The Betrayal
Chapter 1:
Khushi was hurrying downstairs as the telephone in her home rang insistently asking for her attention. She'd been putting her twins to bed when it first started ringing. She'd thought she could always get back to whoever had called through her answering machine and so had continued to read the twins their bedtime story. But as the telephone was back to making noise again--she'd hurriedly ended the story, tucked the naughty duo-Shaurya and Suhana in their respective beds, picked her six month old angel and headed downstairs--and now she was glaring at the telephone that had just stopped ringing when she reached.
Damn! Why didn't people call on her cell-phone if they wanted to speak to her? She thought as she was just reaching to check the call list on her machine.
Double damn!! She had forgotten where she'd left her cell-phone. Last she knew she'd had it with her around evening when the twins had returned from school and were fighting to play some stupid game in it. Later when she had scolded them and asked them to get to their home-work she had lost track of it.
Oh dear lord! Arnav is so going to be angry on her if it was him who'd called on the land-line number. Khushi sighed. But he would know it was always the case with her. She would never pick her phone but would always answer the land-line. But still he always lectured her about silly things like these.
"Answer your god-damn phone Khushi!"
"Khushi! Don't do that!... Khushi! Come here!"
What was she? Five?
Khushi giggled. She was not a kid. She was a mother to not one but three children. He never tried to understand that she didn't need lectures. She could give lectures. In fact she'd just finished one with her children about "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wise!". Phew!
Praying that it was not Arnav who called she was about to reach the display alert on the machine when her attention caught the reflection in the mirror on the wall behind. She forgot about the telephone and moved toward the mirror.
There! She was frowning again. She was doing that a lot lately. The reason she could not fathom. Her face looked tired. She was tired. Suddenly she felt she had aged a good five or eight years more than her twenty-six. Scrunching her nose she made different faces at the mirror. But what she didn't notice was her little baby was trying to mimic her, trying her expressions.
Suddenly she felt a tug at her shirt and found her little baby Aaryan trying to wreak at the buttons in an effort to expose her breast. A greedy child at times but he was impatient now.
"No," she mock scolded and tugged her shirt back from his fingers. She kissed the top of his downy head and just then the telephone started ringing again. Hitching Aaryan on her hip firmly she reached for the call.
"Hello?" she sounded distracted. All her attention on her son who was now trying to stuff his entire fist in his little mouth.
While the person on the other side answered casually. "Hi. It's Sheetal."
"Oh, hi Sheetal!" Khushi was pleased to hear from her cousin after a very long time. She frowned at the surprise call but stopped just in time and smoothed her forehead.
Her attention was back again on her son who was now drooling. Cradling the cordless between her ear and shoulder she tried to pull his fist away from his mouth. "Chottey, please wait a little baby!"
The baby scowled and pouting she mock stared at him teasingly to scare him. His bright brown eyes firmed on her. Aaryan might have been the bad-tempered and the most demanding of her three children but she adored him the most. How could she not when she just had to look at him and see Arnav looking back at her?
Aaryan was a carbon copy of his father not just in looks but in mannerisms as well. She'd seen photos of baby Arnav in his grandmother's albums. As a matter of fact she'd even nick-named him Chottey', after Arnav's name from his Nani.
"Aren't your brats in bed yet?" Sheetal sighed. Sheetal Mishra never made a secret of the fact that she found the children irritant. She was a tall, beautiful, independent woman, successful in her career as an event manager. She had made her mark in her own way in a man's world and strode in highly polished circles.
Hard to believe that the cousins also had been best friends once during school. A couple of years older to Khushi, but Sheetal had always been very protective toward her, saving her from bullies in school or saving her from her parents' bashing. In spite of growing up together in the same neighbourhood they were poles opposite. So different were they that sometimes Khushi thought they both were from different planets. Sheetal-the sophisticated, career-woman, while Khushi-the comfortable, stay-at-home mother.
"The twins have been put up." She told her friend. "Its Chottey that is troubling. Aaryan?" She said that to her son to mock him and also to her cousin. Because Sheetal mostly never got even the names of her children correct.
"And Arnav?" Sheetal asked next. "Is he home yet?"
Khushi smiled at the disapproval in her cousin's tone. It was always like that. Arnav never got along with Sheetal and the same was true from the other end. They were hostile and uncomfortable when stuck in the same company. But they only remained civil for the one and only common factor-Khushi.
"You can call him all sorts of names you want. He won't overhear you." Khushi laughed at own joke but Sheetal remained tight lipped.
Usually at this not a new joke Sheetal would vent off her opinion about Arnav, which she could never say it on his face and Khushi never minded that and it never worried her. Because her cousin never thought ill of her, how much ever she may dislike her husband. But this time it was the silence that worried her.
"Is something wrong?" Khushi clutched the phone back into her hand. Even Aaryan had gone quiet she noticed.
"You could say so. I tried your phone but you wouldn't answer. So I called at your telephone." She clicked her tongue as was her habit whenever she was tensed. "Listen Khushi, I feel very low to break it to you, but you have the right to..."
Just then a shriek sounded behind Khushi's back and she turned to see Shaurya slide down the balustrade of the small staircase and Suhana towing behind. Aaryan jumped in her arms to see his older siblings fly down. Shaurya muttering something about water' headed toward the water purifier picking a glass on the way from the table.
"Khushi? I can hear you are busy. I'll call you back. Or better you call me tomorrow whenever you become free."
"Wait! Give me a moment." Khushi might have been distracted but not so much that she didn't notice what Sheetal was to say was important.
Saying so she put the cordless on hold and put Aaryan in his make shift play crib, stuffing random toys in his hand and headed to kitchen. She found her older son propped on a high stool stealing ice from the refrigerator with Suhana supporting the stool. Crunching ice was his bad habit. And the little girl was the partner-in-crime.
"Caught you!" Khushi caught Shaurya's hand with ice cubes and Suhana's ear simultaneously and glared at them both. Shaurya smiled back nervously and pecked his mother's cheek, trying for an escape route.
Needless to say Khushi melted but still shooed them both away warning them with consequences to get back to bed. "No Shin-chan or bedtime stories for a week if I don't find you both asleep in five minutes."
On the way back to the hall she noticed that Shaurya had rubbed some ice on her Lyra leggings. Unlike Sheetal she was not tall but her slender legs and petite frame always put her in surprise considering she'd carried and borne three children. But she worked around the house and maybe that was an exercise good enough.
Khushi picked the cordless back and perched comfortably on the second to last bottom stair. "Hey Sheetal? I am back. Tell me." She stilled huffed over the phone.
"Khushi, your brats are a pain in the neck sometimes. I have told you so many times to employ a nanny for them. Surely your husband can afford one." Sheetal huffed.
"I will tell Arnav you said that." She threatened her friend. She did not take any offence but wondered that Arnav might; for calling his kids a pain. Busy man he might be but he was as devoted a dad. But he would pacify on the comment for being able to afford a nanny or for every one of Khushi's wishes. Not that she had great demands. In fact she was very happy with her life and family. A little restless recently but nevertheless content.
And she was definitely not going to pass Sheetal's words to Arnav.
"We do employ help. But I just like the house to myself. A live-in help is like a guest and I am not comfortable." Khushi came back.
"Comfort yourself a little more and sleep off of tiredness! What have you done to yourself?"
"It's not like that." Khushi tried defending.
"Just wake up Khushi and look around."
Khushi was confused now. Sheetal always told her to get a life outside of her home but she was never so brute in words. Something was a matter today.
"Did u hear the audio clip I sent on your phone?"
"No. Is it something important? Some latest gossip?" Khushi tried to lighten the tension she felt in the moment.
After a terse silence and a sigh later Sheetal asked again. "Ok. Where is Arnav tonight?"
"He is working late." Arnav was a hot-shot realtor. From rags to riches he had come up on his own.
"Don't you think he is doing that a lot recently?"
"He is busy with that new deal regarding the property sales of some minister that I don't remember. But you know about it right? The last time you were here you were asking questions about it to Arnav."
"Khushi, Khushi, Khushi! Which planet do you live in? The deal was over nearly months ago. Just before Diwali."
Diwali? That was almost two months ago. It was close to Christmas now. Early December. Was it over two months ago that Sheetal had come home? That was sometime in between Dusshera and Diwali. Aaryan was just over three months old then. Hey Devi Maiyya! Days were gone so fast.
"Hey! You have to stop by soon okay." Khushi started, "I'll cook your favorites and talk to Arnav and kids to behave around you so you..." but couldn't finish. Though Sheetal never liked being around Arnav or the kids but she still put. And the twins troubled their aunt to end. But still Khushi always made an effort to invite Sheetal home and bond with her.
Khushi's Buaji, Madhumati Mishra, Sheetal's mother had passed away three years back and since then Khushi had taken it upon her to give a family feel to her cousin.
"Khushi! I didn't call to extract a dinner invitation for myself. It's not like I don't like your food, it is awesome. But get serious woman!"
Khushi couldn't understand for the life of her where this conversation was going.
"I don't know how you find time with a house and crazy kids and toppings on the cake your selfish husband, who..." Khushi mentally switched off the connection for she knew what was coming next.
Sheetal had many a time expressed that she hated the way Khushi single-handedly ran her home. She thought Arnav never contributed anything other than providing financial support. But she never understood how hard he worked to scramble to the top and also support a young family at the same time, to care for her and their children's future. He had so many added responsibilities. His Nani, Devyani Raizada was aged and then there were his Manohar Mama and Manoraman Mami. They had no children to support them. His proud parents-in-law as well. Shashi and Garima Gupta. They all lived in Lucknow but were never far from Arnav's mind to care for.
Sheatal never understood any of this.
"...but I just can't keep quiet anymore now. You are more my baby sister than a cousin. You do know that. Don't you?"
Khushi nodded as if Sheetal could see her response.
And as if Sheetal knew it too she continued after a pause, "And I feel responsible toward you. So it's time to wake up and look around and see what going on under that pretty nose of yours...maybe then..."
"Sheetal...wow wow...stop that fire train and come clear. Wake up? Look around what?" Khushi had completely lost her.
"To that damned husband of yours. He is playing with you. He is out with a woman." Sheetal pounded bitter words over the phone.
"What!"
"May be not tonight. I don't know how often but yeah some nights. He is having an affair I just know that. Most of the elites in Delhi know about it except for you, of course."
Silence engulfed around Khushi like the darkness that she so dreaded. She was not able to function let alone react or answer. But Sheetal continued.
"I am so sorry dear. I am not enjoying this either..." Arnav hated Sheetal. Sheetal hated Arnav. But they always put up for Khushi and she knew it well. "...but my facts are perfect. They have been spotted many times going out, to restaurants, holding hands while dining, all on the pretext of work of course. But the worst part is I have seen them myself. The woman Reena Jha is no less popular. She is the niece of that Minister Shyam Jha. In fact Arnav has also bought a flat for her on the greater Noida road." She whispered the last words, "I have seen them coming and going..."
Bang! Khushi heart dropped down to the ground and lower if possible. Her mind was reeling on pointers of recent events which could not be shunned as gossip or misunderstanding. Things she should have picked weeks ago. But she'd been so busy with the routine that let alone her heart, her mind had not wandered to such thoughts.
But now things were becoming clear. As if somebody had dusted off the windscreen of the car to see the path. His recent mood-swings, the way he snapped at her or the kids for no reason at all. Staying back in the study to work and not returning to their room or their bed with her. None! So many things and she had not even had a hindsight of all that.
She felt sick. She tried to recall the times before and after Aaryan's birth when Arnav had tried to make love with her but it was always her who was very tired and unresponsive. Her pregnancy with Aaryan was slightly complicated and she'd been told by doctor to stay away from all sexual activities till the birth of her child and a little time after that. And then the times when she was willing to give and he was unwilling to take. In spite of that he'd been so happy during that time. Always supportive and making fun and having family time.
But then she'd been a fool to think that they did sorted out that problem, now that Aaryan was sleeping through the night and away in his nursery. Only days ago they had made the most intensifying and passionate love, so beautiful that Arnav had wept silently in her arms... and she? She had reached the zenith of happiness in his arms.
"Khushi? Khushi...I..." Sheetal sighed not knowing how to comfort her friend.
"Sheetal you said something about an audio clip. Can you play it for me now?" Khushi trembled.
"Yeah okay. Give me a moment." Khushi heard some click of buttons and then she heard something that shattered her.
The voices in the audio clip were crystal clear to her. It was a conversation between Arnav and Sheetal. And their moods were dead opposite. Sheetal was icy calm and Arnav was breathing fire.
Arnav: Back off Sheetal!
Sheetal: I can't keep it within myself anymore.
Arnav: Then go and blow-off somewhere else!
Sheetal: ASR! Your wife is so innocent. I might go to her.
There was a pregnant pause.
Sheetal: I know about that woman. Reena Jha? I will tell your wife about her.
Arnav: Do as you please. But let me tell you, Khushi will not pay heed to your foul. Because she trusts me more than herself.
Sheetal: Yes and her blind trust will drown her.
Arnav: Get lost!
The clip ended. But before Sheetal could begin Khushi beat her to it. "I have to go. Aaryan needs to be fed." Khushi somehow managed to get through the words.
"Please wait. Khushi--listen I..." but the line went dead.
------
Khushi couldn't ignore anymore because one most prominent fact came to her memory. The pointer that was clearly more damning that any bouts of irritability or sexual frustrations in her marriage.
She remembered the expensive delicate perfume clung to Arnav's shirt when she was clearing his clothes for wash. It was definitely not hers. It clung everywhere. The front of the shirt, the collar, cuffs. It had been the same that she smelled everytime she kissed him home from his late night work. Always on the cheek though. What a damn fool she'd been!
From the bottom-last stair she sank to the ground. Hallucinating Arnav with another woman...Arnav having an affair...Arnav kissing another woman, making love to her and drowning into her...
A cry shrieked out of her now dry throat sounding alien to her own-self. She shut her eyes and her palms closed her ears, as if to ward off all negative thoughts. No! Her Arnav could not do this to her. He'd loved her too much to betray her.
At the same time Aaryan's cry drifted from his crib and the damn phone irritated her by ringing again. She ignored both the cries for a while. When the phone started again she picked the cordless but left it off without answering. And then as if on auto-pilot walked off to feed her baby.
Aaryan slept soon after he was fed. Khushi watched him in his crib as he slowly curled inside and turned on his stomach. So innocent and pure. She choked up a cry and went to the next door at the end of the hallway to the room where her twins were sleeping.
Shaurya had thrown one leg over his comforter and was sprawled across his bed diagonally, so much like Arnav. And Suhana was snuggled up in her bed cluctching her pink Barbie blanket. The blanket which had gotten Arnav and her to search almost the whole of Delhi for. She remembered that that was the last time Arnav and her had been shopping together and that was mostly two years ago when Aaryan had not been conceived yet.
If Shaurya was more like Arnav, tall for his age and with that strong determined chin then Suhana was the apple of her father's eyes. She was also the most pampered by him. She could wheedle more out of Arnav than anyone else in the family could. She had him wrapped around her pinky.
Would Arnav do any such thing that could hurt his little princess? Or damage his super heroism in his son's eyes? Would he dare and jeopardize so much for something as basic as sex?
A terrifying shiver ran down her spine as a new thought came in. Was it more than just sex? Maybe he couldn't help himself. Maybe it was the real thing for him. Maybe it was love. The kind for which men would rather betray and risk everything.
Or maybe it was all a lie and she was doing some grave mistake and insulting him even by considering it.
But then what was all that conversation about? And the perfume and the nights that he stayed away from her blaming it on that minister's damned contract?
All this was confusing Khushi. She had always felt Arnav had made her so happy, so happy that she never ever felt an ounce of lacking in her life till now. And that the converse was also true. That she made him happy as well. But these new revelations were more than she could take now.
She reeled out of the kids' bedroom and never knew where she walked until she landed to her bedroom door where just last week they had found each other again. Had made love beautifully in so many months. So why had he suddenly turned back to her last week? What had happened?
She'd been worried about where their relationship was going and so had made an effort. On her request Mamaji and Mamiji who'd come for a short visit had taken the children to Nani to stay over weekend. And Aaryan being a tight sleeper was already into sweet dreamland. She'd cooked his favourite meal and lit candles everywhere. She'd been so glad to have fit back into that black slinky revealing dress that Arnav had gotten for her from London which he'd said was for his eyes only. She had welcomed him with a kiss at the door that had promised so much.
Now to think of it in that moment of passion she'd not paid much attention to his clinching of jaw and pop of nerve at his temple which was a dead giveaway that he was in severe stress.
The nausea returned and she ran away from the bedroom downstairs in order to run away from the memories of their sacred intimacy. She'd been so foolishly blind that she had ignored the way he had held her shoulders with tension and tried to put some distance between them.
And when she'd murmured "I love you, Arnav. I am so sorry that you had to stay away from everything for such long time. Please forgive me?", a sigh had rasped out of his mouth. His hands had clenched her shoulders until she'd winced in pain and then he'd pulled her close and buried his head in her hair and neck. He had not uttered a single word of either apology or declaration of love.
But then they had made love so beautifully. Whatever Arnav was getting from that other woman, but that night had proven that he still wanted her with a passion no man could fake. But then how could she know anything about men and passion or for that matter their sex-drives? She'd been only eighteen when she'd first met Arnav. He'd been her first and only relationship and then lover and Husband.
Now she felt she knew nothing about men or even her own husband in this date.
She ran to the mirror in the hall and looked at her reflection again. Khushi Singh Raizada was staring back at her. A hysterical laugh left her.
Sheetal had thrown a party for her cousin who had turned sweet eighteen. It was the first time that Khushi was going clubbing having turned legal. She'd been aware of him the moment he had walked into that new club in Lucknow where her eighteenth birthday celebration with her friends was going on. He had that charisma and aura around him. Arnav had stared at her from right through the corner where he was nursing a lonely drink. When she'd caught him staring he'd not blinked an eye. She'd been thrilled for his attention and that had made her smile. In response he'd raised his drink in her honour. Where all her friends were forcing her to drink alcohol he'd silently asked her to keep her innocence intact and not do what she didn't want. A minute later she'd received a sweet pastry in her name. The taste of which she remembered even today. A mix of vanilla and coconut cake topped with sweetest raspberry she'd ever tasted.
Her friends had always teased her that she'd had him at hello which was quiet surprising for a quiet, shy and nave girl like her against the twenty five year old far more experienced and flamboyantly sexy Arnav. While other girls giggled around her he'd only taken inordinate interest in her and her dancing as if the others hadn't even existed. And Khushi had danced more nervously with her girlfriends.
They had forced her to go and thank him for the cake and birthday wishes. But it was him who'd made the first move. He'd reached to her on the dance floor when the music had changed to a slow number. He'd tapped her shoulder and like a gentleman gestured her for a dance. Aware of the other girls' envy she'd let him take her in his arms. He'd not spoken a word yet. But only later she realized that he was trying to protect her from the some other drunk boys hovering around her. One sharp look from his chiseled features had sent them skittering away. That moment she had felt so proud that she never realized that it was her who was staring at him through the dance.
They danced for ages before he spoke. "What is your name?"
Breathless at that whiskey smooth voice she'd shyly replied, "Khushi...Khushi Gupta."
"Arnav Singh Raizada." He'd picked her hand and placed a soft kiss at the back and wished her happy birthday once again. It was then she remembered that he knew her name beforehand when he'd sent her the pastry. He made no further attempt to touch her but he'd meet up with her friends and later took her number.
Her home number. Because Khushi had not been allowed a cell-phone from her parents reason: her impending twelfth-board exams.
She had spent the next two weeks crouched beside the telephone hoping he'd call her. But the call never came. Sheetal had remarked more than once showing disinterest, saying he would not call for she meant nothing to some play-boy like man. Soon she came to a conclusion that he'd only entertained her for she'd been a silly teen crushing on him. Of course he thought that about her then. And tried to put him away from her mind.
Khushi got busy in her studies trying to forget the one face she couldn't erase from her thoughts. The smile that kept her awake for long hours. Days passed by and soon it was exam time. The day her exams were over she'd received a call asking her to join for a celebratory lunch. She'd not told Sheetal or her family about how the simple celebratory lunch had actually been a date and then several had followed.
The first date he'd taken her on a drive saying it was a borrowed car where he worked. And soon he'd buy one for her. Khushi had been on the edge throughout the drive but he'd made her relax and encouraged her to talk about her family, goals, friends. She'd told him how much literature had interested her rather than science which was a trend among her school friends; a fact she'd not even told her parents. And when he'd encouraged her to take up literature for a bachelors study much to the dismay of her parents she'd been on seventh sky.
On a second date he'd taken her to her favourite"a Shah Rukh Khan movie. In a dark and closed theatre she did not seen anything except her attention was on him and their closeness. She'd sat observing the way his adam's apple moved, the way lips closed around popcorn balls. His very male and tangy smell had had her senses driving and when her knuckles had turned white clutching at the arm-rest he'd chuckled and cocked his head in her direction. "Relax Khushi, I am not going to bite you." He'd muttered something unintelligible and gripped her hand to make her pay attention to the remainder of the movie.
The problem was, she'd wanted him to bite. Khushi never knew what it was to be with a man. Having gone to an all-girls convent, with no male cousins the only male in her life was her father. Nave as she was, she had wanted him. Some desperation must have shown on her face or maybe it was her hyperventilation when he'd led her out of the theatre holding her hand, because later that evening he'd kissed her slowly at first and then hungrily when he'd found her response.
The third was a lunch-date in a quiet restaurant outside Lucknow where he'd broodingly and unashamedly stared at her while telling her about himself. He was a law graduate but interested in estate business, keeping him on toes and away from town for days. He worked under a small firm, saving for future and would soon build his own company. The chemistry and tension was so flammable that she thought it would consume her by the time she went home. But except for the one hungry kiss and the loveable good bye kiss on forehead he never pushed her for more. And in a way she'd been thankful to him. Always the gentleman: asking for her parent's permission or picking and dropping her back at the appropriate time, Arnav was her Mr. Darcy.
This went on for about a year. Khushi into her BA honours in English major studies and Arnav with still not enough savings to start his small real-estate consultancy. And their dates were always fun: Khushi the chatterbox and Arnav-watching, planning as if a silent predator. But still the only physical intimacy had been the kisses at the time of departure. But on her nineteenth birthday which was supposed to be a private celebration to bid her teenage goodbye, his control snapped when Khushi had blatantly given more than a dozen signs about proceeding further that he'd abandoned their movie date and had taken her to his flat. At first they had made out like wild teenagers, with Arnav teaching her different bases.
And after that they rarely went anywhere else. Being together, making love, spending time in each other's arms lazily, talking about future became the most important thing in her life. Arnav became the most important thing in her life. Her parents were not happy and they did express their voice but she never felt an ounce of doubt in their relationship.
Six months later, after Arnav had been away to Delhi for almost two weeks she'd been waiting at his doorstep when he returned.
"What are you doing here?" He'd asked. And now she realized after seven years that he was far from pleased to find her there. He'd been tense faced and tired like he looked all these months recently.
"I had to see you." Her voice child-like.
Arnav had guessed what she'd wanted to say. She'd not looked unhappy but something bright shone in her eyes; something unusual. At her innocence he'd cursed something low and pulled her to himself and what had followed was another round of mind-numbing and easy-going love making session.
"How sure are you?" He'd asked.
It was then that she told him that she was pregnant. She'd not been upset or sad, but happy, for she'd never had any doubts when it came to her love for Arnav or their future. And she was sure that Arnav felt the same too. He had not said anything for a while but just stroked her hair to soothe her, silently conveying he was with her, dropping kisses at her temple or nose every once in a while and she'd relaxed into sleep in his arms.
After she woke up he lent out a heavy sigh. "How long are you?"
"Very. I got a home pregnancy test when I missed my period last week. It says positive. I could still ask a doctor."
"It won't be necessary now. So you are only just pregnant. But I was wondering how did that happen?"
Khushi had giggled. "I don't know. You were supposed to take care of all that."
"Hmm. Well at least we have time to get married without anybody knowing why we're doing it."
The decision had been made as she'd expected and Arnav had taken all the responsibilities, making the right arrangements, handling her parents, his family and shielding her from unpleasant remarks. In fact Sheetal was the un-happiest in all the rituals prodding her all the time. Somewhere she'd even silently expressed her disinterest saying had she not been pregnant Arnav would not have married her at all.
And now she realized that. We have time to get married without anybody knowing why we're doing it.
She had trapped him with her innocence, youth and childlike trust the first time. He'd only been doing the right thing by marrying her and protecting the twins. Love was never part of the deal.
What about Aaryan then? Was he not one born out of love?
Khushi was on pills for prevention of unwanted pregnancy and her health had gone wayward. So her doctor had asked Arnav to take precaution. But then again he'd slipped and another accidental pregnancy had trapped him further the second time.
It was her fault both the times she blamed now.
The key turned in the main door and grabbed her attention. She noticed the wall clock it was only nine-thirty. Arnav would not be home till late, excuse: some business dinner as usual. She bitterly mocked at the excuse and walked to sitting room.
His back was toward her but she could make out the tension filled in neck muscles and shoulders. He sent her a side glance and looked at the cordless phone that was off the hook. With trembling hands he placed it back on the holder and put his laptop briefcase on the couch carelessly. It was always his habit and Khushi would later pick it to his study and she'd handle him back the next morning.
Sheetal must have called him. When Khushi had not picked her calls, in anxiety she might have called him to tell him what she'd done. She tried to imagine the disastrous conversation where her sister had accused and her husband had done what? Defended or confessed? Oh it would have burnt his ego badly. Was that why'd come home running to try a hand at damage control?
When Arnav finally turned to her she gave him a moment to gaze over the mess she looked and then went back to settle on the couch.
Arnav Singh Raizada was guilty. Guilty as charged!
------
TBC
Precap: The confrontation. Acceptance or defence? What would Arnav try? What will Khushi want?
Phew! 5800+ words... my longest ever update.
So how was it? Honest reviews, good or bad, all are welcome. I know many of you might find the concept a little disturbing but keep calm and have faith.
Note: For PMs please buddy me. Comment once in a while if you like the story.
Untill next time
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Edited by ARUSHI_IPKKND - 10 years ago
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