"...some secrets beg to be betrayed. The secret of undeclared love is like that." 

Robin Hobb, Golden Fool

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After all the revelations and chaos, everyone present in Tiwari Killa finally decided to call it a night. The Tiwaris got busy making sure that the head of their family was not taking any stress over what happened and the Malhotras took their leave, slowly walking out one by one. But despite what was happening around them, the both of them remained there, still. They stood in the middle of the living room, alone yet together. Lost in their own thoughts, they weren't aware of the rest of the world.

"Shravan!" Ramnaath called out, stepping inside the living room just to check if his son had already left.

But when he found the two, Ramnaath couldn't help but gasp. He didn't know how to react when he saw his son standing by the side of that girl, hand in hand, in the same position he had left them, half an hour ago, to talk with Tiwari Ji.

"Yes, Papa?" Shravan asked, coming out of his thoughts, yet remained where he was, standing close to the girl whom he had claimed he wanted to stay far away from.

Ramnaath couldn't help but feel unreasonable rage towards both of them. Why couldn't they stay away from each other? Why couldn't his son remain firm to his words and not melt away at the first sign of her distress? Why couldn't Suman keep her promise of pushing him away? He kept thinking as he glared down at their joint hands. He wanted them to sense his disapproval and step away from each other as they had always done before. Yet Suman continued ignoring him by looking at the other side and his son kept looking at him with a confused expression on his face; expecting him to continue what he was supposed to, as if him standing there so close to her wasn't something out of the ordinary, as if he wasn't holding the hand of the girl he had been claiming to hate for the past week.

"You were saying something?" Shravan asked his father, snapping him out of his inner conflict.

"Huh? I was saying that we should go back home now," Ramnaath fumbled, disturbed at the sudden unity that the duo was showing, yet didn't want to give away his anger.

"You go first, I will be right behind you," Shravan said as his grip on her hand became tighter.

"What? Why? Why can't we go back together?" Ramnaath asked, fearing the answer.

"I have to talk to Sumo about something, but Lala Ji must be waiting for you outside. You should go back," He responded, smiling awkwardly at his father.

'Sumo...' Ramnaath noticed the change he had been fearing. Defeated, he accepted that despite everything, at least for tonight, his son wouldn't move away from the girl's side. With a frown, he observed them and as he did that, he realized that maybe all he should do now was to wait for them to make another mistake on their own, a mistake which would divide them once again. And knowing the two, they would make one soon enough, Ramnaath assured himself. Nodding at his thought with satisfaction, he decided he should just let them be for tonight...

"Okay. Be quick," Ramnaath reminded his son before walking out of the door.

Now that they were left alone, fear gripped Shravan. He didn't dare to look at her. Yet Suman made no move to lash out, and that made him fear it all the more. As lost as she looked in her thoughts, Shravan could already feel the wall building between them. As if slowly, she was once again slipping away from him. Just like in the past, every time she had assured him that she wasn't going anywhere, something or other had happened which had made her do the contrary to what she had assured him. He feared the same was going to happen this time too. And this time around, it was him who had done something which would make her push him away. This time around he was the sinner and he wouldn't even be able to hold anything against her when she would push him away.

This time around, he was going to lose her, for real...

As he kept looking at her, he realized that she was thinking this through. He could predict that he was going to be grilled by her first and when she would get to know the truth, she would hate him. The indifference she had been showing for the past month will transform into hatred. Or worse, he would not matter to her anymore. He would no longer mean anything to her, in any capacity. As that thought crossed his mind, he felt as if his whole life was slipping away from his hand and he could do nothing to stop it from happening.

He had feared her rejection ever since he realized his feelings for her, eleven years ago, but ever since he came back, he never thought it could happen to him once again, that a day may come when she would not even acknowledge his existence...

'Well, this time around, it's because of what I have done...' He thought in shame as he blinked, trying to push back the tears of helplessness and regret.

Even though she could feel him nervously gazing at her side now and then, Suman didn't look up at him, not even when slowly he tightened his grip on her hand, holding it between the both of his hands as if he didn't ever want to let go, as if he feared he would lose her...

Drawing a deep breath, Suman concluded that they both had to come clean. Enough damage was done. They both for once needed to realize that they couldn't continue hurting each other the way they had been doing for a long time. For once they should talk without hesitating and without fearing the reaction of the other. And if after that they would have nothing left between them, so be it...

"Sumo?" He called her out nervously when he saw her staring at him.

"Let's get out here!" She responded with a sigh.

Slowly they walked outside of the living room, hand in hand, and when they came to stand near the main gate of Tiwari Killa, in the darkness, she let go of his hand, removing it from his tight grip, and moved from his side to come to stand in front of him. Standing under the moonlight, surrounded by the fairy lights Tiwari Killa was lit by, she could see him looking down at his empty hand before clenching both hands in fists and bowing down his head in defeat. Ignoring what that sight of him made her feel, she folded her arms around her chest and looked up at him with a frown.

"So, Shravan Malhotra?" She asked with a mocking tone in her voice.

"What should I do with you?" She asked with a sarcastic smile on her face.

Shravan didn't have an answer to that. He never had answers when it came to her. There has never been any kind of surety between them. Maybe that was the reason why he was never sure about her, about anything. He wished there was a way to justify this one act of his. Just this one, but there wasn't. He realized what he had done wasn't something he should have done. Never. But what he could do now to mend things? He didn't know...

He never wanted her to come to know of it. It was something he had done in the rage he felt towards Nirmala Ahuja and Aditya. It was an act of revenge towards them. An act he had naively thought had nothing to do with Suman Tiwari, his former best friend. He had never thought it was something that she would get to know, something she would be affected by. He never thought it was something that could cause her any harm. But it had. That too in such a brutal way that it has shaken him, has broken something within him, yet he knew it was nothing compared to what it had done to her, and what the whole truth would do to her...

"You are going to tell me everything you have told Aditya, word by word," Suman ordered sternly.

"No..." Shravan denied with a whisper as he shook his head.

"Come on, Shravan, why are you hesitating now? I am sure in front of Aditya, you must have said all that with ease - kenchi ki tarha chali hogi yeh zuban," she said with a glare.

"Must I tell you everything?" He snapped at her, only to sigh as he closed his eyes in regret.

"Please, Sumo, let it go," he pleaded.

"Please, please," he continued to mutter slowly.

"That bad, huh?" She asked him softly.

"I never wanted you to come to know this. I still don't want you to know," he whispered as he pleaded with her.

"Shravan, I need to know what is that you have done." She told him firmly.

"So, you told Aditya that we were in a relationship?" Suman asked forcefully when he continued with his Maun Vrat - his silence.

"Yes." He whispered, giving in as he nodded in defeat.

"And?" She asked strictly as she continued to glare at him.

With a deep sigh, he realized she wasn't letting it go. He had feared that. Now he has to own his impulsive actions, which he accepted. Exhaling roughly, he looked at her with the realization that he has already lost her. And there was no point in hiding things from her in the fear of losing her. In one way or another, she will come to know the truth. He didn't want it to be someone else, especially Aditya, to tell her what he had said. For that, he now had to be honest with her. He owed her that much...

"I told him that we had a relationship that involved physical intimacy." He whispered, stuttering and cringing.

"Oh!" she whispered as she looked at him in shock.

As she kept looking at him, trying to comprehend his reasons, Suman realized she just couldn't. And suddenly the exhaustion of the entire situation slowly worked its way through her jaded mind and she sighed, holding her head in her palms. She felt totally dense and clueless. How was she supposed to react to that?

"Sumo, I didn't mean to drag you into this mess. I only meant to hurt Aditya and Mrs Ahuja. It was - I just..." He muttered, continued stuttering, unable to find the words to explain her.

"For revenge? Is that the value? Mine? Ours? Is that our importance? Is that our value? Petty revenge?" She asked him in disbelief, looking at him standing there with his head bowed down in shame.

Drawing a deep breath, she realized this was the time to tell him how she had done something similar, but for a different reason, differently. But she has...

"If we have come to this, then let me tell you what your and our value is me. It's Preeti and Pushkar's wedding," she admitted.

His head snapped up as he heard her say that. What did she mean by that?

"What are talking about?" He asked, confused.

"You know when the talks about their marriage started, someone gave me a blank cheque to leave you, and at first, I didn't agree. But then I agreed on staying away from you, for pushing you away if the price was Pushkar and Preeti's marriage." She confessed.

"I still think I cracked a better deal. I sold you - us at a better price, Mr Shravan Malhotra, the lawyer. Am I not a great businesswoman?" She smirked at him as tears slipped down from her eyes.

How ironic that they both, in their different ways, made a mockery of the bond between them...

"What are talking about, Suman?" He asked her, unable to comprehend her words.

'Sold? Price? Pushkar-Preeti marriage? What that had anything to do with what them?' He wondered as his mind tried to find a connection between all of that. She stopped being his Sumo ever since the preparation for Pushkar-Preeti's marriage had started, but still what that had anything to do with what happened between them?

"Why don't you ask that your father, Shravan?" She said with a sigh and then she turned around to walk away.

"What do you mean by that? What does my father have to do with us?" He demanded as he got a hold of her wrist, stopping her from leaving.

"Because he is the one who bought you - us from me." She confessed as she kept looking him in the eyes which held only confusion in them.

"That's not possible. Why would he do such a thing?" He whispered, puzzled at what she was trying to say. He had talked to his father, and he had agreed. If he had had any reservations or had anything against Suman, he wouldn't have given him his approval. But he did, didn't he? His father had given him his permission to pursue her, so why would he?

"I hope you understand that I have no reason to lie to you. I don't need to play blame games as there is nothing left worthy for me to even give that a thought. So whatever is that you want to know, you should ask your father. Because you and me, we are done!" She said in a cold voice before removing her wrist from his hold.

As Suman walked away from him, she forced herself to not look back. She knew if she did look back, she would see him standing there in the dark, alone. And that was a sight she never wanted to witness. She told herself that he needed to know the truth. He needed to understand her reasons, his father's reasons, and how they had selfishly decided on their own what was best for him without the other even knowing. She realized her fault, and now he had to realize his...

Suman didn't know how she reached that conclusion or why only now she had such clarity about the whole matter, but she somehow did. Now that she realized that she should have had it before. She wished she had done something before, confessed before. She should have done it when she saw him roaming around, torturing himself with her wedding preparations. Or when she saw him standing far away yet attending her wedding functions with pain and rage in his eyes. She should have told him before he started to break right in front of her eyes, second by second until he was reduced to someone who had no will in him to feel anything other than rage and pain. 

She regretted not acting sooner, while he was within her reach, before his desire to heal their relationship turned into rage, causing nothing but destruction. She regretted pushing him away. When he had lashed out, she knew he was simply inflicting on her the destruction he had been going through within him, but as tangled as she was in the mess her own life had become, she couldn't do anything about it. Maybe she didn't want to...

But now that she was out of that vulnerable position, she was able to think about it. With him standing by her side, still, stiff yet trembling in fear, she was able to look back at every conversation she and Ramnaath Malhotra had and realize how they both, in their attempt to protect Shravan, had caused him more harm. And now that she has gotten to know the consequences of their actions, she realized she and his father have only pushed Shravan farther into the darkness that she had always known existed within him.

Letting him know the truth would be the only thing she could do to pull him out of that darkness. She hoped it would work. It had to...

When she saw Shravan move and walk out of the gate of Tiwari Killa, she hoped that Ramnaath Malhotra would come to the same conclusion that she had. Now it was his turn to realize that telling Shravan the whole truth was the only way to bring some light into his dark life...

She hoped that for once, her attempt to tell him the truth would prove to be for his betterment, even if it would break his trust in his father...

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A/N:- Here is the third chapter... I have rewritten some parts, edited, and added to make it richer, so let me know your thoughts and please leave a comment... :)

Thank you for reading, liking, and commenting on the previous chapters, and thank you for your encouraging words and sweet comments! *hugs*