"Uss chuppi mein bhi khatas hai"

~ Meher ~

Mumbai, India

From the time I sat on the flight to my way to the police station, my mind was constantly reminded of the events where I missed something crucial. But there was none.

I was seated silently in the backseat of the car while Aryan drove and Kabir was in the front. The entire time I felt my body go stiff, I had my hands balled in fists, the nails digging my palms as I drew blood, it was very hard for me to control myself.

I hated when I had questions piling up over and over but had no solutions to them. I got involved in a case that I was never supposed to be a part of, I was already tense as I wondered how things would unfold for me.

But there was something that I was curious about— more than anything.

Somebody had killed Anushka and covered it up as a suicide. Why?

The reason why I was almost sure that it wasn't a suicide was because that very day we had spoken on the phone where she had apologised for missing the functions as she didn't get a leave and that she would directly arrive on the wedding day.

Since I was responsible for booking tickets for the guests, I had sent hers as well. Earlier that day I had gotten an email that her web check in was successful, which meant that she had full plans to come to Jaipur so why kill herself?

With that question, we finally arrived at the station. Kabir opened the door for me. I hesitantly got out of the car, looking at the place warily.

I would tell what I already know, I hope she finds her peace.

"You ready?" Kabir looks at me in— worry?

"What do you think I'm feeling right now, Kabir? I have been called for an investigation," Kabir sighed and no words were exchanged after my little outburst.

I enter the police station and within a few minutes, I am escorted to a room for questioning with Aryan by my side.

I patiently wait for an officer to arrive, and the door opens on cue. My eyes flew over to the door, a lady officer walked in not much to my surprise as I had heard Aryan request for a female officer for interrogation.

The officer smiled at me, it felt warm and comforting, instead of feeling more nervous. "Hi," her voice surprisingly was very soft, she was not trying to be compassionate, it was natural. "I am ACP Ashna Mistry."

"Hi," I greeted her.

"Water?" she offered. I shook my head. "Let's start," she picked the file from the table and started going through the pages. I nervously watched her go through it until she closed the file and kept it on the table, facing me.

"How do you know Anushka Shastri?" she asked me.

"She was my roommate of three years when I was doing my graduation in Bangalore."

"How would you describe your relationship with her?"

I took a breath to calm my nerves. "We have— sorry had, a pleasant relationship. We had been friends for years. She was even supposed to come to my wedding yesterday—"

"Wait," she held her hand up and I paused, "you said she was supposed to come to your wedding?"

I nodded slowly. "I had sent the invitation to her and she had told me on call that she would directly arrive on the wedding day. Yesterday, I even got a text about the web check-in since I was in charge of getting the tickets booked for the guests so I thought that maybe she was coming but then I heard the news of her death."

"Did you see her around during your wedding?"

"No, I did not," I answered truthfully.

"Do you think that she was suffering— mentally or emotionally?" That question put me in a thought. In all the times that I have spoken to her.

"It never seemed that way," I recalled all of our conversations and it never felt like she was upset about something or struggling emotionally.

"But she has written this," she passes me a piece of paper, I faintly recognise her handwriting but the one liner in the name of the suicide note has put me on the edge.

It has been so difficult, I can't do this anymore, that suicide note said.

What was so difficult that caused her not to do anything anymore?

My fingers traced over the letter, slowly moving to the end of the paper where she had signed. Her signature was very— pretty. The way she had her name circled, was unique, I couldn't help but see it over and over again.

"I have no idea about it, we weren't the best of friends," I looked at Aryan who kept his hand over mine, lightly squeezing it, indicating to me to stop.

"Okay," she seemed satisfied and did not ask any further questions.

"I think this is it, for now, Mrs. Raizada— congratulations by the way on your wedding. This wasn't something you had expected on the first day of your wedding, was it?" Her eyes twinkled as she smiled, a little shy but stern.

"Not really," I chuckled, feeling the weight lifted off my shoulders.

"I understand, I am married too. Anyways," she went back to her professional form, "we will call if there's a need." As she made her way to the door, I leapt out of my chair and went behind her.

"Officer Mistry," I called out. ACP Ashna Mistry turned around to face me. I walked over to her, closing the distance. "Please, kindly update me on the details from time to time. I would like to know what happened to my friend."

She patted my shoulder and gave me a reassuring squeeze. "I can't promise, but I'll try."

"Aryan will give you my number." She gave a nod and then left the empty hallway.

I heard heavy footsteps and I turned to see Aryan hurrying over to me. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I shook my head. "Am I cleared?"

"Yes," he smiled at me. "Your call records have been assessed and you have no connection. You are good to go. Anything else?"

"Just make sure to give my number to ACP Ashna Mistry." Aryan raised a brow to which I just shrugged. "Let's go, my newly wedded husband is waiting."

Aryan laughed aloud and I in panic shushed him but laughed nonetheless.

When I met Kabir, he was with the commissioner, chatting with him. The embarrassment took over me, as I realised that he had called the commissioner for me, blowing the situation out of proportion.

I think it was the commissioner who pointed at us and on cue, Kabir turned to us. He got up from his seat and immediately walked up to us.

"Everything went well?" His concern was unnerving. I felt something inside of me, I couldn't look him in the eye.

"Yes, you called the commissioner?" Aryan asked him.

Kabir shrugged. "Well, just in case."

I could never understand this man and what he had in his head.

*   *   *

I had to wait until late evening, well it was already night when I was finally done with all the post wedding rituals— the graha pravesh happened at the AV Villa, and then I finally left with Kabir to go to his penthouse.

My house, for now.

I waited at the door as Kabir shuffled for keys.

The door opened and I stepped inside after him, I was welcomed with darkness. Entering the penthouse felt like I had stepped inside a black hole— dark and consuming. I wasn't feeling that comfortable there.

Kabir switched the lights on and I looked around the house, everything was black, or at least, in the shades of black.

The moment I entered the house, I had directly stepped inside the living area, and on the far end, there was a dining area with an open kitchen. The sofas were black, even the centre table was of the same colour. The living room led to a huge balcony, the length of the door ran along with the house's walls. Even the curtains were dark grey.

The dark, clear sky was visible from where I was standing. How would it feel when the rains would crash against those glass panes?

My eyes travelled over to the dark kitchen— dark as in the black marble slabs, black refrigerator, toaster, microwave, oven and even all the plates.

I made my way out of the living room, walking slowly, taking in the architecture of this house. Some steps led spirally upwards, somewhere to one of the rooms.

"Meher!" I heard Kabir call me and I followed the direction from where the sound came from.

On moving ahead I found him standing in front of two doors, both leading to different rooms.

"What is it?"

"That's your room," he pointed to my right and I followed his direction, entering into my room.

And like the entire house, this room had black in everything. From bedsheet covers to the curtains to the study desk, it was dark and black. But this room, in its speciality, wasn't rattling me. In this darkness, I was finding comfortable and welcoming.

Even the wall clock ticking had a relaxed feeling as if it was a heart beating at rest. So calm and so peaceful.

"You like it?" I heard his voice behind me, I didn't turn back. "Mhmm."

"That door on your right is connected to my room. In case, any of the parents or guests come over, you can immediately go in there," I turned to look at the door he was pointing at, the matte black door was a huge connecting door.

"And," he hadn't finished, "the maid comes twice a day to clean up so don't worry about it."

"She may gossip about our living arrangement," I pointed out.

"She's working here not to spread rumours and if that's the case, I will pay her extra to keep her mouth shut," I nodded.

"Okay, I will leave now. Will be back," as he turned around to leave, I heard myself stopping him.

"You're going somewhere?"

"I have to go to the office. I have some pending work," he didn't turn around and left. A few minutes later, I heard the main door close indicating that he had left and I was on my own, in this house.

I sighed.

I walked inside my closet to see if my clothes were arranged or not. And as I had thought, my clothes were perfectly arranged by Arya, too sequential and color coded it was.

I was scared to even touch it in case I ruined this arrangement. I walked out of the closet and made my way out of the room, deciding to explore upstairs.

I walked up the spiral staircase, and upon reaching, I found a door to a room. Curious, I pushed it open, revealing it as a storage room.

But it wasn't just any storage room, it was an art storage room, it was Radhika's painting studio.

I had forgotten for a moment that this house was once home to a very happy couple. I could feel the traces of Radhika in the smell of paints, I could feel her around me.

So many happy memories must have been created here.

Now, this place was dark and empty as if it was forever mourning for her. I now knew why Kabir suddenly went out. He couldn't bear to see someone else in a place where she was supposed to stand.

I always spoke of Abhimanyu to the people who knew about him. And I knew for a fact that Kabir never did because he was never home.

Kabir was reclusive, he never spoke or expressed his feelings. He always masked all of it in sarcasm or snide remarks or he would just be cold and not say anything.

I could feel the heaviness of the mangalsutra on my neck. That thin piece of chain now held so much value and gave meaning to this marriage.

I returned to my room and lay on the bed, feeling the softness of it. The mattress was soft and comfy, I had realised when sleep had taken over me and I had slipped in the darkness.

*   *   *

It was the next morning. I was in the kitchen, going through the refrigerator and the other cabinets to check what all was there to eat. Surprisingly, the kitchen was well stocked with all the vegetables and the cabinets were filled with all the spices that were needed.

I decided to make myself something nice. So I thought of making paneer paratha. It had been a while since I had those. Once again I checked the refrigerator to see if there was any leftover dough of wheat flour so that I don't have to make one. Thankfully, there was one, freshly made and stocked.

Whoever Kabir had hired, did an impressive job.

I pulled out a packet of paneer and tore it open. I crushed the paneer into small pieces and sprinkled a little chilli powder, chat masala, freshly cut onions and finely chopped green chillies. I mixed them all and tada! The filling was ready.

I immediately started filling the dough with the mixture and started rolling out the parathas when I heard the footsteps approaching.

"What are you doing here?" I looked up to see Kabir in his night clothes, looking at me with his droopy eyes.

"Making breakfast," I stated the obvious and went back to rolling the dough.

"Yeah I can see that, but we have a maid," he climbed up to the kitchen and peeked and let out a small sigh. "You don't have to do this."

"Kabir, it's eight in the morning," I stretched my arm to point at the wall clock behind him. "And I am feeling hungry now. Do I have to wait for a maid until it's nine so that I will get breakfast at ten?"

"Fair enough," he mumbled and opened the fridge to grab some water. "You want some?" I was trying to be polite.

"Sure," he shrugged and retreated to his room.

As I was done making parathas and placing them in the casserole, Kabir came out of his room, looking neatly dressed and cleaner.

I placed the plates and the jar of white butter on the dining table. Kabir brought out the jug of water, arranged the table mats and placed the plates over them neatly. I took my seat, took two parathas and started eating.

As I was about to put the second morsel of paratha, I paused as I noticed Kabir had halted and was looking at me with a weird expression etched on his face. "What?"

To that, he blinked, not once but multiple times until he came to his senses. "Aren't you going to use white butter," Ah, so he was watching my eating habits and here I thought he was looking at me?

"I don't eat white butter," I said, putting a piece of paratha in my mouth. 

He rolled his eyes at me and said nothing. We ate in silence, no further words were exchanged. After we were done, I was about to take the plates when Kabir stopped me and carried them to the sink. I followed him to wash my hands when he suddenly turned towards me. Taken by surprise, I stumbled on my steps and was about to fall, when his hand wrapped strongly around my wrist and pulled me to him, my nose crashing against his shoulder.

I winced as my nose hurt and when he finally left me, I rubbed my nose, trying to tone down the pain I was having.

"Be careful," he murmured and left, leaving me alone in the kitchen.

Seconds later, I heard the door shut again for the third time and it wasn't even a day to us staying together. What has fate stored in for us?

Tada! We are done with yet another chapter. Kabir and Meher, live their first day together in silence. Do you think Kabir is avoiding her or is it something bigger? Let me know in the comments below.

I had an okayish day in college, I just wanted to say. Writing helps me breathe.

How are you all? Do you find this story too slow or boring? Do let me know.

Please VOTE, SHARE and COMMENT. Comment a heart if you enjoyed reading this chapter.

With Love,

Akii.