Hues of Love

Part 23

Rati Agarwal Raizada and Arnav Singh Raizada stood opposite to each other in front of the court room entrance, their lawyers standing behind them, waiting for them to move forward. It had been almost eight and a half months since Arnav had slammed a divorce notice on Rati. Three visits, multiple missed calls and ignored messages later, they were once again standing in front of each other.

As they stood in front of each other and looked at the eyes of their significant other, they could not help but lose themselves to the memories of years of togetherness they had, in which circumstances, relations and emotions changed but the eyes could still find the same emotions, one for the same person and another for someone other than the one standing in front.

"You are my very breath, Rati. I cannot see my future without you. You are the epitome of love for me, the one who has taught me how to live, the one to quench the thirst of my soul. It feels as if I don't stand beside to support you, there is no meaning of my very existence," said the eighteen-year old Arnav, proposing her for their marriage on the occasion of their graduation, rendering her speechless.

"Thank you, Arnav. I love you too," she confessed, engulfing him in a bear hug.

The lack of poetic response from her had broken his teenage heart but only she was aware of the regret that splayed the memory for not expressing her love for him in a more exquisite manner and keep his spirits up.

"Arnav, I am being felicitated at an International Film Festival and am invited as the guest of honor. It is also my first event after marriage so I thought it is only right that the first invitation of the event comes to you," she said, forwarding the beautiful invitation card towards him.

"Congratulations, Rati. But I am sorry, I will not be able to make it. I have a meeting with a client," replied twenty-two year old Arnav Singh Raizada, who had setup a company of his own at the early age of twenty-one.

The lack of company from him when she had fought with everyone to get an invitation for him much earlier than others shattered her from within. The hushed whispers and the knowing looks she got when she arrived without her husband and a date for the night made her feel devastated.

It was the code that the guest of honor would have a date without fail but she had given that position to a man who refused it and she chose to not offer it to anyone else, respecting him and his decision but it was tough to not sway when the wind stood against you.

The look of disappointment on her face had haunted him for years but he only wanted to work his way to the pinnacle of success so that his wife would not see anyone but him as an achiever and her thirst for fame and status, as per him, would be quenched.

The heartbreaks they had endured till then were forgettable and forgivable but the bitterness which brewed in them due to the incidents made them commit mistakes they could never rectify or justify.

"My sincere condolences to you, Rati. I am sorry, I was not able to make it," apologized a twenty-three year old Arnav over the text as Rati waited in the airport to catch her flight.

Storms ensued in her heart as the last words of her mother and the words of everyone present there haunted her. While her mother's unfulfilled wish ignited the spark of pain and the wish to sway in her, the taunts of her relatives and friends fueled it.

The one, who had not realized his folly when she had cried out in her last message while begging him to be by her side in trying time, how would he realize if she complains again? He would just tag her as nagging and distance himself from her completely but was it what she wanted? Absolutely not, since she cherished every moment she spent in his company and the relished the way his gaze caused butterflies to flutter in her stomach even after years of togetherness.