Aradhya's Encounter

She signed a piece of paper and gave it back to the person. She came in with the envelope, her expression a confusion of what it might contain. She opened the envelope and took out the bunch of papers. As she started reading it, her hand started shivering and then the entire bunch fell down from her hands.

She looked at me in disbelief and threw herself on the floor in front of me.

"What is this? This can't be true. Please tell me once it is not true.."

She lay down on the ground, crying like a baby and for once, I knew she wasn't acting.

_____

The doorbell rang again. As Aradhya was in no position to open the door, I opened it. Neetu was there. She looked questioningly at me and I nodded.

She came in. Aradhya was still stretched out on the ground, sobbing violently.

"No use for that now Aradhya," said Neetu. "You had been warned."

She went and sat on the nearest chair to Aradhya. She bent down, held her by her shoulders and made her sit.

"Go and wash your face. Next, pack your belongings, you don't have much time left."

She looked blankly at Neetu and then at me.

"You can't stay here any more, Aradhya," I said. "You need to move out."

"Where would I go?" she asked, in between sobs.

"We don't know. You should have thought about that before you got yourself indulged with Arun," Neetu said.

"As far as I know, you're ruined Aradhya," she continued. "Arun would never leave his wife because she is the one earning and all Arun's outside appearance is maintained by his wife's income. Arun does not earn anything. Even the house that they stay in belongs to his father-in-law.

As far as this side is concerned, you don't get to stay in this house because it's a company owned house. You don't have any children, so, you don't get a child support. As far as Sushant's income is concerned, it's very low, so even if you get half of it, it probably won't be one-tenth of what you used to enjoy before.

He does not have any savings – he invested in an overseas company which declared itself bankrupt a few months back, so, no luck there as well. This, coupled with the fact that we have photographs to prove what all you did with Arun and the number of calls that you made to each other, does not leave you anywhere in front of the judge."

_____

She called a cab after a couple of hours and forced Aradhya in. As the cab started off, I could feel drops of tears come down my eyes.

Neetu looked at me and brought me in the house. She made me sit on a chair and wiped away my tears.

"What happens now," I asked.

"We wait for the divorce to be granted by the court of law and then we marry, I mean, if you agree to it."

"What?" It was my turn to be shocked. "And what about your husband?"

"My husband? Who the hell is my husband?"

I was very confused. "Mr. Mehta," I said. "On the evening of the party, you brought in a gentleman and introduced him as Mr. Mehta. You said you are Neetu Mehta and he is Mr. Sandip Mehta.

"Can I use your phone for a second?" she asked suddenly, changing the topic.

"Of course, I said," still looking very confused.

She made a call and whispered a few words in the phone which I was unable to make out. She came and sat on the chair adjacent to me.

I was about to ask something when she suddenly said, "I'm dying of thirst, I need a coffee. Do you have coffee powder in your house?"

I nodded and pointed at the direction of the kitchen. "The second drawer on the left has coffee and sugar, milk would be in the fridge," I said.

"Good," she said. "Would you like to have some as well?"

I nodded and she got busy in the kitchen. What was she hiding? I was about to go to the kitchen to ask her but the doorbell rang again. Who could it be now, I thought.

"Can you please answer the door," Neetu shouted from the kitchen, "I'm a bit busy here."

As I opened the door, I was shocked to see Mr. Mehta standing there, with that permanent smile on his face.

"Who's it?" Neetu called from the kitchen. I was too shocked to answer – what was happening here?

She came out and saw Mr. Mehta. She rushed to him and they hugged each other.

I could not stand there any more and just sat down on the nearest chair. "Let me introduce you to..." she started saying.

"I know, Mr. Sandip Mehta," I said, cutting Neetu off.

"That's right," she said, "but that's just one part you're aware of. He is a fantastic photographer about whom you might have read in some newspaper articles also."

"Wait." I was very confused by now.

I went to the kitchen and told Neetu to follow me. I know it probably wasn't proper for me to call a wife to a separate room in front of her husband, but all I wanted was to clear my head.

"What is all this?" I demanded to know. "Why is Mr. Mehta here? And what connection does he have with this case of mine?" I was visibly angry now.

"Well, where do you think those photographs of Aradhya and Arun came from? He clicked all of them. Sweet him, he had to be in a bush for so many hours just because I told him to."

"But," before I could say anything else, she had gone out into the living room again.

I hurried after her. There were too many questions in my mind now.

She saw the look on my face and laughed but I felt angry. She kissed me full on the lips and I gasped. How could she do this in front of her husband? I looked over for his reaction and was amazed to see him still having that smile on his face.

"Many people before have been confused about it till I told them and you're not the first," she said, "Mr. Sandip Mehta is my elder brother."

She put her hand beneath my jaw to close it as she saw it drooping.

"And you, Mr. Sandip Bajpai," she continued "now that you know it, I hope you don't have any problem in marrying me!"

I pulled her and led her to the bedroom now. "That brings another question to my mind," I said. "If you're not married, where did you learn to suck cock from and how many did you do before you did mine?"

"Stop it," she said with a mock anger and that naughty smile. "I liked you and that's why I did to you what I did – I've never done that before. As far as my being good at it, it's just the internet."

_____

It has been exactly a year now that me and Neetu have been married. And I now know exactly what she had meant the other day when she had said 'believe me, the payout would be heavy' – she's never satisfied, be it shopping or sex but I'm not complaining!