"You don't know anything," Ahanay said, his voice devoid of any emotions as he looked straight into Naina's eyes. She could see that she had driven him to the edge, one little push and he would be consumed by the depths of hellish anger. His hand around her throat, pressing at those hickeys was driving her to an edge. She had just gotten rid of one angry man and that built in her the confidence to get rid of this one too.

Whatever Ohas had done to her, one thing he did was tell her the truth, the ugly truth of her scheming, conniving husband.

So when he growled, "Who was it?" it was Naina's time to snap and shine.

"Why? Why do you care?" She spat back, gasping for breath. "We're married only on paper. We don't---" his grip around her throat tightened as if preventing her from spilling those words out of her pretty, little mouth. "---we don't love each other." He released her at those words as she gulped in the air, glaring at him. "You don't have a right to be angry after all that you have done."

"What have I done?"

Naina nearly laughed in disbelief at Ahanay's confused expression. "Are you seriously going to ask me that?" He had done all the things that a good husband shouldn't have- an affair, scamming his wife. "You have done everything that a good husband shouldn't have. The only thing that's left is for you to kill me." Ahanay coughed suspiciously at that, but before he could defend himself, she continued, "Save it. As I said before, we're not a real married couple anyway. You're not around in the house most of the time, we sleep in separate rooms, and we don't ask about each other's days or discuss digestion issues over dinner. We don't plan for kids or have se---" Naina didn't understand why she went there, but she caught herself quickly. Ahanay smirked as she continued, "---sevpuri or-or go on movie dates and all that fluff."

There was a long, thoughtful pause after that little speech of hers and Naina almost turned around to exit.

"Then let's be a real married couple," Ahanay announced, straight to the point. "We'll do everything that we're supposed to do. Sevpuri and all that. And to be a real married couple," he looked directly at her torn dress. "Stop that."

"You'll have to stop too, with her."

"Works." Ahanay shrugged and Naina was taken aback, not expecting him to say that so quickly. Didn't they have a fucking child together?

"Well," she began, even though he would stop his affair with that angelic creature and give up that child, he was still scheming against her- to take away her home. That angered her more than the affair and the child, that anger stemmed from all the insecurities of being poor and seeing the rich get richer. Money was a sore spot for her and he was rubbing salt against it. Why couldn't he be satisfied with what he already had? Why go ahead and snatch the homes of thousands? "I didn't agree to your plan. It's too late for us to be a real married shitshow. I would rather go back to someone I truly loved---"

"Too bad that you're married in this country," he cut her off, full of spite and vengeance. "The husband has the last word, doesn't he?"

"How clever," Naina said, her eyes wild with sarcasm. But weirdly, she had nothing more to say to him. Her hate was bubbling inside her like evil potions in a cauldron, slow and simmering. He could try and pull any game, but she was a player too. She would make sure to end their beautiful marriage with him chopped and served hot with garnishes.

"If I had remembered all the privileges, we would have been a real couple long before," he said and began unbuttoning his coat. Naina's cheeks suddenly became hot like fresh oven buns, her heart racing in her chest. Outside, the mellow, almost salacious music of the violin drifted in, setting the mood for a perfect...

"I don't think now's the time," she said in a little voice, watching him pop open the last button of the coat and slide it off his body. As his hands reached towards her, she quickly raised her hand before him like a traffic policeman, her cloth dropping and revealing her bare breasts. "Stop!"

Giving her a quizzical expression, Ahanay put the coat over her, slipping that raised hand into one of those sleeves. "I don't want my wife walking around naked for everyone to see."

Despite her strong feminist principles and anger bubbling inside her, odd creatures fluttered, pacifying that anger, allowing him to button that oversized coat on her. He had stooped down that he could see all her exposed parts, his breath warm tingling on her flesh. Yet, he was careful not to touch her and up close, she could see his nostrils flaring in anger each time he caught sight of the torn fabric. It was as if someone was stabbing him with a knife. His jaw was clamped shut so tightly that it could rival an oyster. If it affected him so deeply, why did he have an affair? And a child?

In her twenty-one years of life, nobody had looked at her the way Ahanay did. She felt his gaze on the ballroom before, a gaze full of love and adoration that made her feel not herself, but someone bigger, more powerful, and precious. A gaze that could make her blush in shyness. A gaze that smiled at her.

As he finished buttoning up the coat and stepped back, Naina realized that she could never understand men even if she tried.

"Before you leave," Naina said, feeling cozy in the smoothness and safety of the coat. "Was she saying the truth? About the child?"

He turned rigid at those words, but he had moved so far back that she couldn't see his face in the darkness. He had become one of those shadows. Silent.

"Great start to a real marriage then," she said, not able to stop herself from sounding hurt. As the shadow moved closer towards the door, to eventually disappear, Naina laughed madly. "And you want a real marriage from me! You have a fucking child with her!"

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