Chapter 4

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Chapter 4: Do Pal

Khushi heard mamaji, mamiji, buaji and her dad were fighting with each other where as garima, nani, Anjali and Arjun(Anjali's good! Husband) were trying to calm the situation. And amongst all Payal and Akash were completely missing!

"ENOUGH!!!!", Arnav roared while silencing the quarreling parties completely. He turned towards Anjali.
"why the hell are they fighting? Why is the wedding called off?"

But buaji stepped in, "why is it called off? It's because of your brother it is called off! Promising to marry then leaving off my bechari bitiya at the alter", buaji explained rudely.

"WHAT THE. How could Akash leave, I saw him sit in the mandap"

"Chote, when panditji asked akash to go change into the clothes given by him as part of the rituals, he went and did not come back. All there was left was this note in his room", she sniffed giving him the note.

Payal,
I'm sorry to leave you at the mandap like this but I cannot marry you. Our wedding was decided since we were little kids and as I grew up I began to accept that. But I can't do it anymore, especially when another girl resides in my heart. If I didn't speak up now, it would ruin three peoples lives. I would never be able to love you as much as you deserve if we go through with this marriage. I wish from the bottom of my heart that you find that person who could.
If you can, please forgive me.

Akash

Arnav's nostrils flared as he passed the note to khushi who was reading it with tears. He did not even suspect Akash would stoop down this low. This wedding was happening as per their wishes, he should have spoken up earlier dammit!

Then suddenly khushi spoke up, passing through the people that were crowded. "Jiji...Amma where is JiJi", she asked alerting everyone. Garima realized in the midst of everything they had missed that payal had left and was not there in the hall.

"Payal!" "Bitiya"..."Jiji", they all shouted only to realize she was not there.

"If I wasn't for your two faced son, my daughter wouldn't leave. I won't spare you of anything happens to my Bitiya", shadi roared.

Enough!!!", Arnav roared. "Your argument has caused Payal to leave. Fight Later. Lets go find Akash and Payal first", he said turning on his heel.
"Wait Chote", His nani prompted. "There is no need to look for Akash anymore. He has disgraced us by leaving a girl at the mandap", nani said looking sympathetically at the Gupta Family.
"What has my son done that disgraced us huh?", Mami spoke up again. "I always said that girl wasn't right for my Bituwa, but none of you listened. Your strain caused my poor son to run away", she sniffed dramatically.
"No one was tying him to a leash. Manorama Ji. He could spoken up earlier before leaving my daughter at the altar", Shashi roared. "But then again what can we expect from your son. Like father like son", he ridiculed Mamaji.
"Enough Shashi. You are crossing your limits! My son would never do this without a valid reason", Mamaji defended weakily still trying to deny that his Akash would ever betray a girl like this.
"AMMA!", Khushi rushed into the center of the conversation. "JiJi's phone is switched off. Babpuji, Stop this right now! We need to find JiJi. I'm scared if she….", Khushi stopped as tears spilled over. That was enough for the family to immediately rush outside and go into separate cars. But as they got into their respective cars, Arnav and Khushi couldn't help but glance at each other before getting in.
The family split up into five different cars. Shashi took Buaji and Garima with him, while Khushi took up her own car. Mamaji took Mami and Naniji with him where Arnav drove off alone not letting anyone come with him. Anjali and her husband took a car and drove off into a different direction.
A whole hour passed, as they tried calling her cell and tried to look for her at various places. Arnav informed the police and called to tell Shashi that but he cut off Arnav;s call rudely. As time passed, Khushi's heart started to panic, as if there was something bad looming their way.
Her phone started to buzz, "Hello-", but he cut her off. "Listen Khushi, don't have much time. Come to the Delhi Railway Station, the west trail one immediately", he said before cutting her off. "Hello? Hello! Arnav?". "Ugh", she said frustrated as she reversed her car and tried to call her parents whose cells were not reachable.
Khushi screeched to a stop at the platform which was half crowded. She saw Arnav sitting there with her back turned towards him and as she walked further she saw her Jiji sitting there in her wedding dress, the dress which she so proudly designed herself while crying her heart off. Arnav looked up as Khushi came and kneeled in front of Payal.
"JiJi…", she said softly with the tears in her eyes. "Khushi!!", payal cried and the two sisters hugged themselves crying bitterly.
"What is this Jiji? How could you leave off everyone like that? We were all so worried", Khushi taunted her while rubbing Payal's head lovingly.
"Payal", Arnav finally spoke up.
"I did not know about Akash's stand on this marriage till now. But that does not make it excusable for him to leave you hanging like this", his nostrils flared with anger.
"I will find him for you, wherever he is and I will get you married. You have my word!", he promised.
Payal looked up at him weakily, "No ArnavJi. You don't have to do that. It won't change anything".
"Ofcourse it will. Give me 24 hours, I will find him from anywhere and get him married to you", Arnav said determinedly.
"You may be able to find him, him married to me. But you won't be able to make him love me, will you? Especially when he….", she sniffed…"loves someone else. But please don't bring him back. Atleast not for me", she said touched that Arnav wanted to help her. But nothing could at this point, not even god.
"Sometimes Life throws at us such situations where no matter how hard we try to make it go our way, but we have to bend down towards fate at one point or the other", Payal said looking off into empty space.
Arnav and Khushi looked at each other, thinking about their wedding, their compromise. "Fine, I won't find him for you. But let's go home", Arnav said standing up.
"Ha JiJi. Let's go home and then we can fix everything later", khushi stood pulling Payal's hand only to be left with a lost effort.
"No, Khushi. I don't want to come home. I can't see Amma's and Babuji's reputation go at stake. I want to go away from this place. I want to go away from anything that will remind me of him", she bursted out into tears again. Khushi hugged Payal while staring at Arnav helplessly, while he didn't know what to say for once.
That flashback kept haunting him again, where his Di's first wedding broke off midway between the rituals. He could see the face of the broken bride his Di was on Payal's face right now. He felt like wanting to murder Akash right now.
He turned away unable to watch Payal's grief anymore. He felt Khushi's soft touch on his clenched fist, as she looked at him while hugging Payal. She blinked at him once letting him know it's okay, he did not need to get angry at Akash. She thought maybe Anjali Di's cries from the past were haunting him. Arnav blinked at her thoughtfully, he knew she could understand him.
"Payal" "Bitiya!" "Oh thank god you're okay", Garima rushed hugging her daughter, as the other members of the Gupta and Raizada family followed. "Payal, what is this bitiya? How could leave all of us like that? Huh? Lets go home", he Shashi said holding Payal's shoulders.
"Nahi Babuji. I don't want to come home. Please Let me go", she pleaded.
Buaji stepped in, "Bitiya, what are you saying? How can we let you go? It's not your fault he left you. Don't break down. We'll find an even better rishta for you and have a bigger wedding", she said wiping her tears.
"That's right Payal. You do not need to shed tears for a boy or family that has backstabbed us. Get up bitiya let's go back home", Shashi turned towards the Raizada family. "From today onwards, just as your son has broken off his relation with my daughter, I break all my ties with your family", he said.
Khushi looked up at her Babuji shocked, and then her eyes met Arnav's whose were equally shocked.
"So who wants to keep ties with you?", Manorama hopped in. "Enough manorama", Naniji taunted her.
"Shashi Beta, I know what has happened is wrong. But what is there to break off the relationship our family had for generations?", Nani said, while Anjali nodded.
"Devyani Ji. I respect you, but after everything that has happened today, I won't change my mind.", he said stiffly.
Arnav watched as Buaji and Garima held onto Payal and led her out with teary eyes as Anjali and Nani tried to stop them. "Common Khushi", her Babuji told her after looking at her stone like form. He finally grabbed her hand and started pulling her with him.
Khushi stared at the faces of her family, Nani, Mamaji, Mamiji, Di, Jiju one by one as she passed through them while being dragged away. But as she turned to glance one last time at Arnav through behind her father's arms, tears welled up in her eyes.
Arnav saw the gleam in her eyes as his eyes locked with that and in that moment an overwhelming emotion to snatch her hand away from Shashi had wrecked into his mind. It felt like she was going away from him forever, then he thought about their wedding that took place. 'NO!', his mind screamed.
He ran after the pathway through which Khushi disappeared and halted to a stop seeing Khushi near her car. Thankfully the others had gotten into the other car and were driving off.
Every footstep he took towards her felt heavy and difficult. Khushi stared at the brown eyed man infront of her, the mangalsutra hiding inside her blouse kept pricking from time to time. How ironic was life? The day she built a relationship with her husband was the day his father broke of all his ties with the same family.
"Khushi", he cupped her face. "Don't worry. Everything will be okay. I promise", he assured her softly. "You will soon be able to see Nani, Di, and JiJu again". She just nodded.
And you, she thought.
And me, he said to himself as he watched her drive away. An unknown feeling tugged at his heart as he saw her leave.
He may have married her just for the sake of a will, but little did he know, their hearts started to flutter for each other from that moment.

A Vm sort of reflecting their mood! I do not own the video or it's creativity. Credit goes to the brilliant maker!

Arnav khushi do pal