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Hello guys!
I am soo sorry for the late update! I was caught up with work. 😭 However, I will try to update atleast once a week (or more!) from now on.
Also, thanks for all the comments! I didn't except so many people to like it! 🤗
Jaane Doh Naa
CHAPTER THREE
A Warning
Ayesha watched Khushi standing frozen, staring at the door from which Arnav Singh Raizada left not too long ago.
"Khushi," she said finally, unable to take the silence anymore. "Are you okay?"
Khushi slowly turned around, her eyes no longer containing the white hot anger she felt a few minutes ago.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Ayesha asked, almost tormented to see her best friend like this.
Khushi shook her head. "I want to be alone Ayesh…"
"Of course… I will be in the designing room, if you want anything…"
And even though she didn't want to, Ayesha left Khushi alone. She knew better than to ask questions because despite two years of friendship, Ayesha still didn't know what was it that drove Khushi away from her family. What happened, that caused a bubbly girl of eighteen to become void, not willing to feel anymore?
She tried a lot in past few months, to somehow get Khushi to smile. And yet, no matter what happened, the joy would never get past her lips and reach her eyes. But what worried Ayesha was not that there wasn't happiness in her life, but that there were no emotions at all. Sometimes, she wished Khushi would just cry and get it over with. Keeping it locked up inside, would just make it so much more harder to move on!
Khushi curled up on the sofa, still reeling from the revelations. It was one thing to know that she was misunderstood, but it was a whole different issue to know that she was not trusted at all.
How can it be? She thought. How could he even think that I would… an affair with Shyam…
She suddenly wished she could cry. She wanted to wash away the soundless pain wreaking havoc in her heart. But she couldn't. Something was broken inside her and no matter how long she sat there, nothing happened. Her grief was beyond tears now.
As the clock ticked by she felt herself drift off into a troubled sleep full of things she tried to bury deep inside her mind. But it was no use, they all floated to the surface once again. She abruptly woke up to see Ayesha sitting beside her.
"Ayesh?" she said groggily. And as she sat up, she felt the blanket slip off her shoulders.
"You looked cold," Ayesha replied, nodding the blanket. "What happened? Can't sleep?"
Khushi rubbed her eyes, not wanting to answer. "What time is it? Is it night time? Did you eat anything? Let me make something…"
"We are out of batter for you to make jalebis," Ayesha informed.
"Who told you I was going to make jalebis?"
Ayesha rolled her eyes. "I would be pretty blind not to notice that you make jalebis whenever something goes wrong."
"Well," Khushi answered nonchalantly. "I can also make them when something goes right, right?"
"When was anything right in your life?" Ayesha asked rhetorically. "For god's sake, you got married at eighteen, got divorced six months later and now, you are one of Pune's wanted designers. You call that normal?!"
"I am not saying its normal," she said. "But atleast I don't need to waste anymore sleepless nights… think of it as a wake-up call. I finally understood where I screwed up."
"Which is…?"
Khushi didn't reply and got up. "Do you want tea?" she asked casually.
Ayesha shook her head in frustration. "Who was he?"
The simple, but straight question made Khushi to stop momentarily. "Who?"
"You know who," she replied, but then decided to answer anyway. "Arnav Singh Raizada. Who was he?"
Khushi determinedly kept her back to Ayesha and said in the the most casual voice she could muster, "The man who married me for a six month contract."
If Ayesha was surprised, she didn't let it show. But somewhere, deep down, she was expecting that answer. "What does he want now?" she asked slowly.
"I don't know."
Ayesha didn't need to see Khushi's face to know her feelings. "Do you love him?"
Khushi whipped around at that comment. Anger suddenly coarsed through her at that thought. "Love him?" she asked, the casual tone gone. "Him?! The man who ruined my life? The man who made sure that I have no where to go?"
But Ayesha was not satisfied with that. "Do you?" she repeated.
"I hate him Ayesh," she answered with a venom filled voice. "I hate him soo much. I can never forgive him! He broke my trust to such an extent, that I can never trust anyone else in my life again."
Ayesha didn't reply. She believed love and hate were two things that will forever remain entwined. She herself had too much experience with them, to know that while Khushi hated that man with passion, it wouldn't take long for the coin to flip. Because, you can never hate someone, without knowing what it feels to love them in the first place.
"And you know what?" Khushi continued. "He better stay away from me, because if he doesn't, he will see hell. And I mean hell!"
* * *
Ayesha yawned as she pulled into the parking lot of the boutique. The girls stayed up late last night, discussing their designs for the new project and as such were late this morning. It was when she locked the car, that she noticed she wasn't alone.
"Good morning," said Arnav, who was leaning the hood of his own car. Dressed in dress pants,a button-up shirt with a vest on top, he looked ready for a meeting. If Ayesha wasn't Khushi's best friend, she would have definetly admired his fashion sense – the man had style!
"What are you doing here?" she replied, her voice cutting.
Arnav raised an eyebrow. "I excepted a 'good morning' back," he said. "But I guess I am hoping for too much."
"Yeah you are," she replied, making her way to the front door, keys in her hand.
"Where is Khushi?"
"None of your business," she answered, walking inside and turning on the lights.
Arnav merely smiled at her answer. "I think," he said. "That its not possible to have a meeting, when the clients aren't even present."
"I am here," Ayesha countered.
"Did I miss something?" Arnav asked sarcastically. "Because last I checked, you only owned fifty percent of this company."
Ayesha was now completely irritated. "Okay that's it," she said, stopping her morning tasks and walking up to him. "Now, you listen to me very carefully Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada. Last you checked, Khushi was some poor innocent girl, who would do anything to see her family happy. But things changed. Iam her family now, and I would be putting it lightly if I said, 'I will kill you if you do anything to hurt her!'. Got it?"
Arnav smirked.
"Why are you grinning?" she asked and then added, "I mean everything I say!"
"I am sure you do," he agreed, his smirk becoming wider. "Except no one dares to threaten me, so I find it very amusing that you do."
"Then get used to it," she said simply. "Because I am not scared of you."
"You don't have to be either," he said a bit more seriously. "Because I would never hurt her!"
"I don't buy that, because you have in the past, and-"
But she was suddenly cut off by a ringing voice. "Ayesh?" Khushi said, coming into the boutique, her arms full of bags.
Arnav whipped around, his heart elated. "Let me help you," he said, reaching for the bags.
She jerked her hands away from his reach, and instead handed the bags to Ayesha.
"I think you have helped her enough Mr. Raizada," Ayesha snapped. "So, don't bother."
Arnav didn't answer, surprising Khushi a little. He was never the one to back down in an argument!
"What is he doing here?" Khushi asked Ayesha.
But it was Arnav who answered. "We didn't sign the deal yesterday… So, I figured we should today."
"I thought I was clear when I said I didn't want to see him here?" Khushi said determindedly to Ayesha.
"The intital signing of the deal requires both parties Khushi," Arnav anwered once again. "It's a formality."
"Ayesh, can't Aman bring the papers?"
"Aman is sick, he took today off. So, I came instead!"
Khushi was about to retort, but Ayesha beat her to it. "Fine," she told Arnav. "Lets get it over with then."
The three of them sat on the sofa as Arnav pulled out the contract papers.
"What is this?" Ayesha asked, reading through the clauses. "You get the final say in all the dresses we make?"
"Yes, its my show you guys are designing for-"
"So what?" Ayesha argued. "You are just there for the money, everything-"
"Everything else is also my responsibility. I am not going to let anyone-"
Khushi interrupted them. "Forget it Ayesh. It's his old habit to control others… Even for the air you breathe in, you should have Arnav Singh Raizada's permission."
"Be reasonable Khushi," Arnav argued. "I know the market better than you both-"
However, she didn't let him finish. "Lets sign the papers. I don't have all day!"
"But Khushi-"
"Ayesh," she said meaningfully to her best friend, not even acknowledging Arnav's attempts to explain.
Ayesha nodded and signed the contract papers. Just as she passed the file to Khushi, her phone rang. "Excuse me," she said, disappearing into the designing room.
It was just the two of them now. Khushi purposefully kept her eyes on the papers, as she quickly read through the contract.
"Its all correct," Arnav said, watching her. "There are no mistakes."
As if I am going to trust you with contracts again, she thought to herself.
"You could ask me anything," he said, when she continued to read. "You don't have to read the whole thing."
Silence.
"Khushi," he said, his patience waning. "Look at me!"
Khushi merely flipped the page in answer.
"I said look at me damn it!"
If this was two years ago, Khushi might have looked at him. But at that moment, Arnav's impatience seemed to give her some satisfaction she couldn't explain. So, she calmly signed the contract and got up to leave.
"Khushi!" Arnav stood up and grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. "Khushi," he repeated. "Talk to me… say something, anything! But just… just don't..."
"What happened?" she finally asked, looking coolly into his aggravated face. "Frustrated?"
"Don't you get it?" he replied. " I can't bear you ignoring me… I can't-"
But she cut across him. "Then how do you think I lived through yoursilence?"
Arnav stared at her uncomprehendingly.
"You are getting frustrated because I ignored you for ten minutes," she continued. "Then how frustrated should I be when you did nothing but ignore me for six months?"
Khushi removed her hand from his now loosened grip. "I asked you, right?" she continued. "I asked you a hundred times why you married me… and yet, you didn't tell me. Now, I see no reason for me to talk you. Infact, you lost the right to ask me anything Mr. Raizada. And you lost it the day you made me sign that contract marriage."
And with that she disappeared into the designing room, leaving Arnav all alone with her words still ringing in his ears.
I will win it back, he resolved with a sigh. I will win you back Khushi Kumari Gupta…
And like always, his mind didn't hesitate to add … Singh Raizada!
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I know, its not an eventful update. But I had to get Ayesha's point across - she is very imp to the story! 😉
Waiting to hear your comments!
Archi
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