Chapter 13
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[MEMBERSONLY]
[NOCOPY]
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Darlings, I wrote a short story for a competition by IndiReads. I have been selected as one of many finalists. The story has been posted on Facebook by the publishers for the readers to vote. They will pick the winner based on the number of votes the stories receive.
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If you can make the time, pls read my story. IF YOU LIKE IT (and only if you like it) please vote.
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Smita
Part 3: Day 11
Section 2
"What the!" Arnav exclaimed.
Khushi did not bother to reply. She sat waiting for her revelation to seep into his brain.
Finally, he said, unable to believe his ears, "Shyam came here?"
Khushi nodded. There was a moment's pause. Anger against the toad began to burn in his mind.
"You were on the terrace when you saw him." he stated, his voice deadly.
Khushi nodded.
"And I was with the others downstairs when he entered the house." Arnav spoke softly, but his desire to crush Shyam with his bare hands evident in his voice.
Khushi nodded.
"He wouldn't have taken the chance of getting caught... no, he wouldn't. He is a crook of the worst kind, but not a fool... So he is in touch with Di... He must have called her... her phone..." Arnav thought aloud.
Khushi remained silent.
"Di told him she was alone..." his voice trailed away.
Khushi looked away. The hurt on his face was more than she could bear. His certainties were crumbling, and reality was revealing its ugly face to him.
"Di let him into her room through my garden..." Arnav realised. "I locked the door in the morning because the breeze was cold... If he got in, she must have unlocked it for him..."
Her heart hurt for him. Khushi sighed. Anjaliji was not the only female in RM who was foolishly in love with her husband.
The tycoon bent his prodigious brain to the problem at hand. "Di had breakfast. She talked to me, to the doctor... She was sounding better, more adjusted... She started refusing food after the rascal visited her... Tonight... tonight, she came to beg me to bring him back... It is all his plan, Khushi. His plan to return to RM as the husband of Anjali Raizada..." he bit out.
"If Anjaliji starves for a couple of days, you will have to bring him back. Or shift her to a hospital where they can take care of her health." Khushi said dispassionately, as though she were making a casual comment about the weather when it was raining cats & dogs.
Arnav glared at her. "Over my dead body!"
Khushi walked to the wardrobe and took out her nightclothes, turning a blind eye to the claret satin smiling at her from the neat pile.
"As you wish. Anyway, it is not my problem anymore." Khushi turned to leave for the bathroom.
"Khushi!" Arnav protested.
"Shyam tricked my family & me. I found him out, slapped him, threw his ring at him, and kicked him out of our lives. He has nothing more to do with the Guptas." Khushi told him, her voice low.
Arnav stared at her, feeling very alone.
"I will be leaving soon. So whether you bring Shyam back or not makes little difference to me." Khushi continued.
"Khushi, how can you say that?" Arnav asked from his heart.
"There was a time I wanted to clear my name in your eyes, tell you the truth, protect Anjaliji, save your family from ruin... I tried, but you were not willing to listen to me. I continued to try, believing that it was my responsibility to set things right... but..." she sighed. "I didn't understand then that some things are beyond me. I do now." She looked in to his eyes. "This is your fight now. Not mine."
"Khushi... don't leave me alone." he whispered.
Khushi said softly, "You are Arnav Singh Raizada. You are worth a thousand Shyams. You can break him in seconds without anyone's help."
Arnav stared at her.
"Your real problem is Anjaliji and her strong belief in her husband." Khushi stated.
Arnav looked at her, silent, listening.
"A blind belief in her husband." Khushi continued. "Jiji & I told her that he had been staying in our house as a paying guest. But Anjaliji has pushed that out of her mind. We told her that he had been trying to get married to me. That we were engaged to be married. That the Shyamji I was engaged to was her husband... But she is pretending not to have heard any of that. We told her that you were kidnapped by Shyam. Nanheji, Mami, Jiji, I, & you told her that he is a cheat. That he was willing to endanger your life to get your wealth. But she has conveniently forgotten all that. She is living in an imaginary world where her husband loves her and wants her and her baby."
Arnav swallowed his pain, silent in the face of the bitter truth.
"She is living in this dream world because she believes her husband blindly. The day you shatter this belief, you will win. Otherwise Shyam will continue to play her against you and you will have to sit and suffer it."
Arnav looked at her through wet eyes.
"You have known Shyam longer than me, but I have seen a side of him that you have never seen. I have fought him. This is what I have learnt from my experience." she said.
Arnav looked at her unblinking, his ears trained to hear every word falling from her lips.
"One, he is a lawyer. Don't try to argue with him. Two, he is very proud of his intelligence. He thinks that every one other than him is a fool. His pride will bring him down one day. Three, he is very greedy for money. He will do anything for money. He will sink to any level. Four, he has no real affection for Anjaliji or the baby. They are just a means for him to get to your wealth. All that matters to him is money. Five, he has lots of people to help him. Men he has hired, men he is paying. He is capable of trying to kill you or Anjaliji any time."
Arnav nodded. He could not argue with anything she had said.
"Six, he knows that Anjaliji is your weak point. That is why he is trying to reach you through Anjaliji." Khushi said.
Arnav nodded, sighing. How could he get rid of that snake without hurting Di?
But Khushi wasn't done yet.
"What he hasn't realised yet is how much your family loves you. How much Anjaliji loves you. How your word is law to all of them." Khushi looked him straight in the eye.
Arnav shook his head as though it were no important matter, just something to be taken for granted...
Khushi persisted. "You can kill. They will still stand by you and loudly declare that you were right to kill. That is how much your family loves you."
Arnav stared at her with wide eyes.
"Your Nani, who values her position in society and upholds high morals, let you bring Lavanyaji to stay here. For you." Khushi stated softly. "Had she put her foot down, you would have been helpless. You would have had to leave this house. She didn't want that to happen. To keep her Chotey with her, she put up with the barbs of her acquaintances and the follies of Lavanyaji."
Arnav stared at her.
"She loves you more than she loves anyone else, even Laxmiji." Khushi smiled slightly.
Arnav's lips relaxed in a slight smile.
"Mamiji realised that there was something wrong... when you were kidnapped." Khushi said. "We stole into the cellar at night to locate the video clippings of you and the five men who stopped you and took you away with them from the airport..."
His eyes widened in distress and shock. "Khushi! If you had been caught! Khushi... How dare you risk your life...!"
Khushi ignored it.
"We thought you had been kidnapped. That a call demanding ransom would come any moment. Mami gave me her entire collection of jewellery and her passbooks so that I could raise the ransom." Khushi smiled. "Mamiji loves you more than she loves her gold, her makeup, and her money."
Arnav, though unwilling to, had to smile.
"When Shyam sent gifts for all of us, supposedly from you, she was the first to realise that they were not from you. She took the bottle of perfume you had sent and cried over it saying that her Arnav Bitwaa would never, never buy her that particular scent as he knew that she was allergic to it."
Arnav nodded. "Roses. She can't tolerate scents made from roses... I always get her lily of the valley, gardenia, magnolia, jasmine, or something else when I travel..." he murmured, a small smile on his face.
"But Shyam did not know that." Khushi continued. "Mamaji, Jiju, & Nanheji will do anything for you. Even Hari Prakashji swears by his Arnav Bhaiyya, even though you shout at him regularly." Khushi smiled.
Arnav had to smile again.
She continued softly, "Anjaliji will see the truth once the spell that Shyam has cast over her is removed. Once she sees his real, ugly face, she will realise how wrong she has been, how you were all trying to protect her from him, how much you love her..."
Arnav nodded.
"If you keep your family close to you and open Anjaliji's eyes to the real Shyam, you will win this battle." Khushi concluded.
"And you, Khushi? Will you stand by me?" Arnav asked the all important question, his heart in his mouth. If she stood by him, he could vanquish the world. If she refused'
Khushi nodded. "As long as I am here."
Arnav heaved a sigh of relief.
"Because he is evil. And you are fighting to protect your family against him." Khushi said before leaving for the bathroom to change her clothes.
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