Previous Part : Page 15
Part 4: The bearer of good news
The three reached the crowd that was gathered on the floor. Akash panicked further as he saw Payal on the floor, unconscious. Arnav was already busy dialling the doctor's number. Khushi kneeled with the others and tried to calm Nani down. After Arnav ended his call, he and Akash took Payal into the bedroom. Everyone waited impatiently for the doctor, constantly trying to call Payal back to consciousness.
Once the doctor arrived, they all paced impatiently outside the room. After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor opened the door. Everyone rushed in and were relieved to see Payal sitting up on the bed, smiling. Arnav and Akash bombarded the doctor with questions. The doctor quieted them and gestured to Payal.
"She's perfectly alright! Just look at her! This kind of fainting normally makes families very happy. She is pregnant. I would estimate two months."
For the second time that day, cheers erupted in Raizada mansion. But this time, it was Payal who was surrounded by hugs and congratulations.
"I will need to run some tests...just regular routine stuff. Bring her to the clinic tomorrow. Congratulations." the doctor said before leaving with Mamaji.
Once everyone had quieted down enough, Nani kissed Payal's forehead and then walked to Khushi and kissed hers. Khushi was surprised at the unexpected affection.
"Whoever named you has done it very correctly. Khushi. You have only agreed to become a part of this family and we're already blessed with such great news!" Nani stroked Khushi's cheek affectionately while Arnav watched.
For some reason, he felt a little bit proud at Nani's comment. He didn't believe in stuff like that...good luck charm, miracles, god...Arnav Singh Raizada didn't believe in them.
Nani, Mami, and Mamaji left to pray, to thank god for two great blessings: A wife for their beloved Chotte, and a little bundle of joy. Khushi looked at Akash and found him getting tearful.
"Aww Akash! Don't cry because they didn't give you credit for the baby...but I will...This has nothing to do with me! It was all you, I swear! Right Payal?" Khushi teased.
Akash narrowed his eyes at Khushi while Payal blushed a crimson red.
"Clearly my baby has learned the time management skills from his uncle." Payal looked at Arnav. "He decided to make the entry just when my Jethani is about to come into the house...I can just sit back and relax all day while she does all the work!" Payal teased back.
Khushi giggled. "Of course...I'm warning you right now...I'll mommy you once I'm here."
"Mhmm. She's good at that." Akash said.
After a few minutes, Khushi got up to leave and this time Arnav offered her a ride without anyone having to prompt him. Khushi agreed shyly. After giving Akash and Payal another congratulating hug, Khushi walked out of the room with Arnav.
They had just reached downstairs when Arnav's phone rang. He answered the phone and stopped walking. His expression was unbelievably happy after a few seconds considering that there still wasn't a smile on his face.
As soon as he hung up, he called for Akash and Mamaji but eventually, hearing Arnav's tone, the entire family gathered around Arnav and Khushi.
"Remember that Singapore lawsuit case we had to settle...that's been done...the judgement was in our favour! And our stock prices have doubled in less than twenty minutes!" Arnav announced cheerfully.
Another celebration in Raizada mansion. The third in that one evening. They hadn't had joy like that in that house ever since Arnav's Parents had died in a house fire. Which was years ago.
Nani looked at Khushi again. "See what I mean...it's all because of you...they say that when a daughter-in-law walks in over the threshold of the house, she brings along wealth, knowledge, and joy with her...you're just proved that right."
Khushi's cheeks turned red at the comment and she smiled at Nani respectfully after she received a hug from her.
Minutes later, Arnav had pulled out of the long driveway of Raizada Mansion. Khushi was staring out the window, a small smile on her lips when he cleared his throat to get her attention.
"So it seems that you're the bearer of Good news."
Khushi laughed. "hardly...regardless of what decision I'd made...Payal still would have fainted and you guys would have found out she was pregnant. It's not like she conceived the baby because I said yes."
Arnav couldn't help but chuckle. "And what is your excuse for the business deal that I sealed?"
Khushi raised her eyebrows at him. "You answered that yourself. It was a business deal that you made...my decision had absolutely nothing to do with it..."
Arnav just shrugged. So she didn't believe in such things. She believed in God and she was religious but not blindly. Perfect.
And then it was silent. After a couple of minutes, Khushi turned to look at him.
"Do you mind if I turn the radio on?"
"Uhh sure." Arnav said hesitantly.
"I'll keep it down. Thanks." Khushi smiled at him and he smiled in return, turning the radio on for her. He flipped to the station she wanted. She smiled gently and looked out the window; Arnav could see her lips moving to form the words to match the lyrics of the song.
He let her enjoy the songs as he drove towards her apartment. They didn't exchange too many words for the rest of the drive but they would often give small smiles to each other every time their eyes met.
When his car finally stopped at the apartment, Khushi turned to look at him. "Thank you for the ride again...if Akash hadn't dragged us out of the office...I would have driven back myself...sorry for troubling you..."
Arnav looked tilted his head to look at her, his hand still on the steering wheel. He shrugged. "It's no trouble at all."
"And congratulations again...for the deal as well as the good news."
"Thank you for being the bearer of the good news." Arnav gave her his slanted smile, making her choke on her own breath.
"Good night...Mr. Uncle." Khushi said in a teasing tone as she stepped out of the car.
"Good night..." He replied and watched her walk away towards the entrance of her building. As he watched her turn around to wave at him one more time before disappearing behind the doors, Arnav made a decision that he would implement tomorrow morning.
After dropping Khushi off, Arnav returned home and made his way to his room only to be stopped by Payal. She looked at him wide-eyed.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "What?" He shrugged.
"You tell me!" Payal said. She put a hand on his shoulder. Arnav looked at her hand and then back at her, frowning in confusion. "You're humming!" she chirped.
"Huh?" Arnav just got more confused.
"You're humming a song!" Payal said excitedly. "That is the first time in my life I've heard you humming!"
Crap. Arnav hadn't realized himself that he was humming the song Khushi was listening to in the car. "Oh...I dunno." He shrugged it off as nothing and walked off to escape her grilling.
But she wasn't done. She followed him into his room and closed to the door behind her.
"Bhabhi!" Arnav groaned. "It was just a catchy tune...that is all." Arnav said without turning to face her.
"I didn't even say anything..." Payal complained. "But you yourself gave yourself away...guilty conscious?"
Arnav sighed and turned around. "You're not going to give up, are you?" Arnav asked with a neutral expression, his arms crossed.
"You know me so well!" Payal chirped before walking up to him. He sighed and unbuttoned his coat, pulling it off and tossing it onto the recliner. Payal made him sit on the bed and took a seat next to him. She held his hand with one of hers and put the other hand on his shoulder.
"Why did you say yes for this marriage?" Payal asked softly.
Arnav immediately fell into deep thoughts and she let him take his time but after a couple of minutes, he just sighed.
"I don't know." He said very honestly. "When you and Akash came to me with her pictures, I was honestly just going to glance at them enough to convince you that I had looked at them and then say 'no'. Like I did with the twenty girls you showed me before her...but when I looked at her pictures...something about her made me want to meet her. And I did that. Then, with every additional meeting...I became more and more curious about her and then the other day when Nani asked me the big question...I just said yes. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why I did that. It was involuntary...I felt like I had no control over my tongue at that time." He sighed.
"Tell me something. Do you feel like you made the wrong decision?" Payal gave his shoulder a pat.
He shook his head sideways. "No...That is what frustrates me. I don't know why I made such a big decision...and I don't feel like did anything wrong. It's like I signed some deal without any information on it. Normally I would be worried if I didn't know all the details...and in this case...I'm not worried." His eyebrows knit together as he frowned, trying to think harder.
"Don't think about it too much and don't beat yourself up for it. Go with the flow." Payal said gently. She knew that the mighty ASR was big and strong on the outside but at heart, he was still the sixteen year old who had lost his parents in a house fire. Especially when it came to sharing feelings or emotions, he had to be approached like your normal teenager.
When he didn't say anything, she went on. "Sometimes you have to let your brain take the backseat and let your mind and heart take over. I know...I know." Payal put up her hand when Arnav started to argue. "You don't believe in love...but letting your heart deal with things isn't about believing in love. I know that ASR thinks only with his brain but Arnav thinks with his heart. It was Arnav that agreed to marry Khushi and the ASR inside you is trying to prove Arnav wrong. You have to make sure that you don't let ASR win over you, Arnav."
Arnav looked at her like she had 50 pairs of eyes and four noses. Payal raised her eyebrows at him. "What?" she said clearly confused at the look he was giving her.
Arnav looked at his toes. "She said something similar today...I asked her why she agreed to marry a 'lad governor' and she said that she had agreed to marry the man behind the mask of ASR."
Payal smiled widely at Arnav. "Seems like someone has seen through your ASR act..."
Arnav simply nodded to her statement so she went on. "And that makes you insecure." She said. Arnav started to protest again but Payal didn't let him. "It makes you feel insecure because you're letting someone into your life and you're afraid that that will give them power over you. It will allow her to hurt you if she wanted...You're afraid of getting hurt...You're afraid of giving someone that power."
Payal paused to give him time to comment but he didn't. "Arnav...keep in mind that she's giving you the same power that she's taking from you. At the end of it...you two don't lose anything but you gain each other...like I said...don't think too much about it..Just go with the flow and everything will fall into place."
Payal looked at him expectantly and he nodded. "Okay...enough lecturing...tell me something...do you find her pretty? Beautiful? Hot?" Payal teased.
Arnav's expression became mortified. "Okay that's it...I'm not having this conversation with you...go bug your husband...about...I don't know...baby names!" He said after a quick thought.
Payal blushed and Arnav made a mental note about the baby being one of the things that made Payal blush. This information would be of good use to him, especially when she started her teasing.
Payal ruffled his hair, making him frown, and walked towards the door only to stop at the threshold. "Keep your laundry ready for the morning...and make sure you check your pockets...I can't have you scaring the crap out of Hari Prakash for washing some important documents that got washed.
After she left, Arnav quickly gathered a heap of his clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket in his bathroom. He made sure that he looked through every pocket and indeed, he had found a few things like one of his watches, and a couple of memos in his pockets.
Just as he was about to check his e-mails, he noticed the coat that he wore today hanging on the recliner. Just like with other things, he went through the pockets and from one of the pockets, he pulled out another piece of paper.
He remembered that Khushi and Akash were fighting over this piece of paper. Suddenly, he was in such a rush to open the folded paper and read that he nearly tore it in half in the process.
He was frowning when he started reading Khushi's pros and cons list, but the more he read, the more the frown was replaced by a smile. By the time his eyes fell on the "It's a Yes", he was smiling wide enough to show all of his upper teeth!
He would never ever admit this to anyone but he'd felt some heat rushing to his cheeks, when he had read 'Good looking (very)' under her list of pros.
He read through the cons one more time, making a mental note of each. He then folded the paper and put it in the drawer in his closet that had her pictures in it (the ones that Akash and Payal had showed him).
And now he sat on a deserted road in Delhi, holding the same pros and cons list and a picture of her as tears flooded his eyes. Just then his phone rang; he looked at the screen and smiled.
"Hi bhabhi." He said.
"You are in so much trouble! Where the hell have you been? Why haven't you called since you've gone to India! Do you know how worried we've been! Do you know how much we had to threaten Lavanya until she gave us your new number?" Payal yelled.
"Sorry Bhabhi...I just wanted to be alone." Arnav said simply.
"You've been alone Arnav...for the past five years."
"I know...but I'd rather not be around you guys when I'm so miserable...especially around Sahil. It's not good for him to be around people like me."
"stop it Arnav...Sahil misses you...that's why we had to go through so much to get Lavanya to give us your number. Sahil has decided to not eat until you talk to him."
Arnav sighed. "Your son has inherited his skills at emotional blackmail from you...you know that, right?"
"It's a good skill to have. Especially when there are people like you around...how are you, though? You sound upset..." Payal said, her voice a lot gentler than it was when they'd started the conversation.
Arnav suddenly remembered that he'd seen Khushi in person today. He debated whether or not to tell Payal. He decided against it. There was no saying that he would see her again. And even if he did, he couldn't do anything. Why give the family false hope when she wasn't going to come back. She would have come back sometime in the past five years if she wanted to.
"I was just thinking about some things...where is Sahil?" Arnav asked. He paused when he heard Payal calling out to her son, Sahil.
"Hello uncle!" Sahil said cheerfully.
"Hey champ! How are you doing?" Arnav couldn't help but smile hearing the kid's voice.
"Good...how are you uncle?"
"Uncle is good...but uncle is upset with you...why haven't you eaten?"
"Because I am sad. Everyone is sad. Dadi, mamma, papa, and uncle..." Sahil said sounding glum.
"No one is upset buddy...just go and have breakfast..." Arnav pleaded.
"I will but tell me first...did you find my brother? Or is it a sister?"
Arnav smiled again. "You didn't tell me what you wanted...a brother or a sister?"
"Ummm" Sahil pondered for a minute. "I'm fine with anything as long as they won't fight with me...but girls like playing with dolls...and I don't like dolls. Okay?"
"Alright well...I'll make sure I find you a brother...or a sister who doesn't like playing with dolls...but you have to promise me that you'll eat and be a good boy."
"Okay!" Sahil agreed happily and bid Arnav a goodbye.
After talking to Payal and Akash for a couple of minutes, he hung up and looked at the picture in his hand. Ever since they'd separated, Arnav had become very lonely. After Sahil was born, Arnav had seen Akash bond with him and that made Arnav crave that bond.
He knew that he needed someone in his life to take away the loneliness. He didn't even consider re-marrying because he knew that no woman could take Khushi's place in his life. He couldn't bear the thought of having a child with another woman so he had decided on adoption.
Adoption was safe path. He would have a child he could call his. Someone who would call him 'daddy'. Someone he would care for, and someone who would care for him. He hadn't decided whether he wanted a boy or a girl yet. He wanted a son because he had seen Akash bonding with his son all these years and there was something about that bond that Arnav craved. But then at the same time, He wanted to adopt a girl because the three most influential people in his life were women: His mother, Khushi, and Payal.
Remembering the adoption, he recalled that he had to go to the orphanage in the morning. He got back into the car and started driving home; not being able to push out Khushi's smiling face out of his head.
There you go guys! That was the part for today! After focusing on Akash-Khushi relationship, I wanted to shine some light on Arnav-Payal relationship. I will be zooming through the next few weeks of ArHi's past in the upcoming couple of parts. The story mainly takes place in the present, so I need to complete the past stuff asap. Thank you for your wonderful comments on the last chapter. Hope you all liked this one!
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Love,
Katie <3
Edited by love_iqbal_khan - 13 years ago
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