Chapter 10

Few points to be clarified:

1. Arnav is definitely NOT jealous of Khushi. I am so disappointed with my readers. For the last update, I chose the words so carefully as to clarify things but no one actually took the hint. For Arnav, it is more like Why HE was not the first priority of his parent's? For him, his own insecurities are his problems not Khushi. It's the basic human nature to blame things on others and I am not ashamed to admit that I am one of them. Everyone does have their own flaws and Arnav isn't a flawless person.

2. About Arnav's parents: let me tell you an incident. 4-5 years ago, I was in my hometown during holidays and had a big fight with my niece who is only 2-3 years younger than me and had a strange kind of obsession with me. I was going out with my cousin sisters and she stopped me rudely and started a fight. Well that culminated into me shouting at her and she crying to show that I am the bad girl. My mother came and without hearing anything from me, slapped me (well that was the first and last slap I ever received from my mother being the Mumma's princess that I am). It took my mother a week to make me talk to her again. Later she told me that she slapped me because I am her daughter and she can treat me the way she wants hoping that I will understand but my niece is someone else's kid and it's her responsibility to treat her with utmost love. Only after that, she will think about what she had put me through every time to do that.

Arnav's parents didn't get that opportunity and whenever they did, they tried to make up for it which I will reveal later.

3. Finally my readers managed to guess something correct. Yes, there is much more to the past and from Arnav's point of view, he is not wrong I will say.

Dishevelled hairs, eyes puffy and bright red, Arnav sat staring at his father without blinking his eyes. His heart pained to see so many machines attached to his father's body. The occasional beep of the machine monitoring his heart beat and the oxygen mask which was put on to help his father breath properly, made him feel helpless.

Helpless about not able to do anything.

It had been 24 hours since his father has been shifted to ICU after the doctors managed to take the bullet out of his body. The chances of his father surviving are very less, the doctors had said as Avinash Raizada refused to gain consciousness in past 24 hours.

His hand rose instinctively as he thought about it. Tracing his father's face with his hand, he felt his eyes brimming with tears and he closed his eyes to blink back the tears.

Because Arnav refused to break down now. He opened his eyes, feeling some movement and saw his father trying to open his eyes. After various attempts, Avinash managed to open his eyes half and looked at his son who looked relieved to see him conscious.

"Arnav???"

"Papa, don't say anything. I will go and inform the doctor that you are awake now." Arnav said triumphantly, somehow sure that his father is not going to leave him like his mother.

"Ruko Beta (Stop, Beta)." Arnav halted as he heard his father's urgent whisper and looked back confusedly.

"Papa??"

"Hamare pass jyada waqt nahin hai. Humein tumse kuch baat karni hai. (I don't have much time left. I need to talk to you.)" Avinash managed to speak out, ignoring the numbing sensation that was overtaking his mind.

"Don't say that, Papa. You will get well soon. We can talk later." Arnav pleaded, clinging on the last hope he had in his heart.

He looked down as his father caught his hand and raised his head a little to make himself heard clearly "Vada karo ki tum Khushi ka khayal rakhoge aur usse hamesha khush rakhoge, chahe kuch bhi ho jaye.(You need to promise me that you will look after Khushi. You will make sure that she is happy may whatever it takes.)"

He stilled after hearing these words, in a fix to whether tell his father that Khushi is in coma or not. Deciding to not tell it now lest it deteriorated his father's health, he kept quiet.

Seeing his son's unresponsiveness to his request, Avinash shook Arnav's hand and repeated "Vaada karo, Arnav (Promise me, Arnav.)"

Arnav nodded, seeing the complicated situation that he was in. He knew his father won't rest till he gets what he wanted. His heart stopped beating as he heard the deafening beep of the machine a moment later as his father's body fell back on the hospital bed with a soft thud.

He looked up to see his father's eyes closed with a smile on his lips, content and happy to have handled his responsibility well before giving himself away to death.

"NO!!!!!!!!"

"Why do we fall Arnav?" Avinash asked, wrapping bandage around the injury. Sobbing a bit while seeing his father dressing his knee injury, 5 years old Arnav looked up curiously. It pained a little after he had fallen from his bicycle but his father was there by his side in a moment, looking concerned.

Avinash smiled, blowing air on the wound to lessen the pain and answered the question himself "So that we can get up and start again. You are never late to start fresh Arnav but you need to have faith in you about it, always remember that."

Arnav nodded, with a determined expression on his face and wiped his tears.

Waking up with a start, Arnav tried to open his heavy eyelids feeling his head throbbing painfully as the scent of medicines hit his nostrils transporting him back to dreadful day which had happened four years ago.

Every inch of his body was paining and protested as he tried to sit, still trying to open his eyes. He grimaced, closing his eyes again as the bright light of the room started irritating his eyes. He felt a band aid on the left of his forehead and a bandage around his left shoulder as well.

"How are you feeling now, Mr. Raizada?"

He squinted, looking at the doctor curiously. What the hell was he doing in hospital? Pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation, he tried to remember everything when he heard another voice, which sounded very familiar.

"Doctor is he alright?"

Khushi. He remembered everything now. The fight, her pain, his realization and his carelessness while driving through the isolated roads of Delhi thinking about Khushi. How'd he got into a situation like this?

He had learned to not feel pain of others, to not pity on others than why just few words of Khushi made him feel restless like he had never been? Why was he feeling like he was wrong in hating Khushi all these years? No, he wasn't wrong. If she hadn't created that mess four years ago, then his parents wouldn't have interfered and wouldn't have been brutally murdered by...he closed his eyes, locking away all his emotions again.

"I am okay. I just want to go home now." He said, masking his expressions once again and opened his eyes to look sharply at the doctor and Khushi, who was standing beside the doctor looking anxiously at Arnav.

He got up quickly, leaving the hospital room ignoring the pain in his body and what doctor was saying. Few minutes later after talking to the doctor, Khushi too came out of the hospital looking a bit angry but he continued looking the other way.

"What was the need of doing all this drama in the hospital? You could have definitely survived few days without your arrogance." He heard her sarcastic comment and rolled his eyes.

"I asked you to leave but I see you are still here." He said after a pause.

"You gave me a choice and I have chosen what I wanted. I will never walk out of this marriage. If Papa wanted us to be together, he must have seen something that's not visible to us now. I want to start everything fresh and it would be better if you do the same." Khushi whispered not wanting the driver to hear their conversation.

As Khushi wasn't looking at Arnav, she totally missed the way Arnav closed his eyes, remembering his father's words and then looking ahead nervously. He knew that the decisions have been made and for the first time in 4 years, he wasn't sure if he had the courage to look beyond his hatred.

They went home together in complete silence as the sky took a pinkish hue, indicating the start of a new day.

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Arnav stared at his reflection, thinking while buttoning his shirt and grimacing as his shoulder pained whenever he moved his hand. Ignoring Khushi who was watching him like a hawk, he traced the band aid which was stuck on his forehead and ripped it off quickly registering the shocked look on Khushi's face. He combed his hairs once again, hiding the wound carefully.

"Are you freaking insane? Can't you see that deep cut on your forehead?" Khushi said, looking outraged.

Taking his own sweet time in getting ready and taking his medicines which Khushi had shoved in front of his face, he turned to Khushi eventually and said in a dead paned voice "Look, if I am not saying anything rude to you, it doesn't mean I have fallen in love with you and is going to follow your every order. So spare me from your lecture."

"And I don't want Di to know about my accident." He whispered as he opened the door of their room and went down for breakfast.

Unconsciously, he had associated his first feeling, hope, with Khushi that moment.

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"Arnav, where the hell have you been?" Anjali shouted, seeing Arnav in front of her FINALLY after 2 days.

"Di, I was busy." Arnav replied shortly not looking at Anjali at all lest she saw the storm gathering inside him in his eyes.

Anjali's eyes softened as she noticed Arnav not looking at her, instantly she knew that Arnav was trying to hide inner turmoil from her. She walked towards him, hugging him tightly making Arnav close his eyes and savour her warmth and silent support.

Hugging her back, Arnav relaxed down feeling calm FINALLY after a long time. As Anjali kept her hand on his left shoulder, he flinched making Anjali step back and look at him in concern.

"Arnav, are you alright?" Anjali asked in a concerned voice.

"Di, I am fine." Arnav replied, the corner of his lips curving upward seeing his sister's concern for him after a long time.

He knew he is a very selfish man who always thought about himself only but his Di had always been the person he doted on always. His Di had been the pillar of his strength for past 4 years and hadn't it been for her, he would have broken down long ago. His Di, who went through so much and still managed to pull herself back together and start fresh sincerely following what his father, had told him decades ago.

It was his turn now, he thought as he saw his Di looking over his shoulder and smiling. He turned to see Khushi standing there, nodding in an assuring way at his Di.

And he knew that his first hope from Khushi hadn't been neglected by her.

He'd not wanted his sister to know about his accident in case she started thinking that all have happened because of the fight they had. Khushi could have easily told his Di about their fight and his accident, could have gained Di's sympathy again but she didn't do anything like this.

That moment, his notion of her being a very selfish woman started crumbling a bit.

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That day, Arnav took rest for the most of the time just looking over the arrangements of his wedding reception as his secretary handled all the official work, as instructed by Khushi. When he had got to know about it, he tried to argue with her but she had put an end to it by threatening him about telling Di everything if he didn't took rest.

In evening, when he entered in Shantivan he was dragged to the guest room by his Di who ordered him to get ready quickly as the guests has started arriving.

When he got ready and walked to the backstage from where he was supposed to make a grand entry along with Khushi, he saw Khushi already standing there in a fuchsia trousseau, paired with an elegant diamond-ruby necklace and matching earrings. Her hairs were pulled at the front, slightly curled as the end of white-red scarf of the trousseau was wound around her wrist, rest of it hanging around her waist.

But that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the look in her eyes he had seen as she looked around,

Hope. Hope of him being with her at least today. And just like that, he knew that he is going to do the right thing.

Will post part B on Tuesday. A question to all the readers who are in my buddy list and aren't responding to updates at all: do you guys want me to stop pming you to show how serious I am when I say I send pm to only those whom I know are reading my story?

Please don't make me just disappear from here on an impulse after seeing the way you guys refuse to express your views regarding my story. I am very short tempered girl who after taking time out from her busy schedule and typing the update with utmost care, feels demotivated seeing your response. I don't intend to leave this story in middle so please don't make me sad enough to do so.

Fireworks in Arhi's life are on their way and will make their appearance in next update. Please hit like' button and do comment...9^th Chapter will have all your answers regarding Arnav as that chapter will be totally from Arnav's point of view and will travel through every important moment of Arnav's life

Aditi

uv-crazyfan2013-10-25 06:14:05