But, soon his sense of history gave him solace as he recalled those who had lost their lives owing to the treachery of the trusted. When it dawned on him that Manian’s deceit did not put his head on the block and instead placed the chastity of his wife on the line, he wondered whether fate was considerate or cruel towards him. At length, when he saw the virtue of sailing with the wind than swimming against the current, he felt that his fate had inexorably placed his wife’s fidelity on a sticky wicket. Well, for her favor to favor Vivek, he had a premonition that eventually her fate too would extract its price from him. So be it.
Amidst her disturbed sleep, Sneha too applied her mind to his predicament.
‘By the way, am I reading too much into the script?’ she thought at length. ‘Wouldn’t a chance rape rob me of my chastity any way? Then, how could a one-night stand with his consent dent my fidelity! Besides, won’t it be stupid for us to go back to square one to uphold a questionable virtue nurtured by notion? Anyway, it’s up to him to decide. Is that so? No, it’s the sanctity of our marriage that’s at stake. Once the marital thread that binds woman to her nuptial bed is sapped, won’t that tend her to turn loose? If it comes that, won’t that damn my character? Moreover, what’s the guarantee that my rendezvous with Vivek wouldn’t affect my future relationship with Gautam? After all, all men are possessive about their women. The nagging thought that I enjoyed another man might leave Gautam cold in our marital bed. Who knows, branding me loose, he might even show me the door. Oh, it’s too great a risk for me to run for any money.’
Having resolved thus, she sank into a tired sleep only to be confronted by her man at dawn. While Gautam took over from where he had left, she showed him how his proposition would jeopardize her future. When he sought to assuage her fears, she clung on to her apprehensions. Cornered thus, he thought of Houdini. Why not open up her old family wounds to enable him to take her to Vivek for dressing them. Thus he reminded her about her obsession to see her people prosper and make Suresh’s cousins his poor cousins. When life brought them to the verge of victory, how stupid it would be to throw in the Kassenbouw towel?
At that, she seemed to need no more persuasion, save her apprehensions about the after affects