The Scenic Life

Chapter 20

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“You don’t know what you are talking about.” I shake my head.

He doesn’t know that revenge or betrayal to the firm is the last thing anybody wants right now. And whatever we might try would be crashed and burned by them, yet again.

He stands up from the seat in front of the mirror,

“no, I do know. This is all I've thought about since last night. I think I can salvage this, you need to trust me.”

At that word, the trust word, I look at him with a ghastly expression. How can he expect me to trust him once again? I don’t think I have any trust pieces in me to give away to people.

He seems to understand what I am going through and speaks with a low voice,

“look, I know you don’t trust me anymore, -,”he sighs and snakes his hand through his hair, “but at least hear me out?”

It wouldn’t hurt to just hear what he has to say, right?

I sigh with resignation clear as day in my voice and nod.

He sits on the other corner of the bed beside me, with a considerable distance between us, which I'm thankful for. I don’t know what I would do if he accidentally touched my arm or something. It would probably end up with me crying or Vihaan with his cheeks red by my slaps.

“Behrouz is the best in business, everybody knows that. Right? But the power is not because of the money the producers throw, its because our core team is more than brilliant. Khan is the best director india has seen after a lot of time, and that’s not an easy feat. The whole of design department has been carefully plucked from all over the country. The editors, VFX artists and everybody else falls in the same basket. That includes you too.”

I loo up at him, surprised that he even considers me worthy of being where I am. He continues “The reason why targeted you and Khan was not because you were weak or anything. They targeted you because you were the best in what you do. They manipulated you into thinking you were the villain of the whole situation, they manipulated ouyou to think that you didn’t deserve to be where you are, so that you would never raise your voice against them. Because they destroyed what was needed to raise a voice, self respect. That’s how they villifyed you.”

I sigh aloud, my stance resigned but still a bit reserved.

“What are you getting at?”

“What I am trying to get at is that you and Khan should team up and tell everybody what happened, the reality of the incident that ruined it all for you.-,”

“They wont believe me, I don’t know about khan. But I'm sure they wont believe me. they hate me, Vihaan. All that comes out of my mouth is poison to them,” my voice breaks as I try to make him understand what I have been thinking since that night.

He moves his hand to place on my knee to calm me down, but he hesitates and takes it back. Good decision. Because as I said before, I don’t know what I would've done, slapped him or had a mental breakdown.

Its quite a feat that I am calm right now. I haven’t forgotten how he yelled at me last night or the way he said he loved me. Both of the things contrast each other so much, I don’t even know how to function, how to confront him or should I even confront him or not. My brain is a mush, and there's not mushroom for any more confusing feelings and thoughts.

I can't believe I am able to make a joke even In such situation.

“They will believe you, trust me. All they need is a little insight into what went down that night. Khan can fill them in too. If you're afraid that they wont believe you, we might as well just let khan tell them.”

“what do you have planned Vihaan?”

“a lot, sara.”

When he says my name, I feel myself pulled in to him like a moth to a flame, like an ant towards sugar. All I can think about right now, right this moment is the way out of this mess. A way I can get back to my stable state of mind. A way I can live without guilt.
And a way, I can love him all over again, to start again. Not with a hello, but with a hug, not with a smile but a joke that makes us laugh. I want to start over so that we can, hopefully, start over and forget every ounce of pain it had caused.
I am ready, and I am hopeful.

“What's the plan?”