Chapter 18: chapter 18

Chapter EighteenYash sat in his car, staring out at the dark basement parking lot in his building. His mind still spun from the shock of the day’s events and the confusion of the tidbits of information Maya and her family had dropped.What were they talking about? His version of past events didn’t tally with theirs at all. Which meant what exactly? That his truth was wrong? That it didn’t exist? That he had, unknowingly or otherwise, wronged Maya?His eyes rose to the concrete ceiling above him. There was one person who was bound to have answers to all his questions. His mouth set in a grim line as he got out of the car and hauled his laptop bag out. It was time he had a heart-to-heart talk with mother dearest. He found her sitting in the drawing room, a porcelain kettle with steam pouring out of its spout by her side. She casually turned a page of the book she was reading, oblivious to his battered, grimy presence. Kamini Malhotra was a force of nature. She was his mother and he loved her but Yash had no illusions about his mother. His father and he had known exactly what she was capable of and how much money and image mattered to her. If Maya’s proposal had come to him from his mother, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but it had been his father…his kind, gentle father who’d called him, excitement bubbling in his voice. Who told him he’d found him the perfect girl for him…and his father had. Except, somehow Yash had managed to lose her. He just didn’t know how.But he bet Kamini Malhotra, the spider at the heart of the Malhotra web, knew.“Ma,” he said, finally drawing her attention. She looked up and saw his bedraggled state. Her mouth dropped open. “What the hell happened to you?” she screeched. “Have you been fighting or something?” Yash wrinkled his brow. “Why would I be fighting? When was the last time you’ve known me to get into a fistfight?” She shrugged, her elegant saree pallu slipping down her arm with the movement. “You’ve been acting strangely off late. Especially after you saw that girl again.” Her mouth pinched at the sides with distaste or disapproval, he didn’t quite know. Or care. “About that girl,” he said, sitting down in the chair in front of her. “What exactly happened there?”“Where?” she asked, blandly. Yash could see the calculation in her eyes as her mind ticked through options to mislead him. He could have told her not to waste her time but he waited patiently. He was curious to see what she came up with. “Maya.” He shot his now dirty cuffs and crossed one leg over the other. “Let’s start there.”She snorted dismissively. “What is there to talk about? She dumped you when you lost your job. End of story.” “Somehow, I don’t think that was even the beginning of the story,” he answered, his voice a lazy drawl.His mother shrugged and went back to her book. Yash watched her flip through pages way too fast to be actually reading them. She continued to ignore his presence. He continued to watch her with the chilling intensity of a predator. Finally, she huffed and put the book down. “Stop it,” she ordered. “Stop what?” “Stop bullying me,” she added a subtle and delicate quaver to her voice. Yash wasn’t the least bit fooled. His mother was about as subtle and delicate as a dagger in your back.“What did you do, Ma?” His voice was lethally soft, his gaze hard and clear. “What the bloody hell did you do all those years ago?” His mother sighed heavily. “Do we really need to talk about that tacky girl?”Yash’s jaw clenched at the word ‘tacky’ but all he said was, “Yes.” She took another delicate sip of her tea. “Do you know,” she asked, conversationally. “When she had that accident, they didn’t know if she’d ever walk again? The chances of her being stuck in a wheelchair were very high.” His heart cracked a little in his chest but he kept his face impassive as he watched his mother take another sip of her bloody tea.“But of course now she’s got that disgusting limp. Maybe the wheelchair would have been better.” His mother twisted her lips in a disgusted grimace.How was it possible, Yash wondered, that this was the woman who had given birth to him? “What. Did. You. Do?” he gritted out, finding it harder to remain impassive.His mother, however, was oblivious to his growing rage. She waved a hand in the air, in a casually, dismissive gesture. “I visited her in the hospital and explained that you deserved better than a cripple who was going to keep soiling herself in a hospital bed for a long, long time. You and your father were such bleeding hearts…you would have never walked away from her on your own if you’d heard about the accident. Her parents kept blathering on about all the loans they’d taken for the lavish wedding we’d planned but how was that our problem? Their loans, their daughter, their headache.” Yash’s hands vised along the arms of his chair. Better the chair than his mother’s neck, he thought dimly. She kept talking, gleefully explaining her strategy in getting that awful, damaged girl off their hands. And he kept drowning in his guilt, his regret and his ignorance. When his mother finally stopped jabbering, she looked at him expectantly, like he was going to pat her on the back or something.Yash got up and walked into his room without another word. She followed him, curious and impatient for a response.“You ask a question and then don’t have anything to say, is it?” she whined from the threshold of his bedroom.Yash just grabbed a suitcase and started to pack his clothes.“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice rising. “Leaving,” he said, tersely. “You can have the flat. I will send you a monthly amount to take care of your expenses but I cannot live in the same house with you anymore.”“Don’t be a melodramatic child!” “All these years,” he said, his voice low and steady. “I thought you were a nosy, meddlesome, social climbing busybody. Today, I found out you’re also evil.” “How dare you? I am your mother!”“Unfortunately, you are,” he agreed. “Hence the monthly payment. Consider it rent for the nine months in your womb.” “For that woman?” she screeched. “You’re abandoning your mother for that woman?” “No.” Yash slammed his suitcase shut and faced her. “I’m leaving this house because I cannot stand to be around you a second more than necessary. I cannot live with someone like you.”“Where are you going to go?” Kamini barred his way as he tried to walk past her. “I don’t know.” Yash looked down at his mother’s furious face. Even now, there was no regret, no apology, only anger. “You have my number. Send me a message if you need to reach me.” “That’s it?” she asked, her eyes searching his face for more.“That’s all I’m capable of in the moment,” Yash admitted. “I wouldn’t expect anything more from me right now.”And with that, he walked out on his home and its toxic reality.