Vihaan stared at Aradhya. She knew. She knew. He let out a sarcastic grin.
"So you knew. You knew Amar. Your Rajkumar Amar was the one who had her under him this whole time."
Aradhya had her face buried in her hands. She looked up at him with her form still weak and her wound still hurting.
"Yes. I saw who it was. And I knew Bhairavi Ma won't do anything to me until she is being threatened." Aradhya said wiping at her eyes and sniffling.
"I'm surprised. You couldn't even fight off a fifty-year-old woman."
"That fifty-year-old woman was my mother!"
"Okay. I'll accept it but do you know now in how huge of a debt you are in with regards me?" Vihaan's tone raised, "I saved you from your oh so trusted prince."
"Vihaan..."
"What was that you were saying? I'm never gonna be as benevolent as him? I don't deserve to talk about him? I'm better off being mute rather than talking about him. And coming to benevolence, if this is what you were referring to as benevolence, then please, get your senses right."
"Stop. Listen to me-"
"No, you listen to me. I married you to save you from him. I saved you from his attacker and for all that all I got was frequent attacks and shameless words from you. Do you think I would have married someone like you?"
"Ple-"
"Whatever you want to say, Aradhya, please save your breath. I just hope you don't trust the wrong people from now on and blame those who actually care about you."
"I'm sorry," Aradhya replied, while looking at Vihaan with teary eyes, "I agree, I was wrong. I shouldn't have talked without knowing. I'm sorry, Vihaan, please, just understand."
Vihaan scoffed and shook his head.
"I don't care anymore. There are littlest of things that are more valuable to me than your apology."
"Vihaan, please." Aradhya tried to get him to stay. She tried to stop him from abruptly walking out of the room but failed.
With the grief of her brother's death, with the burden of her mother's betrayal and with the guilt of blaming someone who wished well for her, Aradhya felt her emotions taking over her. She felt broken in places she was never weak at. She felt like a whole mountain's weight was on her heart.
This was the first time she started feeling sorry. The first time she believed Vihaan. The first time she hated herself for believing Amar.
The tears dried out instantly. The fire in her eyes never let her streams flow.
For her, that eve, the roles of benevolent and cruel for Amar and Vihaan changed. She resented Amar.
She now knew why Bhairavi was missing from the day she got wed. And how Amar was missing the day she was wed too. She pulled all the pieces of the puzzle in place. She knew. She knew what Amar was up to.
.  .  .  .
"He'll come around, you know. He may seem stern but once he cares about someone he doesn't stop." Rihit passed a chalice of medicine to Aradhya.
Aradhya painfully took it. Medicine isn't good you see. Good for you but bad for your tongues.
"But how can you be so sure? I've dome nothing but down talk him all the time."
"You had your reasons. And you have your reasons to be sorry now too. I've been with Vihaan since three. I know him." Rihit talked almost in a comforting voice. Aradhya felt the comfort and reassurance but didn't read too much into it. That kind of comfort was too familiar to her.
"Rest up. I'll send Nandini in again. She'll change the dressing for your wound. And let me know if you want anything else." Rihit smiled at Aradhya and she returned it.
"Why are you doing this? Why do you care about me? I tried to kill your king."
"Funny how Vihaan asked me the same." Rihit scoffed, "I don't know. But when I do, you'll be the first to know."
"One more thing. Can you please send Vihaan here? I want to talk to him."
"I'll try. Get well soon, Maharani."
.  .  .  .
One way or another, Vihaan ignored Aradhya. Throughout the course of her healing. Yeah, he would be present whenever the doctors checked up on Aradhya. He would be present when Aradhya's wound didn't heal quite properly. Though he was around her always, he never gave her a chance to speak to him nor did he give himself the mind to talk to her.
Through his ignorance, Vihaan did get heavy taunts from Nandini and Sadhana, Vihaan stayed away. The real reason he did so was known to him and yet he didn't want to accept it. He felt like he failed in protecting her. It was his duty. And on the other hand, he felt ashamed of the things he said to Aradhya out of fury. The more he contemplated over his words, the more relevant they seemed but yet felt like he had touched a sensitive string of Aradhya.
He had lost his words slip without acknowledging the fact that she had lost her brother, and had now discovered that her mother was her enemy.
Somehow as both Aradhya and Vihaan blamed themselves for being the culprit, Aradhya accepted it but Vihaan couldn't. He was never used to being wrong in his life and now it had somehow become a common occurrence.
Weeks passed as Aradhya completely healed. The scar from the wound was also vanishing by Nandini and the royal doctors' connoisseur. It had almost become inevident.
Around a month or so, Aradhya had become flawlessly and completely fine. Her scar wasn't there and her medications had been stopped. Her internal bleeding had subsided and her heart was normal from what the doctors reported.
Aradhya sat in Sadhana's room as the doctors checked on Sadhana's gustation. Nandini stood assisting the doctors and had a close eye for everything they did.
"Go talk to him, Aradhya. He ran from you all these days because you were bedridden. You can chase after him now." Sadhana suggested. Nandini scoffed from beside Aradhya.
"As if he knows how to run. Rihit used to beat him all the time, he lost to me too." Nandini laughed with her normal rush of sibling energy running through her veins.
"But what if he gets annoyed again? What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"
"Calm down. You just go to him. Apologise and tell him everything." Sadhana said to which Nandini added, "I don't think he'll be able to say no to a face like yours."
Sadhana landed a hit at Nandini's arm while Nandini chuckled.
"Just go. Hope for the best and go."
.  .  .  .
"I've already said this before, haven't I? I don't care. Aradhya. I can't do anything if you are sorry or even if you are still badly in love with your Amar. And I couldn't care less." Vihaan said looking down at his scrolls of issues of kingdoms coolly.
"Just listen. I won't take much of your time." Aradhya pleaded.
"How many times? You are gonna say sorry, I'm gonna lash out, I'm gonna get scolded by Sadhana and you'll go back to hating me."
"Why don't you just listen!" Aradhya walked in, full force and stood a few feet away from Vihaan. Vihaan sighed and dropped what he was doing. He stood up like a hill towering over Aradhya's averagely short height. He folded his arms across his chest and stood there.
"Tell me."
"Look. I know I've said this already but I am sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you without knowing. I was too blinded by Amar's facade."
"Hear yourself. I told you right? You're gonna repeat the same thing." Vihaan said and started walking back to his chair when he heard Aradhya sigh.
"Do you not want to know why he attacked me?"
That caught his attention. Yes. Why would she be attacked rather than him? Why? He turned around walked back to her. He caught her murky eyes looking at him with hope. He was that used to seeing only hate in her eyes that an emotion other than that threw him off guard.
"Why?"
"Because I know exactly how his mind works."
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