This is an alternate track after Episode 105. What if, Milind had not called Pallavi and she couldn't reach before she could stop the fiasco? What if Raghav had actually gone through with Vijay's demands? It is kind of unthinkable but I guess by now you all have come to know, that angst is my cup of coffee..

"Dada ye aap kya kar rahe hain!!! Damad hain woh humara.. aap.."

"Milind chup ho jaa, aaj tu kuch nhi bolega. Zara main bhi toh dekhu ki Raghav Rao apne wadon ka kitna pukka hain.."

Vijay's mocking smile did not faze Raghav at all. He had become immune to his interim father in law's vicious taunts. He was on one knee, all his sharp long limbs focussed at a perfect ninety degrees to the ground, his expensive suit jacket flung at the handle of the couch and his shirt sleeves rolled up. 

His expression was set in that perpetual fury but there seemed to be something extremely disconcerting in his gaze. For the first time, the Deshmukhs couldn't see the ever present inferno in his charcoal pupils. For his eyes looked almost milky for a change, as if not present in this dimension of reality at all. 

It was as he had been transported back to the past. Ensnared in the claws of inner demons refusing to let go of him. 

He was looking truly frightening. 

Vijay could feel the unease starting to crawl up his spine as he saw Raghav pour the water on to the brass plate from the jug. Even though he had him where he had always wanted to see him, at his feet... it didn't feel like he was the one in control still. 

Instead the head of the Deshmukh clan felt like he was a lamb caught in a stump with a hungry lion waiting to sink its jaws into him at his feet. 

But woe betide him if he let even a single shred of nervousness seep through. Vijay had desired breaking this abomination of a man's pride and vanity for so damn long that he could tolerate playing the villain if it meant he could win their game of one upmanship of ego. 

Milind and Amrutha truly looked distressed as Sulochana and Manasi just kept on looking with a baleful glee which seemed almost sickening to the former two. 

Raghav had started washing his feet. His long nimble fingers dexterous and surprisingly efficient as he seemed to do this task with just the precise skill he used while polishing his beloved diamonds.

"Raghav please.. don't do this. You don't have to do this.. please.. Dada ne gusse mein bol diya.. Raghav.."

But Milind's protests went unheard and Vijay felt just a fraction of delight at the solemn silence from the usually bombastic man in front. Raghav's body was stiff like a bow string pulled too tight and for a moment Amrutha felt like he might just snap and break into two. 

There was no hesitation when he drained off the water from Vijay's washed feet and wiped them off with the hand towel they had so graciously provided him. The Deshmukhs looked on with curiosity, excitement, an ill begotten joy and a wrenching horror as Raghav Rao proceeded to take a sip of the remaining water in that brass plate. 

He raised an eyebrow at Vijay's dumbstruck face and dropped the plate with an almighty clang on the ground before rising up fluidly from his position as if he had done nothing except perhaps tied his shoe laces. There was an ominous silence in the room as he ripped the jacket off the handle of the couch before giving Vijay a look which could have raised him to the ground had the owner of it possessed any supernatural abilities. 

"I have kept my end of the deal. Ab dekhna ye baaki hain sasurji ki aap apna wada ka kitna pakka hain."

With these last words which seemed to reverberate across the walls he stormed out leaving Vijay feeling scarily discontent. He didn't feel the elation of a hard earned victory. Instead all he felt was an inexplicable yet gut wrenching shame. 

"Chi! Chi chi chi! Main.. I can't even look at you.. Da- "

Milind couldn't even bear to address this strange lookalike of his elder brother with the relation he shared with him. He turned and walked out, taking the same route Raghav had a few seconds ago, presumably to talk to him.

Vijay had a strange urge to kick the brass plate lying listless on the front of his feet with all his might. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Don't say a word to Pallavi."

"Have you completely lost it? Did you even think before acquiescing to that abomination of a demand? Arre apna nhi toh ekbaar Pallavi ke barein mein hi soch lete.."

"Maine aapse kuch kaha Milindji."

Milind felt his skin jump at the sheer emptiness in his voice. He hadn't raised his volume for even a decibel yet it sounded like a bellow. And did he just take his proper name? It sounded so wrong in his voice. 

"Raghav..."

"Please. I know her. She would get needlessly worked up. I promised I would do anything to reconcile her with you all. And all means all.. including.. Mr. Deshmukh. Your elder brother is delusional if he thinks I did any of this for him or his ego. It is for her. It will always be for her."

"Raghav please, let me tell her.. you can't the hide the truth for long. She will find out and then if she will get hurt again..please.."

"Milindji please, I... I request you. Don't. No one should know. Not her and not Farhad. Especially not Farhad. He will... Chitti will kill Mr. Deshmukh. Tell your wife and daughters to keep their mouths shut too if they know what's good for them."

"Par ye sarasar galat hain. Dada ko koi haq nhi tha.. aisa.. ghatiya harkat.."

Raghav stopped him with such a look of exhaustion on his handsome face, as if cracking open his mask for him to peep through for a glance. His perfectly tanned skin had turned almost grey like a corpse and fatigue had filled a mossy blurriness in his usually hawk like gaze. 

"Please...I.. I can't take this anymore. Let everything be right. I can't take the guilt anymore. Pallavi khush rahega, bass mereko aur kuch nhi chahiye.. please.. let her be happy. I know you genuinely care for her. Please.. for her sake. I am so tired."

Milind had an odd urge to hug the man in front of him. He was looking more like a drained child and then an overtired old man than his actual age. 

"Promise me Milindji, aap nhi bolega kisise kuch, aur kisiko bolne bhi nhi dega..promise me."

"..."

"Please.."

"Theek hain. I promise."

"Thank you."

His eyes seemed to shine once in gratitude before glossing over as if in a delirium and he entered his car and drove away leaving Milind in a dust, feeling like an utter failure as a human being and a father. 

-------------------------------------------------

Pallavi felt the ground slip from underneath her feet. Her world seemed to get tilted at an axis. She thought she may have seen a momentary swirl of grey in front of her eyes before a din of faint noises seemed to buzz behind her ears. 

Purple dots danced uninhibited in front of her eyes as they cleared slowly. 

Surprisingly she found herself lying on the couch with her so called family surrounding her, giving her concerned looks. 

She saw her fa--- the man she considered her father give her a very worried glance as he tried to touch her face to remove the hair stuck to her perspiring forehead with the tenderness she had craved for since the past month. 

Her skin roiled at the very thought of the contact as she thundered at him, giving a full bodied flinch and everyone was taken aback. 

"Don't you dare!"

"Pallu... beta.."

"Nhi Aai! Ye aadmi.. mujhe nhi chuega.. don't you dare touch me!"

"Pallavi.. please. I'm sorr.."

Pallavi leaped up from the couch trying to find her centre of gravity as her knees wobbled as if the patella had decided to transform into the standard hospital issued khichdi. Her stomach was revolting massively as if the thought of breathing the same air as these people made her feel sick. 

Vijay Deshmukh looked genuinely remorseful for a change but that served no purpose at all. Not when he had.. he had... humiliated her husband... he had.. Pallavi felt her gag reflex kick in and she ran towards the washroom, Sharda following her close in panic. 

Pallavi threw up in the sink and then proceeded to wash her mouth thoroughly feeling sickened and dirty and sweaty. She wanted to peel a layer of her own skin off her body hoping that the sticky mass of disgust which has suddenly plastered over her gets removed.

"Aai, aapne aisa... kaise hone diya? Kaka!!! Aap toh the na wahan? Amrutha.. Manasi... tum sab the! How could you! How could you all.."

She pinched the bridge of her nose feeling like she might just throw up again as the cacophony of noises assailed her from all sides. 

"Shut up!"

"Pallavi beta I am sorry. I didn't think he would actually do it.. I was angry.. I.."

"Angry!!! That is your excuse? You were angry so you put forth such a debasing condition? A condition not even fit for animals!!!? You... how could you.. Ba.. Vijay Deshmukh!"

The man looked at her shocked as tears streamed down his estranged daughter's face. 

"You have no idea what you have done Mr. Deshmukh."

"Pallu..."

"I am sorry Aai. But I hope you understand. I am leaving. And rest assured you will never have to see me from today."

Milind and Sharda and even Amrutha tried stopping her as Vijay looked helpless and embarrassed beyond belief. Pallavi didn't hear a word as she stormed out of what had once been her home, for forever. 

"Pallavi.. please.. humari baat toh sunle baccha.."

"Nhi Kaka.. Aai aur Nikhil ko chodke, aap mese kisike saath ab koi rishta nhi rakhna mujhe. Aap sabne waha chup chaap khade rehke tamasha dekha. Kisine kuch nhi kiya... I am ashamed I was ever even related to any of you."

And she was gone before Sharda could even cry out to her. 

---------------------------------------------

 Raghav almost got a heart attack seeing Pallavi crumpled on the floor of their bedroom. She was curled into herself like a kicked centipede, her beautiful hair spread dishevelled and her blue silk saree rustled around her slender figure. 

Her lips looked dry and cracked and the tear tracks on her pale cheeks seemed to get branded into his heart like a red hot rod of iron. 

"Pallavi!"

He was on his knees at her side, instantly, having discarded the files he had been carrying unceremoniously on the ground. 

Pallavi found herself gaining consciousness cradled in her husband's arms, his warmth blowing the heat back in her freezing body as he looked down at her, agonized and terrified. 

"Pallavi,.... kya hua? Tum ro raha tha kya? Kisine kuch kaha? Woh tumhara kaku, unka idiotic betiyan.. Mr. Deshmukh ne?"

Pallavi felt a sob tear her chest open like someone had sawed her into two and she buried her face inside the crook of his neck, holding onto his muscular shoulders for dear life. His terror increased a hundredfold with every heart wrenching sob she emitted from his neck. He picked her up smoothly from the floor and sat on the bed, holding her close to his chest, panicked. 

"Pallavi mera jaan...please.. kya hua bolo mereko. Tell me sweetheart. How will I know, if you keep crying instead of telling me what has happened?"

"Why Raghav! Why did you do it? Are you insane?"

His heart stopped in shock as she reiterated how she came to know about what he had done for which the Deshmukhs had accepted her back as one of their own again. Milind had very cleverly gone around his promise to Raghav and told Sharda instead of Pallavi who in turn had burst upon her husband which Pallavi had overheard. 

Everything had been going on so smoothly since the past week that Pallavi had been too elated to notice the sudden reticence in her husband. His increasing nightmares. His frequent zoning out. The perpetual dullness on his handsome face. His inability to sleep at all... all of it the culmination of the humiliation he had been forced to suffer. 

A pain which he had seen being inflicted on his own father at a very tender age. 

A thing so intrinsically linked to his traumatic past that he couldn't seem to tear himself away from it. But he didn't regret it. He has never seen his Saree Ka Dukaan as happy and content as he had since the past week. 

This much, he could suffer for her. 

After all, he deserved all the humiliation after what he had done to her. 

But he never wanted Pallavi to come to know of that particular fact because he had anticipated a similar reaction. Just not this severe. 

"Pallavi..."

"No! Don't you Pallavi me! Ghass charne gaya tha tumhara dimag? Pagal ho gaye the kya? How could you.. why.. kyun kiya Raghav! Kyun jhooke tum! Kyun! Aur kiske liye? For that man! Him! Jisse na rishto ki kadar hain na kisi ki parwah.. jinke liye unka ego unki family ki khushi se badhkar hain.. insaaniyat se badhkar hain?"

"Nhi Pallavi... aisa nhi hain.."

"Toh kaisa hain! How could you... Raghav!"

Her voice strained and broke again followed by another slew of tears which his shirt's collar soaked in immediately. His voice was so meek when he spoke next that she wouldn't have heard it, had she not been literally wrapped inside him. 

"But I didn't do it for him."

As if her heart had already not been splintered by then, hearing those words shattered it into uncountable pieces irrevocably. She let out a gut wrenching whimper and held him tighter than even steel bands could. 

"Raghav... you shouldn't have. You should never have! Not for him, not for me.. not for anyone! I know how it feels to get turned into a doormat. I know what humiliation feels like.. And after what.."

Her mind started replaying montages from that fateful night when her husband had shared his tale of pain with her. It was cruel how one's own brain seemed to know what exactly would hurt them most and sadistically make them remember just that. 

"I had rather someone had killed me.."

She whispered and Raghav tightened his hold on her, almost crushing her in his powerful arms. 

"Shut up you picchi ammayyi! Aaisa nhi boltein.."

"You shut up, Veda Manus! Dimaag kharab kar dete ho mera.. khud ki self respect ko aag lagake kisne kaha tha tragedy king banneko! Pagal, bewakoof aadmi!Tumhe pata bhi hain mujhe kaisa lag raha hain? I am feeling like someone has trampled all over me!"

He kissed her head gently as she shuddered, face still stubbornly buried inside his chest.

"Itna mat socho Pallavi... ek tareeke sa isse mera karma hi manlo. Maine tumhe beizzat kiya tha, toh mujhe bhi hona tha kabhi na kabhi.. atleast ye mera haath me toh tha.. I have hurt you much worse. This may have been my reckoning."

She shocked him then by chuckling. Her voice was still wet and guttural as she chortled and she reluctantly took her face out of his embrace to look upwards at his ashen face, her eyes brimming with tears. 

"Then I guess your purpose was defeated as this was just another massive kick to my self respect again. No.. this feels like someone has gutted me with a dagger. If you thought this would have given me even a shred of pleasure then you have never known me Ghamandi Rao."

He smiled at her then, tearing up slightly himself and removed a stuck lock from her fair softly before kissing her forehead lightly. 

"I knew it would only hurt you more so I had requested your uncle to keep his mouth shut but apparently he didn't keep his word."

"No, it was Aai who unintentionally revealed it. It isn't kaka's fault."

"It is fine, it is over... I am happy you are happy.. let us try and move forward please now?"

"Is it fine? Is it over? Why do you never sleep then? Why do you always look so tired? Main itni parayi kabse ho gayi Raghav ki ab mujhse bhi dard chupane lag gaye tum?"

"Nhi nhi aisa kuch nhi hain.. main bass tumhare ko pareshaan nhi karna chahta tha.."

"Raghav, main tumhari patni hun.. pata hain na wife ko kya bulatein hain?"

"Chudail?"

"Raghav!"

He laughed aloud making her giggle through her fake anger, still cuddled in his chest. 

"Sorry sorry, I couldn't resist it. Bolo.."

"Ardhangini."

"Saree Ka Dukaan.. phirse urdu mein bola? Mera bouncer gaya."

"Hindi hi hain patidev. Ardhangini maane, ardh angini.. meaning, half of your body. I am half of you, as you are of me. So next time before hurting yourself think a million times, as you do not belong to yourself fully. Fifty percent is mine. Arthamaiynda Mr. Impulsive Rao?"

He looked slightly overwhelmed for a moment, his eyes gaining a bright film of liquid before he composed himself admirably fast. He bent and bopped his nose with her reddish one playfully before laying a kiss on her large shimmering eyes. 

"Arthamaiyndi Saree Ka Dukaan."

"Idiot Rao."

She snuggled back in his chest fully now, tucking her legs comfortably over his lap and closed her eyes. Raghav sniggered and pulled the covers over them knowing fully well that he wouldn't be allowed to leave the bed any time soon. 

"Ye kya, tum phirse mere upar so gaya? Utro bhi.."

"Aise kaise, tum mere favourite gadde ho. Main toh tumpe hi soungi. Chup chaap beithe raho aise, ye punishment hain tumhara. Veda Manus."

"Picchi Ammaiyyi... so jaa.."

He threaded his fingers through her hair and smiled feeling her press a kiss on his chest before her even breaths hit the same place indicating she had fallen asleep. Maybe he wouldn't have nightmares tonight. 

She was one of a kind... this crazy girl.