Mésalliance (Completed)

Chapter 25

Madhu jerked on her bed early morning. A pillow had hit her face and when she opened her eyes, Vikram stood with a straight face.
"What the fuck?" she yelled at him. He turned his head to the right side where Ankitha stood furiously.
"Ankitha?" Madhu groaned and rubbed her forehead. "Why are you here?"
Ankitha threw another pillow at Madhu which hit her shoulder. Ankitha cursed herself and ran to her friend, "Sorry, Madhu! I didn't aim correctly!"
"Ahh!" Madhu shouted and slumped behind. "Fuck you, bitch!"
"What the hell? Don't you have a brain?" Vikram shouted at Ankitha and paced near his wife. "Don't you know that she is injured?"
Ankitha hung her head down in guilt.
Vikram made Madhu sit steady in front of the headboard and passed her water. She didn't get the glass from him but looked at his face. He stood straight and raised his brows.
She turned her eyes away from him,  "Apologise to my friend."
"What?" he wanted her to repeat her words as if he turned deaf.
"Ask sorry," she said in an optimum. He looked at Ankitha, "She had hurt you. Why should I apologise to her?"
"You hurt me a lot more than she did," Madhu commented and looked at him with a blank stare.
"Fine. Sorry, Ankitha," Vikram blurted out. Ankitha was astonished to death and peeked at Madhu who remained calm.
"Good, give us privacy," Madhu demanded him.
"Why should I go?" he asked in confusion.
Madhu stood from the bed, "I gave you privacy when you brought a whore and fucked in your room. We aren't going to fuck as you think. Now, get lost!"
He opened his mouth to reply but felt it was a waste of time and went away. Madhu, after gaining privacy, punched her friend on her nose.
"Shit!" Ankitha snorted with a red nose. "Bitch!"
Madhu clapped in front of her face, "That is how I felt too, bitch! Why did you hit me?"
Ankitha sat on the bed, "I wanted to check on you and found him here! What the hell is happening?"
Madhu shrugged, "He wants to undo his mistake. So came here..."
"I think he is taming himself," Ankitha reckoned. "You saw how he gulped down his ego and apologised."
"Nope. I gave him a time frame of one week to prove his sobriety. Maybe he pretends," Madhu said doubtfully.
"Hmm. Might be...." Ankitha seconded her thought.
"I need entertainment," Madhu lamented, "I am battered by this house arrest."
"Let's go somewhere," Ankitha suggested. Madhu shrugged, "Madhav isn't home."
"We can ask your husband..." Ankitha said but Madhu glared in her direction.
"Okay!" Ankitha whispered.
Just then Vikram came into the room, "I have to bathe."
Madhu sneered, "As if you bathed every day..."
He gulped and looked nervously around her.
"Could you take us out?" Ankitha blabbered suddenly. Madhu nudged her elbow and glared murderously.
Vikram eyed them and accepted their demands. Madhu rolled her eyes.

*********

"Ooh, Lala!" Ankitha snorted like a horse and dwelled into the pastries. Madhu too hummed at the chocolate land the eclairs sent her to. Vikram wasn't a dessert guy.
"You got a virtue," Ankitha commented as she licked her fingertips. He turned to Madhu so that she might have a word or so.
She remained mum.
Ankitha's phone buzzed. "Shit! It's my mom!" she whispered and went out of the cafe to talk.
Vikram blinked, "Do you need-?"
"Coffee," Madhu said without allowing him to talk. She wanted peace and sending him for errands would be the best-suited option. He nodded and walked to the counter. She leaned behind the chair and sighed.
"Some grandmother in my family is dead!" Ankitha said in a rush. Madhu scowled, "Some?"
"I meant a distant relation. My mom wants to go to Udupi," Ankitha pouted. "I have to hurry up."
Madhu understood her ordeal and let her go.
"I am worried about that husband of yours," Ankitha emphasised. Madhu looked at him afar and shrugged, "Nothing that I can't handle."
Vikram placed coffee on the table, "Where is your friend?"
Madhu blew air on the top layer of the coffee and wafted the smell of roasted seeds. Vikram sat before her, "Can we go to the famous lake here?"
Madhu choked on the coffee and coughed badly. He leaned forward towards her and patted her head softly. She could see his ego melt since he met her in Bangalore but she wasn't ready to give him another chance.
"I am fine," she told him off. He blinked, "Are we going?"
"To home," She decided. He shrugged, "You wanted to go out but when I suggest, you are declining the idea..."
"I do not want to be alone with you," she stated. "What if you slept with someone's wife recently? I don't want to die," she uttered poison. He rolled his eyes, "To home then."

*******

Madhu stood on the terrace of her home where she spent half of her lifetime. There were numerous nights when her whole family gathered for dinner under the moon. She used to crackle around her brothers and they surrendered their egos for her.
"Madhan... I often think about the beautiful moments we shared here," she talked to loneliness. She closed her eyes, reminiscing her childhood days.
They roamed around parks, gardens and family functions. Madhu always held onto her other brother, Madhan.
"You shouldn't have died..." she whispered with tears.  She gazed at the sparkling sky. "It should've been me...."
"Madhu?" she heard Madhav behind her. She turned to meet her brother who was perplexed by her crying face.
"Did that bastard disturb you?" Madhav asked, clenching his fist.
"I thought of Madhan..." she said and went silent.
Madhav hugged her tightly, "He is looking at your tears. He won't be happy."
Madhu knew her late brother to be cheerful, chirpy and motivating. "We should always face the world bravely," he used to say. She couldn't resist the tears, feeling the absence of her departed brother.
"My heart aches for the moments we never got to share, Madhav," she confessed. He patted her back, "He will guide and inspire you. Always."
She wiped away her tears.
She carried his memory for a decade. "Vikram saw your birthday pics on the wall... I couldn't stop thinking about him."
Madhav sighed, "I must find a way to shift him to the guest room."
Madhu declined, "It's not that. Madhan should not have died on your birthday. That was the last photo of him... I must have died."
She didn't make sense due to her panic.
Madhav hushed her and made her sit, "Look, Madhu. Your panic attacks are gone. Don't press yourself."
She blabbered incoherently. Madhav sighed and hugged her. He decided not to let her near Vikram in such a fragile condition.