“Rupali! Good you came. I was wondering what color of paint would be prefer…”

“Why are you… You don’t need to be here yourself Dr. Khanna… And painting and all is not needed. I will just…”

“I think I will keep the original cream color then…”

“Are you even listening to me?” Rupali was in a bad mood and got annoyed quickly.

“Had you listened to me?” Paritosh replied with a question calmly.

“Excuse me?”

“I had asked you if you really want to stay here by yourself or is it something you have decided merely in anger?”

“This house is mine, right?”

Paritosh sighed, “Yes. It is.” She was in no mood to listen to an advice.

“And cream is fine. But you don’t need to stay here yourself for this. I can oversee the workers.”

“You have a day off?”

“Yes. I have taken a day off.”

“Fine then. I will come by in the evening. Don’t pay them, when they leave.”

Rupali nodded and Paritosh left after talking to the head contractor.

—

Rupali was taking a tour of the 4-bedroom house after the workers left. It was sparsely furnished, but had enough for her to move in. The master bedroom had a heavy, wooden bed, cupboards and a dresser. Other rooms were mostly empty except for a chair or two here and there. The kitchen had some shelves. The dining hall was empty, but the main hall had a coffee table. The sofa was in decrepit state and it won’t be usable without substantial repair.

She noticed that the hall had a number of huge colonial windows. One of them overlooked the open space that would ideally be the garden, but only had weeds right now. This house was not furnished with the modern amenities like Moitras’. But given its design and spaciousness, she felt sure that it was a luxurious property when it was brought. She would be able to make it a comfortable home for herself. She moved towards one of the windows when she heard some noise. She turned around to find Rohan at the door.

She stiffened as Rohan walked towards her without saying anything. He had that animalistic look in his eyes, which she hadn’t seen since he had announced his intent to marry her before his family.

“How did you find the place?” she asked even as she gulped hard in fear.

“What did you think? You can run away just like that?” his tone was menacing.

“I… I wasn’t running away Rohan…” Rupali realized that she was all alone with him. Even if she shouted, anyone was unlikely to hear her. Thankfully the front door was still open. Her best chance lied there.

She made to move towards the door trying not to attract his attention, but he was watching. He grabbed arms and pulled her further inside the hall with him.

“Rohan. Please let me go,” she pleaded.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back with a jerk. It hurt so much that she cried out. She tried to push him away with her hands, but he was too strong and the way he had grabbed her hair was hurting too much to leave much strength in her. Against her wishes, he forced a kiss on her. She gathered all her presence of mind and bit him hard on the lower lips during the kiss, thus hurting him and forcing him to withdraw. But her victory was short-lived, because the very next moment he completely disoriented her by slapping her. She didn’t have time to recover before he pushed her against the nearest wall and glared at her. He bent down and started biting her neck. She cried out, “Let me go Rohan. Help….”

“Rohan!” his father’s voice startled Rohan for a moment. He looked at the door and saw Sabyasachi and Paritosh standing at the door. He might have listened to his father, but seeing Paritosh there maddened him even further.

“This is between us, Baba. You must leave.”

Sabyasachi and Paritosh moved towards him. But he surprised them by taking out a pistol, “If you take another step, I am going to kill her!” They stopped in their tracks, while Rupali was scared beyond her wits.

“Don’t be an idiot, Rohan. Drop the gun,” Sabyasachi tried to make him understand.

“You let us deal with our problems Baba.”

“I will. But you have to drop the gun. You are scaring her.”

“She needs to be scared Baba. She needs to be. She thought she could run away from me.”

Paritosh and Rupali’s eyes met in the meanwhile, and Paritosh nodded slightly to assure her. She felt the effect and gathered herself together. She looked at Rohan and realized that he was distracted by Sabyasachi. Even though the pistol was aimed at her, he wasn’t paying attention to her. The grip of his other hand on her was also weak. She suddenly bent down and bit his arms making him jump and wince in pain. Paritosh took advantage of this and snatched the pistol away from him. He, then, pulled Rupali away from him and hugged her tight in relief. She reciprocated the hug equally. Sabyasachi meanwhile tried to control Rohan.

“Look at that whore Baba…” Rohan shouted on seeing Paritosh and Rupali hug. They separated hastily in hearing his voice.

“You have to stop right now Rohan. You are out of your mind.”

Rohan struggled to get away from Sabyasachi towards Rupali, “I’m not going to let her get away with this…”

“Enough Dr. Moitra!” It was Paritosh who shouted this time startling everyone. Even Rohan cowered for a moment. But then he made to hit him and Sabyasachi could not hold him back. Paritosh was left with no option and pointed the pistol at him, the same pistol he had snatched just moment back. “If you take another step towards Rupali, I am not going to hesitate in pulling the trigger,” he warned. Rohan stopped.

“You need to leave right now. This is my property and you have no business being here. Mr. Moitra. Please…” he indicated to Sabyasachi to take his son away. He nodded and pulled him out of the house with himself. As soon as they were out of sight, Paritosh rushed towards the main door and locked it. Rupali was overwhelmed with all the drama. She broke down and slumped on the floor. Paritosh kept the pistol down on the floor carefully and then rushed back to her. He sat down on the floor and pulled her in a comforting embrace. He let her cry for a while and did not say anything.

He spoke only after she had stopped crying and had pulled herself out of his embrace, “Are you… okay?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know if there is any water in the house. I will get a bottle from my car…” he made to get up, but she held his arms.

“Don’t… He might still be outside…”

Her concern was genuine, but they couldn’t sit holed up there forever. Paritosh hoped that Rohan’s father would have been able to control him.

“I don’t think so. And I have the pistol still,” he made a feeble attempt at a joke. But that only scared her. “Don’t worry,” he said softly, “His rage is not directed at me. And we would have known if he was still around.”

He still picked up the pistol before going out and came back without any harm coming. He made her drink water and wash her face.

And then the difficult question hung between them. Wordlessly for a while. Where was she to go? Finally Paritosh spoke, “Do you want to go back… home?” He hesitated on the last word. But it was her home.

“How… can… I…” Rupali replied very slowly, as if she was weighing each word and trying to understand its implication herself. “I… think… I will just stay here…”

“No. You can’t. This isn’t livable yet. You don’t have your stuff, the space outside needs cleaning up and you… Staying here alone is not safe for you right now…”

“And that place is very safe?” her voice was weak, but her bitterness showed through.

“In that case…” he was interrupted because Rupali’s mobile rang.

“It’s Kaku,” she spoke feebly and then looked at Paritosh with questioning eyes. She didn’t know what to do.

“Pick it up.”

“What will I tell him?”

“He might want to tell you something. Pick it up, otherwise he will worry about you.”

She nodded and picked the phone, “Hello!” Her voice quivered.

“Rupa. Darling, are you fine? I am…”

“Kaku. I haven’t done anything to cheat on Rohan. He was…”

“I know. I know, Rupa. And I am sorry, I am really sorry that it came to this… We should have known better… But don’t worry. I am coming there and will bring you back myself…”

“Kaku,” she started crying, “I can’t… I can’t come there… Please don’t get me wrong. But…”

Sabyasachi sighed audibly, “Is Dr. Khanna still there?”

“Yes Kaku.”

“Can you please give the phone to him?”

She handed the phone wordlessly to him. After initial greetings, Paritosh indicated to Rupali that he needs to talk to him in private and moved away from her.

“Rupali,” he came back after a while, “This pistol is licensed to Mr. Moitra. Apparently Dr. Moitra had take it without his knowledge. He wanted to know if you… intend to file a case against Dr. Moitra and keep it as a proof or…”

“Case??” Rupali was surprised, “What case? Oh! No… No. I wasn’t even thinking… What kind of a question is that?”

“Then we’d return it to him,” he ignored how flustered she was, “And… this place is not livable yet, Rupali… You should come with me to my house…”

“And prove all his accusations about me and you right? No Dr. Khanna,” she was finally getting her bearings.

“Firstly, after what happened today, why do you even care what he thinks? Even his father doesn’t. Secondly, Mr. Moitra himself agreed to the idea.”

“How come he came here with you?” she suddenly wondered.

“He had called me up and wanted to talk you out of the idea of moving out of home. So, I asked him to come along…”

“Hmm…”

“We can figure out the rest of it later. Right now let’s go… We will pick up your clothes and other things on the way.”

She had no better option to propose. She got up from the floor and followed him out of the house locking it behind them.

—

To be continued