The Inconvenient Wife - Chapter 16
This barrage of queries irritated Rohan. He replied, “Sneha wanted to visit the office to see where I worked and just wanted to meet everyone. She came to City M and she hasn’t been able to go out anywhere yet. This was a courtesy I extended to her. Besides, I don’t want her to get upset over such a small issue like this.”
“Upset? What do you mean? Am I not getting upset? Aren’t you bothered about my feelings? What is going on?” cried Stella. For the first time she felt that Rohan was slipping away. She was on the verge of crying and Rohan could see this argument could escalate into a full-fledged show that the office was so looking forward to. He had to contain the situation.
Rohan said in a very calm voice, “Stella, stay calm, there’s nothing going on. Please don’t cry and create a scene here, I’m already so embarrassed. I haven’t talked about you to Sneha and now she is going to demand a lot of answers from me. Let’s get this settled. Why don’t you come over someday soon and we’ll discuss it.”
Stella was already about to cry when she heard that he was inviting her over. She calmed down and said, “Okay, I’d like to come as soon as possible, how about tomorrow?”
Rohan didn’t want her to come that soon. It was a Sunday and he wanted to spend it with Sneha. He didn’t really understand why he was trying to avoid Stella but he wanted to spend time with Sneha…alone. So he responded to her with, “Not tomorrow because I’m going to be very busy, but maybe next weekend.”
Rohan and Stella were so deep in conversation that Sneha’s return startled them both. They looked at Sneha with an odd, embarrassed expression. While Stella’s look seemed to say, ‘Back off,’ Rohan felt guilty. It was already noon and Sneha wanted to take Rohan away from the office. She tried to be polite and said hi to Stella even though she didn’t want to.
Rohan introduced Stella to Sneha, “This is Stella, my colleague. She works in the HR department here.”
Sneha returned the courtesies and asked whether they could head back home, she didn’t like the vibes coming from Stella. ‘Who is this girl? What Paritosh said, is it true?’ She was overwhelmed with emotions, it was almost impossible not to cry but she managed to control herself.
Rohan got up and said ‘bye’ to Stella. “See you tomorrow,” said Stella.
But tomorrow was a Sunday, thought Sneha. ‘Is Rohan coming to the office tomorrow? Or is this girl coming home?’
Rohan glared at Stella but didn’t reply. He knew Stella would definitely come to their place tomorrow and he was worried.
On the way back home, Rohan and Sneha didn’t utter a word to each other. Rohan enjoyed the ride with his elegant wife. In a way he was proud of her but Sneha was very quiet and he was worried about that.
Sneha was thinking of many things and wanted to know the truth. ‘If this was the case why did Rohan ever agree to marry me? He has cheated two women which is abominable. If he was in love with Stella he should have told me before our marriage.’