The Bollywood Affair by Gauri Sinh

Author:Gauri Sinh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: Harper Black
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

22

There was a silence in the aftermath of his departure, a strange sort of pause. We didn’t quite know what to say, that interlude had been so very unexpected.

‘Does Roop know you haven’t told Saddaq?’ Shashi was the first to break that unnatural calm, speaking up quietly, with a sort of contained emotion.

‘Haven’t told him what …?’ Alena’s voice had lost that exaggerated brightness of before. Had it been a performance, for Saddaq’s sake? She now seemed withdrawn, curt even. It was clear she didn’t think much of Shashi. We knew that the dislike was mutual in any case.

‘… Know that you haven’t told Saddaq that Roop thinks of you as his wife-to-be. Roop’s love for you is very strong in Roop’s mind, even though it’s only a few months old. He’s thinking marriage, for heaven’s sake. And supposedly you feel the same for him, as you lead Roop to believe? Does Roop know you haven’t actually spoken of how serious you both are about each other, to Saddaq?’ There was a steely edge to his voice, as if he already knew the answers.

‘I’m tired now,’ Alena said petulantly, addressing Parvati who she thought of favourably, no doubt because it was Parvati who had rescued her from a vicious beating not so long ago. ‘I want to rest.’

Without so much as a backward glance, Shashi turned and left the room, just as Saddaq had before him. We knew what he was asking her was important, because that cosy little scene between Alena and Saddaq in front of us had shown us a fondness we would not have believed if the beating of before had been our only benchmark.

‘Alena, is what Shashi asked you true?’ I could not help but redirect his question to her. It was important we understand how it was, that a man who had almost fatally injured this lady was now holding her hand and supposedly whispering sweet nothings, in the hospital bed he had put her in!

‘Saddaq is a difficult man to convince.’ Alena raised her comely eyes to me, clear as day. ‘And he has a temper. You saw what happened when he got jealous on the set. That too, because I was in Roop’s trailer with you guys before the song. I don’t want to inflame him.’

‘Are you saying that he doesn’t know at all, how you feel about RK?’ I asked, incredulous.

‘Do you feel the same way about Mr Kamal, as he does about you, Alena?’ Parvati spoke now, her tone extremely soft. ‘Do you look at him as your future husband?’

A lot rested on Alena’s revelation. If Saddaq did not know of the depth of RK’s involvement with Alena before his breakdown on the set that day, we needed to discount him from our list of possible suspects regarding the screaming at RK’s home. Why would he attempt to frighten RK if he didn’t have a motive at all?

‘Of course, I do think of Roop as my future husband, you know that!’ Alena fixed her wide eyes on Parvati now.

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