Innocence, or Lack Thereof ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 2: If I Fell

All the cruel people in my life made me a softer person, all the crises made me stronger, all my mistakes and wrongs made me responsible of what came out of me, all the bad that I met turned me into a better person, I didnt let the evil make me a villain and that’s my victory ~ Vansh Arora

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As predicted as soon as Sia and Ishani saw Vansh standing at the base of the stairs they had bombarded him with inquiries about his night, where he had gone off to for so long, why he did not tell them he would be out for such a time. They were worried, they said, because they hadn't a clue where he was. Vansh could understand. They were everything to each other, their tiny family was self sufficient, but they needed each other because it was all they had.

And of course, as he had forseen, when Vansh told them where he had been and the story he had heard about Riddhima's past, they dragged him into the parlor and made him recount the entire tale as best as he was able to. Of course Ishani was delighted to hear he had spent so much time with Angre and that Vansh liked him plenty, miffed only that she had not been able to sit with him for such a time.

And while Vansh told them what he had heard, in as much detail as he could recall it, he was again impressed with Riddhima's accomplishments. There were times, those nine years ago when the Westwood Wars were raging out of control, attacks on civilians were out of control, the armies were losing men by the hundreds every single day, and it seemed certain that they would eventually fail, crushed under the greater numbers of their opposition. But then everyone began to hear of military successes. Great battle plans had been drawn up by some general somewhere, people were told, and they were beyond brilliance, beyond anything anyone had ever seen. And suddenly, as the word began to spread, there were victories everywhere. The armies were conquering the enemy and the other side had no idea what was happening. They were in utter shock as they were now the ones being decimated in such great number with apparent ease.

Three months of military victory of the like had never been seen before was all it took before the enemy surrendered, and the Westwood Wars were deemed over. Peace had come back, because of Riddhima. She had made the changes necessary to beat the enemy. Vansh remembered the parades in the streets, the celebrations he attended with his entire family, Uma and Anubhav included. There had been such joy, relief, and pride in those ceremonies. And all of that had happened because of the ridiculously lovely Riddhima.

But when Angre said her husband had been killed in the Portertown Massacre, Vansh had been taken aback. He hadn't known anyone in Portertown at the time, and people hadn't been anxious to move there after what had happened. Gypsy soldiers had gone into Portertown in the night and killed all but a handful of people. Apparently Angre and Riddhima had been staying there at the time, and being soldiers Vansh was sure they were more than able to defend themselves; although being a soldier didn't seem to have helped Riddhima's husband.

That in and of itself seemed to fascinate Vansh. She had been married. Married. She didn't seem the type to be tied down with a man. She was more or less the precise antithesis of what a proper woman was considered to be, but it was more because of that than in spite of it that Vansh found her enthralling. He was so bored of the debutants, the societal obligations, the rules that followed your interactions, the concern with propriety over what a person wanted. It aggravated him. He was not about to marry Ahana Bhatt, who was supposedly one of the most eligible bachelorettes, who's father had money for a handsome dowry. He found her attitude displeasing, her obvious pandering obnoxious to say the least. He was just glad that Ishani and Sia found her just as unpleasant as he did so they were not accosting him daily in order to persuade him to ask her to marry him.