by P. G. Van
Anjali felt the blood drain from her face. “Dheeraj, this is not real. It was meant to be for namesake. Everyone except my grandmother knew it was a fake marriage.”
“How are you going to prove this is fake?”
“I don’t care about that certificate, but I want you to believe me when I tell you that was a fake marriage.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Were you hoping to keep this from me? Why?”
Anjali let out a deep breath. “No. I wanted to forget everything and talking about it would be a reminder of everything that happened.” Anjali picked up Inara and looked at him. “I am sorry I am putting you through this but believe me when I tell you I love you, and it was not my intention to hide this from you.”
“I will never forgive you if I lose Inara because of this mess you have created.” His voice held a death warning, and shivers she never felt before passed through her.
Chapter 20
An hour later, Anjali sat silently in the car on their way back home. Dheeraj called an emergency meeting with his lawyer to discuss the next steps, and every time she remembered his words about her potentially being the reason for losing the custody battle with Inara’s other side of the family, her stomach churned.
Tears rolled down her eyes as she looked at the sleeping baby and prayed to every god out there to keep her with them. She could not imagine her life without Inara or Dheeraj. It pained her that the man she loved was working hard to fulfill every wish, and she was the reason for the craziness.
Anjali picked up her phone and texted him.
Anjali: I’m sorry.
Anjali: I love you.
She looked at the phone waiting for a reply, but no message came back. He was upset and angry about the situation they were in, and she felt helpless. She knew calling Surya and demanding an explanation about the fake marriage certificate would only make things worse.
Anjali took a deep breath and picked up the baby from the car seat and went into the house, her mind in a daze. She went upstairs and put the baby in her crib and collapsed on the floor, tears flowing down her cheeks not knowing what to do or who to talk to about what happened.
The time after her grandmother died, her days were filled with sadness from losing her grandmother and later disgust at the way Surya’s family treated her. She was thankful for what her parents had left for her in the city with which she was able to use to pay for her education.
It was over an hour later that Anjali woke up to Inara moving around in her crib. She looked at the baby smile at her, and all worries melted away at least for that moment.
“I love you, Inara. You make me so happy.” Anjali cooed at the baby and went about with their evening schedule of going for a walk. She kept checking her phone for a message from time to time but there was no message, nor did he answer the phone when she called later in the evening to find out if he was coming home or was keeping his travel plans.
Anjali got Dheeraj’s voice mail in a foreign language, and she knew he kept his travel plans. She didn’t know what he was feeling at that moment, but she wished to hold him and apologize for keeping her past from him.
The next morning, she woke up to her phone beeping, and she eagerly reached for it hoping it was Dheeraj but disappointed to see it was her friend, Lekha, calling.
“You are the first one to know that my wedding is next month,” her friend said with excitement.
“Lekha, congrats. I am happy for you.” Anjali tried to keep the melancholy in her voice down.
“Anjali, are you okay?”
The moment her friend said those words, Anjali started to cry. “Anjali… are you crying? Oh my God, talk to me… what happened?”
Anjali continued to sob unable to talk.
“Okay, I am calling the girls. Are you home? What is it going to be? Hot tea, cupcakes, or vodka?” Lekha asked.
“Yes, to all of the above,” Anjali managed to say.
“Oh no, this is bad. We will see you in less than thirty minutes. You stay put.” Lekha ended the call, and Anjali curled up in bed crying.
Ten minutes later, she heard Inara move in her crib and wiped her tears before stepping into the nursery. Inara was awake, and the smile she gave Anjali melted her heart.
Anjali picked up the child into her arms. “I miss Daddy, sweetheart. I want to hug him and tell him how sorry I am. We won’t let anyone take you away from Daddy.”
She was feeding Inara when her friends showed up at the main door in their pajamas, a box of cupcakes, a pint of ice cream, and a bottle of vodka.
“What happened?” Sonia demanded.
“Gals, voices down. I don’t want Inara to pick up on the tension.”
“Don’t give us the pediatric training talk. If you have been crying like Lekha said you were, the baby knows you are sad.” Sonia looked at Inara.
“I didn’t cry in front of Inara.”
“Okay, what do you need to start talking?” Neeta held the bottle of vodka out.
“Neeta, put that away and hand me a cupcake.”
“What happened?”
Anjali looked at her friends. “It’s a long story, and I am sorry for not telling you guys about any of it.”
Anjali told them everything about her past but made sure to leave the part about the marriage contract between her and Dheeraj out of the conversation. The contract was going to be a secret forever.
“Why didn’t you go to the police or hire a lawyer when they refused to give you your money?” Riya asked after Anjali told them what happened.
“I tried. No police station would register a complaint, nor a lawyer would go against them because of the influence they have in that region.”
“Why didn’t you file for a divorce?” Lekha asked.
“It was a namesake marriage. I didn’t even think it would have legal paperwork and that a divorce could be filed. What a mess, and I was so traumatized by it, I just didn’t talk about it to anyone. In a way, I was embarrassed to talk about it and now… Dheeraj is pissed.” Anjali sighed.
“It’s okay. Give him some space, and you guys will sort this out together,” Neeta said.
“You know, I still don’t get what the big deal is. You didn’t tell Dheeraj, now he knows. It’s not like you were married for real to Surya. I don’t know why this got so complicated?” Sonia shook her head, and Anjali decided not to prolong the topic any further.
If it had been a regular marriage, then it would not have mattered as much, but with everything on the line, Anjali knew what was at stake.
“I’ll sort it out when he comes back from his trip in a few days.” Anjali wiped the moisture from the edge of her eyes.
*****
Anjali put the baby down to sleep but could not get herself to sleep. It was the night Dheeraj was supposed to be back home from his trip, but he wasn’t. His assistant confirmed his flight landed hours ago, but he was still away. She read a book for a couple of hours, her eyes wandering to the phone expecting to hear from Dheeraj but nothing. It was almost midnight when she decided to go for a run to clear her head.
Over an hour of running in the back of the house up and down the slope got her out of breath, and her body ached from the physical and mental stress, but she could not get any of her thoughts organized. No new solutions surfaced for the problem at hand with what she had created knowingly or unknowingly.
Anjali knew she would have trouble falling asleep and decided to run around the house one last time before she tried to hit the bed. Her eyes wandered to the empty carport where Dheeraj parked his car and wondered where he was that late at night.
Unable to handle the eerie feeling that was creeping up her neck, she pulled out her phone and dialed his number. Her heart fluttered with joy when he answered the phone after almost four days.
“Where are you?” Her voice wavered.
“I’m here.” His tone was flat.
“When are…” Her voice trailed off when she heard the distant rumble of his car followed b
y the clanking metal as the automatic entrance gate open.
Anjali stood by the carport as he rolled in driving his sexy looking sports car and slid out of the car. He bent down to grab something from the back of the car as she kept her eyes on him watching him in silence. She didn’t know what to say and stood in front of him holding his gaze as he walked toward her.
Dheeraj stopped inches from her and pulled the hand he had behind his back forward placing a small flower bouquet in front of her. “I’m sorry for raising my voice at you, baby. I missed you.”
Anjali let out a sob and buried her face into his chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want any of it to be part of our life, our future.”
“Everything that’s yours, good or bad, is mine. I want it to be that way forever.” Dheeraj kissed the top of her head.
“I am scared, Dheeraj. I don’t want us to lose Inara.” Anjali pulled back to look up at him.
“Don’t worry about it, I got this. I have a way to take care of it all, but first, I need to do what I need to do to pacify my wife.” His lips came down on hers, and she gripped the flowers in one hand as she ran her arm around his neck. He grunted deep inside pulling her feet off the ground and on impulse, just like every time, she wrapped her legs around him hoisting her body as she kissed him back.
“I missed you,” she mumbled against his lips as he carried her indoors shutting the door quietly behind him.
“Baby, you are so hot and wet right now,” he groaned, running his lips along her slick neck making her tremble to his touch.
“I’m dirty… I need a shower.” She laughed enjoying the feel of him sucking the moisture off her skin.
“I love it like this. I want every bit of your saltiness and sweetness.”
Dheeraj carried her up the stairs, and as soon as the bedroom door shut behind them, he pushed her back into the door and started kissing every inch of her body. He nipped on her nipples over her t-shirt teasing her further before going lower to suck on her bellybutton.
Anjali moaned taking in a deep breath and let out a gasp when he yanked her yoga pants down with all his strength. He ran the rough pad of his thumb over her wet, slick folds before kissing her at the apex of her thighs.
“I want you to come in my mouth. I’ve tasted your saltiness, and now I want your sweetness.” His words sent vibrations through her making her pool between her legs.
His mouth closed it on her drenched clit, and her knees turned to jelly. She dug her heels into the floor and gripped his hair with one hand and the door handle with the other as he devoured her.
Anjali was lost in a whirlwind of sensations and was floating into the promising world of bliss at a steady pace, but when she felt a sharp shooting pain from him taking a bite out of her inner thigh, she let out a grunt, her back pulling off the door as she came undone. She called out his name, her hands pressing into his shoulders as he drank her release like a parched trader lost in the desert.
“I want you…” she whispered catching her breath.
“I want to eat you again… can you handle it?” he growled taking her to the bed and slamming her body onto the mattress.
“Bring it on,” she teased and yelped in pure pleasure when he sunk his teeth into her folds.
Later that night after hours of passionate lovemaking, Dheeraj and Anjali lay in each other’s arms, satiated and tired.
Anjali smiled at him as he cupped her breast possessively making her wince.
“What got into you tonight?” she purred.
“What do you mean?”
“The number of times you said, ‘You are mine’ and the number of times we did what we did tonight… I’m exhausted,” she said, laughing.
“You are mine, only mine.”
“I am yours. Who said anything otherwise?” She cupped his cheek with her palm.
Dheeraj shifted his face to kiss her palm. “When I saw the copy of that marriage certificate with your name on it, I was livid. I was pissed more about someone claiming you to be his wife than what it meant for our marriage. You can never be anyone else’s, only mine.”
“You sound very psychotic, but I love it!” She kissed him gently, slowly brushing his lips with hers.
“I was able to get the pictures of the namesake ceremony, and you look horrified. I…”
“I hated it… every minute of it, and it was the same day my grandma passed away.” She sniffled.
“Is that why you didn’t want a traditional ceremony when we got married?”
She nodded.
“I figured. I’m sorry you had to go through all that. Every detail I found out just made me so angry.” He ran his hand over her curves.
“Is that what you were doing when you didn’t respond to my texts or calls?” She ran her fist into his chest.
“I got you those flowers for not responding to you.” He chuckled.
“How did you get your hands on the pictures?”
“I have my sources, and that marriage certificate is no good,” Dheeraj said victoriously.
Anjali sat up in bed pulling the sheets around her. “What did you do?”
“I did nothing. I just got my facts, and I am going to make that moron, Surya, and his family pay for what they did to you all these years.” He sounded angry.
“Dheeraj, I don’t want anything from them. I just want them to stop pretending that I am part of their family for the sake of selling the property,” Anjali stated.
“They will not stop until you bring those frauds out into the open. That bastard has been claiming you as his wife to hold onto your inheritance but has been married for almost five years and has two kids.”
“What? And that bastard told me he was waiting for me to come back to be his wife. That’s when I decided to give up my dreams of building that hospital.”
Dheeraj pulled her to him. “You will build the hospital and many such facilities. Our next facility will be in Devarakonda. That’s my promise to you.”
“I love you. How did I get so lucky after everything that has happened to me?” She kissed the bare skin on his chest.
“Isn’t that my line?” He grinned.
“So, how do we prove the marriage certificate is fake?”
“The certificate is not what we need to prove is fake. It’s the marriage that they have been claiming to be legit and official that is invalid and illegal.”
“Why? How? I mean illegal…?”
Dheeraj smiled running the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. “You were under eighteen and a minor when the marriage happened, and even though the marriage was registered a week later when you were eighteen with a fake signature, the premise on which the certificate was issued doesn’t hold.”
“Oh my God, I have been so dumb not to realize that. Oh my God, I feel like a free bird… free to be yours forever. I don’t want any harm to anyone, but I want what is mine… get that from them so the less fortunate can benefit.”
“I got this, sweetheart. Do you want to be part of it?”
“What do I need to do?” She bit her lip.
“I want you to face him, call his bullshit, and tell him you are selling all your property to me.” He chuckled.
“Wait… he doesn’t know I am married to you?”
“He will eventually find out.” He smiled.
“You are having too much fun with this,” she teased.
“I want you to get closure. I never want you to feel sour about anything that happened in your past. I want to heal every one of your bruises, and I want you to be the happiest woman in the world.”
She smiled fighting back happy tears. “I want our baby.”
“You know I am ready for more babies,” he said, sucking in a chunk of her flesh on her arm between his teeth.
“You are one hungry man tonight,” she said, pushing him away.
“Hungry for you, hotness, always,” he growled, pulling her to him.
Chapter 21
“Dheeraj, go do this by yourse
lf. I’m not going with you.” Anjali held Inara to her standing at the main door.
“Really, after all that pep talk, you are going to do this again?” Dheeraj laughed. It was over a week since she saw Surya at Dheeraj’s office, and he was invited back to the office with his father under the pretext of discussing their biggest deal.
“I don’t need to see them. I’d rather be with my baby,” Anjali said adamantly.
Dheeraj moved his eyes away from Anjali to look at Seema, who stood behind her. “Give us a few minutes, Seema.”
Seema nodded and left them alone. “Baby, Inara will be fine, you know that. We’ve left her with Seema before, and when you have the opportunity to give back every piece of crap those bastards gave you, you want to miss that?”
“I know you’ll do it for me.”
“Yes, I will, but I want you to see it happen. I want all that scarring on the inside to be wiped out. Those bastards don’t get to leave a scratch on my dear wife. I won’t tolerate it.” His breath hitched with anger.
Anjali smiled at him and then looked at the baby in her arms. “Baby, Daddy and I are going out for a bit. Please be a good girl and take a nap after your breakfast.”
Dheeraj smiled reaching down to kiss Inara and brushed his lips over Anjali’s lips taking her by surprise.
“Seema, you are in charge,” Dheeraj called out, and the young woman came running back to take the baby into her arms smiling at them.
Dheeraj smiled as Anjali gave Seema her instructions, the same instructions she gave every time they went out even if it was for a fifteen-minute ice cream date that they had from time to time. When she started repeating her instructions again, he reached out to take her hand pulling her away from Seema and wrapping his arm around her.
“Let’s go,” Dheeraj urged, laughing at her annoyed expression.
“We still have time,” she whined.
“Yes, I want to stop and get my wife coffee before I bust some balls.” He gritted making her laugh.
Thirty minutes later, he pulled the car into the underground parking of his office building.