17-03-2026, 04:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 17-03-2026, 05:28 PM by Aavesh9. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
Chapter-79:
Tanvi drank a glass of water, her hand still shaking against the rim. As she walked toward her bedroom, her bare feet silent on the floor, her ears picked up a low, rhythmic grunt from the shadows.
“What have I turned into?”, she whispered to herself with a dry, hysterical chuckle bubbling up in her throat.
"I accepted that mad-man already", her voice paused inside...
"And, in less than five minutes of that animal leaving me, I just offered myself to a second man...To Dattu!", there was no answer from the phantom voice that echoed always in her head.
Only the frustrating silence of defeat lingered...
Tanvi stepped back into her bedroom, where the air was still thick with the filthy scent of her own ruin heavily mixed with the old man's body musk.
Her feet lead her to the bathroom...seconds later, when the cold water started it's cleansing performance on her mutilated skin, her mind started to ready herself to surrender against a multitude of darkness that was waiting to finish what she started...
With Tanvi being the only living organism inside that house, the eery silence inside acted like a blanket of gravity that was waiting it's chance to weigh down on her...possibly due to what she was going to encounter shortly...
Her house burned from it's insides...
Tanvi woke up around noon when Sharda pinged the house bell. She felt pain all over, like her limbs were broken, searing agony from her sex and it seemed she couldn't stand properly.
Cursing her maid, she pulled a house gown and opened the door.
"Madamji, are you sick? You look so pale, and worse than I saw you when you had fever a month ago", Sharda was visibly shaken when she looked at the angelic beauty who looked like she came out of a fight or something. "Are you alright? Can I get you some medicine?"
"No Sharda, I am okay, I just overslept. As the kids and Sanjoth were not here, I was just sleeping. But, thank you. There is nothing to do here today, Sharda", Tanvi just wanted her maid to not be there.
"What about some ginger tea, or maybe I should call an auto so you go see the doctor?", Sharda sounded genuinely concerned.
Tanvi clutched her house gown tighter, the fabric scratching against her sensitized skin.
"No, Sharda, I’m fine. I just overslept because the house is quiet with everyone away. There’s no work for you today, just go"
Sharda lingered, her mind racing with the promise she’d made to Badi Didi about bringing Tanvi to the Basti for the Devi Puja.
"But Madamji, at least let me cook. You need strength for the festivities next week. Badi Didi was saying-"
Tanvi cut her off, her voice a sharp, jagged edge. "I said later, Sharda. I have to get to the gym. Just leave me alone for now."
She didn’t feel any need to call Sylvie for some unknown reason, there wasn't anything she expected her friend to help her with. Instead of feeling bad for succumbing to her carnal needs, and becoming an adultress, Tanvi thought that she was looking forward to her Gym session, but the contradicting thought of cheating again was an opposite force that her poor heart could not overcome. On one end, she wanted to be closer to the old man who made her feel like a real woman but on the other side it was the very same man who connived, planned her downward spiral and was destroying her marriage. It was like two extremely powerful and invisible forces pushing her towards the pit that she wilfully dug, forcing her to jump into the grave of her own.
Despite the understanding of her folly and behavioural change, there was something that didn't sit right to her...the fact that Khurram claimed her as his own and forced her to agree on opening her sex to anyone who he found right to.
"It was not right...why should I accept men whom he orders me to?", she heard her voice and that particular point of thought pinched her head, and wasn't a good thing...she knew by now that whatever Sylvie and Hansa told her were true...Khurram was going to destroy her life. But, she couldn’t figure out from where she felt at ease or why she felt confident with this particular fact.
Tanvi began her walk toward the gym, her body moving with a heavy, rhythmic ache that reminded her of every second of Khurram’s brutal possession. But halfway there, the smell of street dust and the humid air seemed to crystallize the horror of her situation; she realized that walking into that gym was walking into a permanent cage. She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, her breath hitching.
It was the very place where she shamelessly threw her body fluids last night. Despite being hours after that filthy act, the ground was still smothered with what she churned her dirty liquid out, shamelessly to the world to see. Her sharp nose brought in the pungent and dark musk of hers right away making her cringe with embarrassed shame and she had to turn around to see if someone noticed it.
At that moment, Tanvi questioned her decision to go to the gym. Something inside her snapped.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Hansa, her voice breaking the moment the older woman picked up.
"Hansaji...I can't do this anymore. I was going to him, but now I am...I don't want to, Hansaji. Meet me at the mall, the same place as before. Please. I feel like I'm drowning and the water is full of shame"
Hansa hearing her young friend's voice was deeply concerned. But she kept her voice steady, a sort of cool anchor in the storm.
"Turn around, Tanvi. Go to the mall. I’m already on my way. Don't look back"
Hearing those consoling words, Tanvi turned back from her route to the gym. She had to muster all her willpower to do it. She quickly changed into an old dress, a skirt and top that she had not worn for a very long time. The skirt reached just below her knees giving an alluring look to the dazzling Japanese-Indian woman with green eyes. She booked an Uber.
But while she sat in the taxi and crossed the Complex gate, she saw the watchman Harilal gawking into the car's backseat where she was seated. Despite receiving that 'look' her mind was somewhere else.
"Why am I thinking of the damn Devi Puja?", Tanvi could not place the recurring thoughts of what her maid Sharda asked of her. It has started to burn her head already...possibly the fact that Devi Puja was at the Basti...whereby she would be with every low-class animal who resided there...she groaned loudly making the Uber driver turn with questions on his face.
"Are you feeling better, Tanvi?", Hansa asked with sincere concern with a hand on Tanvi’s shoulder as they finally sat in the hushed corner of the cafe.
Tanvi leaned forward, her face a mask of raw, unfiltered agony.
"He took me again, Hansaji. It wasn't just sex; it was my destruction as a woman that vultures of a man ensured", she whispered with pain in her voice, and her fingers frantically shredding a paper napkin.
Hansa saw it clearly and felt seriously bad for being part of all this madness.
"He made me say it...he made me agree that I’m his slut. And the worst part is he told me he’s going to share with me. He said I’ll have to open my legs for whoever he chooses. I feel like my body isn't mine anymore; it’s a piece of meat he’s preparing me to on the market for others", Tanvi sobbed.
"Tanvi, please, this is a public place, people are already looking at you and crying would make it worse. I am here with you...relax...please", Hansa failed to find any other sensible words.
"I cheated on Sanjoth, and I didn't even feel the guilt because Khurram defeated me so completely, I don't even know if I am Tanvi itself. I am a Mother, Hansaji...a Mother...how could I do all those things that he asked me to...Oh-God!"
Hansa reached out, her grip like iron on Tanvi’s wrist.
"That bastard is a monster, Tanvi, and he is the person who creates more like him...like Mehta and Upendra. He did it to Abhijeet’s mother, and together they broke her spirit until the only way out was to leave this world. But I am not letting that happen to you. I am already on their case, a fire that will burn Khurram and his whole circle to the ground", Hansa seethed between her teeth.
Tanvi gasped and looked at Hansa with a newfound comfort.
"And Tanvi, you are not his slave; you are the evidence of his depravity, and I will make him pay for every bruise he’s left on your soul"
Just as a flicker of hope ignited, Tanvi’s phone buzzed with a violent, rhythmic vibration. It was a message from Khurram: “You aren’t at the gym. I warned you about the price of disobedience. I’m going to destroy your life today. Come here right now and take for your punishment, you ungrateful slut"
As she read and re-read the message, Hansa saw Tanvi’s face going bloodless, the phone nearly clattering onto the table.
"He knows", she choked out, her eyes wide with terror.
"He’s going to kill me, or worse, he’s going to do exactly what he promised. I have to go back, Hansaji. I have no choice"
"Tanvi, I know it's hard but listen, if you don't play their game now, there would be no way to come out of this damned situation. Trust me, I will not let a repetition of what happened with Mehta's wife with you...trust me"
As they stood to leave, Tanvi’s gaze was snagged by a flash of a familiar profile in the glass-fronted restaurant across the atrium.
Her heart stopped. "Is that... Sanjoth?" she whispered.
There sat her husband, looking invigorated and carefree, laughing over a bowl of lunch.
But it was the woman sitting opposite him that made Tanvi’s stomach turn into a cold knot of lead. It was Maahi, Upendra’s wife.
The woman whose husband was in consortium with Khurram was now seated in intimate proximity to Sanjoth, their conversation flowing with a sickening, illicit ease.
"Look at him...Oh-God", Tanvi hissed, the betrayal stinging more than Khurram’s grunts.
"He hasn't called me in days. He doesn't care about the kids or the house. He’s sitting there with the wife of the man whom he made me spend time with. He looks like he’s having the time of his life while I’m being hunted."
Hansa watched with a narrowed, predatory gaze.
"The circle is smaller than you think, Tanvi. They aren't just letting you fall; they are actively pushing you so they can play their own games in the wreckage"
The shock deepened when a third figure approached the table - Safiya.
The large older woman was dressed in a modern, form-fitting dress that shed her maternal persona like a snake’s skin, she slipped into the seat next to Sanjoth. The three of them looked like a dark, sophisticated coven, their laughter echoing through the restaurant's open terrace.
Sanjoth’s eyes were bright with a carnal spark as he leaned toward Safiya, a man completely derailed from his life, finding comfort in the very women who knew exactly how his wife was being destroyed.
Hansa’s phone rang - an emergency at her other mall location, she had a parlour running there.
"I have to rush, Tanvi. Don't do anything foolish," she warned, though her eyes remained troubled as she hurried away.
Tanvi, who looked foolish by her own husband, betrayed and suddenly all of it fueled by a sudden, blistering heat of resentment, didn't leave. She watched as Safiya bid the couple a lingering farewell and swayed out of the restaurant toward the high-end boutiques.
Tanvi followed at a distance, her heels clicking a silent, vengeful cadence until she saw the older woman enter a luxury lingerie shop.
Tanvi waited, watching through the window as Safiya picked up a sheer, lace-trimmed black slip, holding it against her body with a sensuous, knowing smile.
The hypocrisy was too much for Tanvi to bear.
She stepped into the store, the air-conditioned scent of expensive silk hitting her like a slap.
Tanvi walked straight up to Safiya, her shadow falling over the lace as she loomed over the older woman who was currently pressing a sheer, black silk chemise against her chest.
"Is that for Sanjoth, Safiyaji? Or does the lace just help you feel younger while you watch me rot in your husband’s grip?" Tanvi’s voice was a broken shout of rage, cutting through the store's soft background music and making the sales assistant freeze.
Safiya turned with shock, her face momentarily freezing into a mask of pure, unadulterated freeze before a wave of nauseating guilt washed over her features.
"Tanvi... you shouldn't be here", she whispered, her hands trembling as she clutched the lingerie.
But even as her eyes welled with a flicker of genuine remorse, Tanvi saw the dark, predatory hunger still lingering in Safiya’s gaze, a craving for Sanjoth’s youth that was clearly winning the war against her conscience.
"Nerve? You have the nerve to speak to me about propriety?", Tanvi half shouted, stepping into Safiya’s personal space until their chests nearly touched.
"You sat there at that table, laughing with my husband, playing the sophisticated matron while your husband, that animal Khurram, was systematically destroying my life! You knew he was taking me! You knew he was breaking me every night, and instead of helping me, you decided to move into the vacancy I left behind. You’re not just a bystander, Safiyaji; you’re a scavenger feeding on the carcass of my marriage!"
Safiya’s lip quivered, the weight of the betrayal finally forcing a tear down her cheek, but her voice remained sharp with the desperation of her own illicit desires.
"Khurramji...he is.. he is a law unto himself, Tanvi. I couldn't stop him even if I wanted to. And Sanjoth...he came to me. He wanted someone who understood the complexities of this life, someone who didn't just weep and break"
The confession from the older woman was like a poison tipped arrow.
Tanvi’s face contorted with a mix of agony and absolute disgust as she looked at the woman she had once revered.
"You are not the woman whom I respected, now I see who you really are...just, nothing but a pathetic, depraved person, Safiya!", Tanvi spat, the words dripping with a visceral hatred that made Safiya flinch.
Safiya clearly heard the omission of 'Ji' at the end of her name that was always there from Tanvi...she was diminished to just 'Safiya'!
"Tanvi...I...", Safiya was unable to find any words.
"You’re using my husband to hide from the fact that you’re married to a monster. You think that lace makes you look like a lover? It makes you look like a cheating woman...a collaborator of lies", Tanvi felt all her anger, every bit of her pain, coming out like she was about to vomit.
Safiya in her stunned stance, could hardly take a breath. All what Tanvi spilled was true...word...by...word!
"You sold me to your husband so you could have a clear path to mine. Every time that bastard forces himself into me, I’m going to imagine your face, Safiya. I’m going to remember that while I was screaming, you were shopping for black silk to impress the man I built a life with. You’ve traded your soul for a few hours of feeling young, and I hope the weight of what you’ve done to me crushes the life out of you."
Safiya let out a broken, strangled sob, but she didn't look away, her inner hunger for Sanjoth acting as a dark shield against the truth.
"I’m sorry, Tanvi...I truly am...I...I am sorry", she whimpered, even as she tightened her grip on the lingerie.
Tanvi let out a hollow, terrifying laugh with a condescending tone.
"Sorry? You’re not sorry. You’re just caught. You’re an empty, aging woman of lust who would watch the world burn just to feel that bloody pulse again. Go to him, Safiya. Take your dirt and all your lies to Sanjoth", Tanvi seethed and her face turned red with blood rushing all over.
Safiya stood frozen an unable to respond. She just could not do anything as she heard the beautiful angel faced young woman, once her dear friend, fuming curses at her.
"Remember, Safiya "I am sure Khurram would not continue with me for life...he will return back to you one day, and trust me - you’ll taste my pain and the odour of my shattered life from his skin every single night for the rest of your miserable life...remember how you destroyed me and my family", Tanvi turned and walked out of the shop, her heart a jagged shard of ice, leaving Safiya shivering among the expensive silks, a woman drowning in a remorse that wasn't strong enough to save her from her own depravity.
Suddenly her phone buzzed...Khurram.
Another message. "If you are not here in the next half hour, you don't want to even start thinking of what your life is going to become, Tanvi".
She read it...re-read it again....
Her breath was inside of her chest as she walked towards the Gym.
"Am I his bitch, like he said?", that very same question crept into her head and repeated a thousand times in her head.
Tanvi didn't bother to change her dress as she was fully aware of what was waiting for her. Once she noted the time, her steps became faster with increasing fear creating darker clouds in her head.
While walking to reach the gym, she thought of Sanjoth. Three days since he left her and no calls, not even a message and he was there...sitting with those women...like nothing mattered! her eyes teared as the pain started to suffocate her chest.
"What did I do wrong to him?", her question had no answer. It was like her marriage was something that happened in past life, none of their good moments brought any sort of feelings in her anymore and though she didn't realize it, Khurram's presence made it impossible for her to think of anything else.
Worst was she saw Sanjoth...her own husband...nonchalant and carefree enjoying the company of two older women whom she hated like anything and now more than she did with Khurram.
She heard the sounds from the gym confirming what she dreaded...
Tanvi drank a glass of water, her hand still shaking against the rim. As she walked toward her bedroom, her bare feet silent on the floor, her ears picked up a low, rhythmic grunt from the shadows.
“What have I turned into?”, she whispered to herself with a dry, hysterical chuckle bubbling up in her throat.
"I accepted that mad-man already", her voice paused inside...
"And, in less than five minutes of that animal leaving me, I just offered myself to a second man...To Dattu!", there was no answer from the phantom voice that echoed always in her head.
Only the frustrating silence of defeat lingered...
Tanvi stepped back into her bedroom, where the air was still thick with the filthy scent of her own ruin heavily mixed with the old man's body musk.
Her feet lead her to the bathroom...seconds later, when the cold water started it's cleansing performance on her mutilated skin, her mind started to ready herself to surrender against a multitude of darkness that was waiting to finish what she started...
With Tanvi being the only living organism inside that house, the eery silence inside acted like a blanket of gravity that was waiting it's chance to weigh down on her...possibly due to what she was going to encounter shortly...
Her house burned from it's insides...
Tanvi woke up around noon when Sharda pinged the house bell. She felt pain all over, like her limbs were broken, searing agony from her sex and it seemed she couldn't stand properly.
Cursing her maid, she pulled a house gown and opened the door.
"Madamji, are you sick? You look so pale, and worse than I saw you when you had fever a month ago", Sharda was visibly shaken when she looked at the angelic beauty who looked like she came out of a fight or something. "Are you alright? Can I get you some medicine?"
"No Sharda, I am okay, I just overslept. As the kids and Sanjoth were not here, I was just sleeping. But, thank you. There is nothing to do here today, Sharda", Tanvi just wanted her maid to not be there.
"What about some ginger tea, or maybe I should call an auto so you go see the doctor?", Sharda sounded genuinely concerned.
Tanvi clutched her house gown tighter, the fabric scratching against her sensitized skin.
"No, Sharda, I’m fine. I just overslept because the house is quiet with everyone away. There’s no work for you today, just go"
Sharda lingered, her mind racing with the promise she’d made to Badi Didi about bringing Tanvi to the Basti for the Devi Puja.
"But Madamji, at least let me cook. You need strength for the festivities next week. Badi Didi was saying-"
Tanvi cut her off, her voice a sharp, jagged edge. "I said later, Sharda. I have to get to the gym. Just leave me alone for now."
She didn’t feel any need to call Sylvie for some unknown reason, there wasn't anything she expected her friend to help her with. Instead of feeling bad for succumbing to her carnal needs, and becoming an adultress, Tanvi thought that she was looking forward to her Gym session, but the contradicting thought of cheating again was an opposite force that her poor heart could not overcome. On one end, she wanted to be closer to the old man who made her feel like a real woman but on the other side it was the very same man who connived, planned her downward spiral and was destroying her marriage. It was like two extremely powerful and invisible forces pushing her towards the pit that she wilfully dug, forcing her to jump into the grave of her own.
Despite the understanding of her folly and behavioural change, there was something that didn't sit right to her...the fact that Khurram claimed her as his own and forced her to agree on opening her sex to anyone who he found right to.
"It was not right...why should I accept men whom he orders me to?", she heard her voice and that particular point of thought pinched her head, and wasn't a good thing...she knew by now that whatever Sylvie and Hansa told her were true...Khurram was going to destroy her life. But, she couldn’t figure out from where she felt at ease or why she felt confident with this particular fact.
Tanvi began her walk toward the gym, her body moving with a heavy, rhythmic ache that reminded her of every second of Khurram’s brutal possession. But halfway there, the smell of street dust and the humid air seemed to crystallize the horror of her situation; she realized that walking into that gym was walking into a permanent cage. She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, her breath hitching.
It was the very place where she shamelessly threw her body fluids last night. Despite being hours after that filthy act, the ground was still smothered with what she churned her dirty liquid out, shamelessly to the world to see. Her sharp nose brought in the pungent and dark musk of hers right away making her cringe with embarrassed shame and she had to turn around to see if someone noticed it.
At that moment, Tanvi questioned her decision to go to the gym. Something inside her snapped.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Hansa, her voice breaking the moment the older woman picked up.
"Hansaji...I can't do this anymore. I was going to him, but now I am...I don't want to, Hansaji. Meet me at the mall, the same place as before. Please. I feel like I'm drowning and the water is full of shame"
Hansa hearing her young friend's voice was deeply concerned. But she kept her voice steady, a sort of cool anchor in the storm.
"Turn around, Tanvi. Go to the mall. I’m already on my way. Don't look back"
Hearing those consoling words, Tanvi turned back from her route to the gym. She had to muster all her willpower to do it. She quickly changed into an old dress, a skirt and top that she had not worn for a very long time. The skirt reached just below her knees giving an alluring look to the dazzling Japanese-Indian woman with green eyes. She booked an Uber.
But while she sat in the taxi and crossed the Complex gate, she saw the watchman Harilal gawking into the car's backseat where she was seated. Despite receiving that 'look' her mind was somewhere else.
"Why am I thinking of the damn Devi Puja?", Tanvi could not place the recurring thoughts of what her maid Sharda asked of her. It has started to burn her head already...possibly the fact that Devi Puja was at the Basti...whereby she would be with every low-class animal who resided there...she groaned loudly making the Uber driver turn with questions on his face.
"Are you feeling better, Tanvi?", Hansa asked with sincere concern with a hand on Tanvi’s shoulder as they finally sat in the hushed corner of the cafe.
Tanvi leaned forward, her face a mask of raw, unfiltered agony.
"He took me again, Hansaji. It wasn't just sex; it was my destruction as a woman that vultures of a man ensured", she whispered with pain in her voice, and her fingers frantically shredding a paper napkin.
Hansa saw it clearly and felt seriously bad for being part of all this madness.
"He made me say it...he made me agree that I’m his slut. And the worst part is he told me he’s going to share with me. He said I’ll have to open my legs for whoever he chooses. I feel like my body isn't mine anymore; it’s a piece of meat he’s preparing me to on the market for others", Tanvi sobbed.
"Tanvi, please, this is a public place, people are already looking at you and crying would make it worse. I am here with you...relax...please", Hansa failed to find any other sensible words.
"I cheated on Sanjoth, and I didn't even feel the guilt because Khurram defeated me so completely, I don't even know if I am Tanvi itself. I am a Mother, Hansaji...a Mother...how could I do all those things that he asked me to...Oh-God!"
Hansa reached out, her grip like iron on Tanvi’s wrist.
"That bastard is a monster, Tanvi, and he is the person who creates more like him...like Mehta and Upendra. He did it to Abhijeet’s mother, and together they broke her spirit until the only way out was to leave this world. But I am not letting that happen to you. I am already on their case, a fire that will burn Khurram and his whole circle to the ground", Hansa seethed between her teeth.
Tanvi gasped and looked at Hansa with a newfound comfort.
"And Tanvi, you are not his slave; you are the evidence of his depravity, and I will make him pay for every bruise he’s left on your soul"
Just as a flicker of hope ignited, Tanvi’s phone buzzed with a violent, rhythmic vibration. It was a message from Khurram: “You aren’t at the gym. I warned you about the price of disobedience. I’m going to destroy your life today. Come here right now and take for your punishment, you ungrateful slut"
As she read and re-read the message, Hansa saw Tanvi’s face going bloodless, the phone nearly clattering onto the table.
"He knows", she choked out, her eyes wide with terror.
"He’s going to kill me, or worse, he’s going to do exactly what he promised. I have to go back, Hansaji. I have no choice"
"Tanvi, I know it's hard but listen, if you don't play their game now, there would be no way to come out of this damned situation. Trust me, I will not let a repetition of what happened with Mehta's wife with you...trust me"
As they stood to leave, Tanvi’s gaze was snagged by a flash of a familiar profile in the glass-fronted restaurant across the atrium.
Her heart stopped. "Is that... Sanjoth?" she whispered.
There sat her husband, looking invigorated and carefree, laughing over a bowl of lunch.
But it was the woman sitting opposite him that made Tanvi’s stomach turn into a cold knot of lead. It was Maahi, Upendra’s wife.
The woman whose husband was in consortium with Khurram was now seated in intimate proximity to Sanjoth, their conversation flowing with a sickening, illicit ease.
"Look at him...Oh-God", Tanvi hissed, the betrayal stinging more than Khurram’s grunts.
"He hasn't called me in days. He doesn't care about the kids or the house. He’s sitting there with the wife of the man whom he made me spend time with. He looks like he’s having the time of his life while I’m being hunted."
Hansa watched with a narrowed, predatory gaze.
"The circle is smaller than you think, Tanvi. They aren't just letting you fall; they are actively pushing you so they can play their own games in the wreckage"
The shock deepened when a third figure approached the table - Safiya.
The large older woman was dressed in a modern, form-fitting dress that shed her maternal persona like a snake’s skin, she slipped into the seat next to Sanjoth. The three of them looked like a dark, sophisticated coven, their laughter echoing through the restaurant's open terrace.
Sanjoth’s eyes were bright with a carnal spark as he leaned toward Safiya, a man completely derailed from his life, finding comfort in the very women who knew exactly how his wife was being destroyed.
Hansa’s phone rang - an emergency at her other mall location, she had a parlour running there.
"I have to rush, Tanvi. Don't do anything foolish," she warned, though her eyes remained troubled as she hurried away.
Tanvi, who looked foolish by her own husband, betrayed and suddenly all of it fueled by a sudden, blistering heat of resentment, didn't leave. She watched as Safiya bid the couple a lingering farewell and swayed out of the restaurant toward the high-end boutiques.
Tanvi followed at a distance, her heels clicking a silent, vengeful cadence until she saw the older woman enter a luxury lingerie shop.
Tanvi waited, watching through the window as Safiya picked up a sheer, lace-trimmed black slip, holding it against her body with a sensuous, knowing smile.
The hypocrisy was too much for Tanvi to bear.
She stepped into the store, the air-conditioned scent of expensive silk hitting her like a slap.
Tanvi walked straight up to Safiya, her shadow falling over the lace as she loomed over the older woman who was currently pressing a sheer, black silk chemise against her chest.
"Is that for Sanjoth, Safiyaji? Or does the lace just help you feel younger while you watch me rot in your husband’s grip?" Tanvi’s voice was a broken shout of rage, cutting through the store's soft background music and making the sales assistant freeze.
Safiya turned with shock, her face momentarily freezing into a mask of pure, unadulterated freeze before a wave of nauseating guilt washed over her features.
"Tanvi... you shouldn't be here", she whispered, her hands trembling as she clutched the lingerie.
But even as her eyes welled with a flicker of genuine remorse, Tanvi saw the dark, predatory hunger still lingering in Safiya’s gaze, a craving for Sanjoth’s youth that was clearly winning the war against her conscience.
"Nerve? You have the nerve to speak to me about propriety?", Tanvi half shouted, stepping into Safiya’s personal space until their chests nearly touched.
"You sat there at that table, laughing with my husband, playing the sophisticated matron while your husband, that animal Khurram, was systematically destroying my life! You knew he was taking me! You knew he was breaking me every night, and instead of helping me, you decided to move into the vacancy I left behind. You’re not just a bystander, Safiyaji; you’re a scavenger feeding on the carcass of my marriage!"
Safiya’s lip quivered, the weight of the betrayal finally forcing a tear down her cheek, but her voice remained sharp with the desperation of her own illicit desires.
"Khurramji...he is.. he is a law unto himself, Tanvi. I couldn't stop him even if I wanted to. And Sanjoth...he came to me. He wanted someone who understood the complexities of this life, someone who didn't just weep and break"
The confession from the older woman was like a poison tipped arrow.
Tanvi’s face contorted with a mix of agony and absolute disgust as she looked at the woman she had once revered.
"You are not the woman whom I respected, now I see who you really are...just, nothing but a pathetic, depraved person, Safiya!", Tanvi spat, the words dripping with a visceral hatred that made Safiya flinch.
Safiya clearly heard the omission of 'Ji' at the end of her name that was always there from Tanvi...she was diminished to just 'Safiya'!
"Tanvi...I...", Safiya was unable to find any words.
"You’re using my husband to hide from the fact that you’re married to a monster. You think that lace makes you look like a lover? It makes you look like a cheating woman...a collaborator of lies", Tanvi felt all her anger, every bit of her pain, coming out like she was about to vomit.
Safiya in her stunned stance, could hardly take a breath. All what Tanvi spilled was true...word...by...word!
"You sold me to your husband so you could have a clear path to mine. Every time that bastard forces himself into me, I’m going to imagine your face, Safiya. I’m going to remember that while I was screaming, you were shopping for black silk to impress the man I built a life with. You’ve traded your soul for a few hours of feeling young, and I hope the weight of what you’ve done to me crushes the life out of you."
Safiya let out a broken, strangled sob, but she didn't look away, her inner hunger for Sanjoth acting as a dark shield against the truth.
"I’m sorry, Tanvi...I truly am...I...I am sorry", she whimpered, even as she tightened her grip on the lingerie.
Tanvi let out a hollow, terrifying laugh with a condescending tone.
"Sorry? You’re not sorry. You’re just caught. You’re an empty, aging woman of lust who would watch the world burn just to feel that bloody pulse again. Go to him, Safiya. Take your dirt and all your lies to Sanjoth", Tanvi seethed and her face turned red with blood rushing all over.
Safiya stood frozen an unable to respond. She just could not do anything as she heard the beautiful angel faced young woman, once her dear friend, fuming curses at her.
"Remember, Safiya "I am sure Khurram would not continue with me for life...he will return back to you one day, and trust me - you’ll taste my pain and the odour of my shattered life from his skin every single night for the rest of your miserable life...remember how you destroyed me and my family", Tanvi turned and walked out of the shop, her heart a jagged shard of ice, leaving Safiya shivering among the expensive silks, a woman drowning in a remorse that wasn't strong enough to save her from her own depravity.
Suddenly her phone buzzed...Khurram.
Another message. "If you are not here in the next half hour, you don't want to even start thinking of what your life is going to become, Tanvi".
She read it...re-read it again....
Her breath was inside of her chest as she walked towards the Gym.
"Am I his bitch, like he said?", that very same question crept into her head and repeated a thousand times in her head.
Tanvi didn't bother to change her dress as she was fully aware of what was waiting for her. Once she noted the time, her steps became faster with increasing fear creating darker clouds in her head.
While walking to reach the gym, she thought of Sanjoth. Three days since he left her and no calls, not even a message and he was there...sitting with those women...like nothing mattered! her eyes teared as the pain started to suffocate her chest.
"What did I do wrong to him?", her question had no answer. It was like her marriage was something that happened in past life, none of their good moments brought any sort of feelings in her anymore and though she didn't realize it, Khurram's presence made it impossible for her to think of anything else.
Worst was she saw Sanjoth...her own husband...nonchalant and carefree enjoying the company of two older women whom she hated like anything and now more than she did with Khurram.
She heard the sounds from the gym confirming what she dreaded...
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