Fatal Attraction

Part 20

Daksh put forward his feet in the cabin's direction, the one inhabited by Asmita during her time as his assistant. The tears she had shed there, the happiness which she showed there, the pain which she felt there, everything punched Daksh right in his guts, as he knew he was the sole reason she felt the feelings on the darker side.

His eyes moved to the small idol of Asmita's best friend on her desk, Goddess Durga, and suddenly the lightning of enlightenment had struck him. He turned around on his heels to take the largest steps he could take as he wondered why the thought which struck him now failed to enlighten him before; Asmita would be in the temple beside his office.

Daksh Malhotra strode away like a man possessed by something with his heartbeats pacing a speed higher than he had ever known, as he hoped that his intuition about his wife was right and she was safe and sound. He had already wasted a better part of half an hour waiting for Aman to report him on Asmita's whereabouts, and he wondered if that time was quite enough for her to take any drastic step.

He shut the door of his brain with a slam for even allowing a thought as disemboweling as that. Amidst the gasps of his employees who were yet to see a scene as wondrous as that moment's scene of Daksh Malhotra looking frightened and paled out of fear, Daksh walked out towards the entrance of the temple, praying for the first time in his life to keep his beloved away from every danger. Only if he knew that his beloved considered him to be the worst of all the dangers targeted towards her.

The sight which he beheld as he stepped into the temple was something which pushed to be destructive enough to kill the man in whose arms Asmita found her solace. But Daksh knew better than to destroy things which he had broken enough, like his relationship with Asmita. He knew that one wrong action, and it would break the broken pieces of their relationship beyond repair, and that was something he surely did not seek.

"Amita.."

The jittery whisper of her name in a voice reverberated through her ears petrified her, and had pulled her out of Vikas's embrace. Vikas looked up at the man who destroyed his friend's life as if he had sworn on his life to do that.

"I don't want to see him, Vikas."

Asmita had intended her supposed husband to hear her words laced with disgust and fury. Daksh shook with internal turmoil, inflicting immense damage to his working senses.

Vikas obeyed her wishes with no protest knowing that his friend had suffered a great deal from the man standing right in front of him. She was forcibly married just yesterday, and this amazingly intellectual man in front of her says it was out of love. Too much of an irony to comprehend, decided Vikas as he supported Asmita as he led her towards the exit.

Daksh literally saw red as he saw another man leading his wife away from him. She had every right to walk away from him, but her dear friend had no right to interfere between the warring couple.

Daksh took long strides and placed himself in front of Vikas and Asmita to stop them with both his words and actions.

Daksh glared down at Vikas, and the other man would have turned into ashes if looks could scorch. "With what right do you think you are taking my wife away from me?"

Asmita took a step towards Daksh and the determination and sheer hatred swirling in her eyes made him a take a step back.

"The person who has broken me, has no right to question someone else about their right on me. I have called Vikas here. You disgust me, Mr. Malhotra."

Daksh stumbled back with the impact of her words.

"You know why? Because you committed a crime as heinous as playing with the dignity of a woman. Who am I kidding? Not one. Many women. You double-timed with me and Priyanka Madam, you almost forced yourself on me on countless occasions, you forcibly married me by threatening me you would break Sunita's marriage, which you surely would have because that is how HEARTLESS you are, Mr. Malhotra."

Asmita huffed in derision and indignation, stifling the sobs threatening to escape her lips.

"You just care about your feelings. You just WANT me, Mr. Malhotra. It hurts your inflated ego to realize that a simple middle-class girl resists you and your so-called charms. It bothered you greatly that I turned my back on you. And which is why you are doing all this. You just want to satisfy your ego and nothing else. Don't tarnish something as pure as love by giving that name to your feelings for me."

Daksh stood astounded with the series of accusations hurled at him, and it made his eyes scrunch in disgust for himself that every single word uttered by her was true. It had, like she claimed, begun as a quest to conquer her and unravel her mysterious persona.

He had turned blind in his irresistible and lethal attraction to her, and did not concern himself with anything else. Her denial was a challenge, and her rejection was the invitation to a war that he had every intention to win.

She had hit the bull's eye, and he had hit the rock bottom.

Vikas grabbed Asmita's hand and towered over the man, sinking into the abyss of remorse and anguish.

"You heard her, Mr. Malhotra. There is no way I am letting my best friend get tormented by you anymore. Don't even try to contact her."

He had never imagined that the step of marrying her, that he had taken to erase the growing distances between them would be the reason of their separation. The irony of the situation kicked him in the guts.

He wanted to stop Asmita from leaving, but something in him did not obey him that day - his heart.

His heart, which always succumbed to his brain, had finally fought to win against it. His heart knew the intensity of his crimes, of his misbehavior, of his love and of her pain. It had ordered him to let go of her because it knew that even after his misdoings towards her, the love which he harbored towards her was far more genuine than any feeling which evaded his heart.

It convinced him that nothing could be a better way to show his love than letting her go when she considers their very bond to be destroying.

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