Read Custody for Free Online

ever, not just while I am in India.’
    She cupped her hands around his face, and drew the full mouth to her own. ‘You should have thought of that earlier,’ she murmured.
    ‘Yes, I should have. But who can think when you are around?’
    She loved the hoarseness of his voice that came after they kissed, the closed eyes, the tense brow, the broad white hands that pressed her close.
    ‘So? Who is asking you to think?’
    ‘I wish it wasn’t necessary, but this situation is not going to improve on its own.’
    He was impatient with any problem – worrying it till a solution emerged. She knew that of him by now.
    When she turned inwards where her life was waiting to be examined, she blamed Raman for her predicament, thinking of the years she had been satisfied with his lovemaking, tender, attentive, pedestrian, as so much wasted time.
    Through her twenties she had presumed herself content, knowing she had much to be thankful for, healthy children, comfort, money.
    Now the destroyer was in her heart, threatening what she had once held dear. All her energy was spent in keeping secrets. She had to be constantly vigilant, continuously invent excuses, convincingly justify absences from home, phone calls, even a preoccupied expression.
    Ashok too was thoughtful. Many times he wished that he and her husband were not working in the same company. It was an obvious conflict of interest, and it needed to be resolved. He wanted Shagun and he wanted to clear the hell out of Delhi. Maybe relocate in Gurgaon – or go to Bombay.
    He hated subterfuge of any kind, the feeling that he had something to hide made him vulnerable. His position would be hard to explain once it came out into the open, as it inevitably would.
    As soon as he possessed her, this strange hiatus in his life would be over, and he would be able to focus better on his Indian mission, that is, help the company recover the millions it had invested.
    VI
    It was Mrs Sabharwal who first realised something was wrong. It started with Raman’s departure, a usual event, but one of deep concern to the mother-in-law.
    ‘Beta, did he go off all right?’
    Shagun snorted. Here she was talking about her portfolio and all her mother could think of was whether her husband had managed to catch a plane. Which any birdbrain could do.
    ‘Why are you always so worried about Raman? You should be the one married to him, not I.’
    ‘Is this any way to talk about your husband?’
    Such useless questions. That was the trouble with mothers. Their eyes were like those of a lynx, their gaze tried to pierce your being, their interference in your life knew no limits.
    Mrs Sabharwal was thinking. Did her daughter’s indifference to Raman’s welfare suggest a deeper malaise? Shagun was too innocent, that was the trouble, and her husband too busy. Always travelling, leaving a young wife largely to her own devices.
    Shagun raised her marvellous green eyes, eyes that established her as a rarity from the moment of her birth. ‘Why can’t I talk of my husband in any way I like?’
    ‘Has anything happened? Tell me.’
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘You and the children should stay with me for a few days while he is away. I hardly see you. Whenever I phone, you are out.’
    The daughter looked through the window at the two feet of cemented space next to the gate of her old home. Here her mother’s plants surrounded by concrete on all four sides slowly wilted and gradually died. The pots that contained these pathetic specimens were chipped. Yesterday’s storm had broken some of them, exposing white, densely intersecting roots, raw against the mud.
    ‘You know I can’t just leave, Mama. There is the children’s routine and the household.’
    The logical thing to do would be to invite the mother to her place, but for this Mrs Sabharwal had to wait another two days, and then it was worse than not being called at all.
    ‘Mama, please come and stay – I have to go out of town.’
    ‘Good heavens,