Arshi FF: Destined To Love Link # 2 pg 151 - Page 15

Chapter 3

Shalini, deep in thought was thinking how to set things right between arnav and khushi. She remembered an angry khushi coming back to the adjoining room last night after being thrown out by him. He was stubborn, he wouldn't give in so easily, she knew that but even she was desperate to have a child and for that if she'd face his wrath, she was all prepared.

However here she was not in the picture, it was khushi who had to get her way with him but HOW? That was the question. After finishing buttering the toast she placed it on his plate quietly, he preferred to engross himself in the newspaper rather than talk to his wife who had gone crazy as per him, most of the house workers were given a few days off, she didn't wish them to be around when supposedly all that would transpire between both of them.

Stretching her arms in the air, khushi came down the stairs, yawning without covering her mouth. She gave him a sidelong glance while pulling the chair close to him then crossed her legs while sitting on it, he was avoiding her she was aware of that however he couldn't help being uncomfortable with her presence and shifted his weight on his chair making her chuckle.

" tea?" shalini asked softly.

" yeah." She replied instantly, morning tea was a must for her day to kick start, she couldn't live without it.

" how much sugar?"

" no sugar. I need to keep myself in shape. In fact good shape." she said while winking at him then leaned forward to grab an apple from the fruit bowl, purposely brushing her hand with his in the process. Fuming at her shameless behavior he dropped the newspaper aside and left the dining table gnashing his teeth.

khushi slapped her forehead, thinking here he goes again.

" shalini..i mean madam ( how could she address shalini by her name?)"

" di. You can call me di."

" and him jeeju?" khushi chuckled .

" okay jokes apart di, why is arnav ji acting so pricy?" she questioned in confusion, she didn't know why he was behaving like this. Shalini rolled her eyes in response, she was badly hoping that the ice would break between the two but things were turning from bad to worse.

" you know last night I was wondering where do I lack. I'm beautiful. Have a flawless skin and a figure to die for. And most importantly I'm willing. Then what is his problem ?" she said before biting hard into the apple. With men throwing themselves at her and leaving no opportunity to take advantage of her she was finding it hard to digest his indifferent act.

Shalini looked at the way she was munching on to that apple along with sipping tea by making those irritating and weird noises. She didn't lack something but a lot of things, her way of dressing, talking, eating, sitting everything was so loud and different that indeed it was difficult for him to accept her.

Shalini gave khushi her red sari and helped her drape it properly, then pulled khushi's hair down into soft curls. Make up was kept minimum even though khushi was insisting on wearing her bright red lipstick, it matched with the sari she thought however shalini didn't allow her to do so. Everything should be simple and subtle as per his liking including the amount of blabbering she did. Shalini instructed her to behave with him as decently as possible, her over the top attitude would not go down well with him.

khushi glanced at the mirror, she definitely appeared different. Crossing her fingers shalini hoped that he liked khushi tonight.

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Pushing the doors slowly khushi entered his bedroom, scenes of the previous night when he had thrown her out flashed across her mind, she shivered slightly remembering them, what if he admonished her this time too? Swallowing the lump in her throat she moved forward, he was sipping on to his drink with his legs resting on the table. Good, she was sent now when he was drunk, this would make things easier for her, shalini was a smart woman she thought.

He saw her coming in, tonight she appeared different, simple and lady like, without loud make up the sight of her was arresting but what he admired the most about her were her guts, after being chucked out she didn't give up on him, maybe such was the power and hunger for money.

His ice cold intense gaze was piercing through her body, the fact that till now he hadn't reacted outrageously encouraged her and she stepped in further. His glass was now empty, she picked up the bottle and refilled the glass without tearing her gaze away from him. His calm and non repulsive attitude was making her all the more confident, maybe her new avatar was casting its effect on him, the way she'd hoped.

She lowered herself to sit on the arm of his chair but before she could do that, he stood up holding his glass and walked to the nearby window. She shook her head on seeing his back face her. He gulped down the whole glass, the bitter liquid burned his throat and he relished every drop of it. He was glancing out with a faraway look in his eyes when he felt a pair hands snake from behind, come up and finally stop on his broad chest. She rested her face sideways on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Tightening his grip around the glass he sneered," can't wait to slip under the sheets?"instantly her eyes snapped open and she brought her hands down. He turned around and looked at her from head to toe making her feel as if she was some piece of dirt.

"what did you think that just as you have changed your clothes I will also change my mind ?" he mocked at her. She opened her mouth to defend herself but one glare from him and she went all silent.

" I'm drunk but I still know who is in this sari." If she thought that by making him drunk she could get her way with him then she was absolutely wrong. He took out his wallet and threw all the money he had on her face, she turned her face to the other side in response.

" you want money right ? then take it and get lost." he said through gritted teeth. Lowering her head she clutched the edge of her sari in her fist as he insulted her one more time.

" you haven't changed. You're still a prostitute in my eyes" he cringed at the sight of her. Tears of rage and hurt pricked the corner of her eyes.

"a wh*re like you.." she didn't allow him to finish and shouted back, " ENOUGH ... Not a word more."

Raising her head sharply she looked right into his eyes, instead of blood now anger was running in her veins. Enough was enough, how dare he think so low of her? her mind screamed. Yeah, she did all this for money but then who doesn't work for money? He himself was a gangster and killed people for money, she was at least better than him, here she'd come to bring a new life into this world then how dare he questioned her integrity and character?

Fuming in anger this time she left his room but not before giving him a piece of her mind,"I didn't come here on my own...your wife begged me to sleep with you...therefore show this anger to her not me..I'm not your wife, I won't take this crap from you."

khushi went back to the adjoining room where shalini was sitting. Seeing her stomping her foot, shalini knew that again her plan had backfired but she wasn't expecting things to turn so ugly. He had this habit of not to think before he spoke when he got angry and hurt the other person however tonight he'd taken all this a bit too far.

" khushi come with me ..let me talk to him." Shalini said firmly.

"no ways. I don't wish to get humiliated again." Agreed she was a prostitute but then she also had self respect, moreover this was a husband wife issue, shalini should've made him agree before bringing her here. If he wasn't willing to share a relationship with her then they should've sorted this thing between themselves, why was she being made to face his flak unnecessarily? Her chest was heaving up and down in rage when shalini held her wrist and took her along.

"di ..i'm not coming." She said in irritation, however shalini ignored and barged in with her.

He flared his nostrils on seeing both of them. Shalini left her hand and khushi took a step back, standing behind shalini in a way that she could only see him partially.

"Arnav, you shouldn't have behaved like that."

"now you'll teach me how to behave and that too with her." He replied glaring at khushi whose eyes were scattering the floor, she was looking everywhere except him.

Shalini followed his gaze and said softly," she's in this house for us."

Clenching his jaws he spat back," what was the need to get this filth in our house?"

khushi flinched on hearing his bitter words and tried her level best to maintain her cool, she was standing here tolerating his nonsense only because of shalini , in whose eyes she'd seen that despair to have a child.

Closing her eyes for a moment shalini attempted to explain the situation to him.

"you only tell me, who else besides khushi can help us?" he turned his head to the other side as if this whole thing was irrelevant for him.

" no girl takes up this profession by choice."

His eyes ever so slowly moved in khushi's direction who had her head bowed, somewhere even he knew that she was not at fault and was venting out his frustration on her without any reason, but then he was helpless he couldn't give in to what shalini was desiring.

" do you know arnav, who pushed her into this dirt ? her own husband! To save his own skin her step father got her married to a corrupt police officer who later sold her for money ..in all this what's her fault?"

He curled his fingers in a fist, all that shalini was saying was making him feel guilty, but still out of guilt he couldn't sleep with her, it was impossible for him to do that, he stared at khushi who brushed her finger at the corner of her eye where a lone tear was threatening to roll down.

For the first time someone had stood up in her defense and that too a wife against her husband! Otherwise wives and girlfriends always shielded their husbands and boyfriends from her, badmouthed, insulted, cursed and accused her for breaking their homes and relationships but never for once understood her plight and accepted that their respective partners were womanizers. Somehow shalini today managed to earn respect in her eyes.

" even then I can't do it. It's impossible for me." he refused flatly.

"why not? Don't you want someone to call you papa and me mama?" she urged with glistened eyes and wondered couldn't he see the eagerness of her becoming a mother in her eyes? How could he be so selfish?

"I can stay childless but I can't cheat on you." He too wished to be a father and could feel her restlessness but for that he couldn't giveaway her right to somebody else.

khushi raised her head and glanced at him in amazement, for years she believed that men were sw*ne, not her fault, every man she came across was desperate to get into bed with her without caring what effect it would have on his family and here was a man who was adamant on not taking advantage of her, not cheating on his wife even when his own wife was allowing him to do so. She was dumbstruck seeing his loyalty.

" you're not having a relationship behind my back. This is not cheating. You're doing this for us." Why was he thinking that he was betraying her? it was only a matter of one night, what was hers would always remain hers, she was aware of the situation and all this was happening only for their baby, they would only gain out of this and not lose anything, she believed.

Arnav shook his head in frustration, seeing her turn a blind eye to the future. She was destroying everything that they shared with her own hands and the worst part was that she wasn't willing to acknowledge that.

"just to have a baby you're bringing a third person in our lives. Can't you see that?" In desperation to become a mother, she was forgetting that she is his wife first. To gain something you need to lose something but here they were losing everything. In an attempt to take their relationship to another level she was shaking the very foundation of their relationship.

khushi watched him silently, he was a gangster, who are not expected to have moral and ethics but he was so different. He desired to do justice to his marriage, he was giving so much respect to his wife and their relationship that she couldn't stop herself from getting impressed by him and comparing him with her cop husband, a crook, a fraud who only abused and tortured her. Those cruel, bitter words and that obnoxious behavior were his attempts only to safeguard his marriage not that she'd had any intention of ruining their relationship, she knew why she was here and would leave forever after doing her job.

This whole conversation and his stubbornness was now getting on to shalini's nerves, she stepped forward and held his collar, shaking him a bit before reminding him," Arnav, you'd promised me in the hospital ."

Arnav wrinkled his nose in fury and freed himself from her hold then declared," and now I decide to break that promise."

Shalini stared at him wide eyed and started walking back in defeat.

" yeah break your promise and ruin everything ..turn selfish and ruin me..my happiness ..my desires ..and my dreams ." With that she left the room leaving a confused khushi and enraged arnav behind.

khushi didn't know who was right or wrong, all she could see was a couple who was failing miserably to understand each other's point of view and accusing the other one of hurting him/her. if one wished to move ahead the other desired to hold back. If shalini's sacrifice of allowing her husband to have a physical relation with another woman baffled her then his loyalty and commitment towards his wife touched her.

The anger subsided within her and now her heart was only filled with sympathy for both of them. She wished all this hadn't happened with them, she wished she didn't have to come in between them.

He glared at her retreating back, how easily she'd blamed him for her misery? He picked up the glass bottle and smashed it on the floor, he looked at khushi and wondered how easily she'd brought her in their and in his life in particular, even if it was for just one night.

He held their wedding photo frame kept on the table and threw it down. Glancing at the red sari that khushi was wearing he thought, how easily she'd forgotten that this was the same sari which he'd gifted her on their first marriage anniversary, his blood was boiling with anger when his gaze fell on the bed which they'd shared for years, how easily she forgot the nights that they'd spent together? And after forgetting all this she conveniently wanted him to spend the night with some other woman in the same sari and on the same bed.

He smirked a devilish grin, if she could overlook everything so conveniently then so could he, if she could turn so insensitive then so could he, if she didn't care about their present and future then so wouldn't he, if she wanted it this way then it would happen this way.

With that he banged the door shut, startling khushi for a moment.

She saw him approaching her with blood shot eyes, automatically her feet began moving backwards till she hit the bed and fell on it after losing her balance. She knew what was coming but was she prepared for it? She didn't know neither he gave her the time to think so.

He was on top of her, pressing himself on her, he was anything but gentle as if punishing himself for doing this awful act. Her bangles tinkled, reminding him of shalinii, his head shot up instantly, no she wasn't shalini, no he wasn't making love to his wife but some stranger, the expressions which had relaxed for a moment disappeared the next second. He grabbed her wrists firmly not allowing the bangles to make the sound which he loved hearing. This time he was even more harder and brutal on her, she wanted to wince in pain as the bangles broke and pricked her skin but she didn't protest, she knew what he was going through, the pain that he was enduring on himself was much more than what he was inflicting on her. Squeezing her eyes shut she allowed him to continue till he felt something wet in his hands, he glanced in the direction and found blood trickling down her wrists. He immediately left her hands and glanced at her with guilt, shalini's words that she'd been abused and sold off by her husband, that no girl gets into this profession willingly echoed in his ears. He looked at her pain stricken face and felt horrible, he hated himself for behaving like an animal with her, she was only here for their sake, so that he could be a father and he was punishing her for that? What he was being forced to do, she'd been doing it every night for years yet he couldn't understand her plight? Shame on him, he was disgusted with himself.