Pallavi decided against knocking, she needed to show calm and her strength when she faced Raghav. If she entered the house asking for permission, Raghav would consider her on the defensive and use that to her advantage. She had no idea why Raghav wanted to marry her, it made no sense. But she decided she didn't give a damn about his "personal" reason, she just needed to make her stance clear from the start, and Raghav had to accept her conditions if he wanted her to get in front of a pandit and God, and declare Raghav her husband.
As soon as she walked in the smell of flowers overpowered everything. Pallavi looked around and saw that the whole house was decorated...well, for a wedding. There were marigold and jasmine garlands around the columns, the walls, and on the posts and railings of the massive staircase in the center of the house. Then she saw the wedding altar assembled in the center of the main hall. The fire was not lit, but she noticed a pandit assembling the required items for a wedding. She saw two massive wedding garlands sitting near the mandap, and thought back to when she had placed one of them on Mandaar.
Then all thoughts of Mandaar left her head as she heard a voice, "Pallavi, you actually...you actually came?"
It was Keerthi. She walked quickly to Pallavi, and her voice went to a whisper, "Why did you agree to this? What's going on?"
Pallavi wanted to tell her everything, she wanted to tell Keerthi that she was sorry but her brother wasn't worth calling a brother. That he had blackmailed her into coming here, that she didn't want this. Pallavi fought hard from telling Keerthi that all she wanted to do right now was run. Run far. Run and catch a train back to her brother's house. She wanted nothing more than to give Raghav his first wish, her exit from Hyderabad, even if it meant losing to him. But she didn't say anything.
"Keerthi, I need to talk to your brother, now."
"Saree ka Dulhan, you're almost late, no problem. What is that Hindi saying? Der aaye durust aaye. What did you need to talk about?"
Pallavi put on a fake smile in front of Keerthi and said, "Keerthi, can you give me and Raghav a minute?"
Keerthi was still confused, but she didn't want to trouble Pallavi more, she had to figure out what to tell Amma if...no, not if, when this wedding wouldn't happen.
After Keerthi was out of earshot, Pallavi took Raghav's wrist and pulled him out the front door.
"Hey, why so handsy, at least wait until the wedding is over!" Raghav laughed.
"Shut up. This morning you left thinking I would take your threat and just accept it. But now I can tell, for some reason this wedding has to happen for you. So if you want me to walk back inside and sit at the mandap, I need you to agree to a few of my conditions."
Raghav smiled, he was impressed with her style. She showed no signs of worry, only anger...and disgust.
"Saree ka Dukaan, you are not in a position to negotiate, you have no leverage. You're here because your brother—"
"Yes, Nikhil is in jail, framed by you. You must be a horrible chess player, because you clearly aren't thinking even one step ahead. Either you can accept my conditions, or I can walk back inside and tell your mother exactly how you "proposed" this marriage to me. I don't think she'll be happy to hear that instead of a diamond engagement ring from her jeweler son, you used a rolled up 2000 rupee note and blackmail to get me to marry you."
Raghav's smile turned to a frown, he took a step closer to Pallavi. How could his mother want him to marry this woman? This selfish, lying, silly person, who had no qualms threatening him. He took a deep breath, "what conditions."
Pallavi stepped back away from him, "First, as soon as the pandit ends the ritual you will call whichever corrupt cop you need to call to get Nikhil out of jail, no court case, no allegations, nothing. Second, my Baba's store, it stays there. You don't try to take it back, you don't bring in your renovators, you don't pull some crap eviction drama again. Third, this marriage is on paper only. You like putting price tags on everything you see, right? What you're buying today is sindoor and my name next to yours on a piece of paper. That's it. Besides this wedding, you have no other expectations of me as a...wife. Finally, you don't breathe a word of this to anyone. To your mother, your sister, my family, all of Hyderabad. To everyone it will look like two people have decided to get married just to get married. That's it."
Pallavi finally met Raghav's eyes, she tried her best to hide her worry. She needed him to not accept her conditions, because telling Jaya Aunty the whole truth might get Nikhil out of this predicament. If she could just get to Raghav's mother, she might be able to force Raghav's hand backwards. This man wouldn't say sorry to her when his mother had asked him to, but he had brought her idlis at Mansi's sangeet like a pure mama's boy. While he might not care about Jaya Aunty's opinions on apologies, he would get Nikhil out of trouble if his Amma forced him.
She plucked up her courage again, "So, am I walking inside to get married or to tell your Amma the truth? And I'm not buying your word, who knows you could be drunk right now, right? You have to swear on your mother and sister that you accept these conditions and you won't back away from them."
Raghav's fury was intermingled with a strange desire to hug Pallavi. For the first time he was impressed with a woman for something other than their cooking or the way they looked in a dress. This woman was trying to call his bluff, she thought that he would quake at these conditions because he didn't really want to marry her. Well she was only half right. He didn't want to marry Pallavi Deshmukh, but he was focused on keeping Amma and Keerthi with him in his home. These conditions were nothing. And accepting them did not mean that Pallavi had won.
"Fine. I swear on my mother and sister that I accept these conditions, and will fulfill them. Come inside, the pandit is waiting." Raghav smiled at Pallavi's shocked face, he was right. Pallavi had wanted him to refuse. She hadn't called his bluff, but he had called hers.
Raghav turned and opened the door, walking inside, leaving Pallavi dumbstruck. Her gambit had failed, What had she just done?
