Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage(7)
Tina stared at him as her confusion rolled in like dark clouds. That was not the answer she had expected. She had imagined this moment many, many times and assumed Dev would agree with a brisk, almost impatient manner. It was obvious he didn’t want her anymore. Why continue this sham of a marriage?
“I’m offering something we both want,” she whispered.
“I want an explanation. I want to know what was going through your head during those days we were in America. How do you think it made me feel walking into that hotel room and finding that the only thing waiting for me was that note?”
Tina frowned at his tone. Her brief letter had offended him. Angered him. He was lucky she had given him that much. She could have poured out her broken heart, but instead she’d simply stated that she wanted to be left alone.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
“Around. Anywhere quiet where I could think. Where you couldn’t make decisions for me,” she said. “I needed time to decide what I want to do next.”
Dev tossed his hands up in the air as the frustration billowed from him. “You didn’t have to leave to do that.”
But she had. Dev had too much power. She didn’t know why he’d bothered making decisions for her. At times she wondered if he had forgotten her existence. “You took over my life.” Her voice trembled as she tried to keep her composure.
“I was taking care of you the best way I knew how,” he said through clenched teeth.
“No, you were getting back to your old life with as little inconvenience as possible,” she said. “I was no longer pregnant with your child and therefore, no longer necessary in your life.”
Dev reached out and grasped her arms with his large hands. “If that’s how I’d felt, I wouldn’t have married you.”
“You had to marry me. What would have happened to your brand if you hadn’t?” His family had meticulously created his brand image for years as the romantic hero. The value and power of his brand would have taken a big hit if he had abandoned his pregnant girlfriend. “So you married me to protect your career. The magazines did features about how you had settled into family life but they didn’t know how eager you were to return to your bachelor days.”
“That is not what happened.” His fingers dug into her arms. Tina sensed he wanted to shake her.
“Really? I know what I saw when I arrived here this evening. You were having the time of your life. Tell me, how many parties have you had in the past four months?”
“I wasn’t celebrating. It’s part of the business. You know that.”
She knew that Dev Arjun lived and breathed the mainstream Hindi film industry. It wasn’t work or drudgery. He enjoyed every moment of it. Dev was more comfortable on the soundstage than in his home. And from what the gossip magazines suggested, he preferred the company of starlets over his wife. “How many women have there been?”
“I’ve been faithful.” His eyes glittered. “Can you say the same?”
Her eyes widened with surprise. Dev thought she had found someone else? She had never considered it. She had spent the past months fighting for her life, struggling to get through the next day, the next moment. But Dev didn’t know that.
Did he think she was capable of gallivanting through the world, hopping from one bed to the next? The idea made her stomach curl. The only man she had ever wanted didn’t want her. The man she had fallen in love with had been in her imagination. A man who loved and adored her. A man who would lay down his life to protect his family.