Chapter 48

She kept darting angry, madly furious eyes at him as he watched Anjali and that friend of hers, NK, try and calm her down. He saw her sigh and roll her eyes a lot too. However, where he should have felt triumph, he was feeling worse and worse... He had upset her, and the thought unsettled him. He had even lost the right to pacify her and ask for her forgiveness. What was he thinking? He never should have listened to Anjali, because that had only caused Khushi more pain.

His mouth upturned, Arnav looked at her sadly, one last time before he dragged himself out of there, the sinking feeling returning to him and lodging itself in his heart, deep inside. He kept walking aimlessly, trying not to feel the ache in his throat. A soft weight landed on his shoulder, tightened around it, turning him around. He looked up reluctantly to find a pair of warm, familiar brown eyes.

"Ma?"

***

Pavitra Raizada gave him a tight smile. "Are you alright, Arnav?" Her step-son looked at her with wide, lost and confused eyes that made her heart constrict painfully. "Ulka asked me to come, beta. She said you might... you might need me..."

His eyes watered and he looked down, blinking fast, and her arms immediately went around him, hugging him tight as his body shook. "Sh-she... she d-doesn't..."

It took her a lot not to break down too. She had to remain strong for him but she had seen him like this, worse than this, and she could not bear the mere thought of letting him sink into this again. Not this time. She might not have given birth to him, but Arnav was and would remain her son, her little boy, her life even.

Carefully, she led him to his room even as he shivered uncontrollably. This was exactly what she had been scared of when Ulka and Anjali had informed her about their little plan. She had not completely agreed with them. According to her, Khushi deserved the truth, she ought to have been explained what had happened during the past year but the girls had been sure everything would work out well. She had been right in the end - she hated it, but she had been right. She was a mother and she knew Khushi well enough. She had always known that, albeit unknowingly, Khushi would hurt her son again...

Sighing, Pavitra tucked Arnav in bed as if he were still the child she had known when she had just married his father and smoothed his hair. Now she had to patch things up herself to protect her son.

***

With a decided air, Khushi stomped up to his door the next morning. Why? She didn't even know. The plan was to shout at him for a few minutes until she was not flustered and then leave. But the amount of meltdown he had caused in her heart might have compromised that...

She stopped at the door hesitantly. Would he be up by now? Was it right to come and shout at him this early in the morning? Before she could decide herself, the door opened before her to reveal Pavitra Raizada, who looked as surprised to see her there. But she composed herself much more quickly.

"Khushi. Good morning," she said formally, tonelessly, almost coldly.

Khushi felt her stomach turn to ice all of a sudden. She forced herself to smile as she greeted the lady. Pavitra stared at her silently for a few seconds before tilting her head sideways.

"Can I talk to you, beta?" A small smile appeared when Khushi gulped and nodded, and she nodded, asking the young woman to follow her. She went to her own room where she bustled around, making tea for the two of them while Khushi fidgeted uneasily on the couch, repeatedly asking if there was anything she could do to help. Pavitra merely shook her head with a slightly wider smile. Finally, she handed Khushi a cup of tea and sat down on the other side of the couch with one of her own.

"Khushi, may I ask you why you are so angry at my son?"

Cheeks burning, the girl looked down at her hands. She would certainly be brick red by now.

Pavitra shifted, her eyes still firmly on Khushi. "I am not angry at you at all, Khushi," she smiled gently, causing Khushi to look up sharply, her lips parted in surprise. "There are two people that I am absolutely furious at, but I will handle them later. For now, I need to know so that I can solve this matter as soon as possible. Why are you so angry at Arnav, Khushi?"

She looked away, biting her bottom lip. The tears were rising back in her eyes. To say that she had been fighting them for more than one year now... And she still sucked at it... "He... He just doesn't care about me!"

"Who told you that?"

"I know he doesn't!" she mumbled and a sob shattered her despite herself. "It has been one year, one whole year, and he... I kept waiting every day, I... I th-thought h-he was g-going to call b-but... N-not eve-even once! I-I... I c-called him... s-so m-many times... He never... never picked up... W-when I g-got through the s-secretary s-said he w-was too busy o-or h-he was n-not th-there... or I j-just w-went o-on v-voi-voicemail..."

She was shaking so uncontrollably she had to curl up on herself, wanting to hide, but Pavitra slid next to her in the couch and rubbed her back, giving her some strength. She lifted her head, sniffing and sobbing. "W-why...? W-what did I d-do? Why d-doesn't h-he l-love me anymore? I-it h-hurt so m-much..."

***

She had not known Khushi for such a long time, but the amount of time she had gotten to know the girl, she knew there was a pure, selfless heart in there. She knew Khushi was the right girl for her son, and perhaps, because of that, she had begun to love Khushi as much as she would have loved her daughter if she had one. And now, it was close to unbearable to see her like this...

Of course she knew the extent of the pain Khushi was talking about. Hadn't she seen Arnav suffer the way for so long?

"Khushi," she whispered, making her sit up straight. Gently, she wiped the girl's damp face with a tissue she had grabbed off the table and shushed her until she had calmed down, then took a deep breath in, sqeezing Khushi's hands in hers. "Khushi... Arnav loves you."

She started shaking her head in protest but Pavitra stopped her. "He does, Khushi, believe me. I have seen him... He cannot live without you..."

"But he never tried to-"

"Yes. I know. It's because he cannot live without you..."

A frown drew itself on Khushi's face. "What do you mean?"

"He... Khushi..." Pavitra looked away for a minute as she prepared herself to say this, and to see those scarring images again as she said it. "Arnav... He... Khushi, Arnav fell into a depression when you left."

Khushi paled, staring back in disbelief.

"He was in such a bad state, Khushi, and nobody could know because he could have lost his investors and Adhiraj and I didn't want that. The business was already in a difficult position. We had to stay with him in New York, Adhiraj managed most of the work and we told everyone he was not feeling well enough to the office but he was handling things from home. But... he was not... Arnav was not speaking, not listening... He went in a different place in his mind... We tried so hard to get him out of there, it really took a lot of time and patience. And finally just a few months before he got better, then we started taking him to the office little by little so that he could stand up again, think less about you, get out of his depression... After that, I think he got ashamed of himself for it... You know him... He didn't know how to face you, he didn't want you to know, he was scared of what you would think... That's why he didn't call you when he got better, Khushi. He was very scared. He still is... And it looks like he might be falling back in there..."