"Khushi, we know the mistakes we did. We should really have gone to Arnav son, to ask for a forgiveness...But we soon realised the damage we had already done was beyond repairs."
Khushi had her eyes closed in the laps of her mother. She was treasuring the moment that she had gotten after years of long struggle. And she was truly feeling the heavens in her arms. She was listening to what she was saying, but she had no words to say. She just didn't want to.
"How is our second little grandchild?" she asked, when she thought she didn't want to talk anything related to past as tor now.
"It is fine," she said in a low tone.
"Why didn't Hazel and Arnav come?"
"They are going to come to pick me up..."
"You sound tired, do you want to sleep? But before that I really suggest you eat something..."
She shook her head. "No," she told her.
"You can sleep if you want!"
"I am okay..."
She smiled and continued to caress her hair lightly. "Khushi, you don't know how much you have lightened weight off our shoulders by coming..."
That was the problem with her...Weight of her parents off their shoulder might have lessened but on hers, it had only doubled...
"Mom, let us not talk about it, please..."
Her mom let the pain of her words drone to the bottom of her bones. She kissed her hair. She then talked about everything, but anything that might trouble her. She continued to speak and then only to realise she was unheard, Khushi had slept. She smiled to herself and kept caressing her hair.
She vowed down to kiss her cheek. "Stay blessed, sweetheart."
"Mrs. Gupta," Mr. Gupta knocked on the door, when he saw Khushi was sleeping, he lowered his tone. "Arnav, son, has come..."
"Oh, make him sit, I come!" she said. "Okay!"
She carefully laid Khushi's head on the pillow, and got out of the bed, and covered her properly with the blanket. And increased the temperature of the AC a little bit, so she doesn't catch the cold. She closed the door behind and left to see Arnav and Hazel.
Hazel was sitting in the drawing room with her father as soon as she saw her grandma she wanted to go to her, but she wasn't sure if she should. Arnav got up the sofa, so did his daughter. "Good evening, Ma..." he said and touched her feet.
"Stay blessed, son!" she said and saw Hazel has not yet made a move towards her.
"Hi, Nani!" but she greeted.
"Hazel, go ahead!" Arnav said. Mrs. Gupta dropped to her knees.
"Hi, Hazel, how are you, honey?"
"I am good, how are you, Nani? My mom was missing you, so she came to see you, and I was missing you so came to see you and Nanu..."
"Aww..." Mrs. Gupta had tears in her eyes, but she quickly brushed them off and sniffed. "You know how much I missed you?" She said and looked at her in affection.
"Yes, I missed you too. How are you feeling now? You were sick, right?"
She nodded. "I am fine now, my dear."
"Where is Mommy?"
"She is in the room, asleep..."
"Is she fine?" Arnav immediately asked, a worry in his tone. "Did she stay well all day..."
"Yes, she did. She is absolutely fine."
"Did she eat her medicine?"
"Yes! She did. Please you sit, I get dinner on the table."
"Please, son, come..." Mr. Gupta said, and walked him to the dinning area.
Arnav lightly smiled and followed. "Daddy, can I go with Nani?"
"Sure! But make sure no Candies..."
She grinned.
"Yes, no candies!" she said, and ran after her grandma.
Mrs. Gupta stopped for her. "Nani," she whispered.
She picked her in her arms. Arnav looked at her and shook her head, he knew she was going to ask for it. "Nani, do you keep candies for kids?"
"Candies, yes, you want some?"
"Ma, don't give her the candies, she gets really hyper..." Arnav said from behind. Hazel bit her tongue. Mrs. Gupta did the same.
"What say, you still need it?"
She looked confused and was unsure if she should. She made a sad face. "You know, you can give me one, but promise you will be a good girl and don't tell daddy that you gave me a candy. Otherwise, he will be mad at you, and I don't want that to happen."
She couldn't stop herself from laughing.
"Since your dad don't want me to give you a candy, what I can do is give you in a secret. But only one..."
"Okay, that will work. But only if you think I helped you..."
"Helped me?" she questioned.
"Yes, I will help you keep the food on the table. Then as a reward you give me a candy..."
"Aww...But dear I don't want you to work...There are people to help me..."
"But I want to..."
She is the exact replica of Khushi she realised. Just like her, Khushi loved candies and loved to help her in the kitchen. Mrs. Gupta took the spoons from the countertop and give it to her. "Okay put them on the table..."
"Okay..." she said and clenched spoons in her hands and walked out to the dinning room and gave to her daddy. "Daddy, can you please keep these spoons nicely?"
"Sure!"
"Thank you, daddy..." she said and ran inside the kitchen.
"Nani, why don't you come to our home? Ruhani di's grandma comes to meet her every month," she asked returning back.
This question of Hazel embarrassed her. She wouldn't have told the truth so she decided to tell her otherwise. "I promise I will visit you more often now..." she said, cheerfully.
"Promise?"
"Pinky promise..." she said.
***
Just before they started having a dinner, Khushi came to the dinning room.
"Khushi, bitiya, you already up?" Mr. Gupta said.
Arnav looked at her.
"Yeah, I dozed off..."
"But it's good you are up, come and eat."
She shook her head. "I don't feel like eating..."
"Good evening, Mommy!" Hazel spoke.
She sat beside her and kissed her hair. "Good evening, angel. How are you? Did you behave as a good child on my behalf?"
"Yes!"
"What if you are lying?"
"Then I would tell you Nani gave me a candy!" she said.
Everyone laughed.
"You won't tell...?"
"No!" she said, not realising she had already.
"Hmm...Do you want me to help you eat?"
"Yes!" she said.
"Arnav, do you need something else?"
"Huh, no. I think I am good. How are you? Did you stay well whole day?"
"Yes, good. How was your day?"
"It was good...Why don't you eat something? Just a little..."
"No, I will later if I need to...You eat well."
"Arnav, son, have some chicken!"
"No, thanks, dad. I already had too much."
***
A shooter aimed Shyam at his gun point, but he saw it through the glass reflection. He kept walking, and told his security guard about it. His six guards guarded him from all four sides.
"I know that gun is pointed at me. Let me get into the car, and then one of you go the other side and catch him. "I know who have sent him...Now this is the heights, enough of being innocent..." he said.
He sat in his car as soon as possible. His other guard slipped to catch the shooter behind.
***
"Mom, I think we should go now..." Khushi said.
"Khushi, you didn't even eat your dinner..."
"I had breakfast and lunch...I will go home and eat."
"Promise?"
"I will!"
"Okay, before that, there is something for my little Hazel..."
"For me? What?" Hazel asked excited.
Mrs. Gupta took a huge pink gift bag from Mr. Raizada. Hazel's eyes enlightened. "Haww!!! Is this for me?"
"Yes, for our little princess from our side.
She was going to take it...
Arnav cleared his throat. "Hazel, what you have to say first?"
"Thank you, Nani..."
"Okay, then say it to her..."
She looked at Mrs. Gupta and said, "Thank you, Nani. This was not needed..."
They both laughed, and Arnav and Khushi looked at each other and shook their head.
"By the way, what's inside it?"
"You look for yourself..."
"Did you give anything for my Ruhani di?"
"Yes, dear, I have..."
"Yay! Daddy, Nani promised that she will come home as well!"
"That's good!" he said. "Okay, we shall ring you once we get home."
"Sure, go carefully, and do come soon..."
"Sure, dad!" Khushi said and hugged both her parents.
"Khushi, take care of yourself and your child, don't stress yourself much..."
"Yes, dad!"
"Bye, Nani, Nanu!"
"Bye, dear!"
Khushi held the gift bag and Arnav fastened her seatbelt. "Nani, Nanu, I will really miss you..."
"We too, dear."
"She is a melodrama queen!" Khushi said.
"Just like you, even you used to do like this, right, Mr. Gupta!"
"Of course..." khushi smiled weakly.
Arnav touched their feet. "Stay blessed, son. Take care of yourself..."
"Do come home..."
"Sure!"
Khushi carefully sat in the front seat and Arnav helped her.
Mr. Gupta sighed and looked at his wife. "Finally this happened. Finally they came...I can't tell how much I feel free..."
"I know! Things had taken much more drastic changes already..."
***
"Khushi," Shyam said in a haste.
"Jiju, what happen?"
"I just escaped an attack..."
"What?! What kind off attack..." she asked already scared.
"I was coming out of my office, there I saw someone had aimed a gun at me...Luckily I had my guards. And also, I saw the reflection of the shooter in the glass...Khushi, I am fine, all I want you to be is safe...I will be okay."
"Jiju, please listen me, leave India for a while..."
"What are you saying, Khushi? I would never do that, you know that it is not the time to leave..."
"Jiju, someone is coming I will talk you later..." she said in haste and cut the phone.
It was Payal. "Hey, Khushi, you have come, how are you? How was your day at your home?"
"It was good, bhabi...How was everyone at home..."
"At home everyone was good..."
"Anjali di?"
She sighed. "She needs time, Chote has gone to talk to her..."
"Did you eat something?"
"No, I didn't feel like..."
"Khushi, in this condition even if you don't feel like, you should eat..."
"I will definately..."
"Okay then, rest. I need to see if both girls have slept..."
"Thank you, bhabi, for taking care of Hazel..."
"She is my daughter too, dear...No thank you needed!"
***
When Arnav came back he thought Khushi had slept. He silently closed the door and tip toed entered the room. When Khushi heard a little noise of his footsteps. she realised he had come. She looked at him.
"Oh, I thought you were sleeping..."
"No, not yet...I was waiting for you..."
He walked to the bed, and sat beside her. "Don't feel sleepy?" he asked.
She shook her head. "What did Anjali di
say? She must be very mad at me..."
"Mad at you? Why you think so?"
She shrugged her shoulder. "She hasn't talked to me after that night..."
He sighed. She kept her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm. "It's nothing like that. She isn't talking to anyone. I tried to talk to her, but she didn't say much. I have accepted the situation, because I have moved on and I have you and our children to take care of, but for her it's hard. Anyays, you don't take tension. I don't want things to get worst than they already are. And please, Khushi, in this situation stay strong..."
She looked down at his heaving chest in calm and then in his eyes. She nodded her head. "I will as long as you are with me."
He held her hand in his and give it a squeeze in an assurance. "I am always with you, no matter what..."
"Thank you for letting me go home today."
"Anything that I can do for you!"
He kissed her hair.
"When is your regular checkup?"
"It's in three weeks..."
"Hmm! Are you sure you don't want to eat anything?"
She nodded. "I am fine!"
"Okay sleep then..."
"Good night!"
"Good night!"
***
Her phone buzzed in the middle of the night, under her pillow. Her sleep broke. First she thought it was her alarm. But upon checking it was a phone. And an anonymous number.
"Hello!" she said in a half sleep state...
"Wake up, Mrs. Raizada, because I am sure what will happen next will surely leave your sleeps unsettle for your whole life..."
Khushi was angry and afraid at the same time. She took no time to sit up the bed. "You killed her, it was because of you she died. If you had not known about her betrayal she would survived. You are a murder...Remember this. And I will not make anything easier for you in anyway until I have taken revenge of her death...Now you see what I do next..."
Phone cut.
"Hel..." Phone from her hand slipped in her laps. "Because of me she died?" she questioned. "No!" she shouted, now she forgot Arnav was sleeping next to her.
Hearing her shout, his eyes flew open. "Khushi, what happened? Why did you shout?"
She immediately hugged him. "Khushi, what's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"
She instead of telling him about the phone call nodded. "Yes, a bad dream..." she muttered getting hold of her furious mind and heart.
"Khushi, shall I get a glass of water for you?"
She immediately shook her head. "No! Please stay here..."
"Okay, I am here, not going anywhere...it was just a dream, Khushi. Stay Calm..."
She nodded, but Arnav's console didn't work at all. This phone call had traumatised her then she already was.
Her furious heart beat against his chest did tell him that she wasn't at all okay.
He pulled away from the hug and cupped her face. He searched for something in her eyes. "Khushi, is there anything that I don't know?"
She was clueless. "What to say and what to tell him?" she thought.
The other half of the truth? But it was not easy when the lives of Aman and Shaya's son Ahaan's was in danger.
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