THE VANQUISHER

His words didn't hide his impatience so they let her go not wanting to cause a commotion and soon Arundhati was in the car beside him. When the car was about to start Kailashnath bent over to his daughter-in-law and spoke a few words in her ear to which she nodded and without retreating back he looked at Aarav and said," Take care of her Aarav, she is your wife now".

Aarav turned his head to his new father, his tone playful yet serious and said," Mr. Kailashnath, you might be suffering from memory loss due to your age or due to my previous 'good boy behaviour' so let me remind you something, You will always remain dumb for me and I shall always be deaf for you and this will never change, no matter what you do, So don't waste your precious time on your deaf son and find that wh... I mean woman your wife, she should be missing you".

Kailashnath fumed with anger as he knew that this son of his was about to call his wife whore and he was about to rush to the other side of the car to deliver this guy a good punch but before he could do that he heard his son saying,

" Driver, if you don't drive the car, the car will run over you."

The driver was a old man and Aarav's casual words made the poor man tremble in fear, and the car dashed off at jet speed.

In the car,

Aarav was thinking over his earlier words, 'I was about to call her a whore' and shook his head not wanting to think about the consequence he could be facing had he done that.

( It's not like, I fear his (Kailashnath) anger neither do I care for his feelings but the women beside him treated that man with respect So didn't want to hurt her feelings as not just because she was someone who in past loved this body but because she was also someone who had provided him with a sense of relief when he was fending off with his battles in other world, her character in the novel helped me find solace even if it was for a short period of time. )

Aarav was in his world of thoughts when he heard Arundhati turned her gaze towards him and looking his nonchalant expression she couldn't help but grit her teeth in rage and furiously asked, " Why can't you show him a bit off respect Aarav, he is your father not just any other stranger ".

Aarav didn't mind explaining (after all how could he when he himself didn't why a small part of his soul was reacting this way, it was as if all this body felt was nothing but hatred not just for that man but for everyone present over there except one and that one was... )

He could only sigh and say, " Arundhati don't worry about him, Mr. Kailashnath has a lot of money he can buy anything including that so called 'respect'"

"Aarav why do you have to act like this, he deserves respect not just for being your father but being a man who led this enterprise for many years, you know some thing like that is hard don't you and why on earth do you even hate him? "

Arundhati said thinking about her father-in -law and how much disappointed he seemed whenever his son treated him as air and disrespected him, she wasn't intending on mending their ties but she believed she should at least do this much as this could prevent Aarar from insulting him since Kailashnath was the one to help her in entering Trivedi family and the one to stand by her side in her revenge.

Aarar was suprised by her words and soon the cosy atmosphere from earlier was all gone, his face dull,"Arundhati, I (Aarav) am refraining from taking action against you doesn't mean you can open your mouth however you please, there are some things that even you can't say hastily..."

After a brief silence Aarav opened his mouth, " Driver turn off the radio, I am off to sleep"

Aarav's POV

How could I possibily answer a question whose answer is probably known to none? It wasn't like I knew why this guy was upset with his father, or to be precise why he hated that man, and I didn't recieve the previous owner's memories yet... All I remember are just some scenes where that shaby author gave a quick glimpse into the past and some future events and characters.

As some one who read the novel I knew Aarav a bit more compared to others and if I think the sole reason for rift between the father-son duo was this woman (Parul) Kailashnath's second wife and Aarav's step-mother but the question is why?