SS: Living Without You: Part 27 updated - Page 43

Part 24

(All pics credited to uploaders!)

He was distracted throughout breakfast. Amma had to ask him three times if he would have another poori before he heard her. Khushi looked at him, worried. He hadn't gone for his usual jog either. Maybe he was preoccupied with work. But...he looked almost grim. Amma and Buaji looked at each other, wondering if they had done something wrong, if he was unhappy here, if he was missing his real family...

She followed him to his car.

"Arnavji...", she called out.

He halted near the car.

"Are you alright?", she asked, concerned about him.

He looked at her, his face expressionless.

"I mean, you look odd, ajeeb... Is Di alright? Did something bad happen in Delhi? Are you unhappy here?", she asked in a rush.

He looked at her anxious face and swallowed, turning his head away.

"I will be back around 6pm. Let's leave around 6.30.", he said softly.

She nodded, wishing he would tell her the cause of his unhappiness.

He touched her cheek with one gentle finger before leaving. He watched her standing rooted to the spot as he drove away.

She looked at him, driving through the narrow roads of her city to some destination unknown. She wanted to ask him where they were going, but his forbidding mien discouraged her.

She hadn't known how to dress. Were they going to meet his business acquaintances? Was he taking her to his office? Or was it some social function? She had finally dressed simply, wearing the saree that he had given her paired with an old blouse of hers in a golden colour. She had left her hair untied. Her neck was bare, her ears had their usual jhumkas, her arms were adorned with blue-green bangles. She had always known that he was a reserved man who normally spoke little, but had never known that he could be so stubbornly dumb!

The car came to a stop. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed the way he had taken. She looked out through the closed window. Her heart stopped. They were parked in front of Sheesh Mahal.

"This is where it all began, Khushi. We need to start from here...whatever the outcome... There is no escape..."

He came around the vehicle and opened her door. She remained seated and looked at him. He seemed to be under a great deal of strain. His face looked pale, his eyes tortured. She frowned. What was happening here?

She looked at the hand that he had extended to help her alight from the car. She put her hand in his. His fingers enclosed hers.

They walked together towards the open door of the palatial building. The security guards saluted them. He nodded, tense. His fingers tightened around hers.

There was something wrong. She knew it. She didn't know what it was. The why and the how and the when were all mysteries to her. But she knew in her bones that something was seriously wrong here. She tightened her grip on his hand, not because she was afraid, but because he needed her support.

He led her through lavishly decorated hallways and up flights of stairs, his eyes not seeing the people around him. She had known that it was a hotel and that he owned it, but it looked so much like an old Lucknow haveli that... The stained glass, the antique furniture, the spacious rooms, the courtyard, the elaborate woodwork... This house deserved to have lots of children running up and down its corridors, women chatting as they cooked or made batches of pickles, chillies drying in the sun, music and dance, wind wafting the smell of delicious cooking, the tinkling of glass and gold bangles and payal as women went about their daily chores...

He led her into a room and closed the door behind them. It was not a room. It was a suite. She was in a living room which opened to a bedroom with a bathroom. She looked around curiously. This didn't look like a hotel room. It looked like a room in a home, a big home but still a home.

He tugged gently at her hand, and led her to a royal-looking chair. He sat her down. He pulled a chair close to her, and sat facing her.

"Khushi, this is Sheesh Mahal. The place where we met for the first time. It is a hotel now. I own it."

She nodded.

He paused.

"This used to be my home. Mine and Di's."

She looked at him, astonished.

"I was born in these rooms. They...they were my mother's quarters."

She looked around the room. Other than her photo during the barsi and her bangles he had given her during their sham marriage, she knew little about his mother. She had known that he had his roots in Lucknow, but she hadn't thought about it much.

"My mother's and father's families belong to Lucknow. This was my father's house. We lived here... Mama, Papa, Di, I, and my father's brother. Nani, Mamaji, Mami, & Akash lived in their house."

She nodded.

"My childhood..." He swallowed. "I had no friends, just Di. I was naughty and did get in to trouble at home, but for the most part, I was alone... My temper... Even the servants were scared of my temper. Because... because I had inherited it from my father. Shouting, throwing things, wanting everything on his terms, living as he pleased without caring how it affected Mama..."

He shook his head as if to clear it.

"He had lots of friends. He, my uncle, and their friends would go away for days... for hunting... for parties..."

He looked at her and whispered. "You once said that my character was dheela. I wonder what you would have said about him..."

He looked down at his clasped hands.

"Wine... women... mujra...drinking... throwing away money like water... Worse was the shouting and the fights at home... He..he found fault with Mama for everything. She was strong-willed, like Nani. And ...and she l..loved him. She would fight back, try to make him understand that his friends were using him... that he was being a fool... that he was destroying their marriage... that he was killing his family... But...but he was determined to go to hell in his own way. And he did. It is just that ...he took all of us along with him. All of us..."

He paused and drew in a long breath to control his tears.

"Di's wedding was fixed. Oh, not that scoundrel, Shyam. It was another spineless wonder... The wedding was at night. In the evening, Di was ready. The ladies were dancing. The house was lit from top to bottom. Music, laughter, her friends teasing her... She had made me wear a kurta. I came down wearing it to show her that I had obeyed her... She looked so beautiful... so beautiful, Khushi. I gestured to her that she looked gorgeous... I remember that moment. That one moment in time, the last moment of happiness..."

He twisted and turned his fingers, betraying his anguish. She covered his fingers with hers, unable to bear his pain. He looked at her with moist eyes, and held on to her hands, drawing strength from her firm hold.

"There was a gunshot... From Papa's study... I heard Mama scream... Uncle was shouting... We ran to the study. Papa...Papa had shot himself... in the head. He had lost everything, you see. He had written away everything to his brother, signed away everything under the influence of alcohol... Bankruptcy and poverty stared him in the face... There was no money for Di's wedding. The property and money that he had intended to give Di ... all were gone. All taken by his brother...The bridegroom and his family refused to honour the engagement. They left after informing the invited guests of the truth. Papa..Papa took the easy way out...

Mama... She loved him too much... More than she loved us... She...she took the g..gun, and..and in front of us..."

He bent his head, holding on to her hands like a lifeline.

Silent tears poured down their faces, harsh breaths the only sound in that room lit by chandeliers and ornate wall lamps.

"Next morning... after the funeral rites... our uncle threw our belongings out of this house. He said... that he had no intention of feeding or housing us. We ...we stood on the lawn of our house... with our clothes and books scattered all around us, helpless, crying... At that moment, Nani and Mamaji came... Papa hadn't invited them to the wedding, you see. He hated them because they had tried to dissuade him from his wild ways. So Nani and Mamaji had been staying at a relation's house in Kanpur when they heard the news. They took us to their house."

He breathed deep.

"Nani and Mamaji...they looked after us, paid for our education, sent me abroad to learn... Khushi, I studied every moment of every day, not wanting to waste a minute. I wanted to finish studying so that I could earn, pay our way, not be beholden to Nani... All my anger, my pain... I used it to fuel my ambition.

I returned from the US, and wanted to start my own business. Nani sold the house and properties in Lucknow to fund it. Mami sold her jewellery and gave me the money. Then I went in search of investors..." He sighed. "I finally started it."

"Twenty four hours in a day were not enough for me, Khushi. I wanted each day to be longer so that I could pack more work, more achievements into it. I built RM for Nani, Khushi. She had lost her husband and daughter, brought up two grandchildren... I wanted to buy Nani her house in Lucknow, but she said that she didn't want it. I bought Mami as much gold as she wanted. She has thrown in her lot with me when I was a nobody. Mamaji and Akash stood by me, helping me with the work.

I had two more things to do, Khushi. I married Di off to the man of her choice. I gave her a house in a posh locality in Delhi, gold and diamonds, a bank balance that would keep her secure for life even if I died, a monthly allowance...

The last thing left on my list was Sheesh Mahal. I wanted to buy it back from Uncle and give it to Di... She refused to take it. But I needed to buy it for her... I had been stalking Uncle for years. He was deeply in debt, and had pledged Sheesh Mahal. I pulled the rug from under his feet.

I bought it the day we met... That was the first day I had set foot in Sheesh Mahal after being thrown out by my uncle years ago...I felt as though one part of my life had come to an end and the next was beginning..."

He looked in to Khushi's eyes with red and tear-filled eyes.

"I organised a fashion show here in Di's honour...

...And then you fell into my arms."

Part 25:

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/2990495/ss-living-without-you-part-27-updated

edited - wow!! it was so touching, i still have tears in my eyes! i'm glad he told her everything about his past, in sheesh mahal..

omg! it's awesome.. they way he is opening up to Khushi. He is giving her an insight into what he is. Completely naked in front of her.

beautifully written...

Yeeeha what a lovee three updates. Im loving it yummy. What he wanna talk. Yes about marriage. I knew it yar.

I clicked the curser in the reply box and started to think about what I should write, and when I couldn't think of anything I just decided to tell, how utterly speechless I am.

So emotional.. I had tears.. Very well written part.. please continue soon..

Smita!

Fabulous as always - That by far is the most plausible flashback I have read .

You might as well forward this to CVs ,who ares till grappling with it.

Muah - Loved it !😳

P.S - I dont generally comment on fan fiction although I read most of them. But, lady I read your work and my fingers automatically start keying in characters on the keyboard!

i am literally gasping reading this! this felt SO right! i loved arnav's monologue and trust in khushi! and the last line! heaven! wonderful wonderful wonderful! can't wait for the next update already!