“…you would leave me before I could explain.”
I stared at the sealed envelope.
Devyani was crying on the phone.
Across the table, Pradyumna Vyas lowered his eyes.
For seven years, I had believed my wife and I could survive anything if we told each other the truth.
scovering that the tr
Now I was diuth was the one thing she had been afraid to give me.
“Devyani,” I said quietly, “come to the café.”
“Please don’t read those papers.”
“I’ve spent years trusting you without asking questions. Today, I need answers.”
I ended the call.
Then I opened the envelope.
The first document was an agreement involving Nandkumar, Raghavendra Mehta, and a company called Meridian Industrial Holdings.
The second contained details of a proposed investment worth nearly ₹1.8 crore.
The third listed my apartment in Wakad as proposed security for a financing arrangement.
My hands began shaking.
“This is my home.”
Pradyumna nodded.
“And that is why I refused to prepare the remaining documents.”
I turned the page.
There was another agreement.
This one concerned Devyani.
Its heading read:
Executive Appointment and Strategic Partnership.
Beneath the title was a handwritten instruction from Nandkumar.
Raghavendra’s support for Devyani’s appointment will be reciprocated through the family investment arrangement.
I looked up.
“Her promotion was bought?”
Pradyumna shook his head.
“We don’t know that. Your wife may have earned her promotion entirely on merit. But her father appears to have promised Raghavendra access to an investment opportunity in exchange for his support.”
I stared at the papers.
“And my apartment was part of that investment?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The home I had purchased before marriage.
The place where Devyani and I had shared our first breakfast as husband and wife.
The apartment where I had comforted her after failed interviews.
Someone had placed it on a financial document as though it were theirs to give away.
“Did Devyani know?”
Pradyumna hesitated.
“She signed a preliminary agreement.”
My heart sank.
Then he added, “But she contacted me last night asking how to withdraw from it.”
I looked up.
“Last night?”
“Before the party ended.”
Something shifted inside me.
“She wanted to stop it?”
“I believe so. But I cannot tell you what she understood when she signed.”
I sat back.
For the first time, the evening’s humiliation seemed connected to something much more dangerous.
At that moment, Devyani entered the café.
Her hair was untidy.
Her eyes were swollen.
She looked nothing like the confident regional director in the photographs.
When she saw the papers, she stopped.
“Shashi.”
I looked at her.
“Did you agree to use our apartment to secure your father’s investment?”
She began crying.
“Yes.”
The word struck me harder than I expected.
“Without asking me?”
“Papa said it was only a preliminary arrangement.”
I stared at her.
“Devyani, you know the apartment is in my name.”
She nodded.
“He said your consent would be obtained later.”
“And you believed he could promise it before speaking to me?”
She lowered her head.
“I wanted everything to work.”
I looked at the woman for whom I had sold my mother’s jewellery.
“Everything except our marriage?”
She covered her mouth.
Pradyumna quietly stood.
“I’ll give you some privacy.”
After he left, Devyani sat opposite me.
For several minutes, she could not speak.
Finally, she whispered, “Papa’s business has been losing money for years.”
I said nothing.
“He borrowed from relatives. Then from private lenders. I found out six months ago that he had also borrowed against my mother’s jewellery.”
My chest tightened.
“He told me Raghavendra could help restructure everything.”
“In exchange for what?”
“A stake in a proposed manufacturing venture.”
“And my apartment?”
Her tears fell onto the table.
“Papa said you would understand.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Your father called me a failure in front of your colleagues.”
“I know.”
“He said I wasn’t good enough to stand beside you.”
“I know.”
I leaned forward.
“Yet he considered my home good enough to rescue his business.”
Devyani began sobbing.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had been haunting me since the party.
“Why was Raghavendra wearing the watch I gave your father?”
She wiped her eyes.
“Papa gave it to him as a gift after he supported my nomination.”
“Supported how?”
“He recommended me to the promotion committee.”
I looked away.
“Was there anything between you and him?”
Devyani went still.
Then she whispered, “No.”
I searched her face.
“Tell me the truth.”
“There was nothing romantic, Shashi. But I let him believe he had more influence over my decisions than he did.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
She looked ashamed.
“He invited me to private dinners. He spoke about travelling together for business. I knew he was becoming personally interested.”
