"Take care. Tell me if you are not feeling well."
"Alright."
Raksheet sighed secretly in relief that his wife handled the situation but when he looked at his brother, he felt angry yet embarrassed.
Ahil, who was sitting right infront of him, smiled teasingly; knowing why his sister Ira's face is red and his brother is sighing. His brother must have apologized well last night.
Raksheet signalled him to shut his mouth and stop smiling before he breaks his teeths. Ahil stopped smiling to not offend his brother but his eyes were enough to tease him more.
Raksheet shook his head in annoyance and looked away.
"So, Raksheet, why you asked us to come here? Any news?" Abhiveera asked.
Raksheet looked at him and smiled slightly. He nod and replied "Actually, If you don't mind, I wanted Ira to know about it. About....." He looked at everyone and then at Abhiveera "About princess Irya."
The room suddenly fell silent and Ira looked at everyone, trying to read their expression. She looked at her husband, unable to understand what is happening. He blinked reassuringly that everything is fine.
She then looked at Abhiveera who was looking down at his hands, thinking deeply. She then leaned closer to her husband and asked "Who is Irya?"
Everyone looked at her and Abhiveera said. "I tell you." He looked at Raksheet and said "She should know about it. Good that you asked everyone to come here and tell her." He looked at Ira and smiled "If you have any doubt, you can ask us."
Ira nod, not understanding what is happening "Fine."
Raksheet held Ira's hand and smiled at her. Abhiveera took a deep breath and started telling.
"Irya...was my first wife."
Ira's eyes widened in shock, she looked at Raksheet and he nod.
"Y-Your first wife?" She asked to Abhiveera and glanced at Neisha to see her reaction.
Abhiveera nod and Neisha was looking calm. She held Abhiveera's hand to make him feel comfortable to recall all the past memories that have been a nightmare for him. He smiled at her and intertwined their fingers.
"Yes, she was my first wife." He said to Ira. "Before my coronation, I got married to her. She was the princess of Bayar."
"Bayar? Our enemy kingdom? You married to their princess?" Ira asked shocked.
Raksheet wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, reminding her that she shouldn't talk to Abhiveera like this.
"I am sorry. But you married her?" She said apologizing. "And her name is similar to mine."
Abhiveera nod "Yes. You both have similar names. We weren't enemies before marrying Irya. We had good relation with Bayar and we used to visit Bayar often. For political matters, events. I saw her for the first time when I went to attend Abel's birthday celebration. He was a kid at that time. Irya was his aunt, his father's younger sister. She used to study in academy so I didn't saw her before. But that day, I saw her for the first time. She was playing with her nephew, wearing a red gown. Her long silver hairs, the silver eyes with moon white skin and the innocence on her face. I fell in love with her that day."
Ira gulped hearing it and tried to look at Neisha again. But when she saw the calm look on her face, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion that how she can be so calm. She looked at Raksheet with sharp gaze, thinking if he dared to fall in love with Seya, the princess of Bayar as Abhiveera fell for Irya, she will kill him.
Raksheet looked at her and the way she was looking at him, he understood what she was thinking. He pushed her head with his index finger, his hand still wrapped around her shoulder and said in low voice "I told you I only love you. I am not marrying anyone. Stop looking at me like that."
She gave him side eyes and then turned to look at Abhiveera. But again turned around and asked in low voice "Silver hairs and eyes? She used to look like me?"
Raksheet chuckled and replied "You will know soon."
She again turned to look at Abhiveera.
Abhiveera held Neisha's hand tightly, not wanting to hurt her but he is already doing it by telling his lovestory. She rubbed his arm slowly to make him feel good and smiled at him.
He sighed deeply and continued "I used to think about her all the time. I wanted to marry her, so I sent a marriage proposal to Bayar. Our alliance would have become even stronger with that marriage. Abel's father, Rajwardhan was my good friend and he used to trust me a lot. He accepted my marriage proposal but didn't announced it officially. I asked him to announce it because I was getting more marriage proposals from other kingdoms but he refused. He told me that the marriage ceremony will be held after a year."
"I waited and suddenly, one day, he asked me to come to Bayar and marry her next day without any preparation. No one knew about the marriage. Only my parents and Irya's family was present in marriage ceremony. I noticed one thing between the ceremony, throughout the ceremony, Irya didn't looked at me. She didn't talked to me or looked happy. She was quite all the time."
Ira felt like she had heard it somewhere before and slowly turned to look at Raksheet who was already looking at her.
"Just like you." He whispered and she smiled awkwardly.
"I thought she is feeling shy because we are meeting for the first time. I thought to talk to her later. We came to Jwalana early in the morning without anyone knowing about my marriage. Everything happened so suddenly so I thought to announce it next day as Irya must be tired and want some time to adjust. But little did I know that something would happen that night that would break me from inside."
His eyes teared up. The atmosphere in the room became serious. Everyone was silent, looking at Abhiveera with pity. Even Raksheet was silent and looking serious.
Ira looked at Raksheet and found him looking at Abhiveera with pitiful eyes. He looked down at her and saw her looking at him confused. Knowing what happened that night, made him feel scared, not wanting it to happen again. He pulled Ira close and hugged her tightly.
She felt a tint of fear on her husband's face and hugged him back.
"That night, when I entered in my chamber...." Abhiveera stared at ground with wide regret filled eyes. A tear fell from his eyes as he said "....I found her body covered in blood."
Ira's eyes widened in shock, a gasp escaped her lips. The scene of Irya covered in blood came in her mind and a shiver ran down in her body. She clutched Raksheet's sleeves tightly in fear and he hugged her, caressing her head and back to calm her.
Abhiveera tried to control his emotions and Neisha held his hand with both her hands.
"She killed herself on our wedding night." He said "...I then realised that she didn't wanted to marry me....She didn't liked me. She was....forced to marry me. That night, I felt like something died inside me with Irya. My only love was lying on the floor with a deep bleeding cut on her wrist. Her eyes swollen, her face turned pale. Not only eyes, but my soul cried that whole night, holding her dead body. I was feeling insane. I wanted to wake her up and tell her how much I love her. I wanted to ask her why she did that. She was the only one whom I loved so much but she left me."
Seeing her husband crying, Neisha's eyes turned moist too. Others just looked at him with sorrow look. Ira felt her heart ache to see Abhiveera crying.
"I promised her family I will always protect her and love her. But I failed. On very first night of our marriage, I failed to protect her. I broke my promise. I...I failed to protect my love." He said and covered his mouth to stop crying.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and took some deep breaths.
After some time, he calmed down and said "Next day, my father informed Rajwardhan about Irya's death. He came to Jwalana hurriedly and was shocked to see his beloved sister lying on floor, dead. His eyes turned red in anger and he started beating me, saying that I am the reason she killed herself. I didn't protected her as I promised. I didn't tried to fight back or defend myself because he was right. I failed to protect his sister, my wife. I don't have right to defend myself."
"My father didn't wanted this matter to get leaked in kingdom as it can affect my and Jwalana's image. So he asked Rajwardhan to keep it a secret." His eyebrows knitted in confusion and he said "And don't know why, he agreed. His sister died in my house and he blamed me for it but he was ready to keep it a secret. He announced Irya's death but they said that she died in an accident when she was going to Bayar after finishing her studies. They didn't said anything about our marriage."