Set in the pre-wedding phase. The wedding gets postponed for six months here and thus, everything that we saw Netra doing after Shashank and Apurva’s marriage in the show – she does it here before that. You’ll know the rest as you read.  

| Part Eighteen |

A wave of shock washed over him, momentarily paralyzing him. How did she know? How much did she know?  “Tu… baher ubhi hotis?”

Fool! I came running here and he thinks I was lounging outside, watching him dig his own grave. “Does that matter?” She responded with a nonchalant shrug. 

“Kind of,” he said, striding away from her, “gives me another reason to call off our wedding. You are sly, you spy!”

“Am I?” To say that she did not admire his courage would be an understatement but to say that she did not hate his audacity would be a blatant lie. “Regardless, I am still better than you. At least I don’t try to escape my problems. Look at you. Can’t even stand in front of me and look into my eyes while claiming how vehemently you despise me.”

As she waited for his response, she watched him lean against a wall with that expressionless face of his. Come on, how long do you think you can play, Mr. Kanitkar? Accepting your defeat right now would be a lot less messy than it would be later. “And talking about being sly… don’t you think it’s pretty hypocritical of you to spread such terrible rumors about me? Especially after you spent the past three months telling me every day that I am innocent to the point of annoyance?”

Apurva’s words caused emotional chaos inside the Wada but the most affected person had to be her ex-fiancé whose shocked face gave away that he did not expect for those details to get revealed publicly. 

Told you to quit before, didn’t I? She flaunted a smile, not caring about the fact that she was embarrassing him in front of his family. 

“Want to deny? Go ahead. Tell everyone that I am lying,” she said when he couldn’t come up with a single word in response, “certainly, this won’t be the first time you’ll be indulging in lying anyway. You are quite experienced, aren’t you?”

He swallowed the lump formed in his throat, letting go of the support of the pillar. “I don’t have to deny anything, Apurva. I’ve already told everyone that I did try to work things out between us. Why would I deny that I did put in effort? But even after putting in so much effort, it did not work out between us.”

“Really? I thought it was working out pretty well. Was I delusional?” she asked, her voice suddenly heavy.

She took a step in his direction only to have her wrist held by her cousin. The emotional meltdown she was about to have transformed into fury as she wrenched Netra’s hand away. 

“Do not dare, Netra Tai,” she warned. Her face couldn’t hide the disgust she felt standing near Netra. “You don’t believe in Karma, do you?” With a bitter chuckle, she distanced herself from Netra. “Wait and see how I make you believe in it today!” 

She shifted her focus to reaching the man who hadn’t moved an inch from his place. 

Netra had opened her mouth to retort but her phone vibrated. She looked up at Shashank from her phone after seeing the notification of a message from him. She was quick to open the message. 

If you want what you want, don’t speak to her. Don’t insult her. Don’t upset her. I am already doing what I wouldn’t be forgiven for by even my own heart. Don’t test my patience.

Netra gave him a are-you-serious look before she began typing a reply. 

“Was I so delusional, Khadoos?” Apurva’s voice cracked as she demanded confirmation from Shashank. “Kharach itki murkha aahe mi ki tu all along Netra Tai chya premaat hota aani mala tyachi idea hi navti? Ki mi tuzya nazret ek B.A failed mulgi… jichyashi tula zabardasti lagna karayla laagtay… ya palikade kadhich kahich navti? Saang na. Mi waat pahtey!”

Shashank forced himself not to stare into her eyes glistening with the threat of tears but all in vain. He couldn’t tear his gaze away. Uncertainty clouded his mind as he tried to decipher the emotions reflected in those eyes. 

When she had suddenly appeared and stood as his shield against Dada-Kaka, he hadn’t been able to protect the mask of the façade he wore in front of his family from falling off. As the moment flashed before his eyes, it transported him back to the day when things had changed between them three months ago. 

There were two things about Apurva that remained unchanged. Her scent and the fierce stubbornness to stand between him and harm. 

Even if she hadn’t been wearing her bracelet today, he could still recognize her even without turning around. He had never admitted to her how deeply he had grown fond of her scent.

On the nights they met in the past three months, he could just sit with her in the park without uttering a word and find himself relaxing after a long day at work. 

He had been trying to ask her which scent she used so that he could buy and keep it for the days he could not meet her but he had never been able to.

It had always felt too embarrassing to ask.

Her presence at the Wada today had caught him off-guard. He was truly, as she had said, a novice, he found himself silently admitting. He hadn’t considered the possibility of her showing up.

But wasn’t it reasonable? She wasn’t supposed to step out of her home after Halad.

Heck, he didn’t even know how she got to know what was happening in the Wada and even if she did, how was she not mad at him?

How was she not grabbing his collar and yelling at him?

Shouldn’t she have been the first person to slap him? Instead, she wasn’t even letting others do it.

How was he not supposed to think that she believed in his heart more than his words? Wasn’t it something that he already knew though? Manipulating her wasn’t going to be easy. 

Was I so delusional, Khadoos?

It was the first time she had called him Khadoos ever since she came and that just intesified his struggle. He didn’t know if he was capable of breaking his family’s hearts and her heart at the same time.

Kharach itki murkha aahe mi ki tu all along Netra Tai chya premaat hota aani mala tyachi idea hi navti?

It was the first time he could feel her on the verge of drowning in the same pool of insecurities that he had destroyed three months ago by coming out clean about his relationship with Netra. 

Why do I have to do this to you? He helplessly wondered; his hand desperate to wipe her tears before they could fall from her eyes. 

She tugged at his T-shirt, nearly breaking his resolve. He had spent the past three months, learning how to be the best boyfriend in existence for her and doing things that challenged his sanity just to make her smile. 

Her tears were the only weapon that could defeat him back then and even now.  

His hand slowly found its way to hold hers that was still fisting his T-shirt but before he could say anything, his phone buzzed, jolting him back to reality. He pulled out his phone with his other hand and caught Netra’s reply. 

Do you really think you are in a position to threaten me?

Do leave your comments. <3 Feel free to share your theories about what’s going on with these three here, Shashank, Apurva and Netra.