The applause, cheers, hooting, and congratulatory whispers were quick to die as the lights were back dim and the floor was cleared as the first thrum of guitar sliced the atmosphere. The people parted and made the space designated to be emptied.
"We announce the dance floor open." The host blared his vocals into the mic earning affirmative responses from the guests.
Men were quick to find their women or the one they were infatuated with, asking for their hands and leading them towards the dance floor.
Anirudh watched Shreya and Rakshit being pushed toward the center, the couple playing at the edges of the unsaid words and the thick blanket of tension between them.
On the other end, Vidyut made an annoyed face as Uttara jumped at the mention, pulling him towards the stage and moving at the beats, his brother eyeing the woman as if she was high on drugs. He wouldn't put past Vidyut to give her a tough time moving half as gracefully as Uttara swirled.
While his brothers took their places, Anirudh kept his eyes in the direction Dhwani left a few seconds before the host made the announcement. The lady took her exit at the accurate moment as if she knew what was coming next.
Her reason was the assistant who came hurrying towards her for help. His protests were dead the moment Dhwani glared at him derisively. The woman could be intimidating when she wanted to be.
Anirudh sighed, waiting at the entrance of the hall for his wife of two years. His eyes oscillated between his watch, floor, and gate and he missed the person nearing him.
"Can I have this dance, Anirudh?" The feminine voice made him spin on his heels, snapping at the familiarity.
He watched the woman dressed in an elegant black piece with her legs on display and spaghetti straps holding her gown. The bold red lips pursed in a smile that he escaped and blinked.
"Miss Bajaj." His jaw clenched. "I see you are here to apologize to my wife."
"Yes, that and because you invited me here, Anirudh." She leaned forward with an unreadable glint. "We started on a bad foot. I was wondering if we could clear the miscommunication and sustain our relationship."
"Relationship?" He cocked a mocking brow. "It is your father and me. Not you and me."
"I am my father's heir, Anirudh." She stated chuckling. "We are meant to be working together one day or another."
"I don't think so." He gritted, irked by her presence. "I am dealing with your father and your brother you seem not to remember. Me and you are never working together."
Her smile dropped and her lips turned to a pout. "I am sorry for that day. I didn't mean to slap your employee..."
"My wife." He corrected her.
"You don't consider her that." She commented with a scoff as if denying his claims. "She herself won't introduce as your wife. I know this is a sham of a marriage..."
"Shut up." He snapped cutting her off rather rudely. "She is my wife. Whatever we have is none of your concern, Miss Bajaj. The woman you insulted owns that office and this place you are standing on so you rather watch your words and actions before you are burdened with another lawsuit that could bring not just you but your entire family on the streets."
"Anirudh..."
"It is Mr. Chauhan for you." He declared pinning her with a glare.
"I apologize, Mr. Chauhan." She nodded fervently. "I didn't mean to upset you but was here to ask you for a dance if you shall be generous enough. May I have the pleasure to have this dance with you?"
Her palm forwarded and Anirudh took a negligible step back.
"You cannot." A voice answered and Anirudh exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. Dhwani pushed past Arushi, shoving her aside, and stood beside her husband with a polite smile. "Oops, I am sorry."
"Ms. Gandhi." Arushi addressed.
He fisted the will to smack her head in the nearby wall.
"That is only within the office. It is Mrs. Dhwani Anirudh Chauhan." She claimed her position and Anirudh felt almost proud. "I regret that he cannot be dancing with you on this song or the next or anyone today evening."
"Why?" Arushi snapped frowning.
"Oh, he promised all his dances to me you see." Dhwani goaded with a grin, turning towards him who watched her in amazement. "Right, Mr. Husband?"
"Of course, Petal." He nodded in amusement "I did."
"See." Dhwani empathized. "But I am sure there are plenty of single men out here finding a beautiful date. You can try your luck."
Arushi's jaw clenched but she smiled politely. "Sure."
"Great. Now shall we move?" Dhwani chimed and turned towards him with raised brows "It's time you fulfill your promise, Anirudh."
He blinked assertively and caged her fingers which she quickly slithered away.
"No. Ask me nicely." She demanded enjoying her audience.
He shook his head chuckling. "May I have the honor to dance with my wife?"
Dhwani glanced at a fuming Arushi and back at him, nodding once thoughtfully. "You may."
He took her palm and led her towards the stage when she halted them placing her free hand on his biceps. He frowned.
"Just a minute." Dhwani grinned mischievously at him and turned towards Arushi. "Oh, Miss. Bajaj. I forgot to mention. Do take note of the empty ring finger, not every wife acts cordial. Some could scratch your face and yank your fake extensions too if you try to snag their husbands."
Arushi stood gaping while Dhwani turned towards him.
The music changed announcing the end of the first set. The beats thrummed within the walls and soft notes echoed back. Her eyes widened a little at the realization.
"Let's go. This is my favorite song" She pulled him.
Anirudh was left bemused at her warning but nonetheless cleared his throat and followed her lead, taking the empty position in the middle. Holding this close, he was accustomed to having a closer look at her. Her eyes were no plain, dull brown but laced flakes of ambers -gold, orange, and grey. They alone were capable of speaking volumes that he had ignored and failed to listen in the past but he resolved not to anymore. Her face was slightly oval. She had a sharp long nose and prominent doe eyes leaving her lips too thin which made a small pout each time she looked away- searching for a trace of mishap caused by just anyone to destroy the night- and a small, almost triangle chin. She had lost weight which made her jawline and cheek bones noticeable and cheeks hollow. A lot different from the chubbier version he had seen that very first time.
Then, she was a girl â carefree yet shy, curious, and modern.
Now, she had changed herself to being a woman who would find solace in respectful nods and polite smiles instead of questioning anything and everything. She had reserved herself in traditional Kurtis and sarees that were either dull colors or too simple.
Not that she was extravagant before, but the girl he met in denim and maroon top was lost in the burden of this family name and reputation.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked incredulously, a frown marring her features as they moved on following the steps of other couples.
"Like what?" He could play and prolong this conversation. Seeing it was the first time she was initiating it.
"Like...like you are in a museum and trying to make sense of the things on display." She pursed her lips thinking as his arm raised and he spun her slightly.
"And if I tell you that is exactly how I feel?" He raised an amused brow, pulling her back to him.
"I am no artwork." She mumbled watching her hand in his.
He made a throaty hum of disapproval. "Try looking at yourself from here."
Her frown turned to deadpan at his gesture towards his eyes. "My eyes seem to work just fine."
"Your eyes are beautiful." He watched her cheeks flush and the beautiful set landed anywhere but him. "What? I deserve a thank you, don't I?"
Her jaw dropped and she rolled her eyes.
"Thank you." She scoffed dryly, stepping back and he followed before he yanked her back.
He smirked. "That doesn't sound genuine to me. I think the one said yesterday was much better."
"Don't push your luck." Dhwani narrowed her eyes at him and he bit back a grin. "Or I would leave you to Miss. Bajaj and her pleasure of dancing with you."
"You wouldn't." He gaped appalled.
"Try me." She shrugged and her palm lifted off his shoulder as she tried to leave.
"I won't let you." His palms shot to her waist and snaked her back, meaning the words more than just her leaving the dance floor. "You are going nowhere."
As if she understood the underlying promise, she swallowed and held her palms on his chest to create a distance but ended up being pulled more. "Anirudh."
"Yes, Petal." He watched her shuffling on her feet as she watched his face and the place her palm was â his heart.
"Everyone is watching." She mumbled.
"So?" He probed. The song changed and lights followed, the room turning darker and the spotlights danced around the edges of the floor leaving them in darkness.
"What so? Let me go." Her demand would be left futile.
"We are dancing." He stated, although them standing this close in the darkness- unmoving - could be called anything but dancing.
"My heels hurt." Her excuse came after a stretch of 30 seconds and he almost smirked at the lie.
"You wear them every day." His mention made her still.
"I...I don't."
"You do." He stated, letting his palm reach her back and rubbing soft circles on her waist and back. "Heels are your favorite."
"They aren't." She grumbled desperately, wiggling to part from his hold.
He yanked her closer, making her still as he whispered near her ears. "You have 11 pairs of heels in all lengths, Petal. You love them."
Their cheeks brushed and she shivered at the contact. He knew he was pushing her limit, yet it felt like the right thing to do.
She felt right.
"How?" She swallowed, the small voice would have never reached him if not for being so close to her.
He inhaled her scent, cherishing the sugary female tint combined with some roses. His lips brushed once more against her earlobe. "I know."
â â â â
Thiers was a marriage of convenience.
An agreement between two people who had to save everything that they had earned in these long years of life. They were stuck. Deformed, unwrapped, misguided, and confused when they met each other on one stormy night, quite literally.
Vidyut had recently switched hospitals, taking up his father's offer to join their family hospital under the Gayatri Devi Foundation after 4 years of medical practice and his master's from another medical college and hospital. He had joined as a chief resident and Ajeet Chauhan announced a string of celebrations for this change.
Their grandfather was a lively man who found happiness in the smallest of their achievements. Vidyut becoming a part of the hospital made him pursue a family dinner.
Taking an early leave from the hospital, Vidyut had felt generous and decided to meet his family earlier than scheduled and spent some time with his mother â Rashi Chauhan - who complained about how her son was so busy these days.
His father on the other hand had decided to take the kitchen in the name of preparing food because it had been months that he cooked for his family. While his grandparents returned from their temple visit, Vidyut had watched his parents bicker and his mother fawning over him as they went through the lengths of small talk.
Rashi Chauhan may look strict to the world but her children were her life, and her wealth, and Vidyut was rather closer to her than her other two sons, being the middle child as he liked to claim and tease his twin, Rakshit. He had sat with his head in her lap as they went through small chatters. He had felt immense peace that day.
Spending all the time in hand with his mother.
The woman whom he remembers from the very day he breathed into this world. The only one who understood his silence as most of his answers, his wishes to be alone and not a part of those birthday parties thrown for the twins. He was a peculiar child who liked none but small company around. His twin was one of them, maybe because he had shared his cot, his food, and his sleep with him.
She was the only one who understood him, better than anyone else.
Until the first morsel was gulped down by him.
His world had come crashing in the form of a woman who walked inside the doors, smiling, and gushing at her two daughters who walked along with her â Avantika Sahay.
The youngest daughter of Ajeet and Gayatri Chauhan, the only living sibling of Harshvardhan, and Vidyut's biggest nightmare.
The woman who made him question his entire existence at the tender age of 7 when he had met her for the first time. Not that she had abused him, she had never laid a hard hand on him but her regretful eyes and those soft caresses made him nauseous.
He had buried those events long back in his 8-year-old mind when he had overheard a conversation not meant for him.
"Why is she saying that, Mumma? "
The 7- year Vidyut demanded from his mother, clutching to her legs as the woman who was introduced as her aunt claimed rights on him. He had encountered the truth and had refused to believe anyone but his mother who had shaken her head ever so softly with teary eyes.
His hold dropped on the spoon just like he had let go of his mother that day, eyes wide and shaking his head in disbelief.
"You are lying. You all are." He had screamed, running away from a guilty Avantika who tried holding him. "She is bad. Send her way! I don't want her here. She is a bad witch! Send her away!"
"Vidyut...no baby. We don't talk like this." Rashi tried holding him but the adrenaline rush of the small boy overpowered her as he thrashed his small body against her.
"I don't like her. I don't want to see her. Tell her to go away. Tell her!"
"Vidyut...My jaan. No! Look at Mumma."
He had never seen Rashi so broken yet his brain could hardly function. Exhausted from the day's event that was supposed to be his eighth birthday took its toll and he passed out in the arms of the only person he could blindly trust.
That was the last day he had seen Avantika Chauhan in his close vicinity. He refused to hear, talk, or meet her ever again for the past two decades until that day.
"What is she doing here?" He had asked in a cold detached voice.
"Vidyut...we didn't know she was coming." Rashi was quick to answer and exchanged a panicked look with Harshvardhan who had kept a tight hold on his spoon.
"Avantika," Harshvardhan called for her attention as if letting her have an idea of how much unwelcomed she was.
"Bhai, I was in town. I thought to see you all." She had explained glancing at Vidyut who did not bother to look up. "Is that Vidyut? He is grown up. My..."
"No." He hissed cutting her off. "I am your nothing, Mrs. Sahay."
Avantika flinched at the venom-filled tone. "Son, hear me once."
"I am done, Mumma." He had announced, letting the chair screech back and standing from his place.
"But Vidyut have your dinner first...please, wait."
He did not.
He did not wait or look back. He left Rashi calling behind him but did not stop.
He could never.
Never when that woman share the same roof with him. He had madly driven out of that place and speeded through the empty roads until he could no more.
He could feel his blood rushing to his head leaving his knuckles white against the steering wheel. Heedlessly driving for straight two hours, he had reached the outskirts of the city and down the deserted valleys of the hills. He braked only to stop at a gas station that marked the start of the small hill station of Panchgani.
Throwing the sanity out of his working brain cells, he had driven around the small municipality and parked in front of a resort that seemed to be bursting with people.
He could feel the happy buzz around and was swayed towards the lights like a moth ready to attain death.
Vidyut had always abhorred gatherings in the past years thinking of them as an extravagant nuisance that led to a waste of time, money, and resources. But that day, he came there to find solitude amongst the crowd. The only place where he could stay and remain unbothered.
Taking a place on the balcony, he had sipped his drinks, indulging into the realm of the consequences that, that woman brought in her wake.
His tale of existence is one of them.
If only he knew that this place would make him meet another woman who could make or break him. Another woman who would become a part of his life in the most remarkable manner â Uttara Rai.
They met and the world burst into a series of explosions that led them entangled in a bond for eternity. Not that he hadn't made it clear that he wanted to set their period of forever.
It was supposed to be a 12-month deal until they made the world believe the sweet lies they were pushed to intertwine together.
6 months ago he tried ignoring her, and she tried creating a place in his life. Drilling a hole her in his brain and successfully breaking into his walls. Now that she had made her way inside his life, he would be doing anything to refill the gap and trap her within.
If that meant letting her in, more than she was already.
"Knock, knock!" A tap on his head made him break the trip through the memory line.
He watched the woman in his arms swaying with the music giggle and made his brows jump in a questioning stance.
"You were lost." She answered with a grin that refused to leave her lips for the entire night. "This is the fifth song and almost everyone has stepped down the floor."
He looked around and found his brothers retreating from the dance floor, his parents already standing at the sidelines watching him. There the two more couples had joined some time later. "Do you want to stop?"
She shrugged unbothered. "What about you?"
"Does your heels hurt?" He asked glancing at her feet and earning a sweet flush.
"No. I'm habitual." She took a quick sweep around while he twirled her. She laughed and came back to him. "You are a quick learner, Doctor."
"Don't start that again." He rolled his eyes and she giggled more. He playfully glared at her. "Have I mentioned how annoying you have become these days?"
"Nope, you haven't." She grinned. "Not that will make a difference."
"Why?" He cocked a brow. He wanted to keep talking to her like he wanted to keep breathing.
"Because," Her voice hushed as those dark red painted lips quivered in a smirk "You are the one spoiling me."
"Not true." He sized her with squinted eyes.
"You bet?" Uttara challenged, biting back a grin.
"Who are you and what did you do to my wife?" He asked faking a frown.
She chuckled but nevertheless, leaned to answer him "I think she evaporated when you kissed her."
He shook his head smiling. Fingers caressed her face as he watched her glowing with happiness. "You are consuming me, Tara and that is fucking terrifying."
"Why?" She watched him with adoration.
"Because" he paused rubbing her hair back "You were an unexpected surprise. An intruder in my life who turned everything upside down. The defining moment. The collision of stars slammed into me hard and sent my neat little world plummeting into the ocean. I never expected it to be you, you know? But it is you, Uttara. It has been you for so long yet I couldn't pinpoint it. I kept pushing you away because that is what I have learned all these years. You came into my life like a lot of many others. You weren't loud. You were simple, quiet, and soft. You..." He inhaled, pressing his forehead against hers for a few seconds, and twirled her. Holding her back against his front. Arms were welded around her. "Yet you left an impression. You touched me and now I couldn't erase it."
"Does it mean...you feel something...for me?" She stammered, glancing behind at him.
Her pretty eyes bloomed with hope.
"I..."
He could never complete it. Words left him so as his sanity when he saw her standing infront of him â smiling.
The woman who was the reason he existed.
His birth mother â Avantika Sahay.
These Chauhans have deep rooted skeletons, don't ya think so?