SS: Keeping Khushi (Part 14 Updt on Th 2) - Page 77

Ahh let's see wat khushi has to say abt arnav's marriage proposal !!
Bt I m sure she will disagree !! She has baba n the orphange to look after

I just wanted to let you know that I am thoroughly enjoying this story!

awesome update
arnav family members knows every way to trap him and mae him confess everything... mami and NK are hilarious😆
he must be sweating badly... he has a reason he very well know after his proposition of live-in to her... she can definitely say no...

nice plan cooked up by the Raizada's.. lets c how Khushi responds..

wow!! wow!!! amazing yaar!!! please update today itself na.. I love this jealous arnav!!! 😊

I am so a sucker for a smitten Arnav!!!!! I am totally under the spell. Thank you.

Please Please Please update the next part now. And make it long!!! You updated 3 parts in one day once. Start doing that again. I so want to read what happens next as I have stopped watching the serial on TV. Can't tolerate the illegitimate child track. So your story has to give me the normal dose of romantic Arnav and a pure divine relationship between Arnav and Khushi.

nyc part...wow! so nw he wants to marry her...

(-NishaSobti-, Thanx for the banner!)

Part 12

Khushi stood at the door of her room, looking at the small enclosed courtyard opening out from her room. Other than for the light streaming in from other rooms, it was dark and it was raining. Raindrops fell on the hundreds of buds on the jasmine plants she had so lovingly planted in pots, waking them up. Their scent permeated the air. She smiled.

She held her hand out. Cold water trickled down her fingers. Soon she extended both hands in the rain, and began playing with the water. She laughed at the feeling of water wetting the long sleeves of her blouse, and running up her arms.

Baba looked at her from his room on the top floor. She laughed again, unaware of being watched by loving eyes. He smiled. His taarva.

Khushi smiled at herself. It was scary to think of herself as a woman. She had never done so. Not once in 21 years. When she had looked at herself in the mirror, she had seen everyone's Di & Di Amma, Baba's daughter, a musician, her students' teacher, but...but never a woman. But these days, something was happening to her. Spending time choosing a matching bindi, her hand pausing over the saris while selecting one to wear...because of the look in someone's eyes.

She began to hum, and then sing a kajri, a monsoon love song telling of the longing of a maiden for her lover.

Barsan Laagi Saawan Bundiya Raaja
Tere Bin Laage Na Mora Jiya...

Barsan Laagi Saawan Bundiya Raaja
Tere Bin Laage Na Mora Jiya...

Mera Bhi Tum Naam Na Lena
Unse Jaakar Yeh Keh Dena

Tere Bin Laage Na Mora Jiya...

Sasi Sharma watched his daughter for a while. She had grown up. She was becoming a woman now, with a woman's longing for a mate. Must be Arnav Singh Raizada's effect on her, he thought. All other men she knew were her brothers or chachas. Only Arnav Singh Raizada had succeeded in flustering her, disturbing her peace, making her talk about their past. When she had told him about meeting ASR's family at the temple and the questions he had asked, Sasi Sharma had been intrigued. He had realised that ASR had changed, that he was now seriously interested in Khushi. But was he man enough for her? He would have to wait and see.

He looked at Khushi playing in the rain. It looked like the fire had been lit on both sides. Now what would be the next step?, he wondered.

She smiled wryly. She was being foolish. Maybe reading meanings into his looks and words, his touch on her arm which had made her heart flutter so... And even if he meant them...it was of no use. No use at all. Her life was in many ways a punishment, a curse. That did not mean that others had to pay the price for it.

She walked into her bedroom and looked at herself. The flush on her cheeks, the bashfulness in her eyes, the rapid beat of her heart...She placed her hand on her heart. She looked at herself in the mirror, and told herself softly, "Khushi, you are a fool. Don't let your foolish daydreams leave this room."

Sasi Sharma turned his head away from the window and looked at his wedding photo on the wall. He walked up to it. His wife smiled at him, the faded photo unable to dull the brightness of her smile, the almost incandescent joy on her face. He slowly dragged a finger down her cheek, and murmured, "If they are half as happy as we were, I will consider them blessed."

Arnav walked up to his room, finally escaping from the collective expression of delight expressed by his family. He wiped his neck awkwardly. It was wet from his sister's tears. How could one person cry so much?

He was happy. Happy that his family knew that he wanted to marry Khushi. Very, very happy that his family loved Khushi. Thrilled that his family was going to talk to Baba about his marriage to Khushi. But more than happiness was his fear of Khushi's reaction.

Would she accept him? After their disastrous first meeting at the studio, after inviting her to be his mistress, after doing everything he could to force her hand, if he proposed marriage, wouldn't she laugh at him? Worse still, would she think that he was a loose fish, inviting every woman he saw to be his mistress? How could he make her understand that he had never done anything like that before? Would she believe him?

He strode towards his garden. It was raining. Chill wind and cold rain plastered his clothes to his body. "Khushi!", he called silently. He confessed to the night air, "I am sorry. Sorry for every moment of grief and worry I caused you. Sorry for all the stupid things I did. I..I had never felt anything like this before. I couldn't let you walk out of the studio, Khushi. What if I had lost you? I thought I could keep you with me if I offered you the world of ordinary women. Money, Success. Position. Security... I...I didn't know what your world was made of, Khushi..."

An hour later, he returned to his room to sleep, dressed in warm clothes, a glass of milk with haldi in his hand. Aman had come with the file from Fingerprints detective agency. He took it in his hand, and sat on his bed. He didn't want to read it. Khushi had told him everything he wanted to know. He set aside the glass of milk, and got up to place the file in his locker. As he was about to push it inside, a thought struck him. Maybe the file had a photo of Khushi. He quickly flipped it open.

Yes, there was one. She was in a gorgeous gold and maroon sari, her hair in its customary bun, the pallu draped over her shoulders, smiling at Chotu. It must have been taken at some concert of hers.

His eyes fell on the details given below.

Khushi Kumari Gupta

Age: 21

Father: Siddharth Gupta

Mother: Gouri Gupta

He frowned. Where had he heard those names before? They were not unique names, but somehow they...

He carried the file back to bed.

Khushi had been their only child.

Other relations: Unknown.

They had been living in a rented house. The house had been rented out within one month of their death to another family. Their belongings had been thrown out by the house owners who hadn't expected Khushi to survive. His jaw clenched. If he got 2 minutes alone with those scoundrels, just 2 minutes, he would teach them a lesson they wouldn't forget in a hurry.

He skimmed the report for details of the accident, letting all the info about Khushi's present occupation and abode go. He knew all that. Yes, the accident...

Khushi & her parents had been going to see a movie. About 1km from the theatre, another car had crashed into their taxi. Arnav felt cold. He shivered. Reason unknown was the cause cited by the police. The cars had burst into flames. Arnav felt breathless. He rubbed his chest, and carried on reading. The taxi driver and Siddharth & Gouri Gupta had died immediately. Khushi alone had escaped. First considered almost dead, she had been rushed to the hospital, where she had remained for months.

The occupants of the other car too had burned to death. Aravind Mallik and his wife, Ratna Mallik. His parents.

The file fell from his nerveless fingers. He could smell the iron in his blood as it rushed through his body, driving him senseless with shock. Then came pain.

His father. The ultimate good-for-nothing scoundrel. He had made his own family's life hell. Killed his mother many times with his actions & words before killing her in the accident. And killed Khushi's parents. And made Khushi suffer pain and the loss of her family. Made her an orphan. Tears fell from his eyes, trailing down pale cheeks. Turned her homeless, left her alone, hurt, in pain.

At the age of seventeen, Arnav had taken over his dead father's affairs with the help of his uncle. He had become responsible for his family. Aravind Mallik's extravagance had emptied the family's coffers, bankrupted a thriving family business, destroyed Arnav's childhood and made him grow up before his time...

And now from beyond the grave, Aravind Mallik had succeeded in destroying his son's life a second time.

Part 13: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3239275/ss-keeping-khushi-part-14-updt-on-th-2