Page 239 of One Hellish Passion

Garima was even more enraged now.

“You wanted her to do this? Only then would you believe that she is totally out of her mind?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“That’s what you meant, Vivek,” she yelled.

People from the nearby tables looked at them. Vivek raised his hands in defeat.

“Okay, let’s not argue over this,” he replied. “I will make Adira understand her mistakes. But please, for now, let her go.”

“I won’t do anything like that,” Garima answered. “Adira deserves to be punished. And I am sure once she is serving imprisonment, she will understand what she did, and next time she would think of the consequences before acting so foolish. I couldn’t let her play with Ranveer and Maya’s life henceforth. I couldn’t give justice to myself years ago, but I won’t let Maya suffer injustice anymore. She deserves a happy life because she has always struggled to keep everyone around her happy. And I won’t snatch that right from her.”

She stood up to leave. Vivek gripped her arm.

“Do you know what that means, Garima? You are risking our marriage.”

She passed him a sarcastic smile.

“We were never meant to be together, Vivek. So don’t threaten me over that. I am happy alone with my daughter and son-in-law than being your wife in the future.”

She walked away sternly without turning back even once. This was over. She had drawn a dark line between her and Vivek from now on, and nothing could erase that distance between them. All these years when Maya kept explaining to her how selfish this man was, she didn’t realize it. Love was blind. She was blind in reading Vivek’s feelings. He only cared for his legal wife and his daughter from her. Garima and Maya’s sufferings were never his concern. Garima hoped he had changed as a person now, so she agreed to his proposal, but today that hope turned into despair. Forget giving priority to her or Maya, this man couldn’t even judge between right and wrong. And that marked the end of their relationship.

*******************

Maya woke up to find her husband missing from the bed beside her. The room was dark, but she noticed a dim light at the study table where Ranveer sat, engrossed in something. She got out of bed and approached him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and planting a kiss on his nape.

“What’s keeping you so busy?” she asked softly.

Ranveer closed the diary he had been reading and placed it back on the table. “Nothing,” he replied.

Maya couldn’t help but notice the unfamiliar diary on the table.

“You don’t want to tell me? That’s fine. But please, tell me you’re okay. I hate seeing you like this,” she said, concern evident in her voice.

Ranveer pulled her onto his lap and kissed her cheek. “I don’t want to hide anything from you,” he murmured.

“I know, but if you need some time, I understand,” Maya replied.

After a brief pause, Ranveer decided to share his thoughts with her. “After Kunal’s arrest, when the police searched Dev Malik’s study for evidence, they found this diary,” he explained, pointing to the book. “Whose diary, is it? Dev Malik’s?” Maya asked, surprised.

“No, it’s my mother’s,” Ranveer revealed.

Maya was speechless. “I didn’t know she kept a diary like this. She was always so open with us, but perhaps there were things she couldn’t share verbally,” she murmured.

“What’s written in it?” Maya inquired.

“A lot,” Ranveer replied. “She started writing it after my father’s death. It details the pain she felt, missing her life partner, raising me alone, managing the office, and then about Dev Malik.”

Maya trembled, knowing that reading about the Maliks would not be easy for Ranveer.

“She wrote about how sweet Dev Malik was to her after my father’s death, how he supported her, eased her tensions,” Ranveer continued, his voice tinged with pain. “My mother thought it was love. She started falling for Dev Malik without knowing his true intentions.”

Maya could see the anguish in Ranveer’s eyes. “And then, one night... she and Dev Malik,” he trailed off, unable to continue.

Maya understood what he meant. “Ranveer...” she began, cupping his face gently.

“I’m not saying she was wrong,” he interrupted. “After my father died, she found support in Dev Malik, and she fell for him. It’s not wrong. She had the right to remarry, and that’s what she did, Maya. She found out she was pregnant.”

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