Chapter 47: chapter 47

Chapter Forty SevenMaya came awake the next morning, slowly. Her body twinged and ached in places she’d forgotten existed but she wouldn’t trade anything in the world for the warm glow of contentment radiating from inside her. A heavy arm was slung over her waist, anchoring her in place against a hard, warm chest. She sighed and snuggled in closer. “Good morning.” His sleep roughened voice stirred the tendrils of hair at her nape. Maya turned over and kissed him gently. “Good morning,” she whispered back, smiling into his still groggy eyes. “I-“ But whatever she’d been about to say was lost in the light knocking on the door. “Shit,” she muttered, trying to stifle her grin. “That’s probably Kanak. She must be wondering where I am since I didn’t sleep in the room we share.”Yash smiled lazily. “Maybe she’ll go away if we don’t answer the door.” The knocking got louder. “I don’t think so,” Maya whispered, rubbing her nose against his. “She’s very persistent.” The knocking was so loud now that it was impossible to ignore. Yash grumbled and buried his head in the pillow. Maya chuckled and got out of bed, slipping on her nightshirt. She searched for her panties but had no idea where Yash had chucked them.“Make her go away,” Yash moaned from under the pillow as the knocking got louder and louder. She forgot about hunting her panties down, pulled the nightshirt as low as it would go and went to face her best friend. She pulled the door open, the biggest smile on her face. And then she saw who it was on the other side of the door and the smile slid right off. “Maya,” Yash called out. “Tell Kanak you’ll fill her in on everything later and get back into bed.” Maya met Yash’s mother’s shocked eyes and swallowed hard. BB looked blank for a second but after that a violent blush was rising on her cheeks. She looked like she was going to have a stroke any minute now. “Yash,” Maya said as steadily as she could manage. “I think you need to come here.”BB or Kamini Aunty hadn’t said a word, her throat just worked convulsively like she was trying to get something out. “Why?” Yash grumbled. Maya heard the sounds of him getting out of bed, pulling on some clothing and padding over to where she stood. “Oh,” he said, quietly.Yes. Oh! She stepped back, acutely conscious of the fact that she wasn’t wearing any underwear and Yash was only in his boxers. She moved away from the door and went into the room to search as unobtrusively as she could for her missing underwear.“Did you need something?” She heard Yash ask his mother, his tone chilly and polite.“Her? She is the reason you left home? Left your mother?” BB was slowly gaining volume and momentum. “I left home because of what you did. We’ve already covered this. I don’t think there is anything new to talk about.” What she did? Maya’s ears perked up as she tried not to listen to the conversation happening just a few feet away. “I did it for you,” his mother cried, shouldering him aside and storming into the room. Maya pulled futilely at her nightshirt but it wouldn’t go down beyond mid-thigh. She cursed herself for not wearing shorts too but she hadn’t anticipated needing clothes at all when she set out to seduce Yash. And she’d been right, she thought smugly. “Look at her,” his mother said now, sweeping a hand out dramatically to indicate Maya. That was a bit rich, Maya thought. It wasn’t like there were other ‘hers’ in the room to point to.“Is this what you want in your life? This cripple? Look at that leg!” Maya flinched. Last night, in the heat of passion and under the gaze of Yash’s naked adoration nothing had mattered but now, she self-consciously hid her mangled foot behind the other normal one. The skin around her ankle was tough and leathery with ropy, scar tissue extending halfway up the calf. The multiple surgeries she’d undergone had left the leg shorter than the other leading to the permanent limp. It wasn’t pretty and on some days, it was agonisingly painful but this was a part of her, a part that she’d struggled to bring to the point she was at, and she wouldn’t let this snooty bitch make her feel less. Slowly, she brought her foot back to the front, planting it where everyone could look at it. She would not be made to feel ashamed, not for one single minute.Yash moved to stand next to her, his fingers lacing through hers as he brought her closer to his warmth. “Maya is all I want in my life. Nothing less. Nothing more. Just her.” His mother looked like he’d struck her. “You would choose her over your own mother?” she asked, her murderous glare trained on him.“I would choose her over everything and everyone,” he answered, his voice low and steady.Maya’s heart did a slow flip in her chest and then tumbled right out of it to land at Yash’s feet. This man, she thought tightening her grip on his hand, was worth everything.His mother drew herself up to her formidable height. Maya craned her neck to maintain eye contact with her although her soul quailed a little at the hatred in the other woman’s eyes.“I thought I’d gotten rid of you from our lives that day in the hospital. But you’re worse than a leech. Sticking on and sucking all the blood and money you can from my son.”“Ma-“ Yash growled but Maya cut him off. “It was you,” she said, realisation dawning. “Everything that happened. All the vile things you said to make me break off the engagement. It was always you. Never Yash.” “Of course it was,” the woman said, waving one hand in the air and dismissing all the years of pain, hurt, stress and debt she’d caused with her viciousness. “This one and his father never had the spine or the gut to do what needed to be done.”‘They didn’t have the heart,” Maya corrected. “Or rather they had too much heart for it.” “Whatever.” His mother stared at Yash, something an awful lot like hurt on her face. “Since you’ve chosen her over me, there doesn’t seem to be anything else for us to say to each other.” Yash only inclined his head in acknowledgement. She crossed Maya as she swept out of the door. “I do believe your panties are stuck under the leg of that chair, my dear.” And with that parting shot, she was gone, leaving years of relationship debris in her wake.Â