ARHI SS: Revival (Chapter 9 posted 08/07!) - Page 20

Originally posted by: bubulswt

amazing update

Love they Arnav expressed every thing he is feeling

how Khushi is handling every thing

waiting for next part

Interlude I

"Khushi?"

She paused, and raised her head at the tentative whisper. Suhana stood at the door, two mugs in hand. However, her gaze dropped just as Khushi's questioning eyes rested on her.

Watching her walk towards her and occupy one of the chairs, Khushi sensed that there was something she wanted to express, wanted to talk about. The hesitance and the averted eyes, they were uncharacteristic of Suhana.

She swept her gaze across the empty room, and kept aside the cloth she had been using to wipe the stains that the counter had acquired through the day. After a rather busy day, everything was now back in order for the following day.

Only the two of them had stayed behind to wrap up for the day. While Emma and Grace had gone out-of-town to meet with a businessman who could potentially assist them in their plan for expansion, Meera had returned home early to study for her upcoming mid-terms. It was evident that she had chosen this time to convey what had been nagging her.

For the past few weeks, she had observed Suhana's unsettled, detached behaviour. It was unlike her. But somewhere in her heart, she had discerned the reason behind it.

It was the night of the little party Suhana had thrown at her home when they had discovered that she was pregnant with twin babies. All of them had accompanied her to the doctor's on that cloudy, monsoon morning for her first ultrasound -- having helped her maintain her composure and then ironically, ending up more anxious than she had been the night before.

She recalled how they had all cried out in joy and the sparkle in their eyes, when her gynaecologist had broken the news to them. Cookies had been on the house for each customer who had visited the cafe that day. And Suhana had taken it upon herself to whip up a scrumptious dinner for them.

However, she had been woken from her sleep in the middle of the night by Suhana's broken cries. She had been soaked in sweat and breathing heavily, as she had held on to her blanket and called out for her baby. Caressing her hair softly, she had tried to soothe her into realising that it was only a nightmare until Suhana had fallen unconscious, into a fitful slumber.

Shaking the memory away, Khushi settled into a chair carefully, her hand protectively curving around the rapidly stretching swell of her stomach. She had acquired the habit early into her pregnancy and it had only heightened after she had recently entered her second trimester. Extending her hand, she accepted one of the mugs and silently nudged Suhana to continue.

"How are you feeling, now?"

"Much better, now that the morning sickness has finally eased. But we aren't here to talk about that, are we?"

She heard Suhana take a deep breath -- as if inwardly preparing herself for a battle -- before she raised her eyes to meet her gaze. Contrary to the earlier hesitance, her eyes were dark now, and hardened. She felt the coldness overcome her demeanour, the detachment, and the deliberate indifference.

"No, we aren't. Khushi, the last time I had a nightmare of this sort was eight years ago. And unfortunately, I know where this one stemmed from. I don't like talking about my past, solely because I've left those painful memories way behind. However, now that they've resurfaced, I want to nip them in the bud. But first, I want you to know the reason. Because even in your little time here, you've become an indispensable part of our little family. And there are no secrets in a family."

Khushi placed a comforting hand over hers, extending her silent support. However, she only acknowledged it with a slight nod before she resumed.

"I come from an affluent family based out in Delhi. Ever since I could remember, I had always been the pampered princess of my house, given anything I wanted. However, when I turned nineteen and told my parents that I wanted to go to culinary school, one of the families in our social circle proposed my match with their son. My parents were in awe of those people's wealth and wanted to maintain their social position, so after forcibly persuading me to agree with promises of a prince charming and a happily ever after; they shipped me off to the States with my new husband, a complete stranger. Because for them, that was how it was meant to be."

Suhana shifted her eyes to the scattered, purple tones of the fading light that remained after the sun had sunken into the valley. She could hear the distant echoes in the street outside, of gay abandonment and playful chatter. And suddenly, everything dissolved into a blur as she found herself entranced, back in the beautifully gardened lawn of the suburban house that she was to be her new home.

Loathingly, she recalled her naivete, the wonder in her eyes as she had looked upon the striking face of her husband, the man whose hypnotising grey eyes had cast a spell upon her. His arms had enclosed her waist in their strong trap, and his charming grin had enchanted her, his blushing new bride.

"Come here, my love. Never will I let you go."

Carefully, he had spun an intricate web around her and beguiled, she had walked right into its heart. His every touch had made her hold her breath, his luring whispers had heated her skin, and for those few months, each time her heart had fluttered, she had foolishly believed in the illusion of affection he had created.

And then one night, her world had suddenly come crashing down. The mirror of illusion had shattered, and the shards of glass had pierced through body, puncturing deep holes into her spirit with each attack.

Revulsion coursed through her veins and she yanked at the scarf wrapped around the neck. As the bright coloured cloth came loose, Suhana fisted her hands into it. She knew that she was walking down the same path she had trained herself to evade. But she knew she had to do it.

And suddenly she had returned to that golden cage where her screams pierced through the air, the sound of leather striking flesh had echoed through the hallways, where the whispers of his satisfied grunts had crawled beneath her skin.

"...It became a routine. It had started with one blow to my face when he thought he caught me flirting with another man at the party. After every beating, he would apologise, speak words of love, and for the longest time I would fall for it. I would naively believe him. But suddenly, his temper would flare and he would strike me with anything he could find and lock me up in the house. There weren't any other women, no. But I really wished that there had been. To the world, he was the perfect husband. And for me, he had created a personal hell. Because I was his obsession."

With each passing day, she had felt herself die a slow death. She had been abandoned by her family, and willingly handed over to that monster. And with time, all her hopes had suffocated in the grey walls that seemed to be closing in, to be burying her in the darkness of the tunnel whose faraway end she couldn't sight.

But it had seemed that life wasn't willing to let her give up. Broken and exhausted, the day she had decided to lift the sharpened blade, she had discovered the presence of her child, breathing safely in her womb.

"I didn't want to be like him, I didn't want to kill my baby. However, I dreaded telling him. For a week, I didn't. But when he lost his temper next, and I knew what would be coming I confessed, because I couldn't risk harming my child," Suhana paused, shifting her gaze to the flickering street light outside the door.

"Surprisingly, he took it well and threw promises of a happy family at me. I had learnt not to trust him, by then. Every day, I feared for my baby. And then one day, it happened. What I had been afraid of."

Suhana's eyes clenched shut as rapid flashes obscured her vision and raised voices reverberated in her mind. His angry eyes had made her heart drop as he had marched into the house, shouting for her.

Looking at his rugged appearance and unsteady steps, she had wanted to hide behind the first door she found, but she had known that he would use his brute strength to tear it down one way or another.

For the first time, she had watched him rip off the mask he had so carefully stretched over his face every day. And with every step that he had taken up the stairs, her heart had shivered for her baby's life and she had dropped to her knees, pleading for mercy.

"What for, my love? I'm doing you a favour getting rid of that bas***d. You shouldn't have betrayed me, Suhana. You are mine. Only mine. Trust me, my love, one day we'll have a family of our own, yours and mine."

All she had remembered before the searing pain had shot through her abdomen, was his breath reeking of alcohol as he had lifted her on her feet and violently shoved her against the wall. Her memory of the ensuing struggle, the courage that she had daringly mustered in the spur of the moment and its consequence was fogged.

However, the image of him lying unconscious on the floor had ever since been embedded in her mind. It was that image which had led her to the road of acceptance, where she had decided to never plead with anyone again.

It was in that moment that she had resolved to never let anyone separate her from the lone ray of hope that had permeated into the darkness she had been submerged in, and made her rise from the ashes of her burning existence.

"...By the time I reached the hospital, the bleeding had worsened. For all my courage, I hadn't expected my child to survive, Khushi. I had thought that he had taken away my child from me. But the doctor, he said that I had been pregnant with twins."

Having lifted the burden off of her chest, Suhana met Khushi's tearful eyes. She was biting down on her lip to prevent the sobs from escaping. Understanding the younger woman's predicament, she placed her hand over hers in assurance, smiling weakly.

"I returned to India with a friend's help and filed for divorce. Turned out, he had a history of mental illness. His parents had thought that his treatment had been complete long ago. And I had thought that after everything, I had finally returned home. But I could sense people's pitiful eyes on me; I could hear their whispers and what hurt was that my parents wanted me to do nothing about it, even when I didn't expect anything from them.

"A few days after I was granted divorce and my unborn child's sole custody, my grandmother passed away. She was the only one who had been against the match from the beginning. She had always been supportive of my dreams, probably because it had been her dream too, once. And even in death she had led me to the path I had been seeking."

My dear Suha, I am sorry that I couldn't be there for you when you needed me most, when you suffered at the hands of that monster. But now, as I feel life slipping away from me, I want you to go and live yours. I am leaving out ancestral home in Shimla in your and Samarth's name. Raise your child in the house that you love, forge a path for yourself and go follow your dreams.

"That day, I decided to move away from the society that had forced me into the worst years of my life. Samarth was supposed to go to Law school that summer, but he decided to postpone it for another year and stayed with me here. I could sense the regret in his heart, the guilt that he hadn't been able to help me.

"But Khushi, if I saved myself, Samarth helped me survive in this new world. And it was Emma who welcomed me into it, with my first job. She didn't care for experience, or my past. All she wanted was a chef in her kitchen, one who loved food as much as she did. Our dreams make the soul of this cafe, which has now accepted you into its warm folds too."

Smiling through her tears, Khushi noticed the softening of Suhana's eyes. Not for the first time, she saw the warrior in her shine through, now transparent to her. In her eyes, she could see the young woman who had suffered at the hands of a ruthless man who had derived pleasure out of it. She saw the eleven-year-long journey, where she had learnt to fight the world, raised her son and fulfilled her dreams.

Her heart soared with pride as she realised the role Suhana had played in shaping her life, and bringing her out of the air of despondency she had surrounded herself with. Embracing the woman, who in a short time had become no less than a sister to her, Khushi glanced around the cafe.

The place had been built on dreams, and pillared by hope. It radiated the warmth that was an innate part of it, and had sheltered anyone who had come seeking a home.

As she slid on her sweater and switched off the last light, her eyes met with Suhana. And together, they left what had come to be their home. A home they would return to, the next day.

A/N - So, here is the peek into the past I had been going on about. It was a difficult chapter for me to write, simply because I understand that this kind of suffering inflicted on women is unfortunately not uncommon in our society.

I do hope you like the chapter. As always, I would love to here what you have to say. So, do leave behind a line or two.

See you all, next Wednesday!❤️

Just founds this SS and read it in one go...it's amazing! I love the changes in Arnav and Khushi's characters and can't wait to see how their story progresses! Great job and look forward to more updates :)

superb update

Suhana is a phoenix

Oh poor suhana...

Its painful to read so it must be difficult to write too.

It's so good ..I read it thrice .. lovely update n u r right it is not new in our society where women suffer ..but it's not the end of life .. suhana is inspiration for many ..

suhan is an inspiration to many women

only 1 word to describe your story beautiful the pain n emotions u have potrayed beautifully thk u