A/N: hi guys..extremely sorry for the delay.
It's NOT the last chapter. There'll be Part 17 too.
Well it had to be one single chapter but I figured it's better divided.
Part 17 will be posted soon as it's already half written. Hopefully tomorrow.
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Part 16
She wakes up to her phone ringing and a heavy weight settled on her chest. The warmth unsettles her.
It takes a while to come to senses, to come to realise just what all had happened the previous night. Arnav had gotten engaged. Aman had gone missing and then found. And she had made love to Arnav. Twice.
The sweet ache in her body reminds her of the same as she slowly tries to moves away from the weight on her chest, the weight of Arnav's face nestled against her breasts like a baby's. He lets out a moan of disappointment in his sleep and she can't help but peck him on the cheek. He sighs in return. She doesn't remember the last time his face looked this peaceful, she muses, as she slowly removes her bare self from his and gets out of bed.
After a quick shower she busies herself in making morning tea for him. His words rings in her head again and again.
"I'm going to take you away and marry you. I don't give a flying f**k about anything else."
She smiles. He said he was going to marry her. Everything is going to fall into place now, she thinks to herself. They're going to make it work. Together. Against all odds.
Pouring the tea into two cups she walks back into the bedroom.
"Arnav?"
"Mmm.."
"Arnav, wake up, it's nine. I got tea for you."
He slowly opens his eyes with a yawn and it doesn't take him very long to flash her a smile. She suddenly finds herself blushing.
"I made tea for both of us."
He sits up as he looks around and then sighs. His upper half is bare, the covers dropping to his waist, and Khushi can't help but flicker her eyes away from shamelessly staring at him every now and then.
She's about to pick up the tea from the bedside table to hand it to him when he suddenly holds her hand. She stills.
"Is this a dream?" He whispers as he turns her palm around to lightly caress it with his thumb.
Khushi's eyes well up. She doesn't know how to answer this. This...this calmness is overwhelming.
"Come here," he says as she obediently shifts to his lap and into his arms. He holds her as she settles her face against his shoulder.
They don't exchange words as he slowly soothes her back and she breathes his scent, her nose against his bare shoulder. Words aren't needed.
The doorbell suddenly rings starling them out of their perfect moment.
"I'll go see," Khushi says.
"Let it be," he says stopping her by holding on to her waist, "some more time..."
"But Arnav..."
"Please..."
She's about to give in when it rings again. And then again.
And then ten more times.
Arnav sighs as he lets her go. "I'll be back quick," she says and hops off the bed.
When she reaches the door, the ringing is more persistent. Curious, she quickly opens the door.
She feels her stomach contract when she sees who it is on the other side of the door.
Dadi.
"I needn't have come here if you could you have just answered your phone. I've been calling since last night."
"Dadi, I'm - "
"Yes, I'm sure you do not know where your phone is. Or were you avoiding?" She says as she enters her apartment and stands in the middle of her little living room.
"I wasn't avoiding, dadi, I - "
"Where's my grandson?"
"What?"
"I know he is here, Khushi. I saw him leaving with you last night..."
"Dadi, he...he's not here," she lies out of nervousness. She wants to speak the truth but she needs him by her side when she does so.
Dadi chuckles. "Is that so?"
Khushi sighs and is about to confess when dadi says,
"Anyway, my grandson isn't even the reason I'be come here. That is secondary and I would surely have to talk to you about it, why he would still follow you like a puppy after all these years..." She says, "Now, do pay attention to the reason I'm here, Khushi. Your mother has taken ill..."
"What? What happened to her?"
"If you had answered your phone, dear, you would have known. It's not good to avoid responsibility like that."
"But what - "
"Payal and her husband have already left," dadi informs her.
"Without me?" She cries out.
"Well, no one knew where you were, dear."
She's about to reply when Arnav comes and stands by the door. She closes her eyes as she waits for dadi's reaction.
"So my grandson is here, after all."
"Morning, dadi" he says, not sounding very pleased." He says, "didn't expect to see you this soon."
"I've to go..." Khushi suddenly hears herself say.
"Where are you going?" Arnav asks curiously.
"Her mother has taken ill. She has to go home, Arnav."
"What? I'll go with her," he says as he turns to look at Khushi, "I'll go with you."
"You cannot," it is dadi who replies, "you have responsibilities here. The work...and you have meet Aashna and apologise for fleeing the party like that last night..."
"To hell with Aashna..." He starts to bite out, "Do you think I care about the work, or her. Khushi, I'm coming with you."
"No, you're not, Arnav." Dadi replies again. "You cannot just leave...let her go alone. Her mother is sick, what will she think? She's engaged to someone else and..."
"Khushi," Arnav ignores dadi and turns to Khushi again, "tell me you want me to come with you."
Khushi looks up at him, helpless. "Arnav, I want you to but - "
"But...but - ?" He says angrily, "Khushi, I'm repeating. Ask me to come with you."
"Arnav..." She says as tears roll down her cheeks. She feels weighed down by dadi's stare and her mother's reaction when she walks in Arnav. How many times had she made Khushi promise to stay away from Arnav? No no, it would have to wait, she decides, the truth would have to wait.
"Arnav, I - I need to speak with you."
His face already looks shattered and eyes, forlorn. Detaching her eyes from his face, she turns to dadi for permission.
"By all means," dadi says as she looks the other way and Khushi slowly walks up to Arnav to lead the way to her room.
Her heart flutters looking at the way the bed looks: messed up and thoroughly made love on. She cannot believe just until a few minutes ago there was so much calmness in this very room.
"You're going to leave me, aren't you?" His voice brings her out of her thoughts as she turns to look at him leaning against the wall with a look of hurt and accusation in his eyes.
"Arnav, no. But I need to..I need to go alone. You know mother never liked me with you..." She tries to say.
"I know what's going to happen. You'll go there and your mother is going to make you understand just exactly I would be a f**ked up lover for you, how I would hit you like my father hit my mother and how much of a womaniser I'd be. Just like my father."
"That's not true, Arnav," she says as she tried to cup his face between her palms against his struggles to shrug them off.
"And then you'll come back and distance yourself from me...and marry Aman. Don't you see how it's going to be, Khushi?"
"Arnav, she's sick, baby. What if she sees you with me and throws a fit like she did the last time. And you know very well how it ended up, her blood pressure rose up by digits. And I don't...I don't even know what's wrong with her right now. What if she's really sick, arnav? And dadi...dadi doesn't want you to come with me..."
"f**k dadi...Khushi. Tell me what you want."
She steps closer in reply and presses her lips against his, tasting her tears on his lips. "I want you to come, Arnav," she kisses him again, "but I'm scared..." Another kiss.
"You're going to leave me...you're never going to marry me, are you, Khushi?"
"Arnav..." she says as she cups his neck and presses her body to his in a desperate attempt, "Arnav...look at me. Don't - don't do this right now. I need to...I need to go alone. Please don't do this right now."
"But this time.." She says as she caresses his hair and neck and sighs when she feels him surrender and his head drop on his shoulder, "this time I'm going to talk to my mother about us. I'm sure she'll understand, Arnav. Will you pray for her? Pray that she gets alright soon?"
She feels him nod his head as her shoulder gets soaked with his tears. He pulls her closer into his arms and she kisses his hair.
"You've to take care of the situation here too, right? You've to talk to dadi...Aashna. Don't you think they deserve an apology and an explanation?" She says as she places more kisses.
"I love you, Khushi. Promise me you won't ever leave me.." She hears him say against her neck before he starts dropping kisses making her whimper.
She pulls away from the hug as she holds him by his neck and presses her lips to his again, "I promise. I promise. I'll be back and - "
"Khushi, I'm sending you in our car, dear. The driver is downstairs. You must hurry." It dadi who now stands in Khushi's room trying to act nonchalant even after witnessing what she shouldn't have, two ill-fated lovers in each other's arms.
They quickly pull away as Arnav wipes his tears and calmly steps into the adjoining balcony and Khushi nods and starts packing the necessities.
"Thinks things through, Khushi. Think and decide well. A lot of lives depend upon your decision." is the last thing that dadi says to her as she looks into Arnav's eyes for a silent good bye and steps into the car.
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"How is she now?" Khushi asks as she sees her sleeping mother. Already having lost a lot of weight since her husband's demise a few years ago, she looks like a skeleton, a ghost of a person with her pale wrinkled skin stretched on bones. She looked at least twenty years older than her actual age.
"Better. She's been asking for you. Where were you last night, Khushi? We all got a worried." Payal replies and then comes to sand next to her, placing a soothing hand on her shoulder, "she's not as bad as she looks. But last night we got a scare when the neighbours called us.."
"I know, she's a...she's a strong woman. She told me last time that she was not going anywhere before seeing all her grandchildren." Khushi says with a smile and welled up eyes. "Has she not eating well? She's lost more weight it seems." She says walking towards her bed.
"You've lost weight too, Khushi. Why are you not eating well? Where is your wedding glow? You're supposed to go fat and skinny!"
Khushi turns her face towards the window. "I've just been too busy with work, I suppose."
"Are you not happy with marrying Aman, Khushi?"
Khushi looks back at her sister. How could she ask her that after literally forcing her to say yes to Aman? "Why are you asking me that? I thought you wanted me to get married to him."
"Look Khushi, he's your friend. And he's rich. Do you know how happy that much money can make you? Aman is the only son, Khushi...can you imagine a better life?"
Khushi sighs and turns away not wanting to carry on the discussion at the moment. She knows there'll be no end to it in the coming days.
"Arre, why are you not answering? I want to know." Her sister persists.
"Yes, a life where my marriage won't be a compromise." She hisses back.
"What? How is your marriage a compromise?"
"You wouldn't understand. You just want a life for me which once you were trying to have. But Payal di, even you married for love and see how happy you are."
"Who's willing to marry you for love, Khushi? Your Arnav? But he's marrying the rich girl. Love doesn't come easy, Khushi, so when the age comes, you've got to take what's given. You'll always be a mistress to Arnav, never his wife. Remember that."
"Like you were to his father?" Khushi says and immediately regrets it. She's never before confronted her sister about this.
Things are silent for a while before Payal says, with a little hurt in her eyes, "I had to do it for Piyush. I'm not proud of it but that's behind me now. My husband knows about it and accepts me as it is."
"Don't I deserve to marry a guy like that too, Payal di?" Khushi asks as she takes her sister's hand, "Di, last night...last night I was with Arnav. Aman went missing and Arnav helped me find him. He said he can't let go through this alone..."
"You were with - "
"And then he asked me to marry him."
"Khushi - "
"And I'm marrying him, di. And you're the first person I'm telling this to. I know we were never quite close growing up but we're sisters. I would need your support, di."
Payal opens her mouth to speak but just then her mother's broken voice fills the room.
"Khushi you're here! Where were you, you stupid girl. And what are you two sisters doing in the corner? Do not tell me you're fighting for the will. I've already got it made."
Wiping her tears Khushi walks back to her mother's bed with a smile. "Of course, you've made it already. How are you now?"
"I'm better now seeing both of you. Now I can die peacefully."
"You're not dying, ma." Khushi says as she sits by her mother and takes her hand in her. "Don't say such things."
"You don't know, I just saw a dream Khushi. Your father is calling me. It's time to go."
"Ma, what are you talking about. You're perfectly alright." Payal says as she comes to stand next to Khushi.
"It's not the first time I'm seeing this dream. He's lonely up there. My only regret would be not seeing all my grandchildren. Payal you must have another one, a girl now, to complete the family. And Khushi, same for you, a boy and a girl. Tell that to Aman, you understand?"
Payal turns to Khushi, "I swear she is fine. I don't know why she's talking like this."
"Ma," Khushi tries as her eyes well up, "you're not dying, not before you see my marriage and your grandchildren."
Few hours later, as the hospital darkens and they try to sleep, Khushi sits on a chair next to her mother's bed with her mother's hand in her and her head on the bed.
"You'll do fine without me. See how you've been living alone all this while. But now you'll have your husband too. He'll take care of you." Her mother says.
"Stop talking about dying, ma. You're perfectly fine. Do you know, if this one test wasn't left, they could have discharged you tonight?"
"I'm glad I'm dying in my land. In the city where will you find a place like this? Cool fresh air and flowers so colourful. You know before your father and I got married, he used to pluck rhododendrons, collect about fifty and leave them all by my window? They were my favourite flowers, and your father, my favourite man."
"Ma," Khushi sits up, "you never told us you guys had a love marriage."
Her mother smiles shyly, "that's not a thing to say, you silly girl."
"No wonder. I always thought you guys were so in love!"
Her mother chuckles. "We've had a good married life, Khushi. And I pray you do too."
Khushi feels tears pricking her eyes. "He wanted to come, ma." She hears herself say not being able to stop herself anymore.
"Well then why didn't you get him?"
"I asked him...not to." She says as the tears finally roll down her eyes, "he was angry with me but...he understands. I asked him to...I asked him to pray for you, ma. You'll be alright...very soon. We'll get married soon and then...every holidays we'll come visit you. Sometimes you'll come to us too. You know what he says, ma? He says we'll have a summer house here. How lovely would it be? You'll stay there and decorate it as you want. And then we - "
Her mother smiles a knowing smile before inturrepting Khushi. "You're not talking about Aman, are you?"
She quieten as her mother continues, "you've never before shared your dreams like that, that's all. How is that troubled boy?" She asks then as if she'd known just who her daughter was talking about.
Burying her face in her mother's palm Khushi cries for a good half a minute before she recovers enough to say, "he's asked me to marry him ma."
"And what do you want to do?"
"I love him ma...and I want to.. I can't live without him. I've tried...we've tried but..."
"His mother...his mother used to cry...howl sometimes. But only when alone. His father used to strike her. Did you know this? She never told me herself, always smiling and laughing with me, but she was a lonely woman. He would strike her with a belt. I saw the marks on her with my own eyes."
"I know...I know, ma, but Arnav is nothing like his father."
"She was like us, you know. Well, not as poor as us but certainly far from being rich like the Raizadas. The difference, no one let her ever forgot. She was always the outsider. No one was nice to her, not even her own husband. And it was a love match, she'd told me. Perhaps, her mother-in-law wanted to be nice but she was a busy woman and didn't have time to go out of her way to be nice to her daughter-in-law. Besides, she's one class conscious woman and for her to even allow her son to marry a woman who doesn't match their family was a big deal. Even Vineeta's own daughter was evil to her reminding her that she wasn't one of them. It was only your Arnav, the youngest in the house, who was nice to his mother. Even during his rebellious age, he would sit by his mother and ask her not to cry, ask her to her strike his father back. I knew then, that the boy was nothing like his father."
"Why did you ask him to stay away from me then ma? You knew how much I loved him."
"I was scared. I - I still am. But not as much as before. I know how your happiness lies not with Aman but with Arnav. But his grandmother...I'm not sure if she'll let it happen, Khushi."
"We'll fight for it. Arnav told me that. We're together. It'll be all alright. I know it."
She chuckles as a hand comes to khushi's head to caress, "make him good Mutton Korma. It's his favourite, isn't it? You're the best cook of that dish after your father. I don't even come close."
Khushi giggles as she wipes her tears and kisses her mother's hand before keeping her head on it. They talk for some more time before they both fall into deep slumber.
When Khushi wakes the up next morning, her mother looks more beautiful and healthier than she's looked in years.
But she's also still.
Lifeless.
And not breathing.
~~~~~~~
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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