Chapter 13

Arnav stared at Devyani for few moments warily, not letting any emotion appear on his face as his Dadi looked back at him calmly. If he didn't lose his temper this evening, he was close to losing it now seeing the last person he wanted to come across to.

He once again resumed his walk towards his room, not saying anything to Devyani as if he didn't even heard what she had said.

"Arnav!!!"

Closing his eyes in an attempt to control himself from shouting at his Dadi, Arnav stopped once again tilting his head to the right indicating that she had his attention.

"I want to talk to you, Arnav. You need to hear me out." Devyani said calmly making Arnav snort in disbelief.

Devyani kept waiting for Arnav to say something but when he didn't turned towards her and neither said anything, she raised an eyebrow and said authoritatively "You think you can escape from this situation by not answering me, Arnav?"

Finally his control on his temper snapped, making Arnav turn towards her quickly and hiss in a low yet dangerous tone "No, I am thinking about how you are going to make me bend to your will now, Dadi?"

Dadi smiled shaking her head at his answer.

Knowing that he didn't have any other choice than talking to his Dadi, Arnav strode towards her and sat down on the couch opposite to her looking more like a rival than her grandson.

"Please make it quick. I haven't got all night." Arnav said looking disinterested staring at the table between them than looking at Devyani.

Devyani kept looking at him closely, breaking past his facade of indifference and seeing the pain, loneliness he was hiding making her heart lurch.

How wasn't she able to see all this before?

The strong Arnav she had always witnessed had a soul that was scarred so badly by all the suffering, pain.

Her resolve to talk to him got more firm as she spoke "I heard your and Khushi's talk last night."

Jerking his head up, he looked up, shocked beyond his wits and stuttered "What!!?"

Seeing his expressions, Devyani continued "I know now why you'd not wanted to marry her?"

"You shouldn't have heard all this, Dadi." Arnav said curtly, looking away after recovering from the shock.

"Why?"

"Because you weren't supposed to hear it" Slamming his fist on the table, Arnav stood up suddenly ignoring the rising pain in his shoulder. He paced to and fro, looking down at the floor as Devyani kept looking at him patiently.

After an uncomfortable silence, Devyani spoke "You think your parents never loved you, right?"

Letting out a sarcastic laugh, Arnav turned to her and replied bitterly "I think I never deserved their love, Dadi."

"Why makes you think so? Did they tell you the same?"

Arnav kept quiet, refusing to open his heart to her. Sensing his opposition, Devyani insisted "Arnav, you need to talk to me.

"WHY? Why NOW, Dadi? Why do you need to talk about this? I can manage myself now as well like I did in past, thank you very much. I can live my life with the fact that my parents never found me worthy enough to be loved. You don't need to say assuring words to me Dadi. Please don't." Arnav burst out, his temper rising once again.

"You are not alone, Arnav. Our life is also linked with yours. You need to get out of this darkness. You need to give importance to other things in your life as well." Devyani explained making Arnav look at her impatiently.

"It's about her again right? You are talking to me to make me see that Khushi is a very person and will be a wonderful partner for me right?"

Shaking her head, Devyani spoke through gritted teeth "Stop linking everything to Khushi, Arnav. It's about you only."

Walking away, Arnav announced "Well I don't want to hear it Dadi. Good night."

"Why Avinash asked you to take care of Khushi, Arnav? He could have requested the same from me, then why YOU?"

Seeing his halted step and tensed back, Devyani understood the need of the situation and answered the question herself "He believed in you more than anyone else, Arnav. He knew that only you can take his place. Seeing you all these years handling everything clearly while not letting anyone know of your pain, proves that you are like HIM. You ARE his SHADOW, Arnav."

"Once he told me that you are his pride, don't let him down Arnav. Your parents LOVED you more than anything else in the world."

Arnav walked away finally, not looking back at all feeling his heart burdening with all the bottled up emotions and memories. His legs took him to the place where he knew he could find some solace. For the second time in 2 days, he entered in his parent's room.

Walking to the bed post where he used to sit usually whenever his mother used to massage his head, he leaned against it resting his head backwards on it. He almost felt that his head was in his mother's lap.

Then he finally allowed his heart to run past the memories.

"Arnav wake up beta." He heard a musical voice which always enchanted him. Making a face, he turned to the other side hiding his face in the pillow.

He smiled hearing the laughter as he felt himself being picked up. He shook a bit feeling a finger creeping towards his stomach and in no time, tickling making him burst in laughter.

"Maa...Maa...stop...I am awake." He said in between his laughter as Aruna tickled him mercilessly. Feeling his mother dropping a kiss on his cheek, he smiled hiding his face in the crook of her neck.

Still holding him in her arms, Aruna walked downstairs. Avinash who was sitting in the living room stood up, picking up a bat and said "Okay let's see who is going to win the game today?"

Arnav looked up finally opening his eyes to see his father and his Di running towards the garden and asked his mother to put him down.

Once on his feet, Arnav ran outside still in his night clothes to play. It was a Sunday. Arnav loved Sundays.

Arnav's eyes misted remembering it. His family always looked forward to the weekend so that they can spend some quality time together.

"Catch me if u can, Chotte." Anjali sang running past her mother in the house as Arnav ran after her with determination. Soon they were shouting while running in the house as Aruna and Avinash looked at them with a smile.

Anjali smiled mischievously, rounding around a table. Gulping some air, Arnav stopped opposite to her and analysed her steps. He knew like always she will run to the right before stopping in middle and running to left. Pretending to be walking to her right, Arnav saw Anjali running left and ran towards her quickly and stuck his leg out making Anjali fall flat on her face.

He fell on the floor, laughing loudly after seeing Anjali making a cry face. Aruna and Avinash who had rushed to pick her up watched in amazement as Anjali stood up quickly and scowled at Arnav, ran to hit him making him run away.

Arnav chuckled remembering this, how his Di used to call him Chotte and how she used to tease him. She was so happy. Just once, he wanted to see her carefree smile, her teasing gaze.

His parents were happy. His sister was happy. And he had a perfect family who made his life happy and blissful.

His smile dimmed as his mind paused on the year 2001, the year when he started for his 10^th standard.

One day, when he came home from school he saw his father and mother packing their stuff to leave urgently for Lucknow as his father's best friend, Shashi and Garima Gupta met with an accident on their way to meet his father.

Arnav and Anjali were anxious to live alone in the big house for the first time in their life but still managed to do so. A week later their parents returned with a depressed look on their faces and informed them of the death of Shashi Gupta and his wife. Arnav pitied the two girls who lost their parents. He prayed to god for their safe being but little did he knew that he needed those wishes the most.

Next Sunday, Arnav woke up to an empty house with his parents gone to Lucknow once again to check on Payal Gupta and Khushi Gupta. Payal was about to leave abroad for her graduation and her sister, Khushi who was still in 9^th grade was to be sent to a boarding school by his parents.

Anjali was also out with her friends. As the servants served him breakfast, he looked at the empty 3 chairs of the dining table before standing up and walking away without having his breakfast. That day, he sat alone in garden staring at trees absent-mindedly. He had managed to get a whiff of the storm that was about to hit his life.

"Just look at him." He heard his classmates' whispers as he stared at the book in front of him. Today was parents-teachers meet and unluckily his parents weren't able to attend it due to some major business deal for which they were stuck in office. It was the first time they didn't came.

He kept looking at other student's parents before standing up and walking away from there after taking permission from his teacher. He didn't missed the way his classmates looked at him with pity which made him angry.

"Papa, look I have scored the highest marks in my pre-boards." Arnav said happily, showing his progress card to Avinash expectedly. Avinash was about to look at his marks, when he got a call from Khushi and left to talk to her.

Arnav looked at his neglected progress card with a frown before storming away from the house. He totally missed how Avinash came back and saw his marks with a smile. Throughout the day, he stayed out and when returned, he straight went to his room.

From that year, every outing that had been planned in Shantivan was according to Khushi's preferences not Arnav's which angered him and made him opt out of each plan with some or other excuse.

Every evening without fail, he used to see his parent's talking to Khushi and Payal and their meal-time also included talks about Khushi and Payal- how Khushi worked hard to score marks, how Payal was working meanwhile studying for graduation. Questions about Anjali's and Arnav's life took a backseat which hadn't gone unnoticed by Arnav.

And he HATED it. He hated whenever his parents talked about Payal and Khushi. Everything went like this for next 3 years making Arnav angry over everything.

After completing his school, he chose to join London Business School for his graduation and then went Harvard for his MBA staying out of India for more than 5 years, distancing himself from everything.

He didn't regretted when he arrived home only at his Di's wedding day during the last year of his MBA and left quickly after that. He didn't felt guilty of ignoring his parent's repeated pleas of visiting them once. In these 5 years, he used to feel lonely a lot, but his anger always held him back.

His anger over where he went wrong that his parents started showering their love on others than on HIM. Whenever he was unable to find answer to those questions, he used to blame everything on Payal and Khushi. He didn't LIKED them.

The last year of MBA however changed his mind. His accomplishments and his success made him happy. Finally he was able to fulfill his parent's dream.

With that, he finally realized what he was doing. He was ignoring his FAMILY. The peoples he loved the MOST.

Next day, he took a flight to home to apologies to them and finally reunite with them after a gap of 5 years. He was HAPPY finally.

He grinned looking at the bouquet of fresh white lilies he had bought for his mother and glanced up at the house in front of him.

He sighed finally feeling his heart at peace. He missed home. There was no doubt about that. But how terribly he missed it, he realized only now after finally seeing it in front of him. He smirked mischievously, imagining the surprised look on his father's face and shocked look on his mother's and Di's face.

He had straightway denied coming home for Diwali, stating that he will come back only next month with his MBA degree in hand. His parents and sister were sad to know that but little did they know that he was planning to pay a surprise visit to them and to tell them how he had scored highest marks in his batch and has been offered a job in a reputed MNC.

He smiled knowing how much happy they all will be to see him after a year. He just hoped that the gifts he had bought for them from the money he had earned doing the part time jobs, will be liked by them. With a haughty expression on his face, he opened the main door of his house pretty sure that this time, the amount of love and adoration he deserved won't be snatched by that Khushi.

Why the hell was he even thinking about her?

He looked around seeing all the servants quietly doing their work and looking up only when he entered inside, only to smile and greet him.

"Maa, Papa, Di, I am home." He shouted, expecting all of them to run out from their room after hearing his voice.

He waited when he heard a shriek from Di's room and ran inside only to see his Di throwing her phone on the floor, breaking it into pieces as color totally drained from her face.

"Di..."

Anjali looked up at him and he staggered back to see her face looking white as chalk, her mouth wide open. She clutched his hand tightly.

"Chotte, someone shot Maa and Papa. They are in hospital, Chotte."

He panicked seeing her crying hysterically. He never saw his Di like this.

Anjali and Arnav ran through the corridors, their heart filled with anxiety and worry. Stopping at the reception, Arnav asked the room number where Avinash and Aruna Raizada were being treated.

Once knowing that Avinash was still in operation threater whereas Aruna has been shifted to ICU, they ran towards it with tears trickling down their faces not caring about others looking at them curiously.

They stopped outside as the nurse didn't let them enter. Peering through the glass door, they saw their mother lying on the bed with bandages wrapped around her body.

"Maa" they said together, sobbing a bit. Just then, Aruna looked at them and smiled feebly with unshed tears shining in her eyes. She waved her fingers at them like always before stilling. She was GONE.

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!!!!!!!!"

Arnav panicked. He was drowning in darkness, hopelessness and he didn't knew how he will manage to get out of it. His parent's death left him shattered and what he heard next left only hatred in him.

"Sources say that Vishal Malhotra, son of MLA Kaushal Malhotra was the lover of Khushi madam. But Khushi madam tried to break her relation with him. Vishal tried to marry her when your parents tried to rescue her and he shot both of them. Khushi madam too got injured in all this."

Arnav's jaw clenched hearing the police officer's description of the incident and glanced at the ward where Khushi was shifted before throwing bundles of notes in front of him to not register an FIR.

That day, Arnav was glad that Khushi was in coma otherwise he didn't knew what he would have done in his unmistakable rage that he felt was directed towards her. It was the mess created by her that took his parent's life and destroyed all his chances of reuniting with his family. That day,his dislike turned into hatred.

He took revenge in his own way, killing Vishal with his hands and sent Khushi to Payal's place with Dadi. He always kept a watch on her, making sure that she was safe.

Even after doing all this, the hate that had started bubbling inside him didn't die.

He tried to run away from all this negative feelings but he couldn't.

He tried to convince himself of Khushi's innocence but he couldn't.

And after 2 years with what had happened with Di left him totally broken, transforming him into a man who always saw everything black.

Her loud wails pierced his heart. Banging his fists against the closed door, he again pleaded "Di please open the door. Don't shut me out Di. Please open the door."

He froze hearing something falling on the floor. All the sobs quietened down suddenly as he pressed his ear against the door to hear any noise, something that might shoot down the dread filling inside his heart. He panicked detecting no movement behind the doors. Using all his force, he tried breaking the door. After breaking the door, he barged inside to see his Di lying in a pool of blood with a knife clutched in her hand.

He didn't wanted Khushi to get drown in this darkness. After all the efforts that his parents did, she deserved to have a happy life. He wanted to throw her out of his life to save her from becoming the person that he had become.

And he HATED whenever he failed in doing that. Everytime he failed in getting things right in his life, it was because of HER and he hated her for IT.

How can he make others see this?

How can he accept Khushi as his wife when he knows that he have nothing to offer her except his pain and scarred soul?

Getting up, he walked out of his parent's room and went to his room. He entered inside when he saw HER.

Khushi was sleeping peacefully on the bed.

"You are never late to start fresh Arnav but you need to have faith in you about it, always remember that. "

With a sigh, he laid down on the recliner and closed his eyes. He knew that HE is going to have a NEW START.

I won't let my readers suffer because of some silent readers and there is no way I am discontinuing this story.

Please hit 'like' button and comment...I am nervous about this chapter a lot

Aditi

p.s. Happy Diwali everyone 😃