While kavin was still asleep, purvi shut the door behind the ward, as equm stood in front of her. purvi took a long sigh of relief, as she looked over to equm. 

"tumne bataya tha kuch kavin ko....mere baarein mein?" uttered purvi those words with agitation, that she tried hard to conceal. 

"yahi ki aap mujhe drugs deti thi 12 saal ki umar se taaki aapke paas ek kam bacha ho jhelne ko?" questioned equm, as purvi looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the rather jarringly truthful fact. 

"dekho, i know maine galat kiya...it's just..." attempted purvi to defend herself, when equm just looked at her with disdain, shaking his head as he scoffed. 

"you know what, it's too late now for apologies....i wish i had just died....easier than just living with the fact that you are my mother....." commented equm bluntly, as he walked away, leaving purvi to rub her forehead in distress. 

                                                                            ***

purvi was crying, seated on the toilet seat with the lid on to keep it enclosed, the tears wearing the mascara off,  as the last thing she cared about was wiping them off. 

'purvi stop being so childish! nobody cares about these "real stories" you keep on talking about....do you see any views on a headline about unemployment, corruption, bad condition of the economy? NO! it's the fucking headline on a woman poisoning her husband! nobody wants the truth purvi, not the hard ones...everyone wants a comforting lie...' the voice of her boss echoed her ears, at her what seemed to be 10th attempt, to get a news story approved that she was passionate about, but all she got was disapproval, rejection, humiliation. she wondered what's even the point anymore...

suddenly, there was a knock on the door. 

"mumma! mumma! dekho bani ne phirse mere sarr pe remote maara!" exclaimed equm, as purvi slapped her forehead. 

"mumma equm ne mera sarr table par maara!" exclaimed bani too, telling her side. 

"shaanti se rone bhi nahi dete...aa rahi hoon, dono jaakar baitho chup chaap warna maar padegi!" exclaimed purvi, as she rubbed her eyes to clean them. 

"google pe hai kya koi, bachon ke sardard se ilaaj?" groaned purvi, literally googling up her problem. 

the search results were even more boggling, the first one being of a prostitute who drugged her children to keep them asleep at night, as she continued doing her business with them in the same room. 

she couldn't help but feel disturbed at first, but suddenly, it seemed like a light bulb was lit inside her brain. 

                                                                                    ***

kavin woke up to his ward room being opened by ishita, he was a little startled to see her, not to mention the unexpectedness of it. he sat upright on the bed, as he could clearly sense she seemed disturbed, he raised his brow at her. 

ishita came and sat by the stool on the right side of his bed, right in front of his hand, that had a drip on top of it. 

she started to look through her purse, as she grabbed hold of a cigarette box and a lighter, handing a joint to kavin. 

"i know after a heart attack the last thing you should be doing is smoke...but there's something you need to know and well, to be honest, it would be just easier to understand the story if you would be high...." remarked ishita, handing it to kavin, as he scoffed.

"kyun, do you want to discuss how did we end up here..." retorted kavin, as ishita looked at him amusingly. 

"well, if it comes to our relationship, it's not that complex...dushyant aur purvi kaafi late raatein kaam karte the aur humein ghar akela chod dete the...ab bachon ke sone ke baad ludo toh khelte nahi hum...." commented ishita sarcastically, as she lit her cigar, and started to inhale, placing it on the tip of her tongue. 

"yeah, we just...ended up on your bed a lot with our clothes off..." joked kavin, as ishita just smirked.

What they both were unaware of, is that purvi just happened to be on the other side of the door....

                                                                           ***

ishita entered the house, yawning, clearly tired from the exhausting day that it had been, when she found dushyant, sitting on the couch, sipping a glass of drink from one hand, as the other held the beer bottle, the drink was poured from. 

it was only a matter of seconds, when his glance moved to her, an odd smile on his face that she couldn't explain, as he got up, keeping the glass and bottle away, walking up to her. it was the first time that she had felt so uncomfortable when she had found him smiling at her. 

"hey..." responded ishita, smiling hesitantly, as dushyant placed a strand of her hair behind her ear, his hand slowly moving to her cheek, caressing it, as his thumb rubbed her lips. she kept her eyes open, something oddly discomforting about his glance, she couldn't help but feel an unexplainable eeriness. 

suddenly, she felt his hand around her jaw, as he clenched it tight, making her gasp, and look at him with fear. 

"dushyant..." she managed to gasp his name, her mouth didn't allow it though. 

he used his tight grasp over jaw to push her to the wall, as he now stood at an uncomfortable distance from her, or in fact the lack thereof. the fury in his glare very apparent now. 

"you cheated on me?" questioned dushyant very bluntly, as ishita was caught off guard, completely panicked right now. 

"dushya---" she couldn't finish her sentence, as he grabbed hold of her throat, throttling it, seemingly attempting to choke her. 

"don't lie to me." stated dushyant in a scaringly stern voice, the rather very low increase in his tone from usual, making it more frightening. 

"i am sorry..." apologised ishita, as she tried to breathe through his very tight grip. 

the apology was even more enraging to him, as he let go of his grip around her throat in a minute, almost throwing her away. 

he looked away, tears started to moisten his eyes, as ishita attempted to catch her breath. 

"you know, tumhare alaawa maine kisisko, kabhi bhi apne past ke baarein mein nahi bataya....especially about my dad...and after knowing that, yeh jaankar ki yeh mujhe kitna aur zyada hurt karta, why did you do it!" yelled dushyant, now at the top of his voice, his glare fixed on ishita, he was mad. 

ishita, clearly taken aback, started to look away, it might seem that she might tear up too, but instead she was mad too. she looked him right in the eye, before uttering the words:

"i wanted to hurt you...every time i fucked him, i thought of you, wanting you to walk in everytime, and knowing how much it would hurt you, it made me want to do it more..." revealed ishita, the anger in her voice, starting to make the tone rise too, as she walked up to him. 

"every time, when i was with him in our bed....it made me satisfied, knowing that i'm hurting you..you know why? because i hate you! i hate you for what you made me...tumhe kya laga tha mujhe nahi samajh aayega ki why you wanted me to get pregnant with nihaal? you wanted ki main ghar par rahoon, bache paalon, tumhari success ko supoort karoon, aur tumhe kabhi outshine na karoon...you were very supportive when i was just a freelance graphic designer...because it didn't threaten you....not until my business picked up, even after maternity leave....tum itne insecure aur egoistic ho ki tum kisiko bhi nahi apne upar dekh sakte! and you know what, it's not just kavin, gautam singhania, he kissed me too, at the party where you both announced renewing your partnership after 5 years...and i wanted you to walk in too, and feel as small as you made me feel...i wanted you to know, that i was the one with more power, not you!" ranted out ishita the venom that had developed inside her against dushyant. 

dushyant, no longer hurt or feeling sorrow, rather had a straight face, as he walked over to ishita, as she took steps back the closer he got, such that she was now pinned to the wall, and dushyant leaned over her, lifting her chin, as he kissed her. 

she closed her eyes, placing her hands on his chest, feeling his lips on hers, as he bit her lower lip before pulling away suddenly, leaving her perplexed, opening her eyes to a smirk on his face. 

"you know, i have kissed rashmi singhania like this so many times, and she looks at me in the exact same way everytime after she opens her eyes. knowing this will hurt you and now you'll know that you never hated me, you still love me...you never had power over me ishita, no one ever will." revealed dushyant, as he got her hands off himself, and walked away. 

                                                                                    ***