Helloooooo….so just a request. Since I posted this before migrating this story to the FanFiction section, I urge you to follow this link and go there to read. Thank you!
https://www.indiaforums.com/fanfiction/chapter/23348
So, this is my attempt to write a new SS on Arylie. This AU is very different than the one in Full Circle, my current SS.
Full Circle took elements from the current show and built on it and is a spin off. Whereas this one, retains some of the personality traits of the original characters, introduces a few new characters and a familiar but not often used trope. Let me know what you think of it and if you think, its worth writing further.
Since, Full Circle is not yet completed, I will post new updates on this one, after that one is either almost complete or complete. Please, do bookmark the mltr16 story index thread by clicking on the eye icon at the top so you get updates every time a story is posted. Saves me a lot of time tagging people. Alternatively, you can add this thread to your watchlist.
I hope you enjoy this new AU and SS, too! I am certainly enjoying writing it so far 😃 --- Love, M
Chapter 1:
Narmada stood at the door with 3 files in her hand, silently watching her son's dark bent head, as he worked at his desk in the library.
She sighed, this was not how she wanted to become a grandmother, but her mother-in-law was ill and wanted Aryan to give an heir to the family. Her mother-in-law came from old school thinking where an heir to the family inheritance was mandatory.
Aryan, who had never been able to say no to his grandmother, had come up with a solution that satisfied her and met his vow of never emotionally committing to a woman again.
Narmada sighed. Curse that woman who had cheated on him and broken her beloved son's heart to this extent, she thought.
Aru had tried hard to please Natalie, appease her, made compromises to satisfy her. All in vain. Little had he known then, that Natalie was not only swindling him out of money but also cheating on him behind his back, for months. He had been devastated when he had witnessed her betrayal with his own eyes.
Three months later, he had come back to Delhi, a broken hearted, aloof, divorced man. Her son had forgotten to smile it seemed, the light in his eyes had dimmed, replaced by a stone-cold glint. That had been 4 years ago. Plenty of time, her mother in law had said, to get over a broken heart.
They had been carefully broaching the subject of remarriage for the last year and Aru had adamantly refused to even entertain the thought, finally losing his temper one day, tossing the photos she had thrust in her hands.
"Why are you doing this, Maa? Dadi? How many times and in how many different ways do I need to say this? I. Do. NOT. Want. To. Marry!" his normally calm voice escalating as he finished.
They had pushed him too far, the women had realized. But her mother-in-law was not beyond using every wile to bring her grandson to heel. So she pulled out her most powerful weapon.
Looking at him with sheer disappointment, her eyes full of tears, she had said in a broken voice "You shouted at me? I have loved you unconditionally from the moment you were born, Aryan. Don't forget you were this little,” she held her hands slightly apart, “born early, your mother had almost died birthing you. With these hands, I took care of you, held you, fed you, changed you. I know you better than you know yourself. You dare raise your voice to me, Aryan Singh Rathore? I am not long for this world, Aryan. I have not seen you happy in the last 4 years. That is all I want, for you to be happy. That and to see you give this family a rightful heir to carry on the Rathore legacy. That's it."
Aryan had pinched his nose, attempting to control his breathing and compose himself. He was not a man given to losing his temper and today he had insulted two of the three most important women in his life. It was not that he hated women. He didn't. He just did not want to go through the pain of loving and losing again.
"Fine. Give me some time to think about it, Dadi."
"That’s all I want, son. Just take the first step forward, my child. One does not stop living because of one heartbreaking experience. Picking up the broken pieces of your heart and learning to be happy again, that is living, Aryan. Life does not end when someone dies and leaves us, does it? Someday, I will be gone too…." She trailed off knowing he would interrupt.
"Stop, Dadi. Please. Just stop. I know what you are trying to say and have already promised you. I will think about it."
"I want an answer within the week, Aryan." Dadi tipped her chin and stated firmly.
"You will have your answer, in one week."
Once he had left the room, Narmada had looked at Maa and smiled triumphantly. She knew well, they had manipulated him. But it was for his happiness. Last time, he had married a woman older than him, without their blessing. This time, they would find just the right person for him.
Aryan, calculating that he was, had come back to them exactly one week later, as promised.
That night, Arpita had come over for dinner with her husband Anand Iyengar. Aryan had taken Anand into the Rathore family fold soon after Arpita had announced her wish to marry her childhood friend, 3 years ago.
Arpita, widowed early in her marriage to Arvind, had got back in touch with Anand after meeting him at a school reunion. Their lives had reconnected and it seemed that Arpita had found a partner again. Anand had been a widower as well with a 2 year old daughter, Chinmayee, who everyone lovingly called Cheeni. Just like her name, Cheeni had brought her innocent sweetness to their lives. She was the one person around whom, Aryan seemed to loosen up a little more. He doted on her and it seemed that Cheeni could not get through one week without seeing her Aryan Mama.
Aryan treated Anand like a brother,. Granted, he was still cautious sharing his love, having lost Arvind in the past. But he considered Anand as family and wanted him present when he announced his decision. A decision, it seemed, that would affect all of them.
After dinner, they had all had moved Dadi's bedroom.
Aryan had seated Dadi on her bed and Narmada had sat next to her mother-in-law, eagerly waiting to hear if their plan had possibly, finally been successful.
Arpita sat at Dadi's feet, while Anand leaned against a closet, waiting for Aryan to start.
"Dadi, when you spoke to me the other day, you mentioned two things. The first, my happiness, which according to you and Maa lies in re-marrying. The second was providing an heir to the family to carry on our legacy. Is that right?"
Narmada and Dadi nodded in unison, waiting with bated breath.
"I have decided that I can grant one of your two wishes." Aryan watched the older women carefully, noticing his Dadi, furrow her brow immediately, her mind already going through the various combinations of what he was proposing.
"I will provide the Rathore family an heir. However, there will be no marriage."
"An heir. But no marriage." Dadi repeated slowly and Aryan could see her lips tighten as she tried to make sense of his cryptic sentence.
Aryan looked around the room. His gaze met by a mixture of expressions. Confusion and disapproval from Maa and Daadi. Arpita di looked apprehensive but Anand looked curious.
"Do you want to elaborate?" Anand straightened up slowly and asked, looking at the elders and then back at Aryan.
"Surrogacy. I want to hire a surrogate to carry my child. The Rathore family will have the heir to carry on our legacy. And your wish will be fulfilled Dadi. My vow will remain unbroken.”
"Have you gone mad?" Dadi exclaimed, her outrage clear for all to see. "The Rathores do not father illegitimate children!!"
"The child will not be illegitimate. Boy or girl, it will have my name. It will have me and this family, to love and raise them. The baby will just not have a mother."
"This is blasphemous!" Dadi fumed.
"This is my best offer to you, Dadi. You wanted an heir. You will have an heir." Aryan replied calmly, his face completely impassive.
"Maa, Dadi. Aryan is right. He does not want to marry and forcing him to marry a girl he does not love will only make him unhappy. On the other hand, he is willing to accede to your other wish, right?" Arpita volunteered. Always the peacemaker.
"But love can come after marriage too, Arpita Beta." Maa protested.
"Yet, it may not. And I am no longer willing to spend my time, emotions or energy on a relationship that potentially has no future. No further discussion, please." He held up his hand as Dadi opened her mouth to protest.
He looked at the frail, elderly woman who had been a second mother to him as she sat with her back against the headboard, and sighed. She was a force to reckon with and he knew she wanted him to be happy again. But his happiness no longer lay in marriage and the emotional baggage that came with it.
He crouched down on the floor next to her and gently pulled her resisting hand in his covering it with his other palm.
"You know I love you, Dadi. Maybe even a tad bit more than Maa!" he caught his mother's eye and winked at her. "But, I cannot live on the hope of finding love again. I tried once and failed so badly, that I ....I just cannot bring myself to do it again. You are essentially asking me to marry a stranger, bring her to this house as my wife. Shouldn't she be worthy of love and respect? I may even be able to respect her, but I will never love again, Dadi. Can you imagine the number of lives that will spoil?"
"Why can't you think positively for a change, Aryan?" Dadi asked, sounding irritated..
"Because I have been burnt once. Badly. I will not repeat the same mistake again." He sighed and raised her hand to his lips, kissing it before lowering it back to his lap. They all fell silent, processing the implications of what Aryan was saying.
Anand cleared his throat and broke the silence first.
"There is a small problem with this, Aryan."
Aryan looked up enquiringly at his brother-in-law.
"The Indian Surrogacy Law is being re-introduced in the houses soon. Now granted our legislative process is slow and both houses will be at recess soon, but you will have to move fast if you want to pursue a commercial surrogacy here, in India, Aryan."
Aryan nodded. Anand was right. He was a lawyer and an authority on the matter after all. He would have to move fast. Once the child was conceived the laws would not be able to stop him, even if the bill passed.
"One of the ladies in our Women's Club is an infertility specialist. She maybe able to point us in the right direction to get this process started. I will call her first thing tomorrow morning." Arpita said, as she started looking up contacts on her phone and walked over to where Anand was.
Aryan stood up and looked around at his family. Dadi was still pouting. Maa looked disappointed but smiled reassuringly at him. He felt Anand slap him on his back. "Congratulations on taking the first step, brohter!"
"Anand!" Arpita smacked her husband in the arm, as she stood next to him, looking pointedly at Dadi.
"How about this, Dadi? You and Maa can go through any candidates for the surrogacy and choose a couple of suitable options. I understand they are already vetted.." he looked at Anand for confirmation, who nodded, "but, we will run a full background check anyway. Once you shortlist a couple of women, I can interview them to make sure they would be the right fit." Aryan winced inwardly. His words sounded all wrong - candidates, options, fit. He hoped the women in his family got the right idea and did not chastise him for his bluntness.
"Aru, the woman that is chosen is not a commodity, okay?" Arpita admonished him.
"I am sorry, di. I didn't mean to offend. It's just that I don't know the right language to use in this circumstance. I am a businessman for god's sake. Cut me some slack here!"
"We are cutting you enough slack as it is, Aryan." his grandmother huffed, crossing her arms and looking away. "Heir out of wedlock, indeed." she grumbled.
Aryan could not hide the small smile that tugged at his lips. She looked adorable when she was mad at him. There was a time, when he would have goaded her more by giving her a monster hug, but not anymore, he thought, his smile fading as he looked away.
Those playful days were gone.
“So how does it work?” Dadi asked grudgingly.
Aryan lifted a brow in surprise.
“Well?" She prompted him.
“What do you mean, Dadi?”
“You are deliberately being dense aren’t you, Aryan? Fine! Let me spell it out for you. Who is the mother? The surrogate? And do you have to ……,” his grandmother stared at the ceiling muttering under her breath, “sleep with this woman?? God, I hope she is fertile enough.”
Aryan nearly choked on his tongue as she finished.
“Dadi!” Arpita di intervened, “Science has come a long way. He will not need to sleep with her. There are women who donate …..eggs, just stop frowning, Dadi. It is all done in a sterile way, in a lab, in a …..petridish.”
“Just how stupid is that, Aryan?” Dadi’s sharp gaze targeted him again. “Children should be made with love, not in some stupid dish. What nonsense is this, that you are proposing??”
“Well it’s the only wish that is getting granted and the only way I am willing to do it, Dadi.”
She glared back at him for several seconds, but he was not going to back down.
“Fine! Now get started. Tomorrow. There is no time to waste. Tonight, I have to pray to the lord for a sweet mannered, fertile woman so that the baby is a shining light for this family. I don’t want a tramp who is willing to sell her body for money.”
“Eeeeessh! Dadi! Stop already.” Arpita sounded appalled. "What are you even saying? We are not going to pick someone off the street!”
“Good! I should thank the lord for small mercies! I am just so mad at you right now, Aryan!” She huffed.
A minute later, Dadi looked at Aryan again with beseeching eyes. Lord the woman could give a seasoned actress a complex, Aryan thought, amused at her attempts to sway him.
“Are you sure we can’t just find you a sweet mannered girl to marry instead, Aryan?” She implored him, but Aryan was onto her.
“No, Dadi. I don’t want any more complications. This is my best offer to you.”
“Offer! As if this is a business deal. Okay fine. I accept. Start looking for the woman tomorrow. I don’t know how long I have.”
Aryan rolled his eyes at her melodramatics and quietly left the room.
**************************
Narmada knocked on the door to Aryan's study and he raised his head to look at her.
"Maa! Come on in. Why are you standing at the door?" he asked as he stood up and rounded the desk.
Narmada walked in and Aryan met her halfway, gently guiding her by the elbow to the comfortable couch in his study.
As Narmada, settled herself on the couch, Aryan sat on the coffee table, facing her. He had grown up to be such a handsome man, Narmada thought to herself, so much like his father. She felt her eyes dampen at the memory.
"Aru? Is this really the only way?" she asked him, her heart aching for the man he had become, an unsmiling, serious, calculating man.
"It is the only way I am willing to do this, Maa." he looked at his mother, knowing she hurt for him. But he was just not prepared to consider the alternative they wanted him to pursue.
Narmada sighed and held out the three files she had been holding on to.
"Here. Arpi and I looked through all the possibilities that had been suggested by the agency and narrowed them down to these three."
Aryan's lips curved into a lopsided smile, "Dadi did not look these over?"
Narmada shook her head. "She refuses to. She is still mad at you, Aru."
"I know, Maa. But she will come around, eventually. I will have my assistant set up the interviews this week. Thanks for your help with these." Aryan stood up and walked over to his desk, tossing the files on it.
"Aren't you going to look at them?"
Aryan shrugged. "Later."
Narmada stood up and walked up to her son, gently putting her hand on his face. "Aru, there will be days, when you will regret your decision, not to find a companion, someone who will be your friend, your well wisher. A woman who will stand by you through thick and thin. I worry about you, my son."
Aryan covered his mother's hand. "I loved someone deeply once, Maa. The scars of that betrayal are still there, a constant dull ache that never goes away. Please, Maa, I beg you. Don't make me go there again."
Narmada sighed and slipped her hand out of his grasp, gently patting his arm instead.
"Good night, Aru." she said softly and left the study.
Aryan stared pensively at the floor. Never again, will I let anybody that close to my heart again. "Never!" he said softly to no one in particular. Turning around, he switched off the desk lamp and walked out of the room.
Little did he know that for a man who wanted no complications, destiny was about to send a whole storm his way, of the emotional kind.
Ah! But Aryan Singh Rathore. Haven't you heard? Never say never. His DESTINY threw back her head and cackled, Good luck, Aryan! she called out as she watched him stride briskly down the hallways towards his bedroom.
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Coming up: Meet Imlie Mishra. How does Imlie's fate intertwine with Aryan's?
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
