would narrow at Daksh Malhotra's hesitance to seek out the woman he had tied into matrimony against her wish. He had drowned himself in the sea of intoxication and women. The waves changed, the year on the calendar had also changed.

Eight years since Asmita had walked out and never looked back.

Eight years since harmony and peace escaped through the towering walls of Malhotra Mansion.

Daksh's therapist Sangeeta was a patient lady and in his therapy, which had begun half a year ago, she had never hurried or lost her patience with his heinous deeds. But unfortunately, she had recommended another therapist to him because she was under the impression that she could not do as much justice as the other one can.

Reluctantly and hesitantly, Daksh moved to the cabin of the other therapist, hoping that he would not have to repeat the deeds committed by him. His guilt was already living off his vital force. Reliving those moments would do nothing but boost his guilt. Though he knew he deserved it, Daksh was no brave man. He feared the pain that tormented him, and that fear had landed him in the therapy center.

Daksh went inside the cabin as instructed by the receptionist and the sight which greeted him shocked him out of his wits. It was his wife, his love, his Asmita sitting behind the desk, and it wouldn't be too wrong for him to assume that she was the therapist recommended by Sangeeta.

"You??" Daksh stood shocked and perplexed as he stared at her in an unblinking manner, as if she would vanish if he blinks.

"Mr. Malhotra? You are the patient sent by Sangeeta?" Flashes of their intertwined past made their way in Asmita's confounded brain and she feared it would not be long before all her professional training would wear away and she would end up in a puddle of tears.

"Asmita...you became a therapist?"

The very utterance of her name from his trembling lips posed a challenge, harder than she could imagine, to her already wavering self-control. It terrified her that the unnerving moment of facing him would arrive in the future, but dreaded all the more that it wouldn't.

She despised the fact that he had gotten away with everything he did - trampling upon her dignity, toying with her dreams, shattering her integrity. She loathed she was the one fighting her nightmares when she had been the victim all along. She had lacked the resources to fight against an oligarch like Daksh Malhotra in the past, but the will and desire to bring him to justice were never scarce.

The parting moment still played fresh at the back of their brain. She failed to comprehend his reasons for not stopping her. What confounded her was the utter lack of attempts for reconciliation from his side. Not that she would have entertained any such attempts.

"It is Maya Singh, Mr. Malhotra. And yes, I am a therapist."

Asmita had chosen a new identity for herself. To escape the demons of the past, and to defeat any measures taken by Daksh to find her.

Singh?
That was Vikas's surname, wasn't it?

The question haunted Daksh's sanity as he wondered if Asmita had remarried. Daksh wanted to laugh at himself for thinking of a remarriage. What if his love never considered the marriage between them and broke it off as soon as she left his life?

Seeing Daksh dazed and completely lost, Asmita took the matter into her own hands.

"I'm afraid, I have a conflict of interests. I will transfer your case to another therapist if you can brief me on your situation. It is our clinic's policy that if a therapist recommends another, then we see it as a completely fresh case because it gives a better sense of judgment when the patient relates the case rather than a therapist. I sincerely hope that it wouldn't be a trouble."

Asmita's impeccably formal tone confounded Daksh.

Eight years. The time had used its magical wand to transform the docile and submissive Asmita into a confident individual, bearing no similarities to her past self.

"It is nothing that you have not known, Asmita-"

"I am sorry if I wasn't clear enough before, but I said my name was Maya Singh, Mr. Malhotra."

Her senses went haywire every time he uttered her name. It brought back the memories of the past. The past, which she did not want to remember and lament over. But she knew how much of a failure she was in that case.

"You will remain to be Asmita for me, no matter what." Daksh's firm tone reminded Asmita that she was speaking to a person who never bent in front of anyone and gave up on the stupid fight they were about to have.

"Fine, whatever. I would be grateful if you tell me what is your problem. It would astound for me if I learn you are seeking help for something I have known, given that this is our first meet for the last eight years. I just know it is a case of love and familial relationship problems. Nothing more than that."

It was hard. But Asmita was a hard nut to crack, too. She knew she cannot just ask Daksh to walk away, as that would cause immense loss to Vikas's clinic and she owed it to that man.

She wanted to prove to herself, if not him, he did not terrify her anymore. Unfortunately for her, it was a mission doomed to failure.

Daksh's intense gaze lingering over her marital chain was not helping her maintain her composure, and she knew that her determination to not break down was waning away. It reminded her of the many instances where she struggled to hide herself from his piercing, lusty gaze. The flashes of his proud smirk as he eyed the marks of his aggression on her neck made her intertwined with her fingers together and she visibly flinched.

Those flashes never failed to evoke nauseous sensation. It was a time where she failed to recognize her own self in the mirror and spent innumerable moments lost in the thoughts of an empowered future where she could fight him off.

She tried to calm herself down by telling herself that Daksh was probably having problems dealing with the innumerable girls he was dating and his family's reaction to it. But when finally Daksh's answer came, it shook her from within so hard that she knew that the reins of her control had slipped from her hands.

"This is about us, Asmita. I am seeking therapy to reduce my guilt for hurting you and forcing you."

What would be Asmita's reaction?

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