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“Bullshit. You ruin me, you ruin your daughter.” An empty threat but one that needed to be said.
Chaitanya shook his head, wagging a finger in Agastya’s face. “Uh huh. I don’t think so. You’re a man of principles. My daughter will be fine.”
Agastya’s mind blanked out, all emotion leaching from him at the smug pleasure in the other man’s face. He cocked his head as he watched the other man, his brain working its way through all possible permutations of this problem.
“Ganesh is in police custody as we speak. I saw him charged myself. All collected evidence has been submitted to the Commissioner.”
“And City News will carry that follow up story too,” Chaitanya said, expansively, his hands going out on either side in a ridiculous gesture of generosity. “Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Giving the people an entire night to sit with this news, an entire night to hate the people in power, the people they would see as betrayers of them and not as betrayed by their own.
“Why?” Agastya asked.
“It’s called freedom of the press, a truth your father has struggled with his entire career. He thinks he can use us when it suits him and discard us when it doesn’t.”
“I married your daughter,” Agastya reminded him.
“And the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” Chaitanya Gadde smiled. “I’ve been playing this game while you were still in diapers, my boy. You tried to use me too. I just used you better.” He straightened from his slouch, his shrewd gaze on Agastya. “Did you think marrying my daughter was going to silence me? Did you think having her in your home would be like holding her hostage, the ransom the leash you slip around my neck? Did you think that as my son-in-law you’d hold the upper hand in this relationship?”
Agastya said nothing.
“And now?” his father-in-law taunted him. “Now that I’m not muzzled. What are you going to do? Abandon her? Throw her out?”
Agastya still didn’t answer, his anger at the other man’s callous remarks about Veda making him almost catatonic.
“See?” The older man pointed a finger at him. “Too many principles. I always knew my daughter was safe with you.” He shrugged. “It’s a good match. I was happy it happened. But the news, my son, is news. Nothing stops the news from coming out.”
“You won’t stop us. This scandal will blow over and we will win the next election. And when the time comes, we’ll take the Centre too.”
Chaitanya smiled, downing the last of his drink and slamming the glass down on the tabletop. “I look forward to it. If that happens, my daughter will be the Prime Minister’s wife someday. Win-win for me, whichever way you look at it.”
Agastya stared at the other man, contempt in his eyes.
“Do you ever admit it? Even to yourself?” Chaitanya asked, genuine curiosity in his voice. “All these schemes, these strategies that came from that brilliant brain of yours. Including whatever you’re coming up with to get around the shitstorm that is your Personal Assistant emptying out the pandemic fund from right under your nose. Which, by the way, is something you all would never have found out without the story City News broke.” He had the audacity to thump his chest. “I’m the reason you found out about Ganesh. Or is that even the truth? Is Ganesh a convenient scapegoat for your father and you to pin the blame on? To stay blemish less as always? I’m a news man, my boy. I think of all the angles. Did you think I wouldn’t think of this too?”
Agastya’s rage exploded.
“You want to hear me say it out aloud. I’ll do that for you. Go ahead and make what I say tomorrow’s headlines. I’ll meet you in the filth you insist on playing in.” Agastya took a step forward. “Neither my father nor I ever touched a rupee that wasn’t ours. The only mistake we made, I made, was trusting the wrong man. A mistake that I will fix immediately. About the rest, you want to hear me say that too? I will and with pleasure. I married Veda to muzzle you. I married her so I’d forever have something or someone to hold over your head. I married her so this war you insist on waging with my family could have a ceasefire. I married her because I wanted leverage, permanent leverage against you and your fucking news channel. And I thought, there was no leverage better than your own daughter, a cocked gun held to your temple forever.”
A soft, indrawn breath had him closing his eyes, his hand clenching in fists on his sides. Agastya turned slowly to see Veda standing in the doorway to the study. Ram stood behind her, murder in his eyes.
And Veda…his heart shuddered as he met his wife’s devastated eyes.
“Vedama?” Her father sounded strangely contrite and panicked. “What are you doing here?”
“I came home to spend one night here,” she said tonelessly, not looking away from Agastya. “But it looks like I will be moving back permanently.”
“NO!” Agastya shook his head, moving forward, his hand reaching for hers. “Veda, listen to me!”
But Veda backed away, stepping out of his reach and into the security of her brother’s arm which went to encircle her shoulders.
“I’ve heard enough,” she told him softly. “There is nothing you have to say that I want to hear. Not anymore.”
Veda turned away from all of them, stepping over the threshold and away from him.
“Veda please?” For her, he would forgo every last shred of his dignity. For her, he would beg in front of his arch enemy. “Please hear me out. One last time. Give me a chance to explain.”
She paused by the door and his stricken heart leaped with hope. Veda always forgave him. He’d screwed up time and again in their brief relationship and every single time, she’d given him another chance. Surely, she would give him one more. Especially since this was their life, their future, their entire hope for an ‘us’ at stake. But…
