‘I know you will. We’re not leaving. I just think we should talk in the car.’
She didn’t fight him. She just followed him to his car.
‘Kaavi, I have to ask this. I can’t be quiet about it any longer. Did your father dosomethingto you?’
Kaavi’s head jerked to look at him.
‘No! He never touched me. I really mean it. I don’t remember even being hugged by him,’ she said. Neel let out a breath of air as relief hit him.
‘Why didn’t you go through with your plan at the hospital?’
He knew why she hadn’t, but he wanted her to make the realisation on her own.
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘You had it all planned. You were going to parade our marriage in front of him. Revenge,’ Neel said.
‘I did say that, didn’t I?’
‘I’ll tell you why you didn’t go through with it. Because you’re not that type of person. You’re trying so hard to be that cruel person, but you’re not. Why did we sit in the hospital for more than eight hours if not to be there for your mother? Kaavi, you’re not your father’s daughter. You’re kind. You’re loving. You care about people. You’re the type of person who can forgive. You’re just fighting it.’
‘I wasn’t kind when I left you. I didn’t care about your feelings,’ she replied, looking down at her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
Neel’s shoulders sagged as he remembered her leaving him without a trace.
‘We’ll discuss that another time.’
They sat in silence together for a few moments.
‘I’m ready to go in,’ Kaavi said, opening the car door.
When they got inside, Neel looked around. Sen was talking to his father and grandfather while Shona and her mother-in-law were sitting together on a couch near a window.
Kaavi’s mother sat alone on another couch in the centre of the living room.
As if Kaavi could sense what he was thinking, she leaned intohim: ‘My father’s only sibling died when they were children. He didn’t have any friends and we were not allowed to speak to the neighbours.’
Neel ran a palm over his face. Not allowed to speak to the neighbours?
Kaavi went to her mother and he followed.
‘Mom, you’re free.’
Kaavi sat next to her mother and Neel was opposite them in an armchair.
‘Am I? Will I ever be free? Were you free when you walked out of here, leaving it all behind?’
Kaavi sat back.
‘I—’
‘It’s okay, Kaavi. I know why you had to leave. I know why you hate me. I know why you can’t forgive him.’
‘I don’t hate you, Mom,’ Kaavi said.
Neel noted that Kaavi didn’t add that she loved her mother.
‘Have you eaten? There are sandwiches in the kitchen,’ her mother replied.
