Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(63)

“Rubbish!”

Everybody stared at Nayna’s mother, who was up on her feet with her hands clenched by her sides. But she wasn’t yelling at Nayna. She was yelling at her husband. Nayna’s eyes widened. She’d never in her entire existence seen Shilpa Sharma raise her voice to Gaurav Sharma. When she glanced down at Madhuri’s seated form, her sister reached up and linked a hand with hers. Madhuri’s eyes were as huge as Nayna’s felt.

Raj lowered his mouth to her ear. “This wasn’t in the script.”

Nayna pressed her lips together to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter.

Across from her, her father finally found his voice. “Shilpa?” he asked, not in anger but in stunned shock.

“Nayna, you sit down!” her mother ordered. “Raj, don’t you move!”

Nayna sat. Raj didn’t move.

“And you, Gaurav Sharma, you listen to me!” Her mother waved a finger in front of his face. “I let you do this the first time and I lost my Madhuri for six years.” She beat a fist against her chest. “I followed my husband because I was brought up to believe my husband knew best. I was told a good wife stood always by her husband’s side. And I missed my eldest for six long years. I cried for her for six long years. Now you want to take my baby from me?”

Shilpa put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “No. As long as I live, Nayna will be welcome in this house and she will be welcome to every family event, and if you have any argument with that, I suggest you move yourself to the spare bedroom and stay there!”

Absolute and utter stunned silence.

Nayna didn’t know where to look. She kind of felt like she should disappear out of the room, but she didn’t want to move and make a sound. From the frozen way Raj was standing and Madhuri was sitting, they felt the same. Only her grandmother continued to rock in her chair, seemingly unconcerned with the explosion from her mild-mannered daughter-in-law.

“Gaurav beta, Shilpa bitia,” she said gently. “I think you need to take this somewhere else.”

“You both stay here,” Nayna’s mother ordered Nayna and Raj before she stalked out of the room and slammed into the kitchen, her husband following.

Nayna opened her mouth, shut it again. Raj, who was still standing, ran his hand over her hair. Her grandmother watched him, a slight smile on the seamed lines of her features.

“Well,” Aji said, “this is exciting.”

Madhuri giggled, and suddenly Nayna was giggling too. Raj looked at the two of them in bemusement, especially when their grandmother slapped her thigh and joined in the laughter. Meanwhile, from the kitchen came silence. After a while, Raj walked back there and leaned against the door while they all held their breath, then came back to tell them, “I think they’ve gone in the backyard. Can’t hear anything from the kitchen.”

That only made the three of them laugh even harder. When it was all over and they’d finally caught their breath, Nayna looked at her grandmother.

“I’m sorry, Aji,” she said. “I didn’t mean to mess everything up.”

Her grandmother waved away her apology. “Oh, mere laal,” she said with deep affection, “all I’ve ever wanted was happiness for you.” Her eyes went to Raj. “You’re a brave boy to stand up to Gaurav, and you’re the kind of boy her father should want for her. He’ll realize that when he calms down.”

Nayna wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t interrupt her grandmother.

“My boy has always been obstinate and perhaps a little judgmental,” Aji said. “You, Madhuri, didn’t help by running off. Why did you ever do such a silly thing? You know if you’d brought the boy home, you’d have eventually talked your father into a proper marriage!”

Madhuri winced. “I was young and stupid,” she said, propping her chin in her hands. “It seemed a good idea at the time.”

Funnily enough, that was such a Madhuri thing to say that it made perfect sense.

Reaching for the snacks she’d ignored until now, Nayna picked up a samosa that had gone cold. Half-wrapping it in a paper napkin, she handed it up to Raj, who’d perched himself on the arm of the sofa beside her. It put one of his powerful thighs temptingly close, but Nayna behaved herself.

“Eat,” she said. “You must be starving.” Neither one of them had eaten anything through the entire talk with Sandesh Patel’s family.

He accepted her offer, then watched as she took a samosa for herself before eating. The two of them filled their stomachs in silence for a while before Raj said, “So, who do you think will come out the winner?”

“I’m not taking any bets.” Madhuri held up her hands, palms out. “I have never seen Ma get this mad. Never.”

Nayna nodded. “Our mother doesn’t get mad,” she told Raj. “She gets disappointed or sad or maybe a little bit annoyed, but she doesn’t get angry. And she doesn’t yell at our father. Ever.”

A loud clanging sound reached them just then.

“You go,” Madhuri hissed at Raj.

Nayna started to argue, but Raj brushed his knuckles over her cheek, then bravely—and cautiously—went through the kitchen door to find out what was going on.





33





Shilpa Sharma Is Not Joking