Pallavi was silent for a minute after hearing Raghav's story. She couldn't tell if she was more angry at Raghav or more worried for Keerthi. How was Keerthi doing? Why hadn't she said anything to her? She turned to Raghav.
"Mujhe maaf kardo Pallavi. Mere se gait ho gaya. I didn't mean to—I was out of my mind when I—"
Pallavi took a laddu and threw at Raghav. "How could you even think that I would do this?" She threw two more laddus at his face, "Are you completely out of your mind?"
"Pallavi, mujhe lecture do, mujhe thappad mar, par laddu toh mat waste kar" Raghav tried to smile to get Pallavi to laugh. Making a joke was a mistake.
Pallavi put the sweets on the back of the car, and walked to Raghav, she pushed him, and then grabbed his collar, "This is funny to you?"
"No. I just—"
"All this time, you've been thinking that I'm this horrible person. Then why—why did you say you loved me? What—"
"No no, Amma said—I don't think that you did it anymore, that Bindi Wala Aunty—" Raghav tried to get Pallavi to calm down, he took her hand from his collar but she pulled it away.
"That wasn't a complete answer. You believed Amma, fine. But why did you? Last night, today? What is this new game? What—" her eyes widened and filled with tears, "So, the great Raghav Rao saw me make a friend, and thought 'Oh, Pallavi must be cheating, I can't let her get away, or Amma and Keerthi will leave.' You're just pretending to—you just thought you had to steal me away from Vikram because in your stupid head I was falling for him. You—"
Raghav grabbed Pallavi's wrists and pulled her close, "Don't be stupid, I love you. That's not changing. I made a mistake, and if you can't forgive me now, I understand. But I'm not going to stop asking for your forgiveness, nor am I going to stop loving you."
Pallavi looked into Raghav's eyes, mixed in with his anger was regret, pain, "Agar tum abhi boot bol rahe ho, toh main tumhe zinda nahin chodungi, samazla?"
Raghav smiled, "Does that mean you forgive me?"
"No," Pallavi stepped back from Raghav, "Wait, Keerthi kaisi hai? Woh teek hai na?"
Raghav smiled grimly, "Yes, she's fine now, I think she's moved on, but that night when they were in jail, I couldn't bear it. I should never have left that Jagdish ka beta alive, I should have killed him with my bear hands. And now I find out that he was probably lying when he took your name. I will—"
"Give me the phone number of the most corrupt police officer you have, now" Pallavi took out her phone.
"Kyun?" Raghav asked.
"Because even after torturing me for months, it turns out you're horrible at getting out information from people."
It only took three hours. At the police station, the man who had brought the photos to the house, claiming Pallavi had sent them, confessed that it was Sulochana.
The police officer came out of the interrogation room to tell Raghav and Pallavi everything he had gotten out of the idiot. Raghav ran his fingers through his hair, "Pallavi, main—"
She held up a hand to get him to stop talking, "Officer, mujhe uska phone dekhna hai."
On the phone, she recognized Kaku's number from the call history. Kaku was also in the phone's contacts as "Deshmukh No. 1".
"Raghav, look at this, it's Kaku's number." Pallavi told Raghav.
Raghav took the phone, and then clenched it, "Bindi Wala Aunty, main tumhe nahin chodunga, you will rot in jail for this."
"Raghav, this is a lot to ask, but I think Keerthi will agree, it's best if we just tell everyone involved, especially Kaka, Aai, and Baba, and at least see if Kaku is willing to apologize to Keerthi and Amma, we don't want to be rash."
Raghav nodded, but he wasn't convinced that anyone in the Deshmukh family was capable of contrition.
When Pallavi and Raghav went home, Pallavi immediately told Amma and Keerthi what they had found out. Raghav was silent, focused on Keerthi.
"Keerthi, if you're okay with it, I think instead of having Sulochana Kaku arrested, it's best to put this behind you and have her ask you for forgiveness." Pallavi put her hand on Keerthi's shoulder, "But whatever you want to do is what we'll do, if you want to call the police, we will do that."
"Pallavi Di, I've put this behind me, me and Amma both have, but I don't want Sulochana Aunty to think she's gotten away with this, I want an apology. And that's it, you and Amma, and Raghav are with me to support me, that's enough for me." Keerthi hugged Pallavi.
Pallavi hugged her back, tighter, "Tum na, world ka number one nanad ho." Pallavi kissed Keerthi's forehead and stood up.
"Teek hai, Amma, hum sad kal Deshmukh house jayenge, we'll get the truth straight from Kaku's mouth, and hopefully the shame will convince her to change her ways, and more importantly ask forgiveness from Keerthi...as well as her maker, because any woman who does this to another woman, isn't worth God's grace."
Pallavi wished Amma and Keerthi goodnight and walked upstairs, she didn't turn to Raghav. Her anger at him had dissipated a little, but she was still furious that he had kept this from her, she worried what kind of love this was, if it allowed for such a big misunderstanding to exist? Also, even if Raghav really did love her, her giving him the cold shoulder for a bit would make sure he learned not to hide things from her in the future. Raghav Rao deserved to suffer, just a little.
Raghav watched Pallavi go upstairs and followed her quietly. She didn't turn to look at him, in fact all the way to their bedroom she was silent and ignored him completely. When she opened the door, the only indication she gave that she recognized his presence was that she left the door open for him to come in behind her. She swiftly walked to closet, closed the door and changed. When she came out, Raghav was still looking at her, trying to find something to say. Without a word Pallavi climbed into bed, laid down, and faced away from Raghav and the door. Raghav climbed into bed and looked at Pallavi next to him, he knew she wasn't asleep yet, and he ached to touch her shoulder, to turn her around. He wanted more than anything to hug her, to fall asleep in her arms. But he didn't. It took him over two hours to fall asleep, the guilt eating him up. He replayed every minute of every day of his interactions with Pallavi over the past few months, he thought back to the first time he thought she had wronged him. Even that didn't make sense now, how could Pallavi know that Raghav was posing as Mr. Ramaswamy at the old age home? How could Anjali have found out about him being Mr. Ramaswamy, and even if she had, how would she have convinced Pallavi to spike the food? He looked at the back of Pallavi's head again. He had spent every day of the past few months (except for the past couple weeks), thinking that Pallavi was the worst woman on the planet, and every opinion he had about her was wrong. How would he ever convince her how sorry he really was for all this? Even if he could...should Pallavi even forgive him? Did he even deserve her forgiveness?
