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His father glared at him, eyes bulging, his fury turning his face a startling shade of red. Raashi wondered if they were pushing him towards a stroke.
“No? Nothing?” Harsh taunted. “Then I guess I’m going to stick with my answer. No.”
“If she won’t marry you, then she’ll have to marry someone else,” Chaitanya Gadde butted in. “We’ll just find someone ready to accept her and fix it up.”
Harsh’s fury erupted like a volcano that had been simmering for centuries.
“What is wrong with you people?” he asked, his scorn filled voice dripping venom. “You’re shitting all over Raashi and me for not meeting your fucked up expectations and this is how you behave? You’re supposed to be the respectable ones? Forcing your children into marriages they don’t want, belittling them for their so-called flaws, and calling them names? You’re supposed to be the good guys and we’re the bad? What fucked up universe do you live in?”
“Children are supposed to respect their parent’s decisions!” his father shouted.
“Parents are supposed to love their children no matter what!” Harsh roared. “Parents are supposed to put their children’s wellbeing first, not their own selfish needs. Who do you love Nanna? It’s certainly not me. It certainly wasn’t Akka when you shoved her into that marriage with Aarush. Agastya Anna ranks a bit higher because he’s useful to you. But is that love? Whom do you love? The public? Your constituents? I don’t think so. I think the only person you truly love is yourself.”
“You are a disgrace.” His father was almost apoplectic with rage. “You have been nothing but bad luck from the day you were born. Only problems. Only issues. Useless. Stupid and useless.” He hit his head with the flat of his palm. “This fellow,” he threw a hand out in Harsh’s direction. “Can’t even read properly but he wants to judge me.” He thumped his hand on his chest now. “ME!”
“I’ve heard enough.” Chaitanya Gadde grabbed Raashi’s free hand and pulled. “Let’s go. I’ll get you married to someone, anyone. That bloody Anant wanted to marry you, no? Maybe the best solution is to say yes. We can use the marriage as an excuse to merge the two news channels. It makes good business sense.”
“No.” Raashi ripped her hand away from his and huddled closer to Harsh who instinctively wrapped his arm around her protectively. “NO! I will never marry him.”
“You will marry someone!” her father thundered. “Or help me God-“
“Then I’ll marry Harsh.” She was panting now, her fear making her heart race and her breath catch in her throat. “I’ll marry Harsh.”
Nineteen
HARSH
I’ll marry Harsh.
The words seem to take life and fly around the room like plague ridden pigeons looking to peck their eyes out. Harsh closed his own, the sound of his coffin nailing itself shut resounding in his ears.
For a split second, no one spoke and then Chaitanya Gadde said, “Good. Then it’s final.”
And there went the last nail. He opened his eyes, his gaze meeting his brother’s shuttered ones. If he had hope of help, it would be from that quarter and nowhere else.
And sure enough, Agastya spoke, “It’s not final. We haven’t heard from Harsh yet.”
Relief flared through him. His brother was offering him an out, one he had to take. Because Harsh couldn’t marry. He couldn’t have what everyone took for granted. Family, kids, a home where someone looked at him like he mattered…This wasn’t his life. It never would be. Not for him.
He opened his mouth to speak but Raashi’s fingers dug into his arm, her blunt, short nails digging through the thin fabric of his sleeve and grazing skin. He glanced down at her, taking in her white, terrified face, eyes wide and frantic, a wordless plea swimming in them.
Harsh’s words died on his lips as he stared at the woman who’d time and again done battle with him, gone toe to toe on countless occasions both in public and in private. And never once had he seen her look like this, like a whipped puppy waiting for the switch to fall.
“Please,” she said, the word a broken, feathery whisper.
“Harsh?” Agastya prompted. “We’re waiting.”
His heart started a discordant, thunderous beat as he locked eyes with Raashi. No, he thought. No dammit. He wasn’t going to do this. He wasn’t noble like his brother and he wasn’t prone to fits of martyrdom like his sister. He was just himself. Happy go lucky, broken, lost…alone. Just the way he liked it. So, no.
“Harsh.” Agastya Anna sounded like he was running on the fumes of his patience.
“Okay,” he heard himself say. “Okay. We’ll get married.”
Relief washed over Raashi’s face, tears shimmering in those big, big eyes of hers. His heart expanded as she mouthed ‘thank you’ to him. He’d never been anybody’s hero before. He’d never really wanted to be. And yet, for once, in this second, it felt good to have someone look at him the way Raashi was looking at him right now.
Maybe, just maybe, he could be someone’s hero in real life. He could be her hero.
All around them people exploded into noise and motion. But Harsh and Raashi didn’t notice, their eyes still locked on each other. Until Harsh’s mother popped their little bubble.
