Page 46 of No Other Love
Anika
I slept dreamlessly now. Safe and content and satiated beyond my wildest dreams. Knowing that the second I opened my eyes I wouldn’t be alone. Or worse, wishing for Vikrant.
It was worth waking up at the break of dawn, for his smiling, stubbled face. And the steaming coffee mug he unfailingly handed me the second I woke up.
The alarm rang, loud and insistent, and I murmured sleepily. I blinked as the lights in the room were turned on all at once.
There was no Vikrant in the room.
A wild panic struck my heart. Reminiscent of the days without him. Alone and aching.
I sat up with a jerk, his name on my lips. I spied him on the balcony. Dressed in pants and an untucked shirt. His stethoscope still sticking out of his pants pocket.
‘Hey.’ I slipped out of bed and practically ran toward him. I slid my arms around his chest and rested my racing head against his back. ‘What happened?’
‘Neelima went into labor. I had the the mid-wife help with the delivery. Didn’t want to wake you.’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful.’ I was genuinely pleased. ‘I hope it was a boy.’
‘It was.’
He didn’t turn around to look at me or even touch me in anyway. In my sleepy daze, I didn’t comprehend the shortwords, the stiffness of his stance. I was just glad I’d not woken up alone and without him.
‘Thank God! You know, her in-laws are the reason why the government banned sex determination.’ I bit off a curse word. ‘Sexist pigs.’
‘They aren’t the only one,’ Vikrant muttered, shrugging my hands away in an abrupt gesture.
I frowned, turned Vikrant around. The brooding look was back – eyes shuttered, face closed and a muscle ticking in his jaw. Worst of all, he shook off my touch, when he’d told me only last night that he couldn’t get enough of it.
‘What’s wrong?’
His face closed up even more. ‘Nothing.’
‘Vikrant,’ I said quietly. ‘Talk to me. Don’t do this again. Please. Don’t shut me out.’
Vikrant took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘You want to know what’s wrong?’ He handed me my phone. ‘Your dad called.’
I sighed, took the phone from him. It stung that he wouldn’t even allow our palms to touch. ‘Yeah, I’ve been avoiding his calls for the last three days.’
I remembered the first time he’d called. The night Vikrant and I… ‘What does he want now?’
Vikrant smiled, mirthlessly. ‘He wants to know what the fuck kind of hold I have over you that you can’t leave me even after divorcing me.’
***
I sucked in a breath. ‘Vik, I…’
‘Actually, he spent the first five minutes giving me the rundown of your many, many accomplishments in the last eleven months,’ Vikrant continued tonelessly.
‘Then he told me he was thinking of heading the cardio department in your hospital just so he could make sure I’d never set foot in those doors again. Then, he asked me what the fuck kind of hold I have over you.’
I closed my eyes as shame trickled over my insides like acid. ‘I’m sosorry,Vik…’
‘My mom is ignorant and incredibly sheltered,’ he cut me off. ‘She doesn’tknowhow the world operates. And she’s never had to deal with someone like you.’ He looked me up and down like I turned tricks in Kamathipura, the sex worker district in Mumbai.
Ithurt. The contempt and the judgment.
‘But when I came back and told her, exactly, what kind of woman her daughter-in-law was, she tried to understand you. To respect your choices, Anika.’