Doosra Chance

Chapter 13

Sorry, this past week has been really crazy (personal stuff)! So, I had to take a short hiatus from updating, but here's the next chapter! It's not yet edited, but I thought I'd post first, then edit.

Finally, everyone settled outside in the garden with customary post-meal coffee and tea, and engraved copper cups filled with kheer, or a traditional rice and milk pudding decorated with dried fruits. Aryan took a spoonful of the chilled kheer in his mouth and closed his eyes as he chewed. "Aunty, this kheer is delicious. Aapke haathon mein jadoo hain." 

Kalyani raised her eyebrows at her son in surprise. "It really must be Anu-ji, because my son rarely ever eats sweets, much less enjoys them." "Thank you, beta. But Aarohi makes the best kheer, and she was the one who made this. She made it yesterday so we could serve it chilled today." Cooking was therapeutic for Aarohi, so she convinced her mother to let her make the kheer. Aryan raised his spoon towards Aarohi in cheers, "Magic." Aarohi gave a tight-lipped smile in thanks and dropped her gaze.

While Anu knew that it was usually the groom's family or the facilitator who began the talk, she couldn't hold her curiosity any longer, and neither did she care for such intricate social customs. "Kalyani-ji, this rishta for our Aarohi..." "Yes, Anu-ji. Main bohot excited hoon, aur thoda surprised bhi, as I'm sure you were. But we wanted to get all of your opinions." "Pardon me for my bluntness Kalyani-ji, mujhe surprise kyun hoga? Aur, ladka kaun hain?" Kalyani looked at Aryan in shock, "Unko pata nahi?" The rest of the group exchanged confused looks as well, Aadhira and Arvind because they didn't know who the ladka was either, and the rest of the group because they didn't expect Aarohi's family to be clueless about the matter. 

Aryan set down his cup of kheer and linked his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees. "Aunty, Uncle, I am the ladka. It is my rishta that we brought for Aarohi today." "Kya?" What? Three voices sounded simultaneously, Anu's surprised, Arvind's genuinely taken aback, and Aadhira's, in typical Aadhira fashion, sounded more like a screech. Aarohi stilled completely in the few seconds before the hurricane, which she had desperately tried to avoid, yet had set up herself, arrived.

Anu slowly turned towards Aarohi, realizing that she hadn't spoken a word. "Aaru, tumhe yeh pata tha?" "Yes Maa, mujhe pata tha." "Accha..." Anu was surprised that her daughter knew, and couldn't understand how she would know, but it still didn't seem that big of a deal to her. So, what if she knew who the rishta was? 

"Koi baat nahi, humhe bahut acha laga ki aap ne apne beta ka rishta lekar aaye hai, Kalyani-ji. Bus, hum expect nahi kiya, isliye thoda surprised hai him." Arvind agreed, "Ji, humare reactions ko bura kat maaniye please." "Aunty, Uncle..." "Maa, Papa..." Aarohi and Aryan spoke over each other. Aryan extended his hand in a gesture of deference. He had spoken thinking that perhaps she would not want to explain the lies they had constructed to her parents, but it seemed that she wanted to handle this matter herself. "Actually, there is more."

Aarohi hated lying to her parents, especially as she hadn't done so since she was five years old. But the web of deception she had weaved was so confusingly intricate that even she couldn't extricate herself. Rishi knew that Aarohi never lied to her parents. If he wasn't here, perhaps she could have managed, somehow. But, he just had to show up with his beaming wife in tow. Even if she dragged her parents aside and told them the truth, Rishi would find out immediately from the conversation. Then he would tell Rhea, and they would both know that this was simply an act she concocted to soothe their minds. 

She would need to tell her parents the whole truth then, and convince them to lie along with her. Which she knew they would never do because they would never approve of giving up one of her life's most important decisions for a person who had already taken advantage of her, in their eyes, for his own benefit. Her parents obviously would never want her to stay married to a man who didn't love her and had a pregnant girlfriend to boot, but that didn't mean they accepted or forgave Rishi's actions. Her only way forward was to continue spouting lies.

"Do you remember when I went on a trip for that conference a few months back? Well, while I was there, I met Aryan. Who was also attending a different conference in the same building." Raj spit the sip of chai he had just taken back into his cup and set it down with a bang. "What?! I thought this rishta was a recent thing, recent as in the last few days, not months." Except for Rhea, Rishi, Kalyani and Akash, everyone else had similar reactions to Raj. Aryan had only told his parents the story of their supposed relationship. They quieted to pin-drop silence, hanging on Aarohi's every word to satisfy their curiosity. 

"We eventually realized that our families knew each other, and that's when we began talking. I want you to know, Maa and Papa, we weren't in a secret relationship." Aarohi went off track from their rehearsed script. She had to, there was only a certain extent to which she could lie to her parents. "We were talking these past months, as friends, but we both knew that there was a certain connection, from the first time we met. At Rishi and Rhea's wedding, we met for the second time in person. And Aryan pro-, well he didn't propose, he asked me if I would consider marrying him. Based on the few months that I knew him, it felt right, so I said yes. But it was a conditional yes, I would never marry him without everyone, and I mean everyone's, permission and agreement." 

Arvind leaned over and held his daughter's hand. "But bacche, why didn't you tell us?" Anu clasped her other hand. "Yes, beta. I understand that you weren't in a relationship, but you never mentioned anything, ever." Aarohi bit her lip and looked down. Here goes everything. "Darr gayi thi. I was scared, I tried to ignore that strange voice in my head. But when we came face to face again, I couldn't ignore it anymore. Mujhe lagne laga ki shayad yeh sahi hai." Arvind rose and perched on the arm of the settee next to Aarohi. Anu smoothed her daughter's hair. "Theek hain, I understand. You are pakka sure?" Aarohi simply nodded. Arvind kissed his daughter on the temple and held her to him for a moment. "Khush reh bacche. I just want you to be happy."