"Pallavi...why did you come out? Everything okay..?"

Raghav blinked back the moisture collected in his eyes and started looking everywhere except at her surprisingly enraged face. 

"I simply can't understand what to even make of you anymore."

Raghav looked at her then confused slightly at the peculiar tone of her voice and noted with some relief at the lack of the garland around her neck. She poked her long ringed finger on his chest sharply and retorted a slew of words in Marathi completely incomprehensible to him. 

"Wha..."

"Here comes this man who has no qualms about shouting to the world whatever he thinks is right no matter the situation or the circumstance. He has to be one of the most brutally frank person I have ever come across who stops as literally nothing to gain what he wants... regardless of how cruel he can be. But suddenly when it comes to me he turns away. Like a.. like a... urghhh!"

Raghav had no idea when he had started stepping back with each poke on his chest while Pallavi kept storming towards him, looking gorgeous even in her maddening rage. Or maybe, especially because of it. He had hardly noticed their curious yet apprehensive audience who had by then stepped out of the hall behind his former wife. 

"Tum kya bol raha hain... mereko kuch samajh nhi..."

"Haan! Nhi aayega samajh.. dimag mein bhusa bhara hua hain na tumhara!Sirf apne business mein chalate ho kya dimag.. baaki kaam keliye kya ghutno se sochte ho?"

"Dekho Saree ka Dukaan, tumhare ko pehle bhi bola hain, zyadaa hindi nhi use karneka.. mera bouncer jata hain!"

Raghav had hit the wall by then, Pallavi was almost breathing on him by then, standing so close to him that he could smell the roses in her hair and the lavender perfume which was so heart breakingly familiar that it was making him lose his mind as usual. 

"Arre kis language mein samjhaun main tumhe! Kya bolun aur! Itna mehnat kiya fir bhi samajh nhi aaya tumhe! Ab kya shaadi ho jaegi meri galat insaaan se tab jaake akal thikane lagegi tumhaari Mr. Born-Smart-Rao!"

She almost screamed, the sprinkles of pain overt on her face for the first time. Raghav's brain caught onto the single syllable in that sentence and it banged like the proverbial gongs of fate in his brain making him feel slightly sick again. 

Wrong man... married to the wrong man...?

Pallavi suddenly clutched the collars of his white kurta and brought him down to her height with such a sharp tug that he almost lost his balance. 

"I worked so hard! Everyone worked so hard! Only so that you could finally realise what you want and come and bloody say it to me! Confess the feelings your eyes have screamed at me since that fateful day and which keeps saying all those unsaid things even now! Why don't you just say them Rao and get it over with!"

Raghav's throat had dried up by then and he felt her leaving his collars making his body revolt at the loss of contact so wrenchingly that he had to stagger and lean on the wall, almost sliding down to her height till his patella could hold him steady. 

Pallavi's grey eyes had started shedding the film of brightness it had gathered which was starkly visible in the decoration lighting on the outer walls of the hall. Agony coursed through him with an almighty tang of an overstretched bow as the tears mapped the length of Pallavi's beautiful face. 

"Why are you punishing me like this Raghav! What wrong have I done?"

"What are.. you even saying Pallavi... you said you ...l..loved him. I asked you... you said yes... what did you want me to do...? Cage you like a monster?"

"NO! I wanted you to fight for me! I was a fool! I went for the easier option.. the illusion which I had always created in my brain which broke within seconds. I wanted you to come back! I wanted you to ask me... but you ran away instead. You let me go!"

Because I loved you! Because I love you! Because I will always love you!

He screamed the words inside his brain till he was hoarse but not even a single syllable would come out of his dried lips. Pallavi had started speaking again not moving even an inch, letting him stay caged within her body and the wall. 

"You know, Raghav... Mandar has everything I want. A big family, a bigger heart. He is kind and generous and even tempered and wise and morally upright and respects me and maybe even likes me. He is perfect."

Raghav wanted to cry. 

Why was she hell bent of hurting him? Couldn't she see how much he was aching? Didn't she care even a little bit? Was this some twisted way of taking revenge from him? Was not seeing her getting married to another torture enough that now she had to scream on his face all the qualities Pallavi deserved in a husband which he sorely lacked. 

Pallavi's hands cradled his face then with such tenderness that his crushed eyes flew open in startlement. She was crying too, as if feeling the relentless pain she was giving him. 

"Bass ek hi problem hain..pucho kya.."

"K..ya?"

"Woh mera Ghamandi Rao nhi hain!"

Raghav looked at her bewildered while simultaneously feeling like someone had slowly started to snatch the ground from beneath his feet and he was having a free fall into a void. Pallavi continued while her voice teetered dangerously at the precipice of breaking. 

"He is not you. He can never be you. And I want you. You are not the man I had even imagined wanting but now you are all I will ever want."

"Why did you leave me!"

Raghav felt the embarrassingly tear clogged words blow out of his mouth like a thunderstorm that he couldn't hold back any longer. His ribcage was threatening to collapse within itself as her words hit him like a freight train straight to the gut. 

"Because you never stopped me!"

She shouted back equally painfully, her voice water logged as his. 

"Tumne sirf bola jao.. phir.. chale jao... uske paas. Ek baar bhi nhi bola mat jao Pallavi ruk jao.. mere paas reh jao. Ek baar! Bass ek baar bolke toh dekhte Rao! Tumhe andaza bhi nhi hain mujhe kaisa lag raha tha itne din."

"You! Have you ever thought how I was feeling? I have been hurt many times in my life before Pallavi. My body has faced much more than what can humanly be born but never... never till the time I remember having a consciousness have I felt this... this miserable."

The traitorous tears had long since betrayed him. 

"Merese saans tak nhi liya jaa raha tha theek se tumhare bina.. aisa lag raha tha zameen ke tale dab raha hain main.. haath pair fek raha hain par bahar nikal na rasta nhi hain.. jaise dum ghootke mar hi jaega."

He didn't see the slap coming and only realised when his face had turned sharply to a side and the sting hit a second later. He turned his shocked face back to stare at her. Pallavi was crying in earnest now. 

"How many times do I have to tell you not to talk about dying! Have you no sense at all!!!!? What will happen to me if something happens to you!"

"Pallavi...."

"Shut up! Tumhe kya laga tum akele ho jisse taqleef ho rahi thi? Main insaan nhi hun? Mujhe nhi hoti taqleef? Tumhe pata hain.. ye kuch mahine kaise nikaale hain maine? Bistar se utha nhi jata tha mujhse.. everything from the follicle of my hair till the nail of my toe... everything use to ache... for you. Na khana paani, na neend, na chaiin.. na hasi. na aansun.. aisa lag raha tha ki sunn pad gayi hun puri.. maano jaise kisine meri zindagi hi cheen liya hain mujhse."

"Pallavi..."

"Bolo.. chali jaun main Mandar ke paas.. bolo abh aur main chali jaungi iss baar sachi. Bolo!"

Raghav felt her moving away from him and a sudden maniacal need to pull her towards him gripped him. He thought someone was clawing his heart out. He couldn't let her go. He simply couldn't. He didn't care about righteousness and goodness and morals and all that shit the gentle folk complained he lacked. 

He was like a drowning man searching to clutch at a straw. 

He just wanted Pallavi. 

"Nhi! Nhi! Don't... don't go! Please... Pallavi.. don't leave me. I love you!"

It was like she was waiting for him to just utter the first syllable of those words. She was in his arms even before he could finish confessing his feelings completely. But once it had come out, he couldn't stop saying it, like it was some dam breaking open. 

"I love you. I love you. I love you."

He kept muttering in her shoulder, in her hair as she hugged him uncomfortably tight sobbing incoherently in the crook of his neck. 

"I love you.."

She said weakly, once he let her breathe a little, drained after the sheer emotional fireworks had sucked them dry. Raghav was looking at her with such love that she thought she might just melt into a puddle on the floor. 

Suddenly his face changed a bit and he looked slightly upset again. She kept her hands on his chest gently looking up at him concerned. 

"Kya hua Rao? Why are you looking so dull?"

"Kitna zor se chata mara tum. Mereko laga.."

Pallavi felt her heart blow two sizes bigger feeling a mad urge to smother him with kisses. 

"Aww.. sorry baby. But mujhe bohot gussa aaya tha..kyun marne ki baat bole? Mat bolna phirse.. Mandar ki.. hazam kar bhi li thi kisi tarah... tumhe kuch ho gaya toh... nhi nhi...mujhse woh bardash nhi hoga..main mar jaungi."

She remembered that day, when she had seen Raghav after the accident in the hospital. Only she knows how many times she had died on the way, while coming from the site to the hospital. Seeing him functioning albeit painfully, had let her breathe a bit and she had almost confessed her true feelings but then he had had to ruin it by saying that he rather be in place of Veer. 

She was so angry after that, that she had decided to wait for him instead of saying it herself. But the idiot was more fixated on his sacrifice than what they both actually wanted. So she had cooked up this plan with everyone else's help. 

Mandar had taken a bit of time to overcome the fact that Pallavi was not his anymore but he had eventually come round. 

Raghav kissed her forehead bringing her back from the memory lane abruptly. 

"Aacha baba sorry... kitna hyper ho jata hain tum har baat pe Saree ka Dukaan."

Pallavi glared at him but kissed the place she had struck before, on his cheek, once and then twice. 

"Main hyper nhi hoti, tum bohot insensitive ho."

"Excuse me!"

"You are excused."

"Itna Ganga Jamuna bahaya tumhare liye.. aur tum bolta hain insensitive hain! Kamal hain.."

"Haan toh? Maine bhi toh Godavari Narmada bahaya hain.. isme kaunsi badi baat hain."

"Tum na.."

"Tum phir.."

"Oh for God's sake! Get these two married now before they start squabbling like two year olds again. I swear, I haven't seen kids behaving this bad than these two grown ass adults."

Keerti butted in before our resident duo could indulge in a full fledged fight which was their favourite pass time. Raghav and Pallavi blushed like a pair of watermelons while the Deshmukhs and the Raos laughed heartily at their plight. 

Raghav did grumble quite a bit throughout the wedding about how his mom, sister and best friend kept him out of the loop, knowing fully well how he was suffering, all the money he had spend behind the flight tickets to the States and every other thing under the sun stopping only when his re married wife threatened to lock him out of the bedroom if he doesn't shut his trap.

It looked like Pallavi Raghav Rao was back to rule in full form. 

And this time, she would never leave. 

Not a chance, dear readers... not a chance. *wink*